BUFORD M. (OZZIE) CUTHBERTSON

Rolfe -- Buford M. (Ozzie) Cuthbertson passed away peacefully on August 9, 2007, at Trinity Regional Medical Center in Fort Dodge, with family at his side. Funeral services were held at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, August 14, 2007, at Powers Funeral Home in Rolfe, with Pastor Jan R. Burnett officiating. Burial was in the Clinton-Garfield Cemetery near Rolfe.

Ozzie was born on September 27, 1914, in Seward, Ill., to George Samuel and Bessie (Fry) Cuthbertson. He spent his boyhood years in Seward, Ill., Hayward, Minn., and Glidden, before moving back to Iowa living in the Pocahontas area working for farmers as a teenager. At the age of 17, he entered the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp) and worked in Arkansas through the summer months building a light plant. As a young man, he was working on a paving crew helping to pave the main street through Rolfe and met Elsa, who was working in a restaurant. The story goes that she told her co-workers, "I'm going to have a date with that guy!" He says he told his co­workers that he was going to take out that girl in the restaurant. The rest is history.

Buford (Ozzie) and Elsa Cordes were married on June 12, 1938. Together they had five children, the first baby Wayne Orville, being stillborn. The four living children are Janet, Sally, Judy and John. In the first year of their marriage, they traveled as Ozzie continued to work with the crew paving the Pennsylvania Turnpike.- Not wanting to raise children on the road, they came back and started farming the Cordes farm three miles north of Rolfe with two-horse equipment.

Then they farmed about 1 1/2 miles south of that for many more years. In 1959, the family moved to a farm west of Havelock and farmed there for about 19 more years until he retired from farming. They then purchased a home in Rolfe where he remained until he had to move into Long Term Care in Humboldt.

After retirement, Ozzie still enjoyed gardening and taking care of his lawn for many years. He could often be seen by people passing by sitting out in his garden watering his tomatoes and beans. He was a jack of all trades and helped people with remodeling of their homes, also. He could fix just about anything that needed to be fixed. He entered Long Term Care in the fall of 2005 and resided there until his death.

Survivors include son, John (Barb) Cuthbertson of Estherville; and daughters, Janet (Pete) Zenti of Phoenix, Ariz., Sally Cuthbertson of Gilmore City, and Judy (Bruce) Boysen of Havelock. Nine grandchildren and spouses; 11 great-grandchildren; two brothers and their wives; and two other sisters-in-law.

He was preceded in death by his wife of almost 60 years, Elsa, in 1998; son, Wayne Orville in infancy; his parents; and two brothers.