I paid a visit to Evelyn Stodola Cox earlier this week. I was greeted with a tight squeeze and a big grin.
I had to plan my visit around her busy schedule (seriously).
Evelyn may be 90 - but she has an active social calendar: exercising and game night, for example.
Evelyn recently celebrated 90 years with her family and friends.
Evelyn and I enjoyed catching up. This is Evelyn’s 90th winter in Sherburne County! She has a great attitude and a warm smile.
Evelyn was born Feb. 8, 1929 to Carl and Mable Knutson, along with one brother (Oliver) and one sister (Gladys).
Evelyn has continued to live in Becker her entire life, except for a short time when she lived in St. Cloud while working at Dan Marsh Drug Store for nine months.
Evelyn married Tommy Stodola June 5, 1948. The couple raised their five children on a farm near Becker: Carol, Kenny, Barbara, Roger and Kathy. Tommy and Evelyn milked cows and raised pigs.
Evelyn had a huge vegetable garden and scores of beautiful flowers. Evelyn’s children and nieces and nephews helped tend the garden.
Evelyn and I shared a good laugh as she recalled how she and Tommy would take loads of pigs to sell in Gilman (north of Foley).
Somehow, Evelyn and Tommy got word that if just the women delivered the pigs to Gilman (alone and without their husbands), their pigs would fetch more money! From that time forward, Evelyn made the trip to Gilman alone.
My sister Judy recalls showing cattle at the Sherburne County Fair with Evelyn and Tommy’s daughter (Barb) in 1965.
The Erickson family has always enjoyed the Stodola family. They are hard working, good people.
Tommy passed away in 1992.
Evelyn remarried Clinton Cox in 1996. Clinton and Evelyn built a house in Becker and lived there for many years prior to moving in to Shepherd of Grace Senior Community in Becker about 7 years ago.
Clinton passed away twenty years later, in 2016.
Evelyn has 12 grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren.
Evelyn’s nephew, Richard Hubbard, of Becker, shared some sentiments about his Aunt Evelyn: “Evelyn liked camping and fishing. I have fond memories of fishing at Grear Lake (family campground).
Evelyn and Roger (Evelyn’s son) were fishing together and had caught their limits of Northern and asked if I would take a few, so they could keep fishing. I told them they could and I took her stringer, threw the little ones back in the lake and told her she could fish some more. Evelyn would keep just about every fish she caught! Evelyn and I still have a very special relationship.
Evelyn enjoys the small things in life. As you get older, you realize the small things really are the big things.
Karla (Stodola) Stavos, Evelyn’s niece, shared some fun memories: “Whenever we would visit Aunt Evelyn, she would always go and dig in that big freezer of theirs and out would come cookies or some other great treats. Fall was drying time on the hay racks for hazel nuts (yum). Evelyn always had a great big beautiful vegetable garden. She had lots of day lilies, tiger lilles and a pelthora of other flowers. After I got married, she had me come over and we dug up some of these lillies! I have moved some of those special flowers with me to several different places, and I still have Evelyn’s special flowers in my yard to this day! We had so much fun with our cousins (Evelyn’s children) growing up. We used to float the Willow River northeast of Aitkin with Tommy and Evelyn and their family. We had so many special times! Evelyn has always had such a great sense of humor. One time while we were camping we made asparagus soup and forgot to cover it up. It was full of mosquitos when we came back to eat it”, Karla shared.
I asked Evelyn about some of Karla’s heartwarming stories during our visit and a huge smile came across her face as she recalled the entertaining story!
Evelyn was married twice and lost two wonderful husbands. She told me that as hard as it was to lose both husbands, it was even more painful to lose a child. Evelyn lost her son, Roger, very suddenly of an aneurysm at the age of 50.
Evelyn’s faith in God is very important to her and has carried her through hard times.
Evelyn has been an active and devoted member of her church congregation at Faith Lutheran Church (formerly Becker Lutheran) in Becker for 86 years. Her parents joined the church in 1933, shortly after the charter members.
In addition to working on the farm with Tommy, Evelyn worked as a lunch lady at Becker Schools for over 20 years.
Evelyn always had a smile as she served up the school grub. Even though we often complained about school lunches, it was our favorite time of the school day! I doubt most lunch ladies and teachers realize what an impact their positive attitude have on students.
Evelyn’s jolly nature was a serious bonus. When a person is in a good mood and smiles often, it is contagious.
In her golden years, Evelyn has been an active volunteer in the Becker area.
She was a volunteer at the Becker Food Shelf for over 20 years.
Evelyn helped serve meals to residents at Woodbriar Apartments for several years.
She worked as a volunteer picking and gathering seeds for Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge.
Evelyn and Clinton worked for over 10 years as volunteer bailiffs at Sherburne County Goverment Center. Evelyn said: “That was a very interesting job.”
Evelyn has had a few health struggles, such as vertigo and macular degeneration. Other than that, she gets around very well and is very spry for the age of 90!
She stays busy at Shepherd of Grace Senior Community in Becker with Bible study, kickboxing, game night and a myriad of other activities,
Evelyn still cooks meals and enjoys putting puzzles together. She had just completed a cute puzzle of kitties the night I stopped by.
She was excited to attend Lenten services and visit with longtime church friends at Faith Lutheran Church as we parted ways!
Evelyn has been a part of the landscape in Becker for over 90 years.
I consider myself blessed to call Evelyn Stodola Cox and her family my friends.
