Music always part of Truman Sogge’s life

Truman Sogge was the ninth of 10 siblings born in 1931 near Regal, Minn., in the Paynesville and Spicer area.

Truman said he can remember at age three, his family pulling a wagon with all their possessions, behind their car to the next place they moved. He said his father built the first elevator to lift the grain from the wagon to the grain bin driven by a hit-and-miss gas engine so you did not have to scoop the grain by hand. He never did make any more of these elevators, he said.

His mother thought she could help financially so for two weeks she worked at a cafe in town washing dishes. Her husband told her she was much more valuable to the family with all the duties she did for the family than any extra money she earned working there so she stayed home after that.

Truman went to school in Regal, which had seven houses at the time, to the sixth grade and it had 20 – 24 students in the school. He started out in first grade with a girl in his grade but said that later he was at the top and bottom of his class since he was the only student in that grade. After finishing this school, students would continue on to either Paynesville or Spicer.

Truman said even though he was a naturally left-handed person he was really pushed to do everything right-handed and he feels that set him back. Even when playing kitten-ball they got after him when he tried to bat left-handed and that killed off his interest in playing ball.

Years later he found out his father also was pushed to change to doing everything right-handed as he was also naturally left-handed.

Truman went six weeks to school in Willmar but felt he had no interest to continue on. He told his parents he was not going back again and his father let him drive the family car to the school to empty out his locker. In 1968 Truman attended some classes and earned his High School GED.

He heard about the Ag School in Morris whereyou could go to school in the winter and spring and then work on the farm for six months. He went there for 1-½ years and one day he was playing the piano and another student played an instrument when the music instructor heard them. He told the teacher that his father had a cello at their home, which he would play, and the teacher said he should bring it to the school and play for him which he did. Truman then became part of the school's orchestra and the choir.

When Truman was playing the piano the teacher also mentioned that perhaps he should consider tuning pianos since he had a real ear for music. Truman asked him if he could show him more about it but the instructor said he would not do it.

He said, “if you got it, you got it and if you don’t, you just don’t have it.” Truman said he had always enjoyed music and his dad told him he sang his first solo in church at the age of 2-½ years old.

Truman mentioned one time he hitched a ride from Morris to go home to Spicer. He walked several blocks to the highway and caught a ride to Benson, then walked four blocks and hitched another ride in a ‘49 Chevy to Willmar. He then walked five blocks and got a ride in a Hudson car which dropped him off ½ block from his house.

Truman said he thought it only took one hour and 35 minutes for the nearly 70-mile trip as the cars were speeding along over 90 miles an hour at times which was really too scary!

Truman had four older brothers who were in the service during World War II; they all survived the war and returned home. In November 1951, Truman received his draft orders and he was sent to Camp Roberts, Calif. for training. While he was listening to a speaker encouraging the recruits to become paratroopers, Truman decided to sign up.

Another buddy told him, “you don’t want to get into that job as you will be a floating target coming out of a plane.” His buddy encouraged him to not get in great physical shape as then they wouldn’t accept him in the program which turned out to be true.

Truman was sent to Korea in May 1953. He was in the infantry and was directly involved in the infamous “Pork Chop Hill” battle which suffered very large causalities to his battalion and he was one of the few fortunate survivors to come off the hill.

He later found out there were other previous battles for this 300-meter hill which the top somewhat resembled the shape of a pork chop. The hill area was completely tunneled out by the enemy, as was found when it was heavily bombed and was located in the DMZ area between North and South Korea. That last battle was three weeks before the cease-fire on July 27, 1953, but the war has never been officially over.

He was stationed in Korea until August 1954 and then was discharged. In 1959, Hollywood produced a film of this battle called “Pork Chop Hill” staring Gregory Peck

Truman, worked for the Green Lake Grass and Seed Company and hauled grain for them. He then worked for Beryl Zwemke in the Spicer area and he also helped the Zwemke family move a couple of years later to Kasson. In 1961 Beryl contacted Truman as he wanted him to come to Kasson to help milk their 50 cow herd and would have additional cattle in the summer months. The farm was located on the west edge of town at the present 5^th St and 8^th Ave NW plus it had other farm buildings. Only the farmhouse remains as houses now cover the area where the fields and pasture once were along the dump road to the gun club road.

When St. John’s Lutheran built the church in 1963 – 64 it was in the pasture area and Truman said the calves would get out of their fenced area at times and be around the church building site.

Helen “Sue” Zwemke attended Mankato State College and obtained her teacher's certificate. They were married in 1963 and lived in a trailer house on the farm site while Truman worked there. Truman started to also tune a few pianos and one time he was called to fix a piano and when it was done, the woman said she would like to sell it and was wondering how much it was worth. Truman said he really didn’t know but gave her a figure and she sold it right then.

Truman told Beryl Zwemke that he had bought a piano and they needed to use their farm truck to pick it up from that place. They had to tip up the front end to get the truck bed low enough to get it loaded. While driving back to their farm site, a lady came running down the street and said she wanted to buy a piano and was wondering if that one was for sale? Truman said it was so they made the deal and brought it to her house.

When the Zwemke’s sold the cows in 1966, Truman contacted a company in Janesville, Wis. to haul cars. He continued to haul cars when they relocated to Council Bluffs, Iowa for three years and Sue taught at a local school. They then moved to Chicago for five years as Truman continued in the car hauling business and Sue taught school.

When Truman broke his wrist he decided that it would be too dangerous to drive those trucks since they did not have the steering and automatic transmission of the trucks today. They decided it was time to leave Chicago as he felt it was not a good place to raise their young daughter so they moved back to this area.

In 1974 Dan and Dave Skogen, Paul Weins, and Truman started the Sounds of Praise Quartet. The group gave gospel music concerts until their last one in Fairmont, Minn. in Dec ember 1990. Sue’s mother would play piano for the group and through the years they had other singers and piano players who took their turn as part of the group. They sang at many churches in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa, and one year they put on 65 concerts.

Truman recalled they were at a morning service in Iowa and later in the day were in Cannon Falls when a carload of people that had heard them that morning came to listen to them again!

Truman and Sue operated a music store called “Zwemke Music,” teaching music, selling instruments and pianos, piano tuning, and restoration in the building on the corner of 1^st and Main street.

Many students took piano, accordion, violin, and guitar lessons through the years, and at one time Truman had 85 music students and Sue had 25 for lessons. One student from Blooming Prairie would make it for his lesson even when the snow kept students living much closer staying home. His mother said would be very upset and a little hard to live with if he would miss the lesson. Carol Ausrud taught piano and accordion music lessons for several years and Truman complimented her on how well she could teach her students. Later they moved their piano restoration to their garage by their house. Truman said he never learned how to read music but could just listen to a tune and he would be able to play an instrument or sing that song right away.

When I asked Truman if there were instruments he would have liked to play, he mentioned if he could have played the pedal steel guitar better with a group and the concertina even though he did play and teach guitar and the accordion. He said perhaps his father never encouraged the concertina since he didn’t want him playing in dance bands.

Their two daughters attended Kasson-Mantorville schools and after living in Mississippi for several years, Heidi and her family moved to Kasson. Heather and her family live in the Pine Island area and Truman has six grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Truman and Sue moved to the Sunwood Apartments 10 years ago and Sue passed in 2012. Truman has his piano and a violin in his apartment and said he plays them almost every day.

Faith is very important to Truman and said he started out as a Lutheran but attended Baptist churches in all the communities they have lived. He makes sure he gets to the First Baptist Church every Sunday when possible and has a lot of respect for Pastor John.

Truman still drives and even gets up to visit relatives that live in the Spicer area. Several of his siblings also lived long lives and some of them made it into their 90’s. He has 32 nieces and nephews and his daughters are the youngest of the cousins.

Truman is a very humble man and said “I don’t think anyone would be interested in reading about my life since I haven’t really done anything that special to share with people.” Truman is a special person and he has been willing to share his musical talents with his children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews plus the hundreds of students and audiences through the years.