by Sue Orsen

We were sailing along on Moonlight Bay.
We could hear the voices ringing, They seemed to say,
"You have stolen my heart, Now don't go 'way,"
As we sang love's old sweet song On Moonlight Bay.

She was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin; he, on the bluffs of the Mississippi River outside of Winona, Minnesota.  Together they came to live on Lake Bavaria and sail on Lake Waconia. 
The beauty and romance of all the moonlight bays of a lifetime, however, don't touch a heart like tender words of love or soft and silent tears upon hearing those words of love.  The genuine affection between David and Marlene Speltz is stuff of songs and poetry.  It's the reason we live and die, to touch hearts, to love, to sing old sweet songs on Moonlight Bay.
"She took such a great interest in me," said David of their courtship days.  "Her hair was so beautiful, so dark and natural, so shining.  It still is."  As he spoke these tender words today, their eyes held each other at their kitchen table and her tears fell over coffee and homemade bars, perhaps because they've been hurt in the past by others, perhaps because they've come to hear the sweet song of love.
The homemade bars, with nuts and chocolate drizzled over the top, were made from a brand new recipe.  Said she to he, "There's coconut in them.  I think you'll like them."  He smiled at her and took one from the plate.

David, the sixth of seven children, was born to Raymond and Jeanette Speltz at Minneiska, MN, on September 22^nd, 1934.  While he was still a tiny child, the family moved down the road to another small farm at Lewiston. 
"My dad also delivered milk and drove a school bus part time," said Dave.  "He had an Indian pony named Dan that he used to pull a milk delivery wagon around town.  Indian ponies are a smaller breed than other ponies, but I could walk under it when I was only four and five years old."
Dave recalled an incident when he was ten years old.  "We always had one cow that would meander down the road on the way home to the barn instead of going through the gate with the others, so one time I picked up a rock and threw it at her and it hit her in the temple and she went down.  I cold cocked her ....
"She laid there about five minutes, and I was petting this 1,000-pound cow.  I told her to get up, that my dad would kill me if she didn't.  She finally stumbled up and wobbled over to the others.  That was the last time she wandered away."
Advancing in years, the young David was soon responsible for helping with the chores every morning, which meant milking the cows and feeding the sheep and pigs and chickens.
After graduation from Lewiston High School in 1953, he attended St. Mary's College in Winona for one year.  "I be-came so discouraged because of poor grades and bad study habits, I quit," said Dave.  "Then my older brother Raymond, at a very key point in my life, took me by the hand and brought me to the University of Minnesota.  He helped me enroll in the College of Agriculture and everything went a whole lot better.  He doesn't remember helping me.  That brother is 75 years old now."
Commented the attentive Marlene at this point,  "Sometimes we don't realize the impact we can have on others."
During the Korean War, two of the Speltz brothers were serving in the U.S. Army at the same time, which meant their dad was left without help on the farm.  David, therefore, left the University and returned to the farm for a few years.
Finally, in 1957, Dave acquired his degree in Soil Science with an Agronomy minor.  His employment took him to the Agricultural Chemical Division of the Hercules Powder Company in Chicago for eight years, Diamond Shamrock in Minneapolis for another eight years, and then to the Brake and Equipment Company, also in Minneapolis.

Marlene, the oldest of three girls, was born June 2^nd, 1940, to Edward and Marie DesChane at Green Bay, Wisconsin.
"My dad was a laborer in the paper mill near Green Bay," said Marlene. "I worked there a while too.  It was tough work.  It was dusty, dirty work.  I made sure the ends of toilet paper rolls were cut straight.  I was my dad's boy.  I went with my dad everywhere.  Church and fishing were the two things we did the most."
Marlene attended Cathedral Elementary and then St. Joseph's Academy for girls from which she graduated in 1957.  The next year, at the tender age of 19, she married her first husband and moved away to Oklahoma.
"My husband was in the military at Fort Sill," she explained, "and I had Mark, my first baby, while he was stationed there.  Then I got pregnant with Steven and my husband got a scholarship to Michigan State University at East Lansing ...
"I lived with my parents a couple months, as the baby was due shortly, and then moved to Michigan where we lived in student housing.  I typed his thesis for him while he was getting his Master's Degree, and when we left Michigan I was pregnant again with Gregory."
"Then I also had Christopher three years later.  We were married 14 years.  During that time we moved from Oklahoma to Michigan, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Minneapolis, Wisconsin again, and Minneapolis again.  He was a district manager for Red Owl grocery stories, and when they called we just had to pick up our family and move on a moment's notice."
The divorce occurred in 1973, the annulment in 1974.  Marlene was left at home in Minnetonka with four sons, ages 17, 15, 14, 11, and child support payments.  Click here to continue.