“A Man Before His Time” Lars Oynes
Lars was born on January 6, 1920 to his Norwegian immigrant parents, John and Bergitte (Sorhiem) Oynes. He was born on the family farm south of Blaisdell, Osloe Township, North Dakota. There were no sterile delivery rooms, birthing medications, or soft music playing. Midwife Mrs. O. Sagen attended his birth. Lars was baptized and confirmed at Shell Creek Lutheran Church south of Blaisdell.
He attended school at a small country school through the 8th grade. In reminiscing about his grade school years, he would say it was not a problem to have an 8th grade class reunion because there were only two pupils in the class. During grade school, close to Christmas vacation, there was a fire in their school, so the dads in the neighborhood worked side by side to make classrooms in the school basement so the kids could finish the school year.
He attended high school in Plaza, North Dakota, graduating in 1938. Since this school was 14 miles from his home, he boarded in town all week and then went home on Friday night after school. His mom sent food with him for the week: homemade bread, canned vegetables and fruit and home-canned meat. One of the highlights of his high school years was playing football. He recalled one game when the team traveled to the Van Hook area to play a game. Travel was in the box of a grain truck with the whole team, coach and equipment. He said it was so cold the team could hardly move once they got to their destination and then realized they had that long cold ride back to Plaza after the game was over.
Lars and his younger brother Chris were good buddies in their growing up years. They made a lot of play things out of scraps of wood and bent nails. Once they were going to make their own airplane and fly. The plane was made and they each got on a side and started running down the hill, hoping when they got to the bottom it would take off - no such luck! The plane broke up in many pieces. He said there were always things to do on the farm and he really enjoyed his "growing up years."
He recalled at times there was going to be a broadcast from Norway on the battery-operated radio so neighbors would get together at one of their farms and listen to news from HOME. Lars was so very proud of his Norwegian heritage and was fortunate to be able to visit the birth places of his parents in Norway. He was a 50-year plus member of the Sons of Norway.
Lars’ father died in 1937 so he stayed on the farm after his graduation from high school. He was a 4-H member and leader, exhibited sheep at the Minot State Fair, and competed in stock judging. In the winter of 1940 he went to NDSU in Fargo and took a short course in agriculture. Two of his classes were poultry and mechanical drawing. He raised poultry and sold to the restaurants in Minot. He said he used his mechanical drawing knowledge all his life, especially when he did building projects. In all his adult years, his favorite conversations involved farming.
Lars entered the military service in March of 1945 and trained to be a radio operator at Fort Benning, Georgia. After completing school he was transferred to the school troops and was responsible for radio communications in field exercises. Lars was discharged in December of 1946, but signed up for five years in the Enlisted Reserve Corps. After Lars’ military service, he attended electronics school in Los Angeles.
In 1949, Lars married Alice Zientek from Cleveland, Ohio, and they were blessed with four children: Robert of Toston, Montana; Ginny (Jerry) Gullickson of Minot, North Dakota; Barb (Peder) Rice of Minot, North Dakota; and Susie (Jim) of Selah, Washington.
In the 1950's, he lived in the Los Angeles area and worked in the electronics field and spent time assisting his mom on the farm. As a young man growing up on a farm, he had read about irrigation and how wonderful it was to grow hay crops and get good yields year after year. He then found a farmer who practiced these methods of irrigation while raising alfalfa for hay and seed. He moved his family to Walla Walla, Washington where he worked for this farmer. During the harvest season he learned to operate hillside combines in Eastern Washington. What an experience that was! He later moved his family back to North Dakota to apply what he learned from irrigation practices on two quarters of land. This not being as well-received in the area as hoped, he moved on to something else!
His next adventure was running a construction company and cabinet shop and growing vegetables, including the possibility of herb and spice harvests. At one point, with the help of the Shell Creek congregation, he started a small business making potato cakes called "Lars' Lumpe" which they sold at Norsk Hostfest in Minot for several years. He really enjoyed this venture, probably because he was able to visit with his farming friends. He always enjoyed talking farming. He worked hard on his construction business. As one of his many projects, he and his crew built the Senior Apartments in Plaza. On a special note, Lars was so proud of his Grandfather Oynes in Norway, who built his own home.
Lars' last adventure of refinishing antique furniture was such an interesting one. He studied and worked so hard to restore these prize possessions of customers to mint condition. One lady brought her grandfather's old violin in a brown grocery bag and in many pieces! She was overwhelmed at how absolutely beautiful it was after he had restored it. Another lady brought a homemade high chair - telling Lars that she was a twin and her dad had made them one high chair that they could both sit in. Her many pieces were slowly brought together and restored into her once again childhood treasure. She was so proud and grateful for his work. There were many, many stories of broken, abused, and sometimes destroyed "treasures" humbly brought to him in hopes of some restoration miracle. Lars was able to turn each one of these items back into masterpieces. What a joy.
Lars married Dorice Runyon of Stanley, North Dakota on March 4, 1978 and this added to the family one step-son, Greg (Tracey) Runyon of Bismarck, North Dakota; and four step-daughters, Barb (Layne) Lindberg of Rapid City, South Dakota; Shirley (Bernie) Jasken of Gackle, North Dakota; Erin Abercrombie of Charlotte, North Carolina; and Jamie Paper of Appleton, Wisconsin.
Lars is survived by 19 grandchildren, 47 great-grandchildren and 5 great-great-grandchildren, nephew Curtis Oynes of Sioux City, Iowa; great-nephews Jon Oynes of Covington, Louisiana and Erick Oynes of Longview, Texas.
Lars was preceded in death by his parents, sister Lillian Barlow, brother Chris Oynes, two half-brothers and a half-sister, and nephew Chris Oynes.