Annual parish picnic takes Leopold natives back to their roots

LEOPOLD, Mo. -- While some cities are defined by city limit signs and charters, the unincorporated Bollinger County community of Leopold has neither.

Instead, the glue that holds this small community together is family, church and tradition.

Those themes were emphasized Saturday as residents, former residents and visitors descended on the grounds of St. John's Roman Catholic Church for the annual parish picnic. Except for a few war years that created a shortage of volunteers, the parish picnic has been held annually since 1890.

Taking part in tradition

The dining hall didn't open until 3 p.m., but the church grounds were buzzing with activity hours before.

Al Forrester, left, and Ronnie Wesbecher cook chicken for the Leopold Picnic Saturday. Over 1,500 lbs. of chicken was prepared for the hungry patrons. (Fred Lynch)

While volunteers were preparing food for the anticipated crowd of more than 2,000, people queued up outside the dining hall for chicken and dumplings, kettle beef and fried chicken. Those entrees have been the staples of the parish picnic for many years.

"My mom was kitchen head for many years," said Betty Beussink as she prepared chicken. "Then I was, and now my daughter is."

Beussink said she attended her first parish picnic while in diapers and has never missed one.

Tina Nenninger, 49, supervised 150 to 200 volunteer food workers as they prepared 500 pounds of stewing hens, 12 kettles of dumplings and 1,800 pounds of frying chickens. She said she has never missed a parish picnic either, although there was a close call when she was sick as a child.

"After the picnic was over, I went to the hospital and found out I had pneumonia," Nenninger said.

Lorraine Holzum, who has attended the parish picnic annually since 1936, said teamwork makes all the hard work worthwhile.

"The people here work together so well," Holzum said.

Years in the making

Stan Thiele, 82, has been running the homemade ice cream stand for 50 years. He and his crew spent six hours Friday making 100 gallons of hand-cranked ice cream. Still, he said some things have changed over the years.

"At one time we used milk and eggs from local farmers in the ice cream," Thiele said. Health concerns led them start using pasteurized ingredients in the recipe.

Many former residents of Leopold still return for the event on the fourth Saturday of July.

"Fifty percent of the people here today are ones that have moved away," said Nick Elfrink, who has been coming to the picnic for about 60 years. His son Chris, now a college student and working alongside Nick, began volunteering at the fair as a fourth-grader, like most youngsters in the church.

"For the young ones, this gets them more involved in the parish," Chris Elfrink said.

The parish picnic is the main fundraiser for the church, which celebrated its sesquicentennial in 2006. A photo history commemorating 150 years of the St. John's Parish and the Leopold community will be available in the fall. Titled "Vinemount-Leopold," the 288-page book will contain about 1,100 photos.