DALE WOELTJE CELEBRATES 90TH BIRTHDAY

Dale Edward Woelte, a. long time resident of the Jackson area, celebrated his 90th birthday Dec. 6.

Dale was born Dec. 6, 1910, at home on the family farm near Byrd's Creek and Oak Ridge. He was the second of six children born to Oscar Godfrey Woeltje and Dolly Louise Woeltje.

Like other young men of his youth, Woeltje left home during the precarious economy years of the early Depression. His father and brothers worked hard and kept the family farm intact while Dale sent money home to pay school expenses and boarding costs for younger sister Edith Woeltje Ristig to attend Jackson High School. She was the first in Dale's emigrant German family to become a high school graduate.

By then a young man in his twenties, Dale travelled the country, earning his way with skills learned as a boy on his father's farm. In 1937, he returned to this area to begin a lifetime career in farming, cattle raising, and land development.

Dale is married to Louise Huffman Woeltje and is the father of two sons, four step-sons and one stepdaughter. He celebrated his 90th birthday at a family gathering in his home.