William Cecil Savage and Lillian Johanne Petersen Larsen -- 62 years
Brief Overview
William Cecil Savage and Lillian Johanne Petersen Larsen -- 62 years.
Share this Resource
Resource Categories
Long-term LoversLillian was born in 1911 in Virginia City, Montana, the daughter of Danish immigrant Jensine Oline Jensen and immigrant descendant, John Petersen. John was a miner. Coming home from work one day during a snowstorm he took a short cut, fell and broke his leg, and froze to death. Lillian was 6 weeks old at the time. She and her mother moved back to Iowa, settling near Kimballton, where Oline worked as housekeeper for an unmarried farmer named John Larsen. He later became her second husband. ~~ Cecil was born in Kansas and moved with his family to a farm near Exira, Iowa, in the 1920s. He met Lillian at a group picnic in Sunnyside Park in Atlantic. At the time Lillian was a student nurse at Belmont Hospital in Chicago, so she only saw Cecil on infrequent visits to her parents’ home. One July 4th they planned to meet in Exira for the parade and celebration. Lillian was there, but Cecil didn’t show and she thought he had stood her up. The previous day the Savage farm had been hit by a tornado so the family had to spend their Fourth cleaning up after the storm. When Lillian graduated from nursing school she and Cecil were married on December 24, 1933 at the Methodist parsonage in Guthrie Center, Iowa, and farmed for 47 years in Guthrie and Audubon Counties. In 1980 they retired and moved to Exira. They had 2 daughters: Charlotte Ann and Silva Jane.
