Margie Mae Stude 1919-2010 The Journey of Margie Mae (Barker) Stude. She was born outside the small town of Haynesville, La., just as the big oil boom hit town. Oil was discovered on her grandfather's and father's farms in 1919 (the year Margie was born). However, this "boom" period of her life was not to last through her childhood when at the age of 6 her parents divorced. After that, during the school year they lived in Little Rock and, most summers they lived on a houseboat (or camped in a large tent) along the banks of the White River for months at a time. From these early childhood memories, Margie had a love of rivers all her life. They caught fish, picked up paper shell pecans in tow sacks, swam with the gars, and shot squirrels for breakfast. You could almost smell her description of the fried squirrel gravy ladled over fresh baked homemade biscuits cooked over a wood fire along the banks of the river.   Often they would have fresh scrambled squirrel brains (a delicacy to hear her talk). Of course, this is the same person who ate cows tongue, pigs feet and even fried chicken feet so who can tell the truth of the matter. She fished the bottom of the river for river catfish, sometimes using small hams as bait. At night she ran trotlines (strung out in the river) every two hours looking for a big yellow catfish catch. She dived for oyster shells to look for pearls. They would boil the oysters, remove the pearls, take the mussels to the hog farmers, and then gave the shells to the DeValls Bluff Pearl Button Factory.  They would party on the sandbar making candy and staging taffy pulls. Life on the river was grand.  Her mother died when Margie was only 15 years old and she went to live with her mother's sister, Sammie, and husband. Her favorite childhood pet was a white rat with pink eyes named Clarence.  She was the original outdoors girl, much to the dismay of her older sister, Deane, who would have liked to have stayed home and played dolls. Margie graduated from Central High School in Little Rock in 1938. She was a member of the honor society and excelled at bookkeeping and Gregg shorthand. She was also on the girls softball team and played girls basketball.  Her first real job was with Lincoln National Life Insurance in Little Rock. Later she came to the St. Louis area. She stayed with Deane and Max.  Margie got a job in a hamburger stand. She was working there and going to Rubican Business College when she caught the eye of her future husband, Arthur.   He had a barbershop on Page Avenue right next door to the hamburger stand. Many of their dates were to the movies. Margie's sister-in-law, Mildred, told her much later that many times, after seeing Margie back home after a date, Arthur would walk miles back to his apartment because he did not have the 10-cent bus fare. The adjustment for a Methodist-raised Democrat from the big city in the Deep South into an ultraconservative German farm family environment must have been a struggle, on both sides.  Margie told the story of Arthur taking her to meet the family. Of course all such gatherings revolved around food. Margie, wishing to impress her new family-to-be, baked a cake from scratch using cake flour and Crisco shortening. She said that while the rest of the family raved about how great the cake was, Arthur's mother commented that "...it ought to be with all the ingredients she used." Art's mom's cakes were made from rendered lard, mill ground flour and whatever flavoring might be handy. The message was clear. Arthur's mother expected that he would be bankrupt within six months of marrying such a big spender from the city. Regardless of background differences, Margie and Arthur were married on June 29, 1941. Their honeymoon was one night in a hotel in University City. Once married, they lived in the room behind the barbershop on Page Avenue.  Art hated barbering. It had been thrust upon him in some sense by his family. His parents had insisted that it was a nice clean job. He had always wanted to be an electrician. Art barbered right up to the time he left for service but did not take barbering back up when he came back home. Ironically it was the barbering ability that afforded Art pocket change while in the service, as he cut hair for 10 cents a cut. Men would line up for his down and dirty buzz cuts. It was while living behind the barbershop that their first son, Roy Nelson, was born in 1942.  On Jan. 5, 1943, Arthur was inducted into the Army to serve his country and Margie had herself and a 3-month-old baby to care for.  Early in 1943 she moved to Bland and she and Roy stayed with Arthur's brother, Ed and wife Mildred, for almost a year. They owned the local telephone exchange, which they ran out of their house. Margie became a switchboard operator. In late 1943 she and Roy moved back to St. Louis, at Max's prodding, for her to join Meat Cutters Local 396 as one of the first butcherettes in the St. Louis area. Due to the war, and the shortage of men, women were allowed for the first time to enter the union and do basic meat cutting. She got a job at Food Center.  However, once the war was over, butcherettes were asked to relinquish their jobs back to the men returning from the service. Margie was transferred to be head of the creamery department where she rotated, cut, and wrapped the cheese. For a while after Arthur returned from the war in 1945, they continued to live in St. Louis. However, the couple decided that they would like to own their own business.  In May 1947 they bought a mom and pop grocery store in Brookfield. Arthur learned the meat department and Margie learned how to deliver groceries on mud roads. They used AAA a lot.  It was here that their second child, Linda Kay, was born. They could see that their dream business was not going to support their growing family. Just a month after Linda was born, in October 1948, they moved back to St. Louis. In 1950 Arthur had an opportunity to get into Ironworker's Local 390.  In 1950 their third child, Curtis Wayne, was born. Two years later they moved to a rented farm just north of Columbia, the farmer in Arthur was calling him back to the country. It was there that Margie got her first real taste of country. Arthur had to spend long hours away from home in the ironworks, leaving Margie at home to feed the chickens and hoe the garden, a real trick for a city gal who couldn't tell a cucumber plant from poison ivy. Arthur would go out to the garden before he left for work and show her what were weeds and what were vegetables so she could cultivate the garden while he was gone. She fared much better with the plants than she did the animals. She never quite got the hang of milking the cow, but her butcherette days came in quite handy when it came to getting the chickens ready for the pot. She could hold three chickens in her left hand at once while chopping off their heads with the ax with her right hand. Having mastered the art of farming and finding she had a knack for it, in 1952 Margie and Art decided to hunt for a farm. Their search led them to Warrenton where they found a 135-acre farm with a livable house. The young family became involved with the Sunnyside Community Club and the Lucky Four 4-H Club and met lifelong friends. Initially Margie had a job working at Food Center in St. Louis and later transferred to the Food Center. Soon the long drive took its toll and she took a job working for Walter Poepplemeyer and Harry Kaeding, a distant relative of Arthur's, at the IGA Store in Warrenton as a meat wrapper. Around 1962 her good friends and neighbors, Melvin and Helen Rapp, convinced her that she should become a real estate agent for them at H&M Rapp Realty. It soon became her passion. Her success can be attributed to her motto that she applied to her long life of public service, "The customer is always right." She built her business on repeat customers and networking and she did it way before it was the topic of every how-to sales program. It just came naturally to her.  Over the years she really didn't reinvent herself either. She never embraced the new technology of computers and gizmos, even though she did get a pager, frequently needing assistance in the use of it. Her best tool of the trade was a steno pad and a No. 2 lead pencil. She was as tenacious as a bulldog with a bone. She followed up, even when failure would have been a foregone conclusion to most. She just kept plodding and chipping away until she discovered the success underneath. In 1966 Margie and her husband Arthur founded Stude Realty Company, opening their doors initially at 201 S. Highway 47 and later moving the business across the street in 1979, which immediately became a successful enterprise and remained so for the 24 years of its operation. For a while she sold insurance for Midwest National. She was also an agent for Citizens Savings Association, later Community Federal, taking in their savings and making loans in the Warrenton area up until the time they closed in 1989. In May of 1987 they joined the ERA real estate franchise.In 1990, due to her then business partner/daughter wanting to embark on a political career, the doors of Stude Realty were closed. However, for Margie her love affair with real estate was not over, as she went from there to be a broker-sales associate for Gundaker Better Homes and Gardens, later Coldwell Banker. Over the course of her career she received many designations, recognitions and accolades. She was a graduate of the Realtors Institute having earned the GRI designation as well as the RRES designation. Many times she was the top listing agent and top selling agent of her company. She was a lifetime member of the Realtor Million Dollar Club. In 1985 she was named a charter member of the Realtor Honor Society, a recognition from the state organization of high professional achievement. In 1988 she was named Realtor of the Year by the East Central Board of Realtors. In 1994 she was named to the Board of Governors of the Gundaker organization. In 1996 she was named to the Medallion Club in recognition of her over $2 million in residential sales and listings sold that year. Over the years Margie was involved in many community activities. In addition to her years of involvement with the Sunnyside Community Club and the Lucky Four 4-H Club, she was one of the first woman members of the Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce, having joined back in the 1960s. In 1992 the Warrenton Area Chamber gave her the Poepplemeyer Award for Excellence in Community Service recognizing her community leadership. She was a longtime member of the Central Methodist Church, having served on their administrative board and served as a Sunday school teacher at the Pendleton Methodist Church for a number of years. She was a charter lifetime member of the Warren County Historical Society. Over the years she had been an active member of the East Central Board of Realtors, then the St. Charles County Board of Realtors, and then back to the East Central Board of Realtors, serving as a state director for a period of time. Add to all this the fact that she raised three children, finding time for them and all their friends, was an excellent cook, lining the counters with home baked pies, cakes and breads on the weekends, was a fastidious housekeeper, raised a huge garden, the produce from which she canned and froze, along with being a good friend and neighbor. With all this she still found time to fit in two other of her interests in life - canoeing on the spring-fed rivers of Missouri and traveling. She managed to travel to see all of the 50 United States, most of them multiple times. She took two tours of Europe with yet a third return to do a more in-depth visit to Switzerland. She traveled to the Emerald Isle (Ireland) the home of her ancestors. Her trip to the Holy Land led her through Jordan where she was re-baptized in the Jordan River and traveled by donkey to Rose City. From there she went to Israel, then Egypt, with the trip culminating in Greece. Her trip to China and Hong Kong included a stopover in Japan. She took two Caribbean cruises and traveled in Canada and Mexico extensively. Throughout the ups and downs that life brought her way she managed to smile and look forward to what lay ahead. I think it can safely be said that when given a choice in life to sit it out or dance - she danced.  Funeral services were held Tuesday, Oct. 26, at College United Methodist Church, Warrenton. Burial was in the Warrenton City Cemetery.  Memorials to the Warren County Historical Society or the College United Methodist Building Fund are preferred.  The family was served by Martin Funeral Home, Warrenton. Shirley M. Lockett 1959-2010 Shirley M. Lockett, 50, Bloomington, Ill., passed away Thursday, Oct. 21, 2010, at Advocate BroMenn Medical Center, Normal, Ill. Mrs. Lockett was born Nov. 14, 1959, in Troy, the daughter of Norbert Prenger and wife Margaret, nee Distler.   She was united in marriage to Michael F. Lockett on May 26, 1979, in Warrenton.Mrs. Lockett graduated from Warrenton High School and earned both her BS and MS in information systems from Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas. She was a systems analyst for State Farm Insurance Companies where she had worked since 1986. She was a member of Holy Trinity Church in Bloomington, Ill., and served on the Family Life committee there. She was an active volunteer at Holy Trinity Elementary and Central Catholic High School where she spent time scheduling sports officials and working in the merchandise store. She volunteered with the bench crew of women's basketball and volleyball at Illinois State University and was a volunteer coordinator for the state girls' volleyball tournament with IHSA. She also volunteered for the State Farm Classic boys and girls basketball tournament and for the State Farm Employees Activity Association. She was a loving and devoted mother and wife. Her first concern was always for those around her rather than herself. She always made a point of showing her faith by serving others.  Mrs. Lockett will be missed but she lives on in the hearts of those she touched.  She was preceded in death by her mother. Mrs. Lockett is survived by her husband, Michael; one son, Adam M. Lockett, Bloomington, Ill.; two daughters, Rachael N. Lockett and Kelsey E. Lockett, both of Bloomington, Ill.; her father, Norbert Prenger, Warrenton; four brothers, Ronald Prenger and wife Laura, Norbert Prenger and wife Christy, Wayne Prenger and Roger Prenger and wife Stacy, all of Warrenton; one sister, Joyce Hagenhoff and husband Daniel, Henley; other relatives and many friends. Funeral services were held Tuesday, Oct. 26, at Holy Trinity Church in Bloomington, Ill., with Monsignor Douglas Hennessy officiating.  Graveside services were held Wednesday, Oct. 27, at Holy Rosary Cemetery in Warrenton.  Memorials to Holy Trinity Church or Central Catholic High School or Community Cancer Center are preferred. The family was served by Carmody-Flynn Williamsburg Funeral Home, Bloomington, Ill.