Ann Haugaard, herself a teacher for many years, enjoys going to Jefferson Elementary in Valley City about every two weeks and reading to Mary Halvorson’s second-graders. Halvorson, right, said she, too, loves listening to Haugaard’s personal stories about growing up on a farm near Luverne.  (Jean Schlegel/VCTR) 

By Jean Schlegel
Valley City Times-Record

About every two weeks, Ann Haugaard of Valley City drives to Jefferson Elementary to read stories to Mary Halvorson’s second-graders. Haugaard has been doing this for eight or nine years, she says.
Haugaard, 94, was a teacher herself for many years, starting out in rural schools, and then taught library science for 15 years at Valley City State University.
Why does she do it? Haugaard says she just loves reading to little kids. She’s always loved learning herself, and then teaching it to others.
She was brought up on a farm near Luverne. Her mother died when Haugaard was born in August of 1914.
“I was always blamed for starting the war in 1914,” she joked.
She says when she started school, she couldn’t speak a word of English. She only spoke Danish, but she soon learned she had to speak English in school, which she did quite easily.
“The teachers were so good to me, and made me feel important,” she said.
One of the stories Haugaard told the Jefferson second-graders that Halvorson just loved was about the farm animals on Haugaard’s farm. It was one of her jobs to milk the cows, and she couldn’t figure out why one cow wasn’t giving any milk. She figured it out one day when she saw a pig nursing from the milk cow. It was an oddity, but true.
It’s little personal stories like this that really draw the second-graders in, plus Haugaard often brings treats for them. She comes well-stocked with interesting books from the local library to read to the youngsters.
Halvorson said every spring her students go on a field trip to the local library and they enjoy seeing the books there that Haugaard has already read to them.

For full story, see Thursday's edition of the Valley City Times-Record.