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SAPP — On March 21, 1981, Ralph married Wanda in a simple ceremony in the bedroom of their small cottage outside Sapp. As the story goes, one of Ralph’s co-workers from the sign department of MU, Charlie Hayward, conducted the ceremony and afterward the newlyweds celebrated with a “beer party” out in the yard with about 20 guests that afternoon.
By all accounts it was about as simple an affair as can be — just folks declaring their love for each other in the comfort of their own home, a home Ralph had helped to build.
- Barbara Worley greets one of her five dogs moments after letting it out of its pen. "He's a runner dog. The others are just lazy all the time!" she said. The Worleys have five dogs, 20-something chickens and three rabbits.
- As busy outside as the home is inside, the Worley's backyard on Woodie Proctor Road near Sapp features all kinds of odds and ends collected and saved up over time.
- Ralph and daughter Barbara Worley search for the number of a local mechanic in their living room. Ralph, 79, has been retired for 20 years from the sign department at MU and spends a lot of his time in his easy chair watching television. Barbara works three days a week at a retirement care center in Columbia as a housekeeper.
It was nearly 28 years ago when Ralph and Wanda Worley exchanged vows in their bedroom. Not long after the marriage, their daughter, Barbara, arrived, and the three of them have been sharing the quaint two-bedroom home in the hills near Sapp ever since — with their collectibles.
Every nook and cranny, even the yard, of the Worleys' home features some form of eye-popping kitsch collected by Wanda and Barbara on countless shopping sprees in and around Boone County.
“When she (Barbara) was about 8 or 9 she just started bringing home little statues and stuff. We ain’t never really stopped,” Wanda said.
The home houses a plethora of items such as decidedly unrealistic dolls, nearly every type of Coca-Cola knick-knack produced by the beverage giant during the boom years of the '50s and '60s and plaster-cast statuettes of dachshunds and poodles, which makes sense considering the family also owns five dogs, 20-something chickens and three rabbits.
“It’s all stuff we like, and having the house full makes us comfortable,” Ralph said.
The Worley home and property on Woodie Proctor Road, just outside of Sapp, certainly is an intriguing place at first glance. But the most interesting element is that it’s a cozy home, which is just the way the small family of three wants it to be.
Comments
I meet Zachary this afternoon at Centralia and he was tell me about this little town called Sapp. I have never heard of it but know about where it is. I could not locate a Columbia Missourian in Centralia so i logged on to this site to read about Sapp. Think about how many stories are out there not being told. This is a wonderful story about the Worley family and their collections. As they said it makes them feel comfortable and the story didn't need to be written but how they must feel to have a story written about them and their collectables. Zachary did an excellent job and all in less that 10 paragraphs. Excellent story, thanks Zachary.