Recipes for Living Stanley Stack Samuelson

Stack is one of the rare people who declined an early invitation to do his life story saying that he planned to do his own, and actually did. He has permitted the use of it as background for his contribution to the Recipes for Living series.

Stack would be known best by many people as owner and editor of the Osceola Sentinel and Osceola Tribune, bought from the Frank Abbott family and J. M. Grimes in 1965 and sold to Frank and Sally Morlan in 1989. When the Samuelsons purchased the company, there were two newspapers- the Democratic paper, the Tribune, was published on Tuesday; the Sentinel, the Republican voice, on Thursday. The combination of the two was only one of a continuing evolution in the newspaper business as has happened over the years in other fields of industry.

The Samuelson family's history with newspaper publishing dates back to his father's purchase of the Gazette in Goldfield, Iowa when Stack was 11 years old. His description of the process at that time reveals why it did not impress him as a career to follow. "A book could be written about the trials and tribulations of publishing a weekly newspaper. The fact was that it was a dirty (news ink was and always will be a dirty) job. It has just been in recent years that I have been able to appear in public without traces of news ink on my hands, underneath fingernails, or in stray places behind elbows."

The newspaper business remained a constant in Stack's early years, however. When Stack was a senior in high school, his father moved the family to Wayne, Nebraska when he purchased the Wayne News. The attraction may have been that both his father and mother had attended Wayne State College. Stack attended Wayne Prep, which was a training school (all 13 grades) and part of Wayne State Teachers College. He divided his time between there and the newspaper office. World War II was underway. Stack's brothers Merrill and Dale went into the service, his father was unable to find help, and he was forced to sell the newspaper.

Stack also went into the service and discovered that the newspaper experience provided background that proved useful. It seemed to weave itself in and out of his life. When he returned to Wayne after three years, he signed up for the GI Bill and enrolled at Wayne State. He took journalism classes, which furthered his expertise in the newspaper field. He scheduled classes in the morning and worked afternoons for the Wayne Herald. He also worked on the college newspaper, the Goldenrod.

Stack and Jean, whom he always refers to as Jeannie, were married when he graduated. Then he enrolled in graduate school at the University of Minnesota. "Since I received my undergraduate degree in education with majors in science, geography, and German (heaven knows how I earned that), I concentrated on English and journalism in Minnesota." He was accepted as a graduate assistant. However, at the end of the second quarter, the Korean War was in full swing, and he was recalled to service at Fort Benning. His background in journalism brought him an assignment as Public Information Officer which duties included overseeing year books for each class ("one per week"), making arrangements with photographers, printers, etc. He was in charge of hometown news releases and wrote stories for the post newspaper.

Son Tim was born on August 13, 1951, during the seventeen months of Stack's service. Stack was discharged in September 1952. The decision was to buy another newspaper. After several failed attempts, Stack and Jeannie were able to buy the Mirror-Sun at Lyons, Nebraska with a G.I. loan at 4% interest, and for $13,500 they built their first home-a 3-bedroom frame house with a full basement and attached garage. Sheryl Ann was born in November 1952, and Jeannie was kept busy with two babies. Stack spent many "after hours" hours with the business.

He was featured in the Nebraska Press Association's monthly publication as being the youngest editor and publisher at 26 years of age.

Tim’s life story is in the 1999 (yellow) Recipes for Living where he told his recollection of 13 years of growing up in Lyons. They were in a neighborhood about two blocks long in which there were 40 children under school age. It was dubbed "the hatchery." During those years Tom was born in 1957.

Stack introduced his column "Up 'n Down Main Street with Stack" It covered just about every facet of small town life. It gave him a chance to remark on the everyday happenings, good, bad, and ridiculous. It also gave him a chance to give a pat on the back to those he felt were deserving, as well, he admits, to dig at some whom he felt were remiss about what they should have done.

What took him from that particular venture was the feeling that if he was to go further in journalism, he needed a somewhat larger field. That would require a bit of searching and a lot more money. "To tide me over, I decided to teach and an opening came in the Kearney Nebraska High School in an English Journalism slot. I took it." This gave him an opportunity to see journalism in a different light and strengthened his resolve to get back into the business, which brought him to Osceola, where they have chosen to remain.

He had come a long way from the farm house near Somerset, Wisconsin where he had been born in 1925. The first five years were spent in five different locations in Wisconsin before the family moved to Kiester, Minnesota, where his dad became the superintendent of schools. There were seven children in the family, four boys and three girls - Merrill, Dale, Stack, Wayne, Lucille, Betty, and Mary Belle. It was Stack's theory that, because farm work required a lot of physical labor, parents considered it prudent to have a lot of kids. Their dairy farm was diversified with pigs, chickens, some sheep on occasion, a smattering of turkeys, one dog, and many cats.

Stack's way with words rings a bell for any who have had similar experiences. "The odor of fresh milk mingled with the distinct aroma of hay fed to the animals. This coupled with the sounds of milk pinging into an empty bucket which gradually gave way to a steady stream of liquid. And nothing was better than a glass of warm milk from a Jersey cow. The next step was to wash the separator and for one who has not had such an experience, it is memorable - especially when one didn't get the job done immediately, but had to wait two or three hours on a hot day." Tractors were a rarity, so work horses provided all the power for the machinery. Stack remembers that the team not only looked big, they were big, particularly in the eyes of such a young fellow.

There were no vacations on a dairy farm since milking required a number of people to be there twice a day, every day. In addition there were fields to be plowed and planted, the barn to be cleaned, chickens and pigs to be fed. For his mother there was the job of making meals, cleaning house, making clothes, washing them with a handle-powered wooden washing machine and heating water on a cob- and wood-burning stove, as well as pumping water from the well. "Mom baked bread every day except Sunday and always had time to make either cake, pie or cookies. With a big garden and fruit trees, she also canned whatever was in season as well as canning some pork and beef during butchering time. Apples were put in ground oats, and root produce as well as potatoes were put in the root cellar. Since butter was churned (mostly by the kids), we always had excellent butter, and with fresh bread each day we lived like kings and were poor as church mice in monetary things...Because everyone in the neighborhood lived under the same circumstances no one expected other than they had. There was no automobile. When we would go to town, Dad would hitch the horses to the grain wagon and we would pile in. We didn't go that often. (Granted that we were poor monetarily) but we were rich as Croesus in activities and family love."

Stack specifies "formal" education when he tells about his schooling. In his opinion, "teaching is an art form and not all individuals learn this particular form of art. Luckily I was exposed to some good teachers at an early age and benefitted from it to the extent that I learned the love of reading, which has been informative and a great source of enjoyment all my life. If I were to name my best teachers I would have to give credit to my parents who taught the values of family, love, honesty, a strong work ethic and loyalty. These are building blocks of all learning."

His formal education began when the family moved to Kiester, Minnesota. His first teacher, "a maiden lady of indeterminate age, had four grades - first, second, third and fourth with approximately 10 children per grade and we had the privilege of hearing all reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic as well as spelling and music lessons by each grade.

"Our morning session started with the Pledge of Allegiance and a chapter or two of a classic, read by our teacher. Next come recitations and readings by the students with the older children performing first and the smaller ones in their turn. (It's surprising how much one learns just by listening.)"

There were no school buses. Town kids had an hour to go home for lunch and the few who walked into town from nearby farms carried sack lunches. Then it was back to the school yard for play before the 1:00 bell. "Afternoon classes were much the same except that we had music and penmanship at the end of the day, which was at 4:00. (The teacher) Miss Scriver would wind up the Victrola, put on a record, usually classical, and we would be entertained and have to tell who the composer was, name the piece and which country the composer was from." Stack considers one of the most valuable aids for learning was word spell-downs. "In today's politically correct method of teaching, this is not done. It is said to be too embarrassing to the student who has to sit down." Stack considers this a reason why there are lots of kids now who can't spell.

When Stack had completed his first seven years at Kiester, during the summer of 1937 the family moved to Goldfield, Iowa. He had three years of high school there-good years with about 25 students to a class and many activities. He was involved in band, declam, chorus, and basketball. During the summers he worked at the printing office for his father, and at the grocery store where he stocked shelves, candled eggs, filled sacks of sugar and other bulk products, and filled grocery orders because there was no self-serve. According to his recollection, all day and evening at the store netted about $1.50. When he was 12 years old he saved enough money ($12) to buy a bike that he rode back and forth to school.

At this point the family moved to Wayne, Nebraska, where Stack completed his high school education. At the time he was a senior, World War II was underway. School talk was not so much on sports as it was on what they were going to do upon graduation late in May 1943. A series of tests were given to determine the IQ of each individual through the AGCT (Army General Classification Test). Stack received a 136 score, which made him eligible for most of the schools. He was not yet 18 years of age and needed his parents' permission to enlist in the program but they thought this was a good way to have him receive an education. They signed papers and he received orders to go to Iowa State University in Ames. His education in the A-12 program was halted abruptly. The war was going badly for the Allies and students who had not completed the equivalent of two years of college were transferred into the Infantry.

Stack's first stop was Fort Benning, Georgia, then to Camp Van Dorn, Mississippi, where the 63rd Infantry Division was in training. His training began as a gunner on a 60 millimeter mortar. Another fellow who had been in the Iowa State program, John Wheeler, and Stack decided to apply for Officer Candidate School and submitted papers. The division received orders that they were to be shipped to the South Pacific, so everyone was given all kinds of shots "for yellow fever, jungle rot and you-name-it." They were on maneuvers in the swamps when the company clerk came to tell Stack to gather his gear. He had been accepted for OCS and was put on a train for Fort Benning. The division's orders were cancelled and the others were sent to the European Theatre of Operations where they got "into the thick of it in France and Germany."

Under Stack's division of Officer Candidate School, he wrote that second lieutenants were in critical need as they were highly expendable at that phase of the war. The people being graduated were known as "90-day wonders" due to the fact that, at the beginning, the instruction was crammed into three months. He had been promoted to the rank of Corporal when accepted to the school. In most cases, the new candidates were about two years older than he.

Tactical officers were assigned to each 40 men and became little gods as they constantly observed every performance. Orderliness was an absolute. Each candidate served as squad leader, platoon leader, company commander and battalion commander and his conduct and how other candidates responded to him became a matter of record. New weapons were coming online, and they were among the first to be trained in their use.

At the end of the 12th week Stack was requested to go before the screening board to have field grade officers determine if he should go forward with the training or be washed out. His grades were good in all departments but it was determined that, at just under 19, he was too young and looked too young. It was recommended that he repeat the course so he started over. The second time he calls "almost a breeze except the infiltration course and walls were still just as muddy and high as before."

He had a brief leave in Nebraska and was then sent to Camp Fannin, Texas as an Infantry Replacement Training Center instructor, receiving new recruits and giving them six weeks of training before they were sent overseas. He considered it insufficient training for combat, but he found it to be an interesting study in the various attitudes of men from different parts of the country. Language problems created some confusion.

After the second group of trainees had gone through, Stack received a 10-day leave to visit his family in Nebraska, then had orders to proceed to Camp Pickett, Virginia, in route to the European Theatre. They were taken from there to Camp Kilmar, New Jersey and had a few days to run in to New York City for his first brief tour. They were then put aboard the U.S.S. LaFrance, a vessel that had been taken over and converted to a troop ship when the French were invaded by the Germans. Stack was given an assignment to oversee a company of 200 men who had just completed their basic training.

The crossing was a long 11 days with lots of inconvenience and seasickness. They landed at La Havre, France. Stack and five other lieutenants were given VOCO (verbal order of commanding officer) to take a troop train of about 1,000 trainees to Romilly, France, which turned out to be a little above and to the west of Paris. They traveled in 40x8 boxcars, the same ones in use in World War I.

In route, French engineers unlocked the engine and left them sitting in the dark with no word as to where the engineers were going, when they would be back, no way to keep warm and nothing but K rations in one of the cars. About 2:00 a.m., a commotion turned out to be some French civilians attempting to break into the car with the K rations. The Americans fired pistols into the air and they were bothered no longer. About 7:00a.m.they were able to hail a freight train. The engineer and his helper didn’t understand English, but they did understand the pistols and complied. Thus they arrived in Romilly. The six men delivered their charges and before reporting to Wurzburg am Main, spent three days visiting Paris. They then reported to headquarters of the 1st Infantry Division. The six were split up and Stack was taken to Ochsenfurt, the location of Fox Company, 2nd Battalion,18th Infantry.

Stack was informed that he was to take over immediately as commanding officer of Prisoner-of-War enclosure 407. The enclosure consisted of 800 Waffen SS prisoners. The departing officer gave Stack a quick tour of the camp and office, told him the daily routine and wished him well. Stack never saw him again. The camp consisted of approximately a dozen buildings, most of them housing prisoners, all SS soldiers who were to be interrogated by the Criminal Investigation Department to see if they had participated in war crimes against the Jews who had been held in concentration camps. If it was determined that they had been involved in war crimes, they would be taken by jeep to be tried at the Nurenburg War Crimes Trials.

German officers had broken the prisoners into squads, platoons, and companies and all orders were first given to them by Stack or one of the three enlisted men who were assigned to these duties. Security was provided by men of Fox Company who manned guard towers at the four corners of the double barbed wire enclosure. Guards were on duty for a 24-hour stint. Stack's duties called for overseeing all phases of the camp including checking the guards and guard towers once before and once after midnight each day, as well as spending from 8:00a.m. to 6:00p.m.on administrative details. Stack lived in Ochsenfurt in a large three story older home that had been commandeered for American military use.

When orders were given to close PWE 407, prisoners simply were discharged and the gates closed. Stack was ordered to go to Hof, which was located on the Czech border and take over PWE 418, a larger enclosure. He was to discharge the men and see that they were repatriated to the proper zone- American, British, or Russian. Stack made three trips into the Russian territory and came away with the impression that they lived off the land and were hardened to a way of life he could not imagine.

It was then 1946. When they had finished the assigned duties, he was called in to see the Regimental Commander who offered him a commission in the Regular Army if he would re-up for four years. Stack opted for returning to the states to complete his education. The number of points he had earned determined that possibility. He had just reached the "going back" figure. He traveled to Bremerhaven on the North Sea and was assigned to the U.S.S. United States, a troop ship that carried between four and five thousand troops. They passed the Statue of Liberty about 3:00 in the afternoon and were getting ready to disembark when suddenly everyone decided to throw their mess kits and eating utensils overboard. Thousands of spoons, knives, and forks went into the harbor along with kits and cups. The upshot? They had to stay aboard until the next morning and went to the dining room for sandwiches.

Stack's surprise as he walked down the gangplank the next morning was to find his brother, Dale, waiting for him. He was stationed in New Jersey, and had seen Stack's name on the list of returning officers, and was able to make it to the wharf. Stack wangled a three-day pass and the two of them saw the sights of New York before he headed back to Fort Sheridan, Illinois for discharge. Stack was in the Army three years and five months, from May 1943 to September 1946, during the course of which he had seen many of the 48 states, crossed the ocean twice and wasn't quite 21 years old. He signed on in the inactive reserves and returned to Wayne in time to enroll at Wayne State Teachers college for the fall semester under the G. I. Bill.

The PI department required that Stack make arrangements for visiting dignitaries which often required significant juggling of schedules. He had to do some prosecuting as trial judge advocate. Just across the river from Columbus was Phenix City, Alabama more commonly known as "Sin City." The soldiers invariably were drawn to it, and an unusually high percentage of them managed to find some kind of trouble and end up in jail. Stack's job was to go to the jail, talk with them, and get them out if at all possible. In summary, this assignment entailed a wide variety of responsibilities.

The positive side was the birth of Timothy Brent, the first son, August 13, 1951. The entire cost of the delivery and hospital stay for both mother and son came to $12, a financial break that was welcome since first lieutenants were making about $400 per month. The family took advantage of being down south and attempted to see all the sights they could, including Miami, Miami Beach and Sarasota, Florida. Stack was discharged in 1952 and the Lyons, Nebraska story picks up here.

Stack has always believed that everyone should take their turn at community service, and he joined the Lyons Volunteer Fire Department in 1953. He served for eight years in that capacity and records that during that time they had three major fires. In 20o below zero weather, a big garage burned and they managed to save the house next door. A Food Market burned and they were fortunate to save the buildings on either side of it.

At that time, Lyons was dependent upon rescue and emergency service seven miles away. The fire department volunteers looked into the matter and decided to purchase a van to serve as an ambulance, and hold benefit events to raise money for oxygen equipment, stretchers and other necessary paraphernalia. Eight men from the fire department trained as volunteers, and Stack was one of them. Because highway 77, the main road between Omaha and Sioux City, passed through Lyons, there was need for this kind of service. Stack was exposed to some gruesome and tragic scenes.

Likewise, all his life Stack has been involved in organizations. The first was as a 4H member in Kiester, Minnesota. His project was raising strawberries, undoubtedly because of his fondness for them- by themselves, in cream, in cereal, in salad, chocolate covered. He likes strawberries! In Lyons he was involved with Boy Scouts, being county chairman of a fund drive in which he learned more than he really cared to know about the ins and outs of fund raising. In 1948 Stack joined the Masonic Lodge, celebrating his 50th year as a Mason in 1998.

In various communities Stack has been an active member of Chambers of Commerce. He particularly enjoys recalling "Crazy Days" in Lyons when he dressed as a slinky blonde in a bathing suit. A "retired old Swede farmer" didn't recognize him, which encouraged Stack to take the charade to the limit and not reveal his identity until several mornings later.

He and Jeannie joined the American Field Service in Osceola and loved having a Swedish foreign exchange student, Bernie Wikstrom, become a member of their family for a school year. He has remained a close family friend. Stack also joined the Lions Club and "found out how to sell light bulbs." In 1970, he joined Rotary and has been interested to see how dramatically it has changed through the years. But most impressive has been the Clarke County Development Corporation organized in 1967 with nine directors - Ross Gould, Larry VanWerden, Gerald Edwards, Jack Jeffreys, George Buesch, Eddy Saylor, Bob Toland, Don Ramsey, and himself. Through tireless efforts, this group was able to see factories built and jobs made available when many surrounding communities were dying.

Stack has never lacked for excitement and fun. He has been a practical joker, anticipated by the Goldfield High School year book that in his freshman year labeled him "mischief-maker." He attributes it to his having been small in stature and therefore having a need to draw attention to himself in another way. He credits his brother Dale as being his mentor. It was Dale who filled a five-gallon bucket with water and placed it on the roof of a vacant house with a piece of twine attached to the handle and a note reading that the twine should not be pulled. Of course it was and the puller got drenched. It was also Dale that Stack accuses of placing Roquefort cheese on the radiators of the school building during one period of the winter months. This led to some of Stack's pranks, like mice in one of the girls' note boxes, and a garter snake smuggled into school to be dropped in another girl's lap.

These childhood shenanigans led to more sophisticated ones through the years. Some involved fake newspapers designed to be read by specific parties. There were times when these backfired, and Stack can be persuaded to tell about them. But Stack met his match when Bob Toland moved to Osceola. The two of them, with occasional help from Don Butterfield, attempted to outdo one another. From stuffing Bob's office with crumpled newspapers when he was gone for the day, to adding gas to the tank of his new car to give the impression of exceptional mileage, then siphoning it out to completely bewilder him, they had an ongoing friendly feud.

In these days, if an Osceola resident cannot decide if the red and white object they see in the sky is a bird or a plane it is likely to be Stack in his para plane. He admits that he has gone from little toys for little boys to bigger toys for bigger kids. Unable to buy toys as youngsters, he and his brothers made do with what was available. There were the usual games- anti-over, runsheep-run, hide and seek, kick-the-can, red light-green light, and king of the hill. Those and a ball or tin can provided all the entertainment they needed. In addition, Kiester's town water tower was there to be climbed, and Stack and Dale, armed with green apples and some "G-8 and His Battle Aces" comic books, gave in.

Dale also lugged home anything that had wheels on it. That included 40 or 50 discarded telephones from which they made all sorts of items. Dale and Stack rigged up an extension long before extension phones were in use, and were able to listen in on their sisters' conversations. "We always knew who they were dating and where they were going- much to their chagrin."

Stack's purchase of a small motor scooter that a friend's father was replacing for him, was the first time he had owned a real motor scooter! This was replaced by a Cushman that he purchased when he was a senior in high school. That sparked his interest in motorized bikes when he was in Germany, and led to possession of a 1933 Harley Davidson 74-cubic inch motorcycle. He could hit 100 MPH with it! In Lyons, Stack purchased a "doodlebug," a tiny one-person two-wheeler, then he found a Cushman Eagle complete with saddlebags- the type Shriners use in parades. A Harley was bought in 1966, then a Kawasaki KZ650.

When visiting brother Dale in California in the early '70's, Stack saw a new kind of toy a hang glider which made its way back to Iowa, where the terrain wasn't conducive to its use, but that led to the invention of kite hang gliding. By this time both Tim and Tom were old enough to participate and some accidents resulted. Stack realized that what was needed was a powered parachute, and sure enough he found one. The limitation is that it requires a wind of no more than 10 miles an hour for its use, but the good thing is that it can be kept in the garage and the Eddy pasture across the road or the alfalfa field behind the house is good for take off and landing.

There was a short period of boat mania and the purchase of a lot at Lazy Days on Lake Rathbun. Stack's summation of that era is in the old saying that the happiest days of a man's life are when he buys a boat and when he sells it. For most of two years they traveled to Rathbun during the summer months, boated, mowed grass, cleaned the trailer, and traveled home. Since then he confines his time on the water to ferries or cruise ships.

Stack and Jeannie have had an enviable retirement. They have traveled to Spain (1979), the British Isles (1982), Japan (1983), China (1984), Cancun (1987), Greece-Turkey (1991), Belize (1992), New Zealand-Australia (1996), Denmark-Sweden (1997), Mackinac Island (1995), and various other places throughout the States. They have a common interest in flowers, gardening, and yard work for which they have been totally responsible during the 50 years they have lived in their own house.

Both Stack and Jeannie volunteer in Mrs. (Sheryl) Hochstein's class at Clarke Elementary to listen to the children read. They both had a hand in a project suggested by Tom, who has purchased Woodland Hills Funeral Home in Mankato, Minnesota. Stack had taken up the hobby of stained glass. In the chapel of the funeral home, Tom had two five feet by 15 feet plate glass windows located on either side of a big, wooden cross. Tom wanted some type of opaque glass to block the view and still let in light. Jeannie drew a vine pattern of roses and buds to climb on either side of the window to the very top. Bill Adamson designed a framework that fit inside the window frame and Stack did the roses, buds and vines. The project took the better part of a year in spare time and Stack says that when one stands 50 or 60 feet back from the finished product, it almost looks professional.

But Stack's main hobby is reading. Today he subscribes to about 10 magazines, including Kiplinger's Letter, a daily newspaper and the local newspaper, and attempts to keep at least one novel underway at all times. "Jeannie now believes that I spend most of my time in the supine position as I am firmly convinced that this is the proper way to enjoy reading. It is also a good way to sneak in a nap along with digesting the contents of a book or newspaper."