Giving Information LifeVolume 130, No. 52 - 20 Pages Thursda y , February 21, 2008 $1.00 Pio neer Journal Wadena Pio neer Journal 4 4 Snow Days Los ing to wi n Icemen ups et Wir e f is h 0 10 11 11 20 20 Novaks an encyclopedia of World War II Sebeka councilman: Theft charge is baseless A Sebeka city councilman said a theft charge filed against him is without merit, and pleaded not guilty in Hubbard County District Court Tuesday. Randy Lee Pickar, 52, of Sebeka, entered the plea on a charge of theft of property or services under $500. A court complaint said Pickar used an ATM card belonging to his ex-wife, Glenda Dennis, which had money deposited on it to use for child support for Dennis’s granddaughter. The card was inadvertently sent to her old address, at Pickar’s house, the court complaint said. Dennis and Pickar were officially divorced Nov. 5, 2007, and “each party was awarded all right and title in ac- ounts in their own names.” The complaint alleges Pickar used the ard Nov. 9 to withdraw $453 from ATM achines at J&B Food South and Wal-Mart n Park Rapids. “I never had it,” Pickar said of the card n an interview Tuesday. “It’s false allega- ions.” The court complaint said Pickar was aught on store surveillance cameras at Wal-Mart removing the funds at the ATM, but he denied that. He said he requested a opy of the tape in court, but prosecutors did not produce a surveillance tape.” “It’s crap,” Pickar said of the charges. It’s all lies and false allegations.” He said he expects to be exonerated in he case. “My lawyer says that it’s going to be dropped,” said the councilman of 13 onths. STEVE SCHULZ [email protected]Mother and daughter escape fire south of Wadena on Feb. 13 Through the dense cigar smoke pouring out of Winston Churchill’s stogie, Lupe Novak of Deer Creekwitnessed three world leaders shap- ing Europe’s future after World War II. Lupe and her husband, Paul, each earned a uniform full of medals from their service, and Lupe received an- other recently. Charlie Kampa, an Otter Tail County veterans service officer, presented her with a Women In Military Service for America Me- morial Medal in early January. The couple shared some of their stories of war recently. Joined as a joke Lupe was 20 years old while the war was on in Europe, a telephone operator for a big company, with a wild idea during a coffee break. “It was kind of like a joke,” said the San Antonio native. “We worked for the telephone company — at that time it was known as Ma Bell — and a bunch of us on our coffee break, we went over and signed up because they were asking for telephone opera- tors. Everybody just kind of laughed — ‘yeah, yeah, you’re on your way.’ But lo and behold, the joke was on us.” A week later, they went in for their shots and were off to basic training at Fort Oglethorpe, Ga. Lupe was a military woman. “It kind of backfired,” she said. London, with Murrough Lupe was part of the 3341st Sig- nal Service Battalion, a telephone switchboard and communications officer serving under Gen. Dwight Eisenhower. She was first stationed in London, where bombings would often set off the sirens and send people scurrying to shelters. “When the air raid sirens were sounded, you had to get over there — and it was two to three blocks from our hotel,” Lupe said. The “Screaming Mimis,” a nick- name for German World War II rocket artillery, knocked the plaster off the ceilings onto Lupe’s bed in her hotel room. A constant voice kept Lupe up- dated on the war effort over the radio. Edward R. Murrow’s famed radio reports on the war broadcast from London at the time she was there. “He was good to listen to,” she re- called. “He would come on mostly at night. We hated to listen, but yet we wanted to know what was going on.” Paris and Germany, just behind enemy lines After her service in London, Lupe spent time in Paris and in Frankfurt, Germany, just five minutes behind the combat line. While in Paris, Lupe slept and worked in a cave, had lunch with soldiers on the front lines, and kept a healthy dose of fear. “You didn’t trust anybody,” she explained. “The Germans were getting smart. They were finding uniforms of our boys and they were masquerading as GIs.” While in Germany, Lupe would often go down to a creek to get her water and would see an old German couple in their apple orchard, picking fruit, and sometimes playing music on the accordion. “That elderly man always played the most beautiful music,” Lupe recalled. “But it was so sad. It was always so sad.” Meeting the Pope On her way back from Sweden on a three-day pass, Lupe, a Catholic, met the earthly embodiment of her religion. She met Pope Pius XI. “We got to have an audience with the Pope,” she said. “He was nice. He was very gracious to us, prayed over us, and told us we were doing good work. He was surprised America had let women into the service like that.” She kissed his ring, and Pope Pius gave her a rosary “to keep us safe, he said.” Lupe gave that rosary to her daughter, Linda, later in life. Yalta conference As the war was turning the way of the Allied forces, three powerful world leaders met at Y alta. Lupe was chosen as a communications officer to work at the meeting where post- STEVE SCHULZ [email protected]Photo by Steve Schulz Lupe and Paul Novak, of Deer Creek, each have a treasure trove of medals from World War II, where she was a communications officer just behind battle lines, and he was aboard a Coast Guard destroyer escorting ships to and from the European theatre. See NOVAKon PAGE 2 39-year-old Long Prairie woman dies in Wadena crash A 39-year-old Long Prairie woman was killed in a two-vehicle crash on U.S. Highway 71 South in Wadena Valentine’s Day morning. Patricia Lynn McNaughton was pronounced dead at the scene from injuries she sustained after losing control of her 1993 Pontiac Grand Am, according to the Wadena Po- lice Department. McNaughton was traveling north when she crossed the center line and veered into the path of 49-year-old Bruce Wil- liam Gustafson’s southbound 2002 Sterling Tandem Axle truck. Gus- tafson, of Henderson, Minn., was not injured in the crash, according to the press release. Officers located the two vehicles in the southbound ditch of Highway 71 after receiving an accident report at approximately 8:05 a.m. The Wadena Police Department, the Wadena County Sheriff’s De- partment and the Minnesota State Patrol participated in the investiga- tion. SARA HACKING [email protected]
