Gary George, born to George and Irwina Bader March 25, 1942, at Palmer, was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran Church in Palmer. He attended school at District #49 and later District #63, where there was one teacher for all eight grades. He attended Palmer High School and played football, basketball, and track, graduating in 1961.
Connyce Faye (Connie) daughter of James August and Ella Pauline Holtz Bremer, was born September 15, 1944. Baptized and confirmed at Zion Lutheran at Worms, she attended Zion Lutheran Parochial school. She graduated from Palmer High School in 1962. She was on the girls’ volleyball and softball teams in high school.
Gary and Connie were married October 28, 1 962, at Zion. They moved onto the Bader Family Farm southwest of Palmer. They live in the same house Gary was born and raised in.
They attend St. John’s Lutheran Church in Palmer.
The couple has four children. Tanya Faye seventeen, Shayne Gary fifteen, Kirk John fourteen, and Lana Faith ten, attend school in Palmer. The family farms and raises cattle and also keep enough quarter horses to work the cattle. They raise and use Blue Heeler cattle dogs. They all pitch in and work together taking care of the cattle and doing field work. For several years Gary broke horses, but now sons Shayne and Kirk do that. Gary, Tanya, Shayne and Kirk also team rope together. That talent comes in very handy during calving season when it’s necessary to get in a belligerent cow or treat a sick calf.
Flicka is the family’s favorite horse as he was just a colt when Gary brought him home the first winter Gary and Connie were married. Gary broke him and still uses him for roping, cutting, and just plain cowboy-ing!
For hobbies, the family enjoys fishing and Gary and the boys hunt ducks and geese on the Loup River in the fall. Gary has also hunted deer in Nebraska, elk in Colorado and Moose in Canada. As a family hobby snow skiing is tops. Every January several neighbor families go to the Colorado Rockies and enjoy those downhill runs and the fantastic scenery.
The children are all active 4-H members in Junior Farmhands, and show cattle at the Merrick County Fair, AK-SAR-BEN and the Nebraska State Fair.
At Christmas the family gets together with the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins and usually take turns hosting the Christmas Day dinners. The children participate in the Christmas Eve Program at Church and afterwards the family has their traditional supper of chili soup or oyster stew with salads, cookies and candies they have prepared. Then everyone opens their gifts, it is a special time.
The family has enjoyed being a part of this community and knowing the good people who live here.
Submitted by Connie Bremer Bader
Source: Merrick County Historical Society, History of Merrick County, Nebraska (1981), Volume I, Dallas, Texas : Taylor Publishing Company, 1981.