Oct. 31: It’s just not a good month for our paternal grandparents. Or who knows, maybe from their perspective, ending long and rich lives, it is a good month. In any case, I’m sad to report that I got a call from my dad last night letting us know that his dad had died that evening. Dad and Grandma were both with him, and actually, when they talked to me, they were still sitting with him.
Grandpa moved to a nursing home last year and has been in and out of the hospital as he has struggled with emphezemia and resulting serious lung and breathing problems. Dad has been traveling down to Monroe one or more times each week for the last several years to help with things and to share their company. I’m sure that without his yeoman’s work that things would have progressed long ago.
Aunt Julie has has a large set of pictures of Grandpa and Grandma scanned in on her website. Some of my favorites are Michael and Grandpa, Grandpa with his ice cream truck, my wedding with Grandpa and Grandma, and then just a nice picture of Grandpa looking like himself.
Also, here’s a couple early pictures of Andrew and Grandpa (spring 2006) (summer 2005). A draft obituary follows below.
Grandpa’s draft obituary
MONROE – Myron “Mike” Jacob Babler, 85, died on October 30, 2007, after a long battle with emphysema. He spent much of the last year of his life at the Monroe Manor, where he continued to enjoy good conversations with his family, friends, and the Manor staff—and keep tabs on sports, local news, and world events via television.
Myron was born on December 19, 1921, in Deaconess Hospital in Monroe, Wisconsin, to Jacob Lee and Emma Frederica (nee Feldt) Babler. He grew up in Monroe and for a while on a farm outside of Monroe. He was a 1939 graduate of Monroe High School.
He met the love of his life, Lucille Evelyn Krueger, in April 1941, and, unable to wait for Christmas, proposed marriage to her (coincidentally) shortly before Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941.
They were married on April 18, 1942. After only three short months, in July 1942, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. He did not return home for good until September 1945. During his time in the army, he landed on Omaha Beach’s Easy Green in the Normandy invasion on the morning of June 7, 1944, (D-Day +1) as part the 457th Anti-Aircraft Battalion, 29th Division of General Omar Bradley’s 1st Army. Later he became part of General George Patton’s 3rd Army and the 90th Infantry Division and fought as an infantryman in the Battle of the Bulge. He was awarded three Purple Hearts during his service in that battle, one for a bullet grazing his face, another for being hit by shrapnel, and a third for having frozen his hands and feet. One time, at considerable personal risk, he and a buddy decided to aid a severely wound German soldier whose plight they felt was genuine—despite the fact that they knew the Nazis sometimes used this as a trick to kill Americans. His children, proud of the role that their dad played as part of the “greatest generation,” wrote his war memories in a booklet entitled “So That We Live Free, Myron J. Babler: His Experiences as a Soldier During World War II as Told to His Children.”
After returning home to his beloved wife, the couple made their home in Monroe. Myron went to work in a cheese factory near downtown, and after having walked across the street one day to Goodmiller’s Ice Cream Co. for an ice cream bar, his career path was changed forever. While chatting with the owner, he was offered a job selling ice cream to farmers and folks living in the rural stateline area. He took the job, and after nine years, Schwan’s ice cream and frozen foods company of Marshall, Minnesota, bought out Goodmiller’s.
Myron was personally hired by Marv Schwan, the company’s founder, and became the company’s first sales representative in Wisconsin. He stayed with the company another 29 1/2 years and became the “ice cream man” that generations of children and adults in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois welcomed into their homes and hearts. He loved the entire region, working its byways through the changing seasons, monitoring agricultural crops, enjoying the landscape, riding its hills and curves, and knowing its changing skies. He loved its people, knowing who they were, how they were doing, learning their dreams, watching their kids arrive and grow, and hearing about both their troubles and triumphs. He loved being part of the Schwan’s family and being in a job that brought smiles. He retired at age 67.
Myron’s 65 happy years of marriage included raising a family of four, three sons and a daughter. It also included many years of being close with his parents, who lived in Monroe. His children remember his love, his pride in his family, his support of each of them, how hard he worked to provide for them, his humor, his hugs, how he respected people, and how they respected and knew him.
Beyond his work with Schwan’s, Myron loved his musical life, which began with the violin (his idea) and expanded as a young man with his group, Mike’s Knights, playing for crowds in small towns throughout the area—and even one time on WLS in Chicago. He enjoyed jamming with friends on his accordion. He later entertained hundreds of area residents and visitors by playing the organ and piano on Friday and Saturday nights at several local establishments, including Marco’s in Monroe, The Swiss Wheel in Monroe (including playing earlier the same night that a fire destroyed the building), and The Chalet in Brodhead. Another side business for him was selling pianos and organs, often to people who enjoyed listening to him play music on the weekends.
After retiring, Myron was a devoted fan and attendee of both the boys and girls sports teams at the Monroe High School. He also closely followed the Wisconsin Badger and Green Bay Packer games.
He loved Monroe; Cheese Days; the Green County Fair; attending mass at St. Victor’s Church; visits with his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren; talking with people; taking naps on Sunday afternoons; sitting on the porch to watch the traffic go by on busy 16th Street; listening to many kinds of music, including Swiss music; playing the piano, organ, and accordion; watching Laurel and Hardy movies; watching travel shows and learning about distant places; visiting his brother in New Glarus and Monticello and his sister in Oshkosh; limburger cheese; eating chocolate (including having two Oreo cookies each morning with breakfast); taking long drives around town and driving around the courthouse square; going out for a beer; and watching the greyhound races in Dubuque.
Myron is survived by his wife Lucille and their four children: Kim Babler of Madison; Gary Babler of Stoughton; Scott (Marcia) Babler of Libertyville, Illinois; and Julie (Kevin) of California. He is also survived by his older sister, Phyllis Drews, of O’Fallon, Missouri; seven grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren (his ninth great-grandchild is expected in February).
He was preceded in death by his father, Jacob, on December 28, 1970; his mother, Emma, on February 12, 1979; his younger brother, Duane, on April 10, 2001; and his daughter-in-law Margot (nee Davis) Babler on August 31, 2007.