| 77 | Our Home Town | 77 |
Five hundred people attended the banquet held on the eve of the field day. It was held in a tent on the school grounds. Paul Bantz of Wellsburg, Iowa, was the banquet chef.
Officers, Legionnaires, and the Pine Lake Saddle Club were hard pressed in regulating the traffic. John A. Lund Jr. was the traffic chairman.
William H. Brown and Kenneth L. Cerka were the local chairmen in charge of the event.
Stephen Meimann was severely burned in a bonfire on June 14, 1955, at the Meimann home south of Zearing. His sister, Linda Sue, twelve years old, probably saved the life of her little brother. She applied what she had learned from watching television in rescuing him.
In July, 1955, Merle J. Curley, fire chief, presented a bravery plaque to Linda Sue in behalf of the Zearing Fire Department. The residents of our community agreed with the fire department that Linda Sue deserved the award for bravery.
A planned bank robbery in Zearing in October, 1955, was averted. William E. Brown noticed a car in the Zearing Park with suspicious license numbers. He reported the car to Marshal Albert A. Krueger. Albert immediately started an investigation. It was discovered the car had been stolen.
Marshal Krueger, Owen C. Cerka, William E. Brown, Robert L. Good, and Richard B. Lang chased the car to McCallsburg, Iowa. It was found that John Stark of the sheriff's office had captured the man shortly before the arrival of the Zearing posse. The prisoner was from Wisconsin. He said that he had planned to rob the Tri County State Bank of Zearing.
The large majority of homes in our community have television in 1956. It has been a long time since Post 116, The American Legion, purchased the first radio sold in Zearing. Many of us remember the broadcast of the Coolidge-Davis election returns in 1924. Adrian R. Rankin mounted a loud speaker outside his radio shop on Main Street in Zearing. Listeners were greatly impressed in spite of the static.
Otis K. Patton, born in Zearing, is a prominent law professor at the State University of Iowa.
Two residents of Zearing attained high public office. They were :
Charles A. Burkhart, Secretary of State, South DakotaErnest Bean, State Geologist, Wisconsin