Fred and Peggy Riker were married on May 23, 1953, at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Blue Earth. The candlelight service was held at 7 p.m. and was one of the last weddings to be held at the historic church.

Peggy Riker had two things to celebrate on July 20 of this year. Not only was it her 94th birthday that day, she also learned she was going to become a great-grandmother.

“It was kind of funny,” Peggy says. “I read the birthday card from my granddaughter Kayla and it said something about me being a great-grandmother and I thought I was being called a really good grandma. Then, I was told to read it again and I realized what it was really saying.”

The story doesn’t end there though.

“I was so thrilled,” Peggy recalls. “But, then I was told I couldn’t share the news with anybody until Aug. 12. It was hard to keep the news a secret for that long. I wanted to share the news.”

Riker recently had another special tribute on Aug. 11 when she was named the Guest of Honor at the 150th Anniversary Celebration of the consecration of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Blue Earth.

A picture of Peggy’s wedding to Fred Riker, which occured on May 23, 1953, is featured in the church’s history book.

“My grandmother was bound and determined that I would have a candlelight ceremony,” Peggy shares. “So there were candelabras attached to the pews in the center aisle and there were also candles placed along the outer walls.”

Her grandmother’s wish was granted with one condition.

“Two members of the Blue Earth Fire Department were at the wedding with fire extinguishers ready to use if there was a problem,” Peggy chuckles. “It was a beautiful day and the apple blossoms were out. We even used some of the blossoms in the church.”

Recalling how the wedding was planned also brought a big smile to Peggy’s face.

“Fred was in the Air Force and was stationed in French Moracc, North Africa. He was coming home on leave,” Peggy explains. “He got off of the bus and I told him we were getting married in two weeks. I knew he was only going to be home for that long. I had started planning the wedding before he even knew there was a date. I contacted Russ Greimann, who ran the local print shop and he was able to get everything printed that we needed.”

Peggy shared her reason for making sure the couple got married while Fred was home.

“He still had two more years to serve and I wasn’t going to wait that long to marry him,” she commented. “I will say when he got off of the bus that I almost did not recognize him. He had been in the sun so much and had gotten so dark.”

After the couple was married, Fred was reassigned to a base in Ohio and that is where they lived for the last two years of his service.

“He did road construction work in the Air Force,” Peggy says. “Fred was originally from the Bricelyn-Frost area. When he was discharged we moved back to Blue Earth and he worked in highway/heavy construction beginning with P.H. Thompson and Son of Frost for 10 years and later for D.H. Blattner and Sons of Avon.”

In 1973, Peggy decided to take a job at Telex to earn a little extra money to spend at Christmas.

“I ended up staying there for 15 years,” she says. “I retired in 1988. One week after I retired, my daughter Barb got married. Two days after her wedding Fred and I moved to Spearfish, South Dakota and we lived there for four years where Fred did above-ground work on a gold mine.”

After leaving Spearfish, the couple moved to Silver City, New Mexico, where Fred worked on a copper mine.

“We moved back to Spearfish in 1993,” Peggy recalls. “Fred wanted to retire there but I told him no – we still own a house in Blue Earth and that is where our grandchildren are.”

Riker also talked about her youth and growing up in Lindstrom.

“I was adopted and so was my sister Nancy, and even though we were not blood related and did not look like each other, we grew up as twins and shared the same birthday,” Peggy comments. “Nancy got multiple sclerosis and because of that was able to gain access to some of her adoption records and learned her real birth date. My parents got me when I was three months old. My name is actually Mary Margaret but my dad started calling me Peggy and that is the name most people know me by.”

Peggy remembers her father having a big produce business with their living quarters being located on the second story of the business and her family also owning a cabin on the lake.

“Nancy and I would be walking home from school and joke that we didn’t know which place to go to,” Peggy says. “But, of course, we did know.”

Other early childhood memories include her parents making their own butter during the depression.

“I also remember riding with my sister in the rumble seat of my dad’s car all the way from Lindstrom to Blue Earth to visit relatives,” Peggy shares. “We moved to Blue Earth when I was eight years old. We lived in town but dad helped out on grandma’s farm.”

She also has memories of going to school in Blue Earth and graduating from Blue Earth High School in 1948.

“I started out in the old school before moving into the new school (the current middle school building),” Peggy says. “We used to go to the second floor of the old school and wonder if it was safe.”

She joined the Church of the Good Shepherd in 1938 when her family moved to Blue Earth.

“Both of my children, Mike and Barb, were baptized in the church. They were also the last two Sunday School students at that church,” Peggy says. “In 1964, we joined Trinity Lutheran Church because I wanted my kids to be in Sunday School with other children.”

Other church memories revolve around music.

“Fred loved to sing. If it was a song he knew, you would have thought he was the only one singing,” she shares with a smile. “We had an adult and children’s choir and I never knew why I was in them. I could never carry a tune.”

Peggy says she also loved to dance and would take the opportunity to go dancing with friends whenever she could. She also remembers how neighbors would always help out their neighbors.

While Peggy has made many wonderful memories in her 94 years, she is still ready for some new ones.

“I’m going to be a great-grandmother, that’s pretty exciting,” she concludes.