This year’s Schell City Fall Festival Parade Grand Marshalls can trace their family history in the town to just after the founding of the community in 1871. Although he was born in Kansas City, John R. Hoagland has spent most of his life in Schell City except for his service in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War and a short time in Kansas City working for the American Can Company. In 1958, tired of city life, he and his wife, Lucille, returned to the area to raise their new son and growing family in the community where he was born and raised.

Like John R., Lucille was no stranger to life in a small town having been raised in Hatfield, AR, before moving to Kansas City after high school where she met John R.

Upon moving to Schell City, they lived in some of the nastiest homes available as that was all they could afford at the time. John R. fondly has told his grandkids about shooting rats in the outhouse they had in that first rental house and how the second old house they lived in was so cold, the fishbowl sitting by the bed froze solid one winter night.

While Lucille kept house and raised the kids, John R. ran a local filling station and bulk fuel business for several years before settling into the career he held most of his working life, Schell City’s Rural Mail Carrier.

After the children grew up and left home, Lucille spent several years working at Jeffries Market in Schell City. Time not spent at the store was filled with making crafts, sewing, cooking and generally keeping up with her kids, grandkids, and now two great-children.

Today John R. and Lucille spend their days mowing their yard sometimes twice per week, surfing on the computer, playing casino games on the IPad, and reading at least one book each per week as they feel that reading keeps their minds active and sharp. They’re still regulars at the Schell City Christian Church where they’ve been long time members.

Congratulations to this year’s Parade Grand Marshalls, John R. and Lucille Hoagland.