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Today's Featured Biography
Rebecca MacCanon Farnbach
I am grateful to have had the experience of living in Marshalltown for twelve of my most formative years and to receive an excellent public school education. My family didn't choose to live in Marshalltown - my dad, a pastor in the EUB (Evangelical United Brethren) denomination was "assigned" to Marshalltown Grace Church, on the corner of State and Fifth Avenue, each year from 1959 thru 1970.
My dad was assigned to churches in several other communities after 1970, but my parents eventually returned to Marshalltown. Dad died in a care center in Marshalltown. Mom lived at Embers for a long time and then went into Wesley Acres in Des Moines where she passed away in 2016 at 96-years of age.
Early years: I was born in Deaconess Hospital, because my parents lived in Toledo when I was born, then we lived in Hubbard for seven years before coming to Marshalltown. We lived in a parsonage next door to the church. That house was purchased by Habitat for Humanity and has been moved to near Church Street in the east part of town.
I attended Woodbury School, just down the alley from my house and remember classmates, Becky Ryan, Pam Wilkinson, Jeannie Jackson, Lyle Jenson, Fred Macauley, Marilyn Hesse, and Paul Settle, among others. We had a wonderful Brownie and Girl Scout troop that Mrs. Hesse helped with.
Then I went to Central Junior High - what a fantastic building that was. Mary Ann Griffin and I used to walk to school together. Then I went to Central Junior High and on to our special high school.
People probably remember me as a contemplative type person balanced by my involvement with Y-teens, Girls Y and chorus. I kept a notebook with me at all times and would often retreat into my own world to write my thoughts, usually in poetic form. I also was an organizer and in our junior year Seventeen Magazine featured a program some of us developed to teach music, drama, and art at the YWCA. Another program I worked with was The Meeting of the Minds, that brought groups in the community together to dialog and to gain understanding of their differences.
After high school: After graduation, I went to Westmar College in LeMars. I met Michael Marshall from Minnesota and we married after my freshman year. We moved to Southern California in 1975 for Michael to attend seminary in Pasadena. We had two children and divorced in 1978. (Michael died of a heart attack in 1992.) I now live in Temecula, California, a burgeoning town of over 100,000 75 miles from each Palm Springs, San Diego, and Los Angeles.
Career: I found a job in an ophthalmologist's office and, since I'd short-changed my formal education, I learned I could climb my way to the top of the field by studying on my own and taking examinations. I reached the highest certification possible and became a refractionist and a surgical assistant. I worked in private practices, for specialists and at USC School of Medicine and at Loma Linda University. In 2001 I was tired of a 100-mile round trip daily commute and decided to look for work closer to home. So I pulled out my optician license and went to work for LensCrafters. I retired Fall 2016.
Charity work: For a number of years I did short-term mission work, taking care of people with eye care needs in third-word countries. I have served on three missions to El Salvador, one to Ecuador, and so many in Mexico that I can't count them. On my first trip to Mexico, I survived the airplane's crash landing. My first trip to El Salvador was during the last year of their 12-year war. (The French I learned from Mr. Bechtel was close enough to Spanish for me to become a fluent Spanish speaker.)
In the LensCrafters store, I administered a charity program taking care of vision needs of our local poor and I also served on a Lions Club charity that provided free surgery for impoverished Americans.
Love: I married my soul mate in 1988. Darell Farnbach accepted my two children just when they needed guidance through their teen years. Darell and I are historic preservation activists and are working with the County of Riverside on the renovation design of a historic site that is in the process of National Historic Registry.
Organizer: Darell & I organize several historical events a year as an informative and fun experience for our community. The historic site that we championed now has 1,000s of visitors each year. I organize a team of volunteers who present historic interpretation there for the third-grade students in our district.
Writing Career: I have co-written six local history books in Arcadia Publisher's Images of America series and have self-published a biography on James Phillips, MD, DD who was related to my first husband. I also recently self-published a volume that I was going to call "Becca's Best", a collectionof my best poetry, short stories and articles. At the last minute I changed the title to "Dancing Louisa" for my featured inspirational poem. In that book is a poem I wrote at age 14, a poetic tribute to my dad, and a remarkable story of how I found my eye glasses that had been lost in the Atlantic Ocean.
For the past nineteen years I've hosted monthly writers critique sessions and from that group we have produced over one hundred-twenty books. In 2006 the San Diego Christian Writers Guild named me Writer of the Year.
I am presently coauthoring two books about our Temecula Valley Wineries. The first book is a wine-food pairing book featuring local wines. My coauthor is a culinary specialist who was a close friend and student of Julia Child. Our second book in the works is "Portraits of the Temecula Wineries" which will be a coffee table book with vivid photography.
Family: My dad was assigned to a number of other churches in different parts of Iowa before retiring. Mom and Dad came back "home" to Marshalltown and he passed away in 1999. Mother, Verla MacCanon, is at Embers.
My sister Jan Mitchell lived in Marshalltown and taught at MHS for many years before retiring. She was Iowa Teacher of the Year in 1998, and one of four runners up for National Teacher of the Year.She and her husband Don live in Des Moines.
My sister Marilyn, who was Y-Teen coordinator when we were in eighth grade runs a homeless ministry in Milwaukee. She has published three volumes of poetry.
My son Andrew is a brewer in a small brewer in Anaheim, California. He and his grown children live in Temecula.
My daughter Abigail, and her husband Ladislao Juarez, an electrical engineer, live in nearby Wildomar, California with their 9-year-old Paloma and 6-year-old Santiago.
Faith: Some of you may remember that my parents were pretty stict with me. When I left home to go to college I had to question what the Bible taught vs. what my parents believed. Early on I embraced my Christian faith heritage and I find the Bible to be the best guide on life's journey. We attend a Christian Reformed Church.
In closing: It is hard to believe so much time has passed since we graduated.
I am more proud than ever of my Iowa heritage and believe that being from the heart of America has given me the resources of character and the wholesomeness of values that have enabled me to achieve a few successes in life. I haven't decided yet whether to return for the reunion or not, but I hope and pray it will be a wonderful time for everyone to gather and to celebrate that we are still alive and thriving! Best wishes to everyone!
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