COLONY — Claudette and Gene Anderson are quiet, unassuming folk who don’t think they make much of a story.
“You can come by,” Gene said. “But we don’t have much to say.”
The elderly couple live 1.5 miles east of Colony on their farmstead of 57 years.
“I’d invite you in, but we’re redecorating,” Claudette said. The husband and wife are do-it-yourselfers who have pretty much their entire house “torn up,” for a major re-do.
“We do it about every 10-15 years,” Claudette said. “I like changing things up.”
THE ANDERSONS are this year’s grand marshals for Saturday’s Colony Day Parade. Both have lived in Colony most of their lives. Gene graduated from Crest High School in 1951; Claudette in 1953.
They were married during a seven-day furlough Gene got from the Army while stationed over in Regensburg, Germany, shortly after Claudette finished high school.
“It tickles me to think of today’s younger generations and how ‘connected’ they are with technology,” Gene said. “When I was in the Army I couldn’t call Claudette but a couple of times of year. We could talk for only two-and-a-half minutes before they disconnected the line. And for that we were charged $20.”
It’s a good thing they don’t mince words.
They have been each other’s first and only love for 60 years. They laugh off the idea there’s any secret to their marital success.
“We’ve had problems,” Claudette said, “Just not between us.”
The most difficult to bear was the loss of their daughter Nancy Gampper who died three years ago from complications of breast cancer at the age of 53.
The tears are just below the surface for each at the mention of her passing. Moments pass before either can speak and the conversation moves quickly on to their other daughter, Leann Trabuc and her husband, Butch; the Andersons’ four grandchildren, and “three-and-a-half” great-grandchildren. “The baby is due Christmas Day,” Gene said.
Once home from the service, the newlyweds moved to Iola where Gene worked for Pet Milk. Claudette worked as a teller at Allen County Bank. In 1956, they moved to rural Colony and Gene took on farming, learning the trade in large part from Claudette’s father, also a farmer. Gene’s dad was a barber by trade.
Gene stayed with Pet Milk for 11 years until it closed up shop, at which Gene went to work fulltime on the farm.
