RIDENOUR, LEONARD AND JUDY

by Judy Ridenour

Entry F362 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Front row: Arla Ridenour, Anne Yaryan, David Ridenour and Larry Ridenour.

Leonard Lee Ridenour, son of Ray and Mae
Ridenour and July Arla Stam, daughter of
Earl and Anna Yaryan were married on
October 3, 1971, on Leonard's birthday, at
the Methodist Church in Mullen Nebraska.
They have lived on the Yaryan-Ridenour
Ranch 26 miles NW of Mullen since 1973.
Larry Andrew as born as Mullen, on
1972. Arla Lee was delivered by Dad
in the station wagon near Ellsworth on the
way to Alliance on 1975. Ryan Ray
was born in Mullen, 1978 and
David Leonard was born in Mullen on
1980. The family is active in community
life: being members of the Methodist Church,
Hospital Auxiliary, 4-H Clubs, Girl Scouts,
Cub Scouts, softball and baseball teams. The
children are very active in extra curricular
activities at school. Prior to ranch life
Leonard was a co-owner of Duttons Grocery
Store for 11 1/2 years. And an employee of
Johnson and Mackes Grocery for 8 1/2 years.
He was an active Commercial Club member,
Co-op Board member, volunteer ambulance
driver, Sunday school supt., choir member
and tenor for the Dry Valley Quartet singing
for many funerals. Leonard was also on teams
for bowling, baseball, softball, town team
basketball and golf. Leonard refereed high
school basketball games for 13 years and is
still on the football chain gang. Since his
graduation from Mullen High School in 1953
he has never missed an alumni banquet.

July was a 1957 graduate of Mullen High
School. She graduated from University of
Nebraska in 1961 with a Bachelor of Science
in Vocational Home Economics. She and
Jerome Stam were married August 6, 1961,
and moved to East Lansing, Michigan. Judy
taught at West Junior High School in inner
city Lansing while Jerome obtained his PhD
in agricultural economics. Judy was also a
graduate assistant at Michigan State and
earned her Masters of Arts degree in Textiles
and Clothing in 1964. She then worked for the
Michigan Extension Service as a Clothing
Specialist. Karen Elizabeth was born
1966, and the family moved to St. Paul,
Minnesota in June 1966. Susan Rebecca was
born 1969. Judy was an audio-
visual consultant and an off-campus instruc-
tor with the University of Minnesota. In 1966
the John Wiley Publishing company asked
her to co-author the college textbook Prin-
ciples of Clothing Construction with Jesse
Warden and Martha Golding and to edit the
3 volumes of accompanying overhead tran-
sparencies with golding that they had devel-
oped in partial fullfillment of their master's
dissertations.

Judy, Karen and Susan returned to Neb-
raska in 1970. Karen will graduate from the
University of Nebraska at Lincoln in 1988
and work for Touche Ross Accounting Firm.
Susan is attending Chadron State College.