Our area is past the blizzard season (it is, isn't it?), but before we move into the balmy days of summer, let's think back to the March 15, 1941, blizzard.
Erin Brunsvold, Fargo, writes of her grandmother's sister who was among the 76 who died in this region during that storm, despite the heroic efforts of her boyfriend.
Erin's grandmother is Bev Steen, a resident of the Hillsboro (N.D.) Medical Center Nursing Home, who told Neighbors she is 82, "but I still have all my marbles" and remembers that day "like it was yesterday."
Bev was 13 in 1941, one of the four children of Peter and Della Waters who farmed near Kelso, N.D.
The oldest of those children was Frances, 18, a freshman at Mayville (N.D.) State Teachers College. On that March night, she was going to a movie in Hillsboro with her boyfriend, Lowell Melsby, 23, who went by "Punky," of Hillsboro.
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It was like a summer day, Bev says, when Punky came in his Model A Ford to get Frances who, in fact, was going to wear only a sweater until her mom made her wear a coat.
In Hillsboro, Punky and Frances missed the first show, so they were just driving around in the country waiting for the second show when, Bev says, "the storm hit like a wall."
Their car stalled, so they tried to walk to town but became disoriented.
Frances got tired wading through the snow, so Punky picked her up and carried her. Her overshoes and shoes fell off and were lost.
They made it to some railroad tracks, where Punky, exhausted, set Frances down and then took off down the tracks until he came to Kelso.
He was badly frostbitten. But still he called from the Kelso depot to Hillsboro and got hold of some men, including Frances' cousin, who said they'd go out looking for her.
The storm was still pounding when the men took off, tied together with a rope so none would get lost.
They found Frances at 4:15 a.m. lying on the tracks. She had frozen to death.
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Bad news on the phone
Back in the Waters' home, Della was "rubbernecking on the party line, like everyone did," Bev says, when she heard that someone was lost in the storm. Only later did she learn it was her daughter.
The funeral for Frances drew a thousand people, the largest funeral attendance in Hillsboro's history to that date.
Punky went on to marry and become a father and grandfather. He died in 2002.
Erin says the 1941 blizzard made her grandmother Bev "very scared of bad weather, especially in March.
"Whenever bad weather is on the way, she checks with each of us to make sure we are home and that we stay there."
For that, Bev's family can be grateful she still has all her marbles.
If you have an item of interest for this column, mail it to Neighbors, The Forum, Box 2020, Fargo, ND 58107; fax it to 241-5487; or email blind@forumcomm.com
