PROBATE COURTDISTRICT COURT—COUNTY COURTPROBATE DIVISIONORDER AND NOTICE OF HEARING FOR FORMAL PROBATE OF WILL AND APPOINTMENT OF PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE IN SUPERVISED ADMINISTRATION AND NOTICE TO CREDITORSSTATE OF MINNESOTACOUNTY OF ROCKIn Re: Estate ofHarriet E. Faber, DeceasedTO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS AND CREDITORS:It is Ordered and Notice is hereby given that on the 20th day of December, 2004, at 9:00 O’clock A.M., a hearing will be held in the above named Court at Rock County Courthouse, Luverne, Minnesota, for the formal probate of an instrument purporting to be the will of the above named deceased, dated April 25, 1996, and for the appointment of Audrey DeSmet, whose address is 305 Church, Hills, Minnesota 56138, as personal representative of the estate of the above named decedent in supervised administration, and that any objections thereto must be filed with the Court. That, if proper, and no objections are filed, said personal representatives will be appointed to administer the estate, to collect all assets, pay all legal debts, claims, taxes and expenses, and sell real and personal property, and do all necessary acts for the estate. Upon completion of the administration, the representative shall file a final account for the allowance and shall distribute the estate to the persons thereto entitled as ordered by the Court, and close the estate. Notice is further given that ALL CREDITORS having claims against said estate are required to present the same to said personal representatives or to the Court Administrator within four months after the date of this notice or said claims will be barred. Dated: November 24, 2004 /s/ Timothy K. ConnellTimothy K. ConnellDistrict Court Judge/s/ Douglas E. Eisma /s/ Sandra L. VrtacnikDouglas E. Eisma Court AdministratorAttorney for PetitionerEisma and Eisma130 East Main, Box 625Luverne, MN 56156(507)283-4828I.D. #158343(12-2, 12-9)

Leon Eugene Opsata, 88, Luverne, died Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2004, at Tuff Memorial home in Hills.Services were Tuesday, Dec. 7, at First Baptist Church in Luverne. The Rev. Greg Standafer officiated. Burial was in Maplewood Cemetery, Luverne. Leon Opsata was born to Theodore and Merle (Butler) Opsata on March 29, 1916, in Rock County. He graduated from Luverne High School in 1934. He later worked at Nelson’s Grocery in Luverne. He married Ruth Ann Maxwell on April 1, 1944, in Rock County. He served his country in the U.S. Army during World War II, serving in Alaska, Texas, North Africa and Europe. After returning from the service he bought a cream and egg route, which grew into can milk and bulk milk. He retired in 1984. Mr. Opsata was a member of First Baptist Church in Luverne, and the Luverne VFW. He enjoyed local sports, supporting Christian missionaries around the world, keeping up with farming, news in Rock County and sitting in his yard to watch the seasons change.Survivors include four children, Eva Lou Opsata, Sioux Falls, S.D., Richard L. (Ruth Kruse) Opsata, Luverne, Mary (Douglas) Modica, Watertown, S.D., and the Rev. Dr. John T. Opsata, Lakewood, Ohio; three grandchildren, Dr. Rebecca Opsata (Greg Achten) Los Angeles, Calif., Bethany Opsata and Nathan Opsata, both of Minneapolis; and one brother, Dale E. (Phyllis Noll) Opsata, Weslaco, Texas. Mr. Opsata was preceded in death by his parents, his wife, Ruth in 1985, and an infant brother. Dingmann Funeral Home, Luverne, was in charge of arrangements.

This past weekend my husband, David, and I ventured out of Hills to participate in the Luverne Winterfest craft fair.We had been preparing our handmade items for several weeks and were very anxious to see what people would think of them. Unfortunately, our booth was not well-attended. Because our business had not participated in a craft fair before, we suspected things would go slowly. And they did.Instead of selling to the patrons, I spent six hours watching holiday shoppers hunt for the perfect treasure for a loved one or the centerpiece that would complete their Christmas table, and the vast majority of the shoppers seemed upset to even be there.These shoppers had paid one dollar to get into the craft fair, yet many looked as if they were being forced to attend. The gym at the high school was not crowded, holiday music was pumped in over the loud speakers, Mr. & Mrs. Claus were in attendance, children could be seen bouncing for joy, yet people were not smiling.Perhaps that is why they choose to crowd booths peddling national pre-packaged products instead of supporting the local artisans.When did holiday shopping become mundane and painful?After watching the miserable shoppers, I vowed to finish my holiday shopping this week without ever frowning or letting other shoppers bring me down.Giving gifts is supposed to fill a person’s heart with joy. Finding that one item that will put a smile on a grandparent’s face or the twinkle in a child’s eye is to be treasured, not resented.If you haven’t enjoyed your holiday shopping so far this season, perhaps you need to think back to how hard it was for the first gift givers. With Internet shopping, television shopping, pages of holiday ads and mega-malls we have it easy, so why not enjoy the process?

Tyrae Jane, daughter of Joseph Goodface and Jessica Shanahan, was baptized at Sunday morning services in Bethlehem Lutheran Church. Her sponsors were Janet and Chris Feikema, Anthony Beck and Kim Ahrendt. The family lives in Sioux Falls, S.D.Cliff and Vi Van Wyhe hosted a 5 o’clock dinner last Thanksgiving. Present were Steve and Marilyn Van Wyhe, Dr. Heather Van Wyhe, Hutchinson, Amber and Travis Arends, Warrensburg, Mo., Justin Van Wyhe, Fargo, N.D., Tom and Matthew Van Wyhe, Ron and Lexia De Wit, all of Sioux Falls, Teri and Matt Mercer, Omaha, Neb., Lindsey Van Wyhe, Rochester, and Ashley Van Wyhe, a student at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa. Marilyn Nelson and Art and Carol Ehde of Luverne motored to Mankato to have Thanksgiving with the Roger Nelsons. Karen Soehl and Alice Kolsrud, along with Olive Kolsrud and other ladies from Sioux Falls, helped Caroline Kolsrud celebrate her 90th birthday at her home in Sioux Falls last Wednesday. Last week Dean and Peggy Goettsch went to Albert Lea to have Thanksgiving with her mother, Helen Schoen, along with Peggy’s sister and her brother and family. Tony and Annette Goettsch also attended. Vi Van Wyhe accompanied Tom and Matthew Van Wyhe of Sioux Falls to Omaha and Alma, Neb., for a wedding reception at the country club honoring Matt Mercer and Teri Van Wyhe on Saturday evening. Brenda Hadler, Katie and Colby of Edgerton, spent Friday evening with her mother, Joanne Goehle. Don and Edyth Briggs motored to Adrian Saturday night to attend the Southwest Minnesota Shriner’s Club Christmas party.Thursday afternoon the Hope Circle of Steen Reformed Church met at the home of Betty Elbers. Chuck and Rheta DeBoer attended the production of the Messiah Sunday afternoon at First Baptist Church in Sioux Falls. Bob and Twila Kirsch and Ray and Lois Nelson attended the Festival of Men’s Voices at the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls Sunday afternoon. The six choirs performed as a benefit for The Banquet in Sioux Falls. Friday night the Nelsons attended the Augustana Vespers at First Lutheran Church and on Sunday afternoon they attended Terry Walter–Don Cooper Christmas Sing-along also in Sioux Falls.Sunday morning Wilmer and Betty Elbers attended the Sunday School Christmas program at First Lutheran Church in Sioux Falls. Their grandson, Tony Elbers, had a part in the program.

When we awoke early Saturday morning, we were greeted with a snow white landscape which I thought was snow! However, I was wrong. It was a heavy white frost covering rooftops and fields. Do you suppose Old Man Winter is getting anxious to get on the job? I guess we had just better appreciate what we have and what we do not have as yet. So, let’s enjoy our good roads and our great weather we’ve had so far. It would be nice if we could keep winter like it is until after Christmas!The Steen Senior Citizens had their Christmas meeting at the Luverne Pizza Ranch Tuesday noon where they enjoyed dinner together and also spent the afternoon playing games and cards. Monday evening the Hope Circle of Steen Reformed Church Women’s Ministry was invited to hold their meeting at the home of Betty Elbers in Hills. They enjoyed their meeting, the fellowship and lunch. Those attending from Steen were Jennie Schouwenberg, Henrietta Huenink, Joan Hoogeveen, Winnie Scholten, Verla Baker and Jo Aykens. The RCYF Christmas program, "The Gifts of Christmas," will be at 7 p.m. Sunday evening, Dec. 12, at Steen Reformed Church.Bernice and Orrin Aukes attended the Christmas program in Sioux Falls Sunday evening. Their granddaughter Taylor Telford, daughter of Lisa Telford, was in the program. Pastor Dan and Karen will host a Christmas open house from 3 to 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 10, at the Steen Reformed Church parsonage for their congregation. The adult choir of Steen Reformed Church presented their Christmas Cantata Sunday evening. It was titled "We All Bow Down." A fellowship hour followed for those who wished to stay. The event was very well attended. Jodi Ackerman underwent surgery at Luverne Community Hospital on Tuesday. She was able to return to her home on Thursday.Mildred Paulsen joined other members of the Freedom Club at Rock Rapids Sunday afternoon where the club members gathered to take a bus to Pipestone for the Al Opland Singers Christmas program. Following the program they enjoyed supper together at the Glass House in Ihlen.Christmas is rapidly approaching! I do not know where the time goes, but soon the hustle and bustle of Christmas will be here. It is so easy to get involved in Christmas preparations that sometimes we lose sight of why we have Christmas. When I found this article titled "Christmas is the Greatest Gift," it made me think. Of course if it had not been for Christ there would be no Christmas!Christmas Is …The Greatest GiftWhat did I get for Christmas?I’m glad you asked me this.For what I got has brought to meThe greatest earthly bliss.And I rejoice that I receivedWhat money cannot buy, A treasure richer far than gold‘Twas sent me from the sky.What did I get for Christmas?Oh, yes, I’ll try to tell,But how can human lips describeThe Gift unspeakable? The Gift exceeds all other gifts;They but reflect His love. But this great Gift eclipses all — My Saviour from above!SelectedLet’s remember this as we make our plans this year.

Caution should be exercised when comparing a new product on the market with an old one. For example, a new car model shouldn’t be touted as "the Ford Edsel of the new millennium." It was no accident that the front grilles of the short-lived Edsels and the often horrified expressions on their owners’ faces reminded us of Edvard Munch’s 1893 painting, "The Scream." A similar negative association came up recently when a new surgical device was referred to by the media as "support hose for the heart." According to The Wall Street Journal, "The Corcap, made by Acorn Cardiovascular, is a fabric mesh device that is implanted around the heart to support the muscle." Support hose became a natural comparison when describing the new device. Regardless of the success rate of the new heart sock, the negative associations with support hose will not be kicked off easily. In fact, women might carry the association one step further. Support hose. Support pantyhose. It’s an unpleasant leap. For many women, wearing pantyhose, support style or not, can be a positive experience. They make legs look smooth and flawless. Unlike the Corcap, which is designed to keep hearts beating, truly effective pantyhose should be heart-stopping. The exceptions with pantyhose are those that we can’t forget and tend to haunt us forever. One of the drawbacks to wearing pantyhose is the possibility of having a run. Runs, which are appropriately named because they can race in a southerly direction from the waistband or spiral upward from the toes, can be stopped in their tracks with small dabs of clear fingernail polish. The same can’t be said of a run which might develop in CorCap’s fabric mesh. Even a fairly wide paint brush, dipped in a pail of varnish and smeared over the heart area of a person’s chest, wouldn’t do much good in a similar situation. In addition, lugging around a gallon of shellac and a paintbrush would be much less convenient than tossing an emergency bottle of fingernail polish into a purse. From time to time, support pantyhose will develop blow-outs. That’s when a small hole in the stocking, usually on a tightly bound thigh, will mushroom into a large gaping crater. The body fat beneath the surface of the pantyhose, yearning to be free like so many early immigrants to Ellis Island, will burst through the surface and form an unsightly, conspicuous bulge. To an untrained eye in a grocery store, it might appear that a woman with such a suspicious bulge under her skirt might be shoplifting a smoked ham. Similar blow-outs with a CorCap could create unsightly bulges on people’s chests. Support stockings are difficult to keep in place. With worn out, tired elastic waistbands, they are nomadic by nature. They tend to slip down to the widest part of a woman’s hips, inch uncontrollably down her thighs, and eventually form a circulation-stifling tourniquet at her knees. Support stocking slippage is easier to remedy on legs. If a CorCap begins to shift and feel uncomfortable, there can be no pulling a car over to the side of the road and removing the offensive stocking. The promoters of CorCap should take these negative comparisons with support hose to heart.

10 years ago (1994)"Nearly a dozen residents visited the Hills City Council for the annual Truth-in-Taxation meeting Tuesday night. Local citizens questioned why the city portion of their taxes had such drastic increases over a year’s time. Jack Paulsen cited a 66 percent increase in his Pioneer Seed building, while Wendell Bengtson noted the city portion of his real estate taxes rose by nearly 74 percent."25 years ago (1979)"Effective last week, Preston Ver Meer purchased Crescent Publishing Company from John H. Minette and Ann K. Brehm. Minette and Brehm will continue to own and operate the Hills Crescent and the Ellsworth Voice, while Ver Meer will take over immediately as owner and operator of the printing end of the company, known as Crescent Publishing Company." 50 years ago (1954)"Over the past weekend, the Blue Ribbon Hatchery put in three new Jamesway incubators, which will be ready for use in the next few days. As the result of this installation, the hatchery will have doubled its egg capacity. A year ago, the hatchery installed three incubators capable of turning out 43,200 chicks in one hatching. Now, with the recent installation they will be able to produce 86,400 chicks to a hatching."75 years ago (1929)"Due to a controversy over the interpretation of the election laws the annual election at Beaver Creek was not held Tuesday of this week as it was announced in the Star. The session laws of 1925 state that all villages with an assessed valuation of more than $750 per capita are to be held in November." 100 years ago (1904)"The Pipestone Review was badly ‘jarred’ over the football item in last week’s Crescent, explaining why our team would not play in Pipestone, but offered to play on neutral ground at Luverne. ‘This,’ the Review states, ‘Manager Grun rightly refused.’ Now, why can’t Hills as ‘rightly’ refuse to play in Pipestone? To tell the truth, a town whose standard of sport is, ‘Our dog must win, even if we have to muzzle the other dog to do it,’ isn’t entitled to a game on their home grounds."

By Lori EhdeAfter 27 years, Gloria Juhl, Luverne, is retiring from her post at the Minnesota Travel Information Center on Interstate 90 near Beaver Creek.Contrary to popular belief, her work involved much more than handing out maps. As a customer service specialist, her job was to meet and greet the public and answer questions about Minnesota."That’s the part I’m going to miss," Juhl said about retirement. "I’m a people person, and I’m afraid I’m going to go brain dead without my work."Juhl spent a great deal of time promoting Minnesota tourism, and especially Luverne. "I’m from Luverne, of course, and have always enjoyed promoting Luverne," Juhl said on Monday, her last day of work."People would talk about staying in Worthington, and I’d say ‘Luverne is just 12 miles down the road, and they have five motels and restaurants, too.’ "She said learning about Minnesota was one of the joys of the job."One of my pet peeves is people say they don’t need information about Minnesota because they live there and they already know everything there is to know about Minnesota," Juhl said."I’ve been here 27 years and I’m still learning. There’s so much to learn about Minnesota."Greenview employee George Koens worked 22 years at the Travel Information Center in maintenance.He said the organization will miss Juhl’s expertise."It was really fun working with her," he said. "The way she treats the tourists is fantastic, and it’s unbelievable what she knows about miles and travel and telling people where to go in Minnesota."Juhl jokes that one of her favorite things to say about her job is, "Where else can you work where you can tell people where to go?"She said people have often asked her if she was scared to work at the Travel Information Center, especially in the early years when she was there late at night."I’ve never had an experience that’s threatening," Juhl said. "It’s just like any job … the vast majority are good people."She recalled a couple from Denmark, for example, who sent her a thank-you note after their trip to Minnesota. "They told me they had done everything I suggested, and they were planning a return trip to Minnesota," she said.Juhl said her retirement story wouldn’t be complete without mention of her long-time co-worker Nan (Karr) Kaufenberg, who retired Nov. 5 after 20 years on the job."I told myself I’d quit when Nan quit," Juhl said. "We really worked well together as a team out here."Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Commissioner Matt Kramer of the Department of Employment and Economic Development each sent certificates for Juhl’s retirement."Your decision to dedicate your career to serving the people of this state has come full circle," Kramer wrote in a letter to Juhl. "Congratulations on fulfilling this worthwhile endeavor."She also received a framed Minnesota winter scene from the Minnesota Office of Tourism.

By Sara QuamIt looks as if ownership of the Rock County Pool and Fitness Center will stabilize for a few months.The Rock County Board of Commissioners and Luverne City Council have agreed to extend their joint powers agreement until March 2005.The extension really means that the effective date of termination is further away. The county had earlier terminated its joint powers agreement effective Dec. 31, 2004.Luverne City Councilman Pat Baustian said he saw the extension request from the county as a positive move for the two bodies who have disagreed on joint ventures for more than a year.Commissioner Richard Bakken said, "You can’t argue with success and it’s a great place we provide the county."County Commissioner Jane Wildung said she hoped the two could work out joint agreements, such as law enforcement, in order to continue services as they have in the past."We’ve subsidized it for the entire county for so long that I don’t want rates to increase so much that it’s not affordable to people of lower income. … It’s a drawing card for our community," Wildung said.The City Council will vote on a resolution to continue the agreement at its next meeting, Dec. 14. The resolution will include the following conditions: oThat Rock County authorizes payment of the county’s share of the 2004 capital purchases ($11,825) with payment being made by Dec. 31, 2004. oThat Rock County authorize payment of 25 percent of the county contribution, for 2005 ($14,210) payable on Jan. 15, 2005.