GaryOsberg.com

It has been four years since the death of my ex-wife Marcia Julia Rudie Osberg.  We were married on August 21, 1965.  I could have gone to see the Beatles at Metropolitan Stadium that day, but I got married to Marcia at St. Olaf Catholic Church in downtown Minneapolis instead.  The wedding reception was held in the living room of the house on the Rudie farm northeast of Upsala.  The wedding feast featured baked chickens that had been killed that morning. The beer and booze were served in the milk house.

Marcia was born in the downstairs bedroom in that same farmhouse on May 8, 1942.  Her dad had built the house along with the barn, the shed, and the milk house.  During her final days, Marcia told our son Erik that her happiest times were ones on that farm.  She used to say that she could run barefoot across a newly mowed alfalfa field, and she was proud of it.  Three of Marcia’s older siblings lived in California, so the evening of our wedding day we left on a four-week honeymoon to California.  Her mother’s half-brother Bill Heisick and his wife Maggie, who had been a model, also lived in California.  Maggie made quite an impression on Marcia.  So much so that when we got back to Minnesota, she enrolled in the Patricia Stevens Finishing School in downtown Minneapolis.  Quite a change for a girl from a farm northeast of Upsala. 

Perhaps one of the most dramatic events in our marriage was the purchase of a small farm on the north side of Cedar Lake 3 miles west of Upsala.  Marcia’s mother Irene had mailed an auction flyer to Marcia.  They both had a lot of experience going to farm auctions. We lived in Coon Rapids, Minnesota at the time.  So, on September 15, 1973, we drove to Upsala and parked in the hay field near the house.  There was a huge turnout for the “Mrs. Agnes Olson Auction”.  The small farm featured 900 feet of lakeshore.  Marcia took me into the barn and said  “Gary, I want this place, and this is how you win at an auction.  When it is your turn to bid, you do not hesitate.  Understood?  You react immediately.”  I said OK and went to see the banker who was a very close friend of my father. In fact, he was Best Man at my parent’s wedding.  I had to tell Roland that I wanted to bid, but that I didn’t have the $3,000 earnest money check.  I told him that we would go to town and get the check from Marcia’s mother if we were the high bidder.  He took a long time thinking about it, but he finally said OKAY. 

The auctioneer started out and I jumped in.  After a while I bid $50,000 which was the maximum that Marcia and I had set.  The auctioneer milked a bid for $50,500 out of the only other remaining bidder.  The coaxing went on and on.  Finally, the other guy said yes to $50,500.  The auctioneer turned to me and asked for $51,000.  I did as Marcia had instructed and simply nodded my head.  It was over.  Later it was reported to me that the other bidder stormed away with the comment.  “That kid will never stop!” (I was 30 years old at the time) Marcia was 100% correct.  We never would have had the enjoyment and fun of 16 years of living on Cedar Lake if had not been for Marcia. 

We were married for 32 years, 1 month and 8 days and we were friends for nearly 24 years after that.  May my first date and my first love rest in peace. 

“You react immediately! Understood?.”  Marcia Osberg