North Dakota mom of 18 gained fame for her love of education and giving birth to her own baseball team

May 12—VELVA, N.D. — Those gathered in New York City to witness the crowning of Elizabeth Bodine, a North Dakota farm woman, as 1968's "American Mother of the Year" likely gleaned three key insights from her acceptance speech: She believed religion was at the heart of family, children shouldn't have too much freedom and she wasn't a big fan of hippies or mini-skirts.

Some would say 70-year-old Elizabeth Bodine of Velva, North Dakota, had earned the right to speak her mind that May night at the Waldorf Astoria. As the mother of 18 successful and responsible children, she and her husband, Frank, obviously knew what they were doing.

Elizabeth probably felt a little out of place in the hotel's grand ballroom. She was a farmwife who never wanted to draw attention to herself.

But that's pretty hard to do when you have a story like Elizabeth Bodine's. On this Mother's Day, who better to celebrate than one of North Dakota's most memorable mothers, the recipient of the state's highest honor, The Theodore Roosevelt Roughrider Award; who not only gave birth to her own baseball team and cheering section but also helped those less fortunate in her home country of Poland and assisted Native Americans in her new country?

Elizabeth Bodine was born Elizabeth Grossman in Posen, a German province of Poland. The Grossmans were a large family — mom, dad, six girls and five boys. According to a 1965 story written by St. Paul Sunday Pioneer Press reporter Gareth Hiebert, "Twelve of them were seasick for the 12 days it took to cross the Atlantic on the Queen Elizabeth" in 1912.

Their stomachs settled, and once in America, the Grossmans made their way to their new farm in Anamoose, North Dakota. Romance would bloom for 15-year-old Elizabeth just three years later.

In March of 1916, Elizabeth, 18, took a job on the Bodine farm in Voltaire, North Dakota. The son, Frank Bodine, 34, picked her up at the railroad station.

"I saw a young girl walking down the platform. I asked her if she was Elizabeth Grossman. She said, 'Yes,' and I said I was there to take her home. Those were the horse-and-buggy days," Frank told Hiebert in the 1965 story.

Elizabeth was there to care for Frank's sick mother, but Frank immediately paid attention to Elizabeth. He recalls it was a cold day when they stepped up into the buggy and made the trip to the farm. They weren't talking. He was wearing a coonskin coat with a beaver collar and cuffs. He was taken off guard when she reached over and flipped his collar up for him.

"I didn't know if she thought my ears were cold," he said, "But that broke the ice."

He might have been disheartened to know it wasn't really a romantic and heartfelt gesture from Elizabeth. In an interview years later, she said she just needed some space.

"I had to turn his collar up as it was rubbing my face because he and the coat took up the whole seat of the buggy," she said.

Despite his misinterpretation of her affections on the buggy that day, the couple eventually tied the knot on Jan. 10, 1917, and the legend of the Bodine family began.

After a honeymoon on the West Coast, Frank brought Elizabeth back to his modest clam shack in Voltaire. They roughed it there for a few months, trying to keep warm in the North Dakota winter with a stove that kept breaking down. They eventually built the big white house that their 18 children would call home — where babies laughed and cried, toddlers took their first steps, kids went to school and graduated, and young adults married and brought their own children to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Christmas.

The children were, in order: Luella, Viola, Francis, Jenette, Paul, Dolores, Loretta, Charles, John, twins Mark and Monica, Audrey, Patricia (Sister Mary Bernadette), twins Robert and Ronald, Gerald, Dale and William.

Neil Effertz of Bismarck is Loretta's oldest son.

"I remember Mom talking about how she and the girls pitched in with Grandma Lizzie during the busy summer months, baking 13 loaves of bread each day except Sunday when they made biscuits."

Elizabeth always said that too much freedom isn't good for children. They need a purpose, a belief in God and a love of learning.

Both Elizabeth and Frank had eighth-grade educations but wanted more for their children.

Frank put it this way in a 1968 interview: "You know, a lot of people would tell us, 'You can't educate 18 children.' We made the resolution that if they wanted to go to college, they got the chance."

"Grandpa Frank emphasized to the 18 children the importance of getting a good education because their small farm (about four-quarters of farmland) would not be enough to support them if they wanted to return home after high school," Effertz said.

The kids heeded their advice.

All 18 children pursued postsecondary education. They attended colleges from California to Notre Dame to Harvard and were a staple at Minot State College (later Minot State University) where at least one Bodine was enrolled from 1939 through 1965.

At her "American Mother of the Year" awards ceremony in New York, it was noted that her children included a Navy officer, a retired Air Force colonel, three teachers, two nurses, a lawyer, a football coach, and a baseball coach.

A love of baseball was evident even when the Bodine children were young.

With 10 boys in the family, they had enough players to take the field with an extra on the bench and "Papa Bodine" as their coach. The "Bodine Family Nine" took on local teams. At a 1962 family reunion, they played a team from the Minot Air Force base.

The Forum noted, "The Bodines also had ample support in the grandstand from eight sisters and several offspring,"

If raising 18 children wasn't enough, Elizabeth also became known for the work she did for others in her community and the world. When North Dakota presented her with

The Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Award in 1979

for her humanitarian work, her plaque read:

"Assisting the Indian population in the Belcourt area, contributing clothing and food to her relatives in Poland during World War II and sending boxes of clothing to Vietnam are but a few of the many projects to which she has contributed her time and energy."

A library was named after Elizabeth in Velva, where she and Frank moved after they stopped farming in Voltaire in 1965. Frank died in 1971 at the age of 88.

"She lived in a house only a few blocks from the school," Effertz said. We would go there after practice, waiting for a ride home to the ranch. She always had fresh-baked cookies or doughnuts for us and asked about our day."

In the summer of 1986, Elizabeth Bodine, like her husband, died at the age of 88. She was survived by 17 of her 18 children (daughter Viola died in 1974), 99 grandchildren, 72 great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren.

Of course, she is remembered as "North Dakota Mother of the Year," "American Mother of the Year," Theodore Roosevelt Roughrider recipient, and Velva library namesake, but for her many, many descendants, she was so much more.

"She was never a martyr, always upbeat no matter how dire the situation," recalls grandson Neil Effertz, "her motto was always, 'Whatever will be will be. Make the most of it.' She had an amazing attitude. Her happiness depended on her making others happy."