10 years ago (2013)
•Stacy Riphagen, owner of Luverne’s newest business at 206 E. Main St., is busy unpacking boxes for her store opening at the end of April.
Her store, Dragonfly, will feature home décor, lighting and furniture.
Riphagen said she and her husband, David, and sons Spencer and Carter have worked hard to repurpose much of the former Renfro Variety Store furnishings.
Plaster has been removed to expose original brick walls, the oak floor has been refinished and a bead board ceiling was discovered after two lower ceilings were removed.
Old shelving has been turned into baseboards. Riphagen said one “bittersweet” aspect of the restoration was repurposing the front desk that Margaret Vegge used for her 50-some years at Renfro’s.
The Dragonfly first day open will be Saturday, April 27, and a grand opening is planned for later this spring.
25 years ago (1998)
•With prom only a week away, Luverne School Board members were faced with a difficult decision about after-prom plans at their Thursday, April 23, meeting.
Students approached board members about excusing them from class on Monday, April 27, because they’ll be tired from prom and after-prom activities.
Students attending after-prom activities will spend Sunday, April 26, at the Worlds of Fun amusement park in Kansas City. Roughly 120 students will board three chartered buses at about 2 a.m. Sunday after their Saturday night dance wraps up at 1 a.m.
They plan to arrive in Kansas City at about 9:30 a.m. Sunday, so they can enter the park when the doors open at 10 a.m.
50 years ago (1973)
•Mr. and Mrs. Henry Smith of Hills, Minn., were among more than 100 farm couples who attended a national farm business conference in Honolulu, Hawaii, recently, sponsored by Farm Wife News magazine.
The conference consisted of special seminars on farm management techniques, goal setting and agri-estate planning, plus tours of selected livestock and cropping facilities.
The farm couples flew to Hawaii in a giant 747 jumbo jet and stayed at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel, located on Waikiki Beach at the edge of the Pacific. The conference included a mid-week flight to the island of Maui, where the farm group toured the research facilities of a major seed firm, and viewed no-tillage plots especially planted for the conference to show no-till crops in the growing state.
75 years ago (1948)
•Burglars netted $75 in two break-ins Sunday night at Kenneth.
At the Farmers Elevator Co. office the burglars broke a padlock on the office door and then opened the safe. They took $60 in cash but left the checks, according to L. Dietrich, manager of the elevator.
At the Kenneth Liquor store the thieves gained entrance and then took $15 from the till. No liquor was stolen according to Floyd Fritz, owner of the store.
100 years ago (1923)
•Luverne’s high school this year will have the smallest graduating class in recent years. The seniors now number twenty-five, the greater majority of whom are girls, and even though all of the class should be granted their diplomas, which at this time is considered doubtful, it would still fall below the average-sized graduating class of this school.
Class honors were announced on Thursday evening of last week. Ruth Engelking, having the highest average, is the valedictorian; Ella Anderson won the place of salutatorian by holding second rank, and Emma and Effie Anderson received their and fourth places, respectively. These honors are determined by computing the average of all studies taken up during the four years of high school, up to the second semester’s work in the senior year.
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