Teaching children was her life
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff writer
Forced from her home in Germany in 1947 by the Russian occupation, a Hillsboro woman emigrated to the United States where teaching children became her life's work.
Marga Ebel came to the United States with her parents in 1947. They came from Elbing, Germany, a city of 100,000 to 120,000 people in the northeastern corner of Germany. The area now is a part of Poland.
Marga said she and her parents, Otto and Lydia Ebel, first moved to northwest Germany, then traveled to the United States after the Russians occupied their area.
"We didn't want to go," she said. "We loved it there. It was beautiful with many lakes and lots of beautiful forests."
Marga had some college education and was student teaching. Her father ran a confectionary factory and store.
"The quality was excellent," she said, referring to the chocolates produced there.
In Germany, she lived an idyllic existence, spending childhood summers with her mother in a beach house on the Baltic Sea. Her father occasionally visited them.
Vehicles were not permitted at the beaches. Marga said her father never owned one, even after coming to America. Street cars and buses were the common means of transportation.
"When I got a car in America, my father called it 'our' car," she recalled with a chuckle.
In Germany, the family belonged to many clubs and attended dances, concerts, and other public functions.
Marga became an apprentice in her father's shop, but he was forced to close it in 1943, during the war, because of a lack of raw materials.
Her father then worked in a big ship-building factory as a supervisor of bookkeepers.
The family arrived in New York City in January 1947. Marga said she remembers the 14-day trip across the ocean as a miserable time, with stormy weather each day. However, she got seasick only once.
The Ebels came to Hillsboro in central Kansas, where Marga's grandfather Ebel and his brothers had built the Ebel flour mill which was in operation from 1892-1926.
Marga's parents got jobs working at the large Schaeffler's Department Store at the corner of Main Street and Grand Ave.
Throughout her early years in America, Marga pursued more education interspersed with teaching jobs. She never married.
She taught one year at Comet School District #91, a country school located two and one-half miles southeast of Tampa.
"I had five little boys," she said. "I loved those little boys."
She went on to receive a bachelor's degree at Tabor College, majoring in special education. She received a master's degree at Wichita State University, where she taught German part-time.
She taught for two years at Starkey School in Wichita, five years at Rose Hill, and eight years at the Institute of Logopedics.
Altogether, including her student teaching in Germany, her teaching career spanned 38 years.
The 83-year-old woman said she misses the symphony and other features of life in Wichita, but she likes living in a small town now.
She said she made many friends throughout the years. Some have died but others still call, and sometimes one of them drops by to take her out to eat.
Marga said she doesn't care to get out much. She gets around with the use of a walker. She enjoys being at home and spends most of her time watching TV or reading.
She appreciates the services she receives from Marion County Home Care.
"They're very, very nice," she said.
In 1991, Marga had the opportunity to go back to Germany, although not to the area where she grew up. She said she met some former girlfriends from school, which was the highlight of her trip.
"I still get homesick for Germany, but now I have two homes," she said. "America also is my home."
