An Interview With Phyllis Enerson & Larry Jackson
April 2023–By Kristi Miller
Two years after he lost his wife of thirty-one years, Larry Jackson picked up the telephone, once then twice, to ask Phyllis Rose Enerson out for supper, but doubts crept in. He wondered whether this call might ruin a perfectly good friendship. On the third attempt, he mustered the courage to make the call. To his delight, Phyllis said yes. The first date had to be kept hush-hush, just in case. To facilitate this top secret mission, a restaurant fifty-one miles away was chosen for the first date. Certainly, no one from Reeder would see them in Marmath! Happily, three years later in 2001, they were married at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Reeder, an intimate ceremony with only Carla Rose Stang and Lee Jackson and their spouses in attendance. No one in Reeder knew of the wedding taking place. The cover was blown innocently when Carla’s husband, Gayle Stang, stepped out of the church for a moment dressed in clothes designated only for special occasions. Punk Nichols spotted Gayle all spruced up and got suspicious about what was taking place inside the church, so he made some calls to rally the troops. The newlyweds were set to have supper with the wedding party at the Borderline Bar and Grill that evening. The quiet affair quickly became a small town celebration as members of the Reeder community crashed the party. Well, they had to be there. Together, they had worked, planned, worried, laughed, cried, and played alongside the couple, buoying up their once robust town. After all, weddings are family times, and that is exactly what Phyllis and Larry were—family. Here are the stories that led up to this special day and beyond.
Beginnings
Phyllis
Phyllis’s parents were Arnold and Evelyn (Hoffman) Rose. Arnold, originally from Groton, SD, was a farmer who lived just north of Bucyrus. Evelyn grew up northeast of Bucyrus and graduated from Bucyrus High School in 1937. Arnold and Evelyn were married in Bison, SD, in 1938. Phyllis, the firstborn, came into this world in 1941 at Springer Hospital in Hettinger. She was followed by two brothers and a sister—Duane (deceased), Larry (Everett, WA), and Carla Stang, who currently lives on her parents’ home place near Bucyrus.
Larry
Larry was born at home to Herbert and Velma (Brammar) Jackson in 1937. Herbert moved from Wisconsin to Thunder Hawk, SD, with his family when he was seven years old. He was a farmer, a janitor, and a rural mail carrier. Velma hailed from Iowa, but her family homesteaded near Coal Springs in Perkins County, their abode: a sod house. Like Phyllis’s parents, the couple was married in Bison in 1927. Six children were born to this union: Grace (deceased), Lynn (rural Lemmon, SD), Larry, Lee (Bismarck, ND), Stanley (Sioux Fall, SD), and Jeanne (deceased)
School Days
Phyllis
Phyllis attended her first nine years of school at Bucyrus. On nice days, she would walk across Highway 12 to school from her family farm. In inclement weather, her dad drove her to school. There were no girls’ sports programs at this time at her school, but she reports having fun playing softball and volleyball in her elementary school years. She was a Bucyrus Bobcat cheerleader as a freshman. Phyllis was a member of the Village Lassies 4-H Club, where she learned cooking and sewing; the latter interest still serves her to this day. She also belonged to the Bucyrus Boys’ and Girls’ 4-H Club, where she showed beef, dairy, and sheep. She even won a trip to Minneapolis-St. Paul through the 4-H program.
Her summers were occupied helping on the family farm by driving tractor, milking cows, cultivating corn, and baling and bucking hay. The value of hard work was inherent in her. The family didn’t have a television until she was fifteen years old. Entertainment included visiting neighbors and relatives and playing cards.
Because of dwindling student numbers, with only fifteen students in attendance, Bucyrus High School closed in 1956. Phyllis, her school mates, and her siblings would attend Hettinger High School. She went from a class of five students to one of forty. The size of her new school was overwhelming to shy Phyllis, so her participation in extracurricular events was minimal. She did participate in a one-act play in her junior or senior year. Phyllis graduated from Hettinger High in 1959.
Larry
The first eight years of Larry’s education were spent in tiny Thunder Hawk, SD. Two teachers oversaw grades one through four and five through eight—that is fifteen to twenty students with about five in each class. Larry describes himself as a good student, but not always well-behaved! As a freshman, he transferred to Lemmon High School. Larry felt lost in this big new school. Because there was no bus to Lemmon to take him to high school, his mother drove him, and as a junior and senior, he drove himself. He remembers his English teacher, Mr. Hill, and his math teacher, Miss Meyer. As a teen, he thought these thirty-five-year-old teachers were over the hill! The Jacksons lived ten miles from Lemmon at this time, and Larry was busy with chores—milking cows, feeding pigs, and cleaning the barn every Saturday. Despite the demands on the farm, Larry played football and participated in track for the Cowboys and was a member of both the Rifle Club and the FFA, graduating in 1955.
Post-High School
Phyllis
Bismarck Junior College (BJC) was Phyllis’s next stop after high school. She and three other women from Hettinger, Janet Eneberg, Pat Gustin, and Jean Johnson, roomed together in Bismarck. Phyllis elected to take the one-year program of clerical classes that included bookkeeping, shorthand, and office machine courses.
Larry
After graduating from Lemmon High, Larry worked at the Thunder Hawk elevator for a dollar an hour. He notes that his boss, Elmer Trautman, was an excellent mentor, setting him up for his future in the grain business. For entertainment, he rollerskated and sometimes waltzed and two-stepped to live bands at the Rainbow Ballroom in Lemmon. After he was laid off, he went in search of employment. Larry proceeded to Rapid City, SD. He took a bridge construction gig in Lusk, WY. Another year, he worked in Zortman, MT, driving truck and servicing equipment. He hauled grain, water, and even a truckload of dead rabbits from north of Great Falls to Dickinson Hide and Fur! In 1958, he returned to the elevator at Thunder Hawk.
Larry volunteered for the draft at age twenty-three. He was inducted to the army in Sioux Falls, SD. He completed eight weeks of boot camp at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO. He commented that military life was demanding, but he was accustomed to working hard. He hoped to be sent overseas. Instead, he was sent to infantry training at Ft. Chaffee, AR and was later stationed at Ft. Meyer, VA, with the 3rd Infantry of Old Guard. His duties included being part of the casket team, marching behind the hearse at funerals at Arlington National Cemetery. He pressed his own uniform and shined his own shoes, and all his fellow soldiers were the same size—between 5’11 and 6’3”. Additionally, he was a part of cordons for President Kennedy and ensured the security of Air Force I. He considers himself fortunate to have been able to see the President and the First Lady on several occasions. Larry will visit his old stomping grounds with the April 2023 Honor Flight. He is excited to see his old barracks.
First Marriages and Work Life
Phyllis
Sherman Enerson, his parents, and eight siblings (Harlan, Rod, Jerry, Gene, Duane, Darrel, Ron, and LaNae), lived in a basement home south of Bucyrus down the road from the Rose family farm. He graduated from Bucyrus High School in 1956, the last graduating class. Phyllis and Sherman started dating during her junior year and were married at the Hettinger Lutheran Church after she finished her course at BJC in 1960. Donna Hofland Olson, cousin of Phyllis from Reeder, was the matron of honor. Sherman’s brother, Duane, was the best man. Little sister, Carla, was the flower girl, and Ron, Sherman’s little brother, was the ring bearer. (Carla, all grown up, was the matron of honor for Phyllis and Larry’s wedding.)
The couple wanted to farm. Their first home was a mobile home on the farm of Obert and Fay Thorson, northeast of Bucyrus. In 1964, they moved to the Herman Stehlow farm. Taking a step westward, in 1971, they lived at the Rudolph Hemmann place at the junction of Highways 12 and 22. Children were born to Phyllis and Sherman—David, Terri, and Danny, in ’61, ’63, and ’70, respectively. Phyllis was a member of the Stitch and Chatter Homemakers’ Club, along with women such as Elgean Thorson, Agnes Meyers, Lila Molbert, and Linda and Eileen Engraf. As in her youth, Phyllis continued to help Sherman with the farm work. She hired Ginger Uhler to babysit.
In 1973, they bought the Bennie Oberlander home in Reeder (where Phyllis and Larry live today). Sherman worked at American Colloid as a shift foreman and at Knife River Coal Mine. In 1989, he began working for farmers, including Tom Arndorfer and Dennis Johnson, until his death at fifty-seven in December of 1995.
During the interview, Phyllis chose the word fun-loving to describe Sherman. Considering the painting of him dressed as Lena for the Uff Da Day parade, the adjective seemed to perfectly capture this trait.
Sherman Enerson in the center, Junior Knutson on the left, and Keith Hagen on the right. Painting by Marlys Mellmer.
Phyllis worked at First National Bank in Hettinger then took a part-time job at Coast to Coast in Hettinger. She took a hiatus to raise the couple’s three children. For thirty-four years from 1972-2006, Phyllis worked as a bookkeeper for Reeder Equity, which became Southwest Grain in 1996. From 1990 to 1996, Larry was her boss. She jokes that Larry was her boss for six years, but now, she is his boss!
Larry
Florence Jacobson grew up three miles southeast of Reeder. She graduated from Reeder High in 1959 and studied to be a teacher at Dickinson State. In addition to being an instructor, Florence worked for the Adams County agent and was a bookkeeper at Reeder Grain and a secretary at Reeder School. Florence sang with the Reeder Singers. She died at 1996 of cancer at the age of fifty-four.
Larry met Florence at the Adams County Agent’s office. He married this gal that carried songs in her heart in June of 1965 at the Lutheran Church in Lemmon. They subsequently moved to Thunder Hawk, where Larry worked at the elevator. They were blessed with two children, Dan and Lisa. In 1968, they moved to Reeder so Larry could manage Reeder Grain Company (some farmers had bought it from Osboure-McMillan Company). He and Florence were part owners. Eventually they sold to the Reeder Equity in 1990. Larry remained as manager until it was sold to Southwest Grain.
Larry took a moment during this interview to ponder a word that embodied his late spouse. He bowed his head and gently said that Florence was “really nice.” It was a profound moment as each remembered ones they dearly loved—a chapter that has ended but whose stories and memories remain very much alive.
After devoting so many years to the grain business, Larry worked at the Farmer Union Oil Company from 1998-2005, when it closed its door
Giving
Phyllis
In Reeder, Phyllis served as the Reeder City Auditor from 1990-2005 and the Reeder Park Board Clerk from 2010 to the present. She is a member of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church (and currently the financial secretary). She also quilts on Mondays with a team of six to eight women representing WELCA. She has been an American Legion Auxiliary since 2001. She also belongs to the Lions Club and has been on the Dakota Prairie Enrichment Center’s (DPEC) board. She is active at the Reeder Prairie Pioneers, where you can find her many days of the week either having coffee and conversation or sharing a meal with her Reeder friends.
In Hettinger, she has been a volunteer with the Dakota Buttes Museum and the Clothes Closet. She is on the Adams County Council on Aging.
Larry
Larry has been very involved in the Reeder community. He was mayor for thirty-two years and served on the city council for ten years. He is a member of the Reeder Lions Club and the American Legion, where he serves as commander and adjutant. He is also a part of 40/8, a branch of the American Legion that raises money for nursing scholarships. He was on the Reeder Fire Department and served on the Our Savior’s Lutheran church council. He fondly recalls ten years of celebrating the Uffda Day organization’s parade on May 17, when the Norwegians, and those who wished they were, celebrated big time. One year, Larry marched in the parade in his T-shirt that said “Mayor,” especially proud of his Scandinavian roots.
At the county level, Larry was on the board of West River Health Services for twelve years and was a member of the Adams County Development Corporation from its inception, serving a total of fifteen years. At the state level, Larry was on the North Dakota Grain Dealers’ board for three years. Currently, Larry has a part-time job, interviewing producers about their farming practices for the USDA’s National Agriculture Statistical Service. He serves the counties of Adams, Bowman, Slope, and at times, Sioux County.
Hobbies
Sewing is Phyllis’s number one hobby. She also likes reading and raising flowers like her maternal grandmother did.
Larry has been a lifelong reader, being partial to the genres of historical fiction and mysteries.
Phyllis and Larry have become travel buddies. Together, they have traveled domestically--to Nashville, Arizona, Washington State, and to the eastern United States for a fall color tour. They have waded in the Arctic Ocean on one of their two trips to Alaska. It doesn’t stop there! They have traversed the Isthmus of Panama; visited the Olympic Park at Lillehammer, Norway; and ventured “down under” to New Zealand and Australia, taking in the wonders of the Great Barrier Reef. At times, these trips have included their friends, once with Bonnie and Norman Smith and other times with Linda and Dennis Johnson.
Philosophy
Phyllis
Phyllis is understandably proud of the way her children turned out. David has worked for Bobcat for over three decades and presently lives in Wyndmere, ND; Terri recently retired from teaching special education at Center, ND; and Danny works for the State of Minnesota Tax Department. Phyllis and Larry have thirteen grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren.
Phyllis says her greatest sadness has been losing family members. When she came to my home for this interview, Phyllis brought me a tea towel that she had embroidered while watching television. She had stitched an image of a cheese grater and the words “Be Grateful.” This could be her motto. Her interest in others, her easy laugh, and her positivity are inspirational. Saying yes to Larry’s invitation for supper was an important choice. She sees Larry as hardworking, sensitive, caring, and giving. What better kind of soul to journey through life with!
Larry
Larry’s children are thriving and their dedication to their careers mirrors their father’s. Dan has been an auditor at Team Lab in Bismarck for the past twenty-five years. Daughter Lisa has taught math and Spanish in Kimball SD, for thirty-three years. In the summers, you will find Lisa living in Reeder.
Larry, like Phyllis, is satisfied with his life. The Golden Rule has served as his guide. He hopes that people will remember him as “not too bad a guy.”
To Conclude
When Larry moved to Reeder, he intended to stay only a couple of years. Now fifty-five years later, he is glad that he didn’t move on. Reeder is home. The call that was described at the beginning of this story certainly didn’t spoil a friendship. Rather, it forged a relationship that nourishes a family, supports a community, and offers companionship and love.
