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LASTING CONTRIBUTIONS<br />
“The funniest part is<br />
cover crops came out<br />
when he was 80 years<br />
old, and he’s the one<br />
who pushed us to do<br />
that. He was always<br />
on the cutting edge.<br />
He was doing things<br />
nobody else was doing.”<br />
— PAT KNAKE<br />
1994. He also coached women’s softball<br />
teams and Little League baseball teams.<br />
Bud and Lillian instilled a strong work<br />
ethic in their children. They were a team.<br />
Lillian grew up on a farm and was a farmer<br />
long before Bud, who started out as a blacksmith.<br />
She did most of the milking when<br />
they had dairy cows, drove a tractor, baled<br />
hay and helped with chores well into her 80s.<br />
“Everybody worked,” Pat said.<br />
Donna handled cooking and other household<br />
tasks, while Bud, Lillian and other kids<br />
did farm chores.<br />
“I remember holding the school bus for<br />
them all the time because they were late<br />
from doing chores,” Donna said of her<br />
siblings.<br />
They reminisced about their one vacation<br />
day a year – a trip to Chicago to watch Bud’s<br />
beloved Cubs play.<br />
“You’d get up and milk the cows at 4 in<br />
the morning and you’d be back by 10 at<br />
night to milk them again,” Donna said.<br />
Bud was born on July 20, 1930, to Louis<br />
and Molly Knake. Lillian was born April 27,<br />
1929, to Anthony and Rosella Kilburg. They<br />
married on Oct. 27, 1951.<br />
The list of Bud’s community and agriculture<br />
contributions and achievements is as<br />
long as he was humble, his children say.<br />
Among them are founding member of the<br />
Iowa Cattleman’s Association, 1973; Jackson<br />
County Master Farmer, 1983; Wallace Farmer<br />
Magazine Master Farmer, 1984; Bellevue<br />
Community School Board, 1972-1988; Bellevue<br />
Township Trustee Chair, 1972-1988.<br />
He helped start the Andrew Jackson<br />
demonstration farm, was chairman of the<br />
Jackson County Board of Adjustments, an<br />
officer for the Jackson County Farm Bureau,<br />
on the board of C&J Farm Service Co-op,<br />
Land O’Lakes, and the Jackson County Cattleman’s<br />
Association.<br />
A voracious reader who could fix anything<br />
and often helped other farmers and<br />
family members out with welding projects,<br />
he touched countless lives. Despite farming<br />
until he died, he always found the time to get<br />
involved in the community.<br />
“He was a born leader. He was,” Pat said.<br />
“He liked to give back, and he thought that<br />
was one of the best ways to do it.” n<br />
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