Family History

Bob Zybach: Do you want me to call you Lorna?

Lorna Grabe: Yeah, Lorna is fine.

Bob Zybach: Lorna, why don't we start with your birthplace.

Lorna Grabe: I was born in Iowa City, Iowa.

Bob Zybach: Do you know your mother's maiden name?

Lorna Grabe: My mother's maiden name was Elsa Caroline Hopp, H-o-p-p.

Bob Zybach: Do you know her mother's maiden name?

Lorna Grabe: It was Meier, I think.

Bob Zybach: And her father do you know what he did for a living?

Lorna Grabe: They were farm people, my family were farm people.

Bob Zybach: How long did you live in Iowa?

Lorna Grabe: My mother and father, they were on the same farm for over fifty years and so they lived all their life in Iowa. They were born in Iowa.

Bob Zybach: Is either one of them alive now?

Lorna Grabe: No, my mother and father both passed away ... in Iowa about ten years ago ... fifteen.

Bob Zybach: The same time?

Lorna Grabe: About a year apart.

Bob Zybach: Buried near Iowa City?

Lorna Grabe: Yes. They're buried at Iowa City.

Bob Zybach: Do you know when their families came to United States?

Lorna Grabe: No, I don't know that, but my brother's just starting to write up the family history and my mother's grandparents lived with them on a farm near Oasis, Iowa. They were from Germany, both grandparents came from Germany. And then my father's family also came from Germany, but he's ... part of his family is from Czechoslovakia.

Bob Zybach: Okay, if somebody were interested in your family history, your brother's working on it now, how would they get in touch with your brother?

Lorna Grabe: My brother lives in Missouri, and I'd have to look up his address.

Bob Zybach: What's his name?

Lorna Grabe: Donald Dohrer, D-o-h-r-e-r. (address available for research and educational purposes through OSU Research Forests)

Bob Zybach: How come he has a different surname than you do?

Lorna Grabe: My maiden name was Dohrer, but my mother's maiden name was Hopp.

Bob Zybach: I didn't ask that ... your father's name was Dohrer?

Lorna Grabe: Dohrer.

Bob Zybach: Okay, how many brothers and sisters do you have?

Lorna Grabe: I have two brothers and two sisters.

Bob Zybach: Are they all still alive?

Lorna Grabe: Yes.

Bob Zybach: Do they all still live in Iowa?

Lorna Grabe: No, one brother lives in Florida; Merlyn Dohrer lives in Fort Pierce, Florida.

Bob Zybach: How come you came to Oregon?

Lorna Grabe: I came to Oregon because my husband is in the Agronomy Department at Oregon State University. We were living in Mississippi and they offered him a better job and so we moved here. He does research on seed; he's a professor.

Bob Zybach: When did you get married?

Lorna Grabe: We were married in 1950.

Bob Zybach: Where at?

Lorna Grabe: Iowa City, Iowa.

Bob Zybach: And then his family, do you know his mother's maiden name?

Lorna Grabe: His mother's maiden name is Meier, too. And she's from Holstein, Iowa, and his family is from around Pierson, Iowa which is about thirty miles east of Sioux City, Iowa.

Bob Zybach: Do you know if the Meier spelled the same, M-e-i-e-r?

Lorna Grabe: I think it is, I would have ... I think it is. His family history has not been written up, but his family is all Germans too. There's a large German settlement in that area of Iowa.

Bob Zybach: His family is all German?

Lorna Grabe: So am I.

Bob Zybach: Two different generations ... do you know about when your family came over to the United States?

Lorna Grabe: No, I don't.

Bob Zybach: Do you know about when his family came over to the United States?

Lorna Grabe: I don't know that either, in the 1800's, mid or late.

Bob Zybach: Both families are descended from German ancestry?

Lorna Grabe: Yes.

Bob Zybach: How many children do you have?

Lorna Grabe: Myself?

Bob Zybach: Yes.

Lorna Grabe: We have three children.

Bob Zybach: And the name and birthdates and birthplaces?

Lorna Grabe: Our oldest boy's name is Ted Martin Grabe, and he's about 37; I don't know his birthdate (January 4, 1953). And our other boy's name is Timothy Wayne Grabe, and he is one year younger than Ted; and our daughter's name is Ann Kathryn Grabe, and she's two years younger than Tim. She's about 35 ... 34.

Bob Zybach: Do they all live in Oregon?

Lorna Grabe: No, Ted and Tim both live in Portland, and Annie lives in Lyon, France.

Bob Zybach: What does she do there?

Lorna Grabe: She teaches cello at a private music school in Lyon.

Bob Zybach: And your family came out your education, where did you graduate from high school?

Lorna Grabe: Iowa City, Iowa.

Bob Zybach: Did you go to college?

Lorna Grabe: I went to college two years at Iowa State University.

Bob Zybach: Your husband must have a degree to be teaching?

Lorna Grabe: Yeah, he got his degree from Iowa State University; Ph.D. degree at Iowa State.

Bob Zybach: Where did he get his Master's?

Lorna Grabe: Iowa State.

Bob Zybach: And undergraduate?

Lorna Grabe: Bachelors there too.

Bob Zybach: Is that where you met?

Lorna Grabe: Yes.

Bob Zybach: Got married in

Lorna Grabe: 1950.

Bob Zybach: ... 1950, then to Mississippi, when did you get transferred to Oregon State?

Lorna Grabe: Well, we ... our first job was at Mississippi State University, and we lived there for about two years. And while we were there, we went down to Mexico City for a short time to work for Rockefeller Foundation. And then came back and he also had ... they had a program where they worked in foreign countries. Then we came back and lived at Ames for Ames, Iowa for about eight years, and then we went back to Mississippi with the Agronomy Department again and lived there for about another year, and then we came out to Oregon.

Bob Zybach: What year was that?

Lorna Grabe: We came to Oregon in 1968.

Bob Zybach: And he's held the same position at the University ever since?

Lorna Grabe: Right.