Gertrude Bickel Fegley '43 + Warren Fegley '43

Gertrude Bickel Fegley '43 + Warren Fegley '43

Anniversary Date: April 28, 1943
In loving memory of Warren Fegley (1922-2015)

Love Story: I had planned to attend St. Olaf College to study music with the great director F. Melius Christiansen. However, farm work delayed my family's trip to Minnesota to visit and complete all the needed entrance paperwork. Openings for the freshman class at St. Olaf quickly filled, so I decided to attend Midland for one year and then transfer to St. Olaf. Warren had decided to attend Wayne State College since his parents had attended there. Three weeks before classes started, his minister visited their family. The minister said that he just had a feeling that Warren was supposed to attend Midland. He asked Warren and his family to visit Midland and see what they thought. These were depression days, and when Warren received a better financial offer at Midland than Wayne State, he decided to attend Midland. Warren and I completed our incoming freshman registration paperwork on the same day, at the same time, and at the same table. Warren's mother, who often just somehow knew things, looked at me, leaned over to Warren, and said, "I bet you marry that girl." Warren looked up at the farm girl from Missouri sitting across from him and said, "No way." I was similarly unimpressed with him! However, we were both vocal music majors and had many classes together. In those days, students sat alphabetically, so Warren was always right behind me. He used to tease me a lot in those classes, so we got to be good friends. Needless to say, thoughts of St. Olaf vanished. By the start of our sophomore year, we were a couple. World War II was raging by this time, and many of the men were drafted before they completed their coursework. We became engaged in February, 1943, and Warren was called up for service in April of that year. He suspected that he would be called, so he had taken a very heavy class load during the first semester and was able to meet the graduation requirements before he had to leave. I finished up my classwork and graduated in May. Warren spent three years in the Philippines building roads, including the road that was used when the Japanese General Yamashita was captured. While Warren was in the service, I taught music and worked at an insurance company in Omaha. After he came home, we were married April 28, 1946. Warren worked in the personnel department for insurance companies in Omaha and Waverly, Iowa. He later received his Master's Degree and worked in the vocational rehabilitation field. I taught elementary school after we moved to Iowa. In our retirement we enjoyed many years traveling in America and Europe. Our marriage lasted almost 69 years until Warren died in 2015. We had four children, five grandchildren, and six great grandchildren. We believed that those four years at Midland were the basis for the many happy years we had.