JACKSON TWP. — No matter where their travels and careers took them, Norman and Judy Love would find their way back to Brown County.
Judy was born May 1, 1938, in Valparaiso to Howard and Helen Dinsmore. Howard did various jobs, but settled in a career as a car salesman. Helen raised Judy and her two siblings.
Norman was born Sept. 7, 1936, on a farm in Newton County to Samuel and Eleanor Love. Norman said his parents were farmers and survivors.
Samuel worked in mills, and Eleanor raised their five children.
They met in geometry class in high school, in northern Indiana. Norman went into the Army after he graduated, volunteering at 17.
He said he knew there was no way for him to go to college without the assistance of the GI bill, and he wanted to go to school.
In the Army he played football for the American team all over Europe.
“I tell people I saved the nation guarding the Fulda Gap against the Germans and Russians,” he said.
“Got to travel all over Europe to play games, which was awful nice.”
After his two years in the military, he enrolled at Ball State University.
Judy was also a student at the college and the two reconnected — and soon eloped.
“We knew each other and all the sudden it happened,” she said.
They left Ball State in 1957, at the end of a quarter, and started their married life on Dec. 4 of that year.
Their first child was born the following November, and two more within their first three years of marriage.
When they left school, Norman worked in the mills, like his father. One day, he said he didn’t want to do it anymore, and wanted to go back to school.
Their family ended up back at Ball State, in married housing, until they were given a unique opportunity through the school.
Ball State owns a wildlife preserve, called Sixteen Acres, and the Loves were offered the opportunity to move to and manage the property. They applied and were accepted.
Norman’s senior year, they were asked to go to the Mary Gray Bird Sanctuary in Connersville to manage the property.
Senior year, head of the department Doctor Hooper called again and asked us to manage the Mary Gray Bird Sanctuary, owned by the Indiana Audubon Society, in Connersville.
He wasn’t quite done with school, so he continued at Ball State and Judy stayed with their kids at the bird sanctuary.
Being at Sixteen Acres and the bird sanctuary, they became very involved with birds.
They became so involved with birds that after retirement they went to south Texas and volunteered with the federal government to increase the whooping crane population.
The population of “whoopers,” Norman called them, was in the lower teens in the entire country at the time. By the time the Loves let, there were between 70 or 80. Now they’re in the hundreds.
“It’s just a big part of our life,” Judy said about birds.
Judy graduated from Ball State with a degree in elementary education, and taught first, second and third grades. Norman taught math and special education. They both retired in 1992.
Judy said it’s always been important to her that they were educators, a legacy that carried on through their children and two of their granddaughters.
Their two sons are retired from teaching, and their daughter is a media specialist at a school in Lake County. They have seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
They moved to Brown County in 1970.
Norman was teaching and Judy was finishing her degree in a “nice town,” Judy said, but they were ready for the country.
“Looking for a different way of life,” Norman said.
They were campers, so they jumped in their RV and began their journey looking for a farm. It didn’t take them very long to find what they were looking for, Norman said.
Their farm — Loveland Farms — sits just off of South Shore Drive, on Greenbriar Lane.
Loveland Farm is not their only land — they also have farms in Lawrence and Lake County.
They lived and taught in Lake County, but always found their way back to Brown County for every weekend and vacation. At one point they had an airplane they would fly into Helmsburg Airport.
To their kids, Brown County was always home.
The Loves have been involved in the county in different ways, coaching little league, attending Brown County Community Church and building a community network of friends in their neighborhood.
They’ve always kept cattle and chickens on their farm, but one year they had an abundance of goats, but weren’t sure what they were going to do with them.
They decided to have a goat roast with some family and friends. It became an annual event that lasted for 20 years, with more than 200 people in attendance.
Their farm also has doubled as a campsite.
When their granddaughter was in college, she asked to come camp on the farm over spring break with her friends. Being mid March, it was cold, so they dubbed the event Cold Camp.
This year was the ninth-annual Cold Camp, in June.
At the end of Greenbriar Lane is the Sausage Shack, which was supplied with sausages made by the Loves’ son, from hogs raised on Loveland Farm. It was open every Friday for 20 years, becoming a weekly affair with the neighborhood.
Making friends in the community, Norman remembers local vet Jeb “Doc” Brester coming to their farm to serve an ailing cow at 4 a.m., after his early morning surgeries. He also once lassoed a cow on their farm.
”He was very special person,” Judy said.
“I guess we kind of grew up together,” Norman said.
“He was just getting started, we were novices too.”
Something important to them is their family being close. They’ve expanded their reach, with their son Steve living on Lake Lemon, and their son Mike up the hill from them.
Their grandkids are scattered in the county too.
“Kind of an impossible dream,” Norm said. “We’ve been very, very fortunate.”
They’ve traveled all over North America, from Canada, Mexico and across the United States.
“We’ve had some good experiences (traveling). Never really had a bad experience, have we,” Judy said.
“I don’t know, you never had to turn around a fifth-wheel at the bottom of some gulley somewhere,” Norman said. They chuckled. “We made it.”
The Loves
Norman
Age: 86
Place of birth: Newton County
Children: Mark, Steve and Lori
Parents: Samuel and Eleanor Love
Siblings: Nancy, Donald, Robert and Dennis, all passed away
Judy
Age: 84
Place of birth: Valparaiso
Parents: Howard and Helen Dinsmore
Children: Mark, Steve and Lori
Siblings: Nancy and John
