Paul Melvin Bendorf

  Noted events in his life were:

1. Miscellaneous, 4 Oct 2022. PLATTEVILLE, Wis. \emdash Paul Bendorf told a story about the time that he agreed to be a church camp counselor for the first year that his oldest daughter, Colleen, went to camp.

"I was working full time and farming part time and trying to get everything done before I took time off to go to the camp," said Paul, now 83.

He went out to cut hay, but before he could bale it, it rained. He was frustrated, but his wife, Nancy, told him not to worry about it.

"I was upset that I couldn't get it all done before I left," he said. "But when we got home, guess what?"

He pointed at Nancy.

"She had gotten it all done," he said. "She went out and baled that hay herself."

The couple, who celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary on Sept. 16, met at Platteville Free Methodist Church when they were teens in the 1950s and both were involved in the church's youth group.

"I don't remember exactly when we started dating," said Nancy, now 80. "It was a long time ago. We mostly saw each other at church and with the youth group."

She does remember when Paul proposed to her \emdash on Valentine's Day 1959 \emdash and that she didn't say "yes" right away. She told him he had to ask her father first.

"I was really nervous," Paul said. "I went into the barn and talked to him while he was milking the cows. I don't remember exactly what he said, but here we are, so he was OK with it."

The couple married on Sept. 16, 1960, in the church where they met and spent most of their time when they were dating.

After a honeymoon through Colorado, Wyoming and Arizona, the couple settled into an apartment in Platteville before moving out to the 80-acre "mini-farm" that was right next door to the farm on which Paul grew up.

Paul worked as a postal carrier for 32 years. Nancy raised their four children: Colleen Miller, Paula Danz, Joe Bendorf and Brian Bendorf. They also have nine grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

When youngest child Brian started school, Nancy went back to school, too, majoring in business and computer science. She worked at University of Wisconsin-Platteville as a secretary and in administration in the chancellor's office.

Paul took a break early in his postal carrier career when he decided he wanted to try his hand at full-time farming.


"The guys at the post office had all been there forever," he said. "I didn't see myself moving up, so I quit to farm. But after a year, I knew it wasn't going to be a full-time income, and I went back to the post office. The postmaster was glad to get me back."

After retiring from the post office, Paul enjoyed a second career as a truck driver, something he always wanted to do. While he only planned on doing it for a short while, he ended up doing it for more than 12 years.

"Working is kind of my hobby," he said. "Even now, I've got the chainsaw in my hands almost every day doing something. I'm going to shell walnuts with the corn sheller today."

Paul harvests the walnuts and shells them, and Nancy cans or freezes them. She uses them in pies, cookies and brownies through the winter.

"Paul loves his cookies and brownies," she said.

Colleen Miller, who lives in Rewey, said her parents always have preferred gifts of service to demonstrate their love for each other.

"They didn't really physically cling to each other," she said. "But Mom would usually do the chores while he was working. And Dad would get us up early on the weekends and say, 'Why don't we surprise Mom and do the chores?' He wanted to give her a few days off when he could."

Colleen said she always laughed when her parents did something silly such as drive down their long driveway at night with the headlights off.

"Our grandparents lived next door," she said. "Sometimes, they'd want to take us out, and they just didn't want Grandpa and Grandma to know what we were doing all the time. That was funny."

Weekend camping trips to area state parks were sometimes on the agenda, but Colleen said they really enjoyed being homebodies.

"Friday night was always pizza night," she said. "We'd have pizza and sometimes watch a movie."

This year, the Bendorfs' garden yielded tomatoes, green beans, squash, carrots and rutabaga. Nancy is nearly done canning for the season.

"We got 41 quarts of grape juice from our grapevines this year," she said. "I'm going to be making a lot of grape jelly for the Baltimore orioles."

Nancy also enjoys textile arts, including crocheting, sewing and spinning wool, a new skill she learned from a neighbor, 95-year-old Nancy Collingbourne.

"She has her sheep sheared and sends the wool out to be cleaned, and she gives it to me to spin," she said. "She let me borrow her spinning wheel. I'm enjoying it. I even learned how to dye the wool with Kool-Aid by looking on the internet."

The Bendorfs are more than content to spend their days on their 80 acres, doing what they do best \emdash working and creating in tandem.

"I don't know that we ever went to bed mad at each other," Nancy said. "We just get along."

Colleen said her parents always have worked hard but also always tried to make things easier for each other.

"They work together really well," she said. "They just have a very easygoing way with each other."

Paul married Nancy Lou Beyer, daughter of Robert Earl Beyer and Helen Lucille VanNatta, on 16 Sep 1960 in Platteville, WI, Free Methodist Church. (Nancy Lou Beyer was born on 22 Aug 1942 in Lancaster, WI and was christened on 27 Apr 1946 in Platteville, WI, Free Methodist Church.)

  Marriage Notes:

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