Their story, they say, began with a gift: A homemade Raggedy Ann doll someone had donated to the church bazaar.
Dan, a college freshman at Fort Hays State in Kansas at the time, won that doll at a booth. He insisted on giving it to Susan, a cute little upperclassman, one who’d been trying to set him up with girls his own age.
“I thought he was a pest.”
Dan and Susan Ladenburger laugh, all these years later, recalling their story during a Zoom interview from their farm in southwestern Nebraska, in Hitchcock County. How she’d vowed never to marry a farmer, after watching her parents struggle to survive on this same dryland farm, nine miles south of Stratton.
How God had other plans.
How Dan had persisted, and eventually won her over.
How they married on a beautiful January day in 1971, while still in college, in the church in town her dad had helped build. How Susan had to watch Dan, who’d just tweaked his knee on a ski trip with his college buddies, walk up the aisle with a limp. (How she “was ready to kick him all the way up it!”) And how gifts from the heart, like that doll, can lead to unexpected blessings.
Over the years, the Ladenburgers have grown all kinds of grain: corn, sorghum, wheat. … Some years are good. Some, like this one, are tough, although the corn from the irrigated land still looks OK, and the wheat crop was good.
They raised their four kids on this farm – in birth order: Lori, Bret, Dustin, and Nick – who all contributed to its growth and success over the years.
Dan checks his phone. One of his sons is calling. He leaves a message, wondering where in the heck his dad is. Dan texts back:
I’m Zooming. Remember we’re doing that Zoom meeting?
The reason for this call is to talk about how they’ve given gifts to the Nebraska Farm Bureau Foundation over the years, and why. It’s because, they say, they believe in the Foundation’s mission to support ag literacy programs throughout the state, especially those that help students and teachers.
Over the years, they’ve given unrestricted gifts to the Foundation, usually at its Grower’s Gala in December. “Unrestricted” means that the focus of the gift is left to the discretion of the Foundation folks, who can direct the money to the areas of greatest need.
“That’s been our philosophy,” Dan says. “We usually make it unrestricted because we figure the people who are managing the money know the areas of need, more than we do.”
This year, the Ladenburgers made their first gift of grain. It’s a unique type of gift and a good idea, they say, because it can help both you, the giver, and the Foundation. And by giving grain, you can get some tax relief, too: If you give it before you sell it, you don’t pay taxes on it.
Says Dan: “We just hope our story inspires other farmers and ranchers to think about giving back in that way.”
As kids, they both saw their parents give back to their communities however they could. Dan, the oldest of six kids from Oakley, a town in western Kansas, says his dad would always buy raffle tickets for every fund-raiser event at their school and church, and winning unexpected prizes.
His parents’ wedding gift to them was a cow, their first, one that started their herd.
Susan was an adored only child. She had her dad wrapped around her finger. Her mom, a registered nurse, was like a best friend. Dan joined the family and became the son her parents never had.
In 1980, Dan and Susan built a ranch style house for their young family. They built it right across the yard from her parents’ home, the same home where Susan had grown up. They didn’t have much money. When the $50,000 FHA loan for the home ran out, they moved in anyway, with it still unfinished. They worked on it themselves, with the kids helping.
Because money was so tight in those early years, they say, they usually could only give back with their time and talent, volunteering however they could. For years, Dan served on the local school board and on the Chamber of Commerce. He’s been active in their church’s Knights of Columbus men’s group, which just ran a bingo booth at the Dundy County Fair. Both are on the church building committee. Both helped with 4-H. Susan has volunteered as an EMT these past 48 years.
Years ago, Dan and Susan both were chosen to be fellows for the state’s LEAD program, which helps develop future ag leaders in the state. On a tour of China with her LEAD class, Susan saw a big sign in Chinese characters. She asked what it said, and the meaning has stuck with her since:
Agriculture is the backbone of the world.
That’s been their belief, too, and the belief of the Nebraska Farm Bureau Foundation.
“Farming has been good to us,” Susan says. “Dan’s a good farmer and he’s a good manager. And we made it through the ’80s. It was very difficult then – I guess you can get blood out of a turnip!”
They laugh again.
“But we made it.”
And it makes them feel good now, they say, to help young people like the ones they used to be.
“You share the gifts you’ve been given.”
So do you still have that Raggedy Ann doll?
“Oh, yes!” she says, smiling. “It’s in a trunk downstairs, and I was just thinking about it the other day, about how I ought to get it out and put it on the bed.
