BOONE LIFE: There's no place like this home
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.
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.