DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) - A Dubuque couple did not intend to name their sons after U.S. presidents, but once they realized their pattern, they kept going.
The Telegraph Herald reports (https://bit.ly/MCfckG ) the six sons of Bob and Becky Oberfoell are: Grant, Carter, Wilson, Pierce, Lincoln and Truman. Oh, and the family lives in a “white house,” though theirs is a modest ranch on Madera Street. Normally, the family doesn’t do anything special on the annual President’s Day holiday.
Bob and Becky married 18 years ago. As the babies started coming, they struggled to figure out distinctive names in the milieu of two large extended families. Dorothy Jo came first, followed by a half-dozen brothers, one every couple of years.
“With all our cousins, we were looking for unique names,” said Bob, 44, who teaches science at Wahlert Catholic High School. “I had a student named Grant and we liked it.”
The next son was named for a favorite television character - Carter. “Then we realized we had a pattern,” said Becky, 42, who runs an in-home day care business. As the next four sons came along, the couple picked presidents’ names that had some connection to family members - in the case of Lincoln, because Becky lived across the Mississippi River in his home state for a time. As the oldest of their seven children, Dorothy Jo became known as “the First Lady.”
“They are all nice, strong names,” Becky said.
Friends and family enjoyed offering suggestions for future presidential monikers - Jackson and Harrison were future possibilities for additional sons. But the next baby girl would have been named Audrey.
None of the boys expresses a strong interest in following their namesake by running for president.
They are more focused on being good students - Grant, 15, is a freshman at Wahlert; Carter, 12, is a seventh-grader at Mazzuchelli Middle School; Wilson, 10, Pierce, 7, and Lincoln, 5, are in grades four, two and kindergarten respectively at Holy Ghost School; and Truman, 3, is at home.
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Information from: Telegraph Herald, https://www.thonline.com
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