1 • Wednesday, December 13, 2017 - Shopper’s Guide
Serving the communities in Stephenson County
Shopper’s Guide
VOL. 79 • NO. 50
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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2017
Lena’s own Leona and her little lamb By John Day
CORRESPONDENT
Leona Grebner just celebrated a birthday. She turned 98 years old and is still living on the farm where she has spent more than 70 years, loving life and finding beauty in the world around her every day. These days she has become known to many as Leona and Her Little Lamb. Born in Freeport on Nov. 29, 1919 Grebner was the first of 10 children born to the Janicke family. Her father gave her the nickname of “The Peace Baby” commemorating the end of the First World War. Her nickname was a tag that she carried all her life. As a child, Grebner’s family was hard working, but often lived on the edge of poverty. As Grebner grew older she had to forego attending high school so she could help with the care of her siblings and take on work to help with the finances. She did cleaning, cooking, farm work and other tasks. Often, she earned as much as $1.50 a week, but never bitter, Grebner has always maintained it may not sound like much, but they were happy to have it. In 1946 Grebner and her husband purchased the 110 acre farm where
she still resides. Back then, the area immediately Northwest of Lena was reminiscent of the old frontier, and the Grebners acquired the property after a log cabin on the site that housed a small family was destroyed by fire. After purchasing the property, they built a new house. Grebner recalls the lane being nothing but a cow path. “We had to buy a horse to get up to the house,” she said. “Behind the house was where the pigs (aka, Mortgage Makers) were kept. It was nothing but mud and my, how it stunk. When we first started we had cows and hogs, but then we bought our first sheep and I’ve loved sheep ever since.” For 31 years she was a Sunday School teacher at the Lena Baptist Church. “I still get cards and letters from many of the children, now grown up, that I taught there,” she said. Leona’s dining room table is covered from one end to the other with the birthday cards she had received for her 98th birthday. In another
JOHN DAY PHOTOS Shopper’s Guide
See LITTLE LAMB, Page 11
Leona Grebner and and her “not so little” lamb Lynae are well known figures when they take their almost daily strolls out on Timber Lane Road, Northwest of Lena.
Lena-Winslow Speech Team captures first place team ranking in Stockton tourney Stockton High School was the site Dec. 2, for the inaugural Warhawk Pow Wow Speech Tournament, and it was also the first stop for the LeWin/Orangeville Speech Team on its 2017-18 competition schedule. “As is typical, we hit a couple of unexpected snags in getting everyone together, but we did well enough to get a first place team ranking,” said Le-Win Head Coach Tom Fore. “The number of teams competing was smaller than most tournaments, but it was a good start. I give Stockton/Warren head coach Dan Stevens a lot of credit for creating this tournament. It was a good way for the area’s teams to get back into competition. The alternative was for everyone to make the ninety-minute drive
to DeKalb and get swallowed up in what has turned into a massive tournament.” An interesting wrinkle in this tournament was the invitations sent to several local dignitaries to serve as “celebrity judges” in the various speaking categories’ final rounds. These individuals were placed with other judges to decide the tournament champions in these categories. And, the student that these special judges selected as his or her favorite was given a special Judges Award. Of the fourteen Judges Awards given, the Le-Win/Orangeville team claimed four of them: Justin Malone (Radio Speaking), Abby Strominger (Poetry Reading), Asa Lake (Humorous Interpretation), and John Jurkov-
ic (Original Comedy). In any speech tournament, there are fourteen speaking categories, and usually the Le-Win/Orangeville team has entries in all fourteen. On Dec. 2, the team was missing one, Humorous Duet Acting. However, the squad’s students were given awards in the other thirteen, which included three first-place prizes. The speaking
See TOURNEY, Page 2
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