Eldora Rye Bakk,Mother of Barbara,Steven,Jim and Lori Bakk

Eldora is sitting on her Mother, Emma's lap.Opal is to the left, I,Glenn, am on my Fathers knee and brother Norris is to the right.I look to be about three years old so this picture was proababy taken in 1930.

Eldora was married to Orville
Bakk during the early days of WW2.
Last summer I stopped in Lincoln, Neb. to visit the families of Barbara Eisenbraun and Jim Bakk.I remarked in passing that when I was a lad ,I used to read the dairies of our father, Gullik Nelson Rye. We had lost track of them and as I shared with Barbara she said that each of her brothers and sisters had a copy. As I was working on my blog last month I called Barbara and asked if she could make a copy of one of the books for use on my blog. She got a hold of her brother, Steven, in Texas and last week I recieved the original in the mail from Steve. Thank you,Steve.
The first entry in the dairy was made on March 22, 1907. Next week that will be exactly 99 years ago to the day.I believe that at that time he was 18 years old and had been in the country two years and was already writting in English, His first language was Norwegian.
When our Father died in 1944, our neighbor, Richard Johnson told how the 16 year old immigrant entered thier first grade class for a few months during the winter when farm work was scarce. He was quickly moved to higher grades as his language skills improved. I do not believe that he graduated from 8th grade but there was no trace of a foreign accent in his speech as there was in his brother, Peter's speech throughout his life.
I have asked Margaret Bakk Thornton , a first cousin of Orville Bakk and Frances Bakk, an aunt of the children of Orville Bakk and my sister, Eldora,to share some anecdotal and recorded history of Orville Bakk and his family with me for use on this blog.

This will be my token of gratitude to Barbara, Steve, Jim and Lori, the children of Eldora Rye Bakk and Orville Bakk.

Excerpts from our Father' diary will commence on March 22nd,the 99th year anniversary of their recordation.