RIDENOUR, HOMER RAYMOND AND MAE E. (MARSH)

by Marjorie Ridenour Hartman

Entry F361 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Ray and Mae Ridenour wedding picture, May 19, 1919.

Ray Ridenour Family, 1969. Front row: Deloris, Ray, Mae, Mildred.
Middle: Clifford, Barbara, Bernard and Leonard. Back: Marjorie, Raymond, Donna.

Ray and Mae Ridenour 50th Wedding Anniversary, 1969.

Homer Raymond, son of Oliver Amrose
and Margaret (Gavin) Ridenour was born
September 13, 1895, in Custer County, south
of Broken Bow, Nebraska. He left home in
1912 at the age of 17, coming to Cherry county
where he worked for different farmers and
ranchers. He joined the Army on October 5,
1917, and was sent overseas where he was
seriously wounded during action at Chateau
Thierry on July 22, 1918. He married Eva Ella
May Marsh on May 18, 1919, at high noon,
at her parents home in south Cherry county
twenty miles north of Mullen. Mae, daughter
of Charles Nathaniel and Delila (Sheets)
Marsh was born in Madison County, NE
February 22, 1899. She moved with her
parents to South Dakota in a covered wagon
when she was 7 years old. At the age of 12,
she again moved with her parents to her
Grandma Damons homestead where the
family lived in a sod house. Later her parents
and family moved into the one story wooden
house where they lived the rest of their lives.
Ray and Mae went to Lincoln where Ray
attended the Agriculture College and then to
Kansas City, Mo, where he earned his
auctioneering diploma at the Missouri Auc-
tion School. They returned to Mullen where
he was employed at the Harding and Tucker
Auction Company for a year. Their oldest
child, Marjorie, was born at this time on the
old Howard place in the Dry Valley area in
June, 1921. In 1922 they moved to Grand
Island, NE, where Ray was employed by the
Blain Horse and Mule Auction for a year and
then to Ravenna where he was employed at
another auction company. They returned to
Mullen, NE, where their second child, Delor-
is, was born in June, 1923, at the sod home
of Mae's parents in Cherry County. Pete
Peterson, who was the sheriff of Hooker
County, appointed Ray as his deputy in 1924.
Their third child, Mildred, was born in June,
1925, while they were living in the old Sturtz
house two houses east of the high school. Ray
ran for Sheriff in 1926 and was elected. He
held that position until 1954 when he was
defeated. He ran again in 1958 and won for
another term and then retired in 1962 after
32 years.

Ray and Mae bought the Henry Myers
home just west of the high school in 1927 and
it was there that the rest of their nine children
were born: Clifford - 1928; Raymond - 1931;
Leonard - 1933; Bernard - 1935; Barbara -
1937; and Donna - 1941. During the years
Ray also took on extra jobs at the various
times to help support his growing family. He
worked for Charlie Butler at the light plant
where he learned to be an electrician, did
auctioneering for cattle sales at the sales barn
and also for individuals, was city marshall for
a number of years, and operated the Pool
Hall. Mae helped with taking in school
boarders. They belonged and were very active
in the Methodist Church - Ray as Sunday
School Supt. for a number of years and Mae
by teaching Sunday School Classes and held
offices in the "Ladies Aid", as it was known
by then. Ray also auctioned the church's
"God's Herd" Sale from it's inception until
failing health forced him to quit. They were
active members in Marcy-Upton American
Legion Post and Auxiliary, Veterans of
Foreign Wars, IOOF (Odd Fellows) and
Rebekahs. They took an interest in school
activities, often taking a carload of students
to and from sporting and musical events at
other towns. Ray also called the local softball
games for many years. Ray's job as Sheriff
had it's exciting and it's emotional times -
once when the and some of his appointed
deputies had a cattle rustler holded up in a
house on the river and were trying to get him
to surrender, a few gun shots were fired but
luckily no one was hit. The most emotional
time was the drowning of a very good friend.
Ray and Mae raised all their children in
Mullen and all attended school and graduat-
ed from Mullen High School. Ray and Mae
celebrated their 5Oth anniversary in 1969. All
their children and grandchildren were with
them to help celebrate with the exception of
grandson, Larry Morrison, who had been
killed in a car train accident a few months
earlier. All their children, grandchildren, and
great grandchildren are living except Larry
and his sister, Ginger. Ray passed away June
30, 1974, and Mae passed away July 29, 1978.