At a dinnerware party in 1951, two unsuspecting teenagers met, sparking what would become a large family and a long-lasting legacy of trust and commitment between Irvin and Juanita Mueller, 17 and 16 at the time.
“A family would host neighbors and my parents were invited to the neighbors’ dinner, I went along and she helped her parents prepare,” Irvin said. “Two young people out of all these adults, we met at this dinner.”
Neither are sure what exactly drew them to each other in the first place, only that something did. Irvin believes it was divine intervention.
“I have no idea except it was God’s plan. I can’t give you a good explanation at all,” Irvin said. “It just kind of seemed to melt or mold together.”
The pair married on May 28, 1953 and shortly after doing so, Irvin, who was in the Army, went to Germany during the end of the Korean War.
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“For one month, we soldiered for survival. After that, it was by the book,” Irvin said. “I was attached to a chemical smoke company, we could set up 10 generators upwind of Columbus, make smoke and hide the city. Then Radar came along and made us obsolete.”
Juanita said that one thing they abided by all this time that she believes made things work is honesty.
“Always tell the truth, no matter how bad it is, it’ll work out. If you catch up later, you’ll get in trouble and you’re stuck with it,” Juanita said.
She went to Wayne State after they married and got a two-year degree and teaching certificate, teaching at three rural schools for one year each. She also sold real estate for five or six years, she said, when he had come back from the Army. Then she took care of their five children while they ran a farm until the late 1980s. That was when things took a turn, Irvin said, and the economic policies of the time forced him to get out of the business.
“We lost our farm is why we got out (of the farming business),” Irvin said. “A friend knew of our plight, he called me up on a Sunday morning and, if I was interested, a family had just lost their son and would like someone to manage the farm so I continued to farm for them, harvested his crop and two of mine, traded them in for cash.”
Irvin then worked managing a hog unit near Magnolia, Iowa. He and a couple other men would work on site as floating managers and if a manager had to leave for some reason, they would step in. One of the other men described the group as “the highest-paid power-washers in the unit,” he joked.
The couple have also been very active in the community over the years, according to their son, Randy Mueller, owner of Star Escape Rooms. Between Grace Lutheran Church in Platte Center and their children’s school, they kept busy.
“(He was) church chairman at one point. Mom was, if you had a funeral, she would organize and do the food. Dad was Lakeview school board president from 1977 into the ’80s,” Randy said. “She was a Sunday school teacher as well.”
Irvin joked that a lot of their positions at the church weren’t exactly elected, rather they took the jobs because they were there and able to do them. Sunday school in particular, he joked, was because they were dropping the kids off anyway.
“Grace wasn’t that big of a church. If you presented yourself, you had a job,” Irvin said.
Now, Irvin and Juanita spend time together everyday at Emerald Nursing and Rehab, where Juanita is currently staying. Two of their five children still live in the area while three have moved to Nevada, Texas and Florida. Between their five children, Irvin said, they have 12 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.