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Fulda Free Press

01.01.70

Through 88 and 1/2 years of living life, Fulda�s Souvenirs columnist, Irma Schwantes, has experienced many joys and sorrows. Her greatest joy is her ever-growing family.

Her life�s story began in Gibbon, Minnesota, in the year 1923. That is the town where her parents lived when she was born. By the age of four her family, The Schwartz�, had moved to New Ulm. When Irma was a teenager, she was sent, via bicycle, to deliver tomato plants that were growing in tin cans to one of her mother�s co-workers. When she arrived at the home of the co-worker, she met young Frank Schwantes. �There he sat with his curly hair, playing his guitar, and I fell in love with him immediately,� Irma stated. �After that, we went many places together on a bicycle.�

At the age of 17, the two sweethearts ran away to Estherville, Iowa, to be married. Their ceremony was performed by a justice of the peace. It took place in the upper story of a drugstore on September 1st, 1940. �We wanted to marry

Source: Fulda Free Press