These twins helped make history in Valley City then went on to lead parallel yet unique lives

Nov. 29—Some emails just make my day — like the time in 2022 when I started receiving emails from people who seemed to think I was in the construction business.

Hi Tracy!

I see you are with T.E. Briggs Construction and want to introduce myself. I'm with a firm focused on helping construction trade businesses grow and exit at the highest valuation possible.

Or this one from someone else two weeks later:

In the last six months, I have worked with construction specialists, owners, and managers to learn about the problems they face with their construction management software. I wanted to reach out and see how you are dealing with this process at T. E. Briggs Construction.

I had to inform these emailers that while the construction worker was my favorite member of The Village People, I am not T.E. Briggs, nor am I familiar with how I might exit anything at "the highest valuation possible."

As much as being mistaken for a construction company owner made me smile, an email I received a couple of weeks ago was even more satisfying.

It was from a woman named Rebecca Picchioni who answered a question I posed on April 4, 2023: "Do you know any of the famous Valley City twins of '35?"

It was from the headline for a story I had done

about the history-making number of twins at a Valley City elementary school in 1935 — nine sets of twins, six pairs in the same grade. Based on research from the National Center for Health Statistics, a school that size in 1935 should have only had two to three sets of twins.

As I looked at those cute little faces staring up at me from the black-and-white newspaper pages, I longed to learn more about them. Given that the photo was taken nearly 90 years ago, I knew the odds of finding any of these twins weren't great.

But here's where that email from Rebecca comes in.

She knew one set of those twins — one was her grandmother, the other her great-aunt. She had stumbled upon the story from InForum when she was randomly Googling not long after the death of her grandmother June Olney Sakshaug, who passed away in June of 2023 in Bismarck.

June is one of those twins in the photo. She is pictured on the top row on the far left. Beside her is her twin sister Jean Olney Bell. And great news! Jean is alive and well and living in Redlands, California.

June's daughter Lynn Johnson and a cousin, Irene Atwood, got to work helping fill in the gaps in the twins' story.

Because Jean, who is 94, was just getting over an ear infection, her hearing wasn't up to par, so an interview over the phone would be difficult. Atwood agreed to ask her mother a few questions for me about what it was like to be one of the "Famous Valley City twins of '35."

She started with a little background about the twins' birth on Jan. 19, 1929, in Lark, North Dakota, during a snowstorm.

Jean recalled being told the doctor came on a motorcycle with a sidecar. While giving birth, the twins' mother had to convince the doctor she felt two heads. The doctor was very surprised to find a second baby. Also, no one is sure who was born first but June was always slightly larger than Jean so they figured she might have been the first to be born.

Do you remember posing for this picture in 1935?

Jean dimly remembers the photo taken of the twins. She is second to the right on the top left side of the photo and she was in the first grade. She mentioned remembering a set of male twins in her class where one of them never spoke.

What was it like to have so many twins in your elementary school?

She wasn't aware it was unique to have so many twins in a school, it was just the way it was. She didn't realize having a twin was special.

Do you have any fun twin stories (like mixing you up or twin intuition?)

She and her twin sister June were good girls. All the way through high school they played it straight and never tried to trick the teachers or their dates. Jean mentioned their close friends were able to tell them apart.

Later in life, when she was teaching schoolchildren, a school secretary asked her if she could tell which twin was which in a school photo. Jean was easily able to tell the children apart. Later, the secretary asked the children to confirm who was who and Jean was correct. Throughout her teaching career, she was always able to tell twins from one another.

At one point the school separated Jean and June into separate classrooms. They went home and told their mother how displeased they were. Their mother went to the school, and they were reunited once again in the same class.

What kinds of fun things do you remember from your school years?

She and her classmates played hopscotch, pom-pom pullaway, red rover, and jump rope. The girls loved games and always played together. In junior high, they enjoyed softball during recess.

As children, they also took many walks through pastures as long as there were no cattle present. They roamed along the river where they scouted out hobo camps but never came across anyone in the camps. One favorite pastime was playing on what Jean described as an island in a split stream running along the road. She couldn't remember what they played but they spent hours on their island world.

The girls weren't big on playing with dolls although they wanted them for Christmas. What they did love were the Rita Hayworth and Jeanette McDonald paper dolls. Even more, they loved the new catalog in the mail each year. They cut out photos of models and created families. They didn't stop with people, they also cut out furniture to create homes.

Jean and June never felt they needed to be away from one another and always felt independent.

What did you do after graduation?

The twins attended Valley City State Teachers College year-round and graduated in three years. Both women eventually became 5th grade teachers and both married men named Arnold who had both attended the agricultural college in Fargo.

Jean's husband was Arnold Bell and June's husband was Arnold Sakshaug. The four of them loved dancing at the Crystal Ballroom in Fargo. After their marriages, they never lived close to one another again but remained close through phone calls and visits. When in their 90s they chatted weekly on the phone.

Toward the end of June's life, Jean traveled from Southern California to Bismarck with a niece to visit June.

Jean said, "It was nice to visit June. It was so nice being together even though she couldn't communicate much. But June knew I was there."

Big thanks to Jean Olney Bell, as well as her daughter, niece, and grandniece for helping me learn more about one of the history-making Valley City twins of '35.

Now I best get to work. My construction company isn't going to run itself.