Broadcaster Press 03May 29, 2012 www.broadcasteronline.com

One in a MillionVer Meet Rennae O’Connor

By David Liasdavid.lias@plaintalk.net

There perhaps is noone who knows her wayaround SESDAC, Inc. inVermillion as well asRennae O’Connor.

Rennae began hercareer there as a part-time work study studentassisting in the casemanagement area duringher senior year in college.She graduated from USDwith a degree in socialwork with a minor inspecial education in 1982.

During her 30 years ofservice at SESDAC, Inc.,she has served as directsupport professional,

residential, day servicesand vocationalsupervisor, servicecoordinator, and hastwice served as interimexecutive director.

She is currently servicedirector for theorganization.

Rennae was honoredMay 22 for her years ofcaring service atSESDAC, Inc. She waspresented the 2012Community HealthService Award by theDakota HospitalFoundation at thefoundation’s annualCommunity LeadershipDinner held at theMuenster University

Center on the USDcampus.

Rennae is a guestlecturer at USD, and hasworked with the facultyand students in themedical school, healthsciences, social work,special education anddental hygienedepartments. Sheprovides students in theseareas of studyinformation aboutindividuals withdisabilities and theirrights as citizens,students, consumers andpatients.

She also serves on theadvisory committee forthe USD Social Work

Department.Rennae is a member of

St. Agnes CatholicChurch in Vermillion andthe Vermillion RotaryClub. She has served aspresident of the St. AgnesSchool Board, as a boardmember of the Rotary

Club and VermillionHigh School AthleticBooster Club, and hasbeen a member of theVermillion MusicBoosters.

Rennae’s husband,Larry, of 29 years, is afifth generation farmer.

Larry and Rennae havethree adult children. Herhobbies include reading,traveling, sampling wineand spending time withher children andgrandchild.

By Travis Gulbrandsontravis.gulbrandson@plaintalk.net

Along with thecollection of EddiePeabody’s instruments,there is a new book at theNational Music Museumthat recounts one of themost exciting, dangerousmoments in his career –which saw him acting as aU.S. spy in Nazi Germany.

Although GeorgePeabody considers “Man

with the Banjo” a novelbecause there was no way torecreate conversations thattook place, he said that“everything that is writtenthere is true.”

President Franklin D.Roosevelt had completedhis first term in officebefore he began to receivedisconcerting informationabout what was happeningin Germany.

“Roosevelt was under-secretary of the Navy

during World War I,”Peabody said. “He was veryconcerned, because thosewolf packs were devastatingin those days. He said, ‘Weneed some on-the-groundintelligence. By the way, didyou hear that guy Eddie

Peabody on the radiolast night? Isn’t hesomething? Do abackground check on him.’”

When it was discoveredthat Peabody had served inthe Navy during World War

I – including time onsubmarines – it wasdecided that he should beutilized in some way.

“(Eleanor Roosevelt)had a garden party,”Peabody said. “Theycoerced my father intoplaying at the garden party,then they strong-armedhim in the White Houseand said, ‘We want youback serving your country.’”

Peabody was secretlycommissioned as alieutenant in the NavalReserve in 1935 andreceived training over thenext three years.

In 1938, he wasscheduled for a Europeantour that included stops inGermany.

“He had a contact inGermany whose name wasGreg Ziemer, who is reallythe hero of that story andmany other stories that

were never told,” Peabodysaid. “He was a professor atan American university inBerlin, but basically to theState Department, he wasgiving some very influentialand highly-educated Jewishpeople out of Germany atthe time.

“He was my father’scontact, and sure enough,they found the Germansmaking a submarine insecret, floating it down theRiver Elbe, and my fathergot a photograph of it,”Peabody said. “He got somephotographs of some of theinstallations the Germanshad built in Holland andDenmark, and he thoughthis job was over.”

Then he received a callto play at a private party.

For Adolf Hitler. Andthe rest of the higher-ups ofthe Third Reich.

“At the same time, noone knew how extensive theGerman intelligencenetwork was in thiscountry,” Peabody said.“Sure enough, they hadinfiltrated the StateDepartment and found aphotograph of him in hisuniform. That informationthey radioed from NewYork to Gestapoheadquarters in Berlin.Those folks were analyzingwhat they were reading as

the plane was landing backin Berlin after my fatherhad entertained Hitler,Goering, Himmler.”

Fortunately, Ziemer hada contact in the Gestapo,who told him that the jigwas up.

“My father had to get outon a fast car out of Berlin,through Germany intoFrance on the rail system,into Spain with the Gestapohot on his trail, finallymaking it to Gibraltar,where the Brits got himonto a submarine over toEngland,” Peabody said.

Although he was proudof his service, Peabody saidhis father didn’t discuss it,and he himself only learnedmuch about it after reading“The Eddie Peabody Story,”by Lowell Schreyer.

“My father kept noscrapbooks. He neverlooked back. He alwayslooked forward,” Peabodysaid. “Lowell did aremarkable job, a yeoman’sjob, 10 years of his liferesearching all this. Once Iread his book, all those littlesnippets (of this I hadheard) began to fall intoplace.”

Peabody’s novel, “Manwith the Banjo,” is availableonline and at the NationalMusic Museum.

Book tells harrowing tale of musician’s spy mission

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