Former bodybuilder remembered

Palmer seniors recall 89-year-old as fitness fanatic, loving husband

January 29, 2006

DAWN DE BUSK/Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - Like many Valley residents who've had lunch at the Palmer Senior Center with Orville Wertzbaugher, Elouise Smith, 91, recalls the retiree who settled into Palmer life as a good-natured, outgoing man with a great sense of humor, who lived and breathed the importance of fitness.

&#8220I remember his smile and his jovial attitude. He was one of those people that it made you feel better to know,” Smith said.

Wertzbaugher, 89, died from kidney failure on Wednesday after almost two weeks in Providence Extended Care, according to his wife of 61 years, Mary Ann Wertzbaugher.

The couple had enjoyed their retirement years, from 1979 until they moved to Anchorage last year, at Canoe Lake in Palmer. It was a life that included canoeing and fishing around the lake, and dabbling in the shop with woodwork and metal work to create new things for the house, Mary Ann said.

Wertzbaugher, a bodybuilder who had perfected hand-balancing and acrobatics in Southern California and was listed in &#8220Ripley's Believe It or Not” for some of his feats, performed acrobatics with his wife early in their relationship, including at the World's Fair.

He loved to socialize as much in his golden years as during his heyday in Muscle Beach, she said.

&#8220He preferred going down to the gym. In the gym, it was the camaraderie,” his wife said. &#8220Everyone knew him and liked him. He was a regular. You could set your clock by him. When he was done working out, he would go have lunch at the senior center,” Mary Ann said.

&#8220Orvie was known as ‘Mr. Table 8.' He sat at a table full of women, and they treated him like a king, which he was,'” she laughed.

Larry Selle, 71, and his wife Maryan, 69, met Wertzbaugher at the senior center. They visited him twice at Providence Extended Care, bringing him home-canned fruit and salmon, and said he never responded to their presence.

&#8220He was a real athlete. He was Mr. Fitness. He worked out every day. He loved to play pool with other guys at the center,” Maryan Selle said.

Butte resident Lois Feaster, who underwent hip-replacement surgery in 1998, said Wertzbaugher encouraged her during her rehabilitation.

&#8220He said, ‘That's the answer to everything. Just keep up the exercises!'” she said.

&#8220I know one thing, he worshipped his wife. He always spoke so well of her. It was really nice,” Feaster said.

Mary Ann said the family hasn't planned any services. Instead, they've decided to hold a celebration of life get-together for him at the Palmer Senior Citizen Center on June 24.

&#8220The roads are bad during the winter. During the summer, everyone can drive there, and the flowers will be out,” she said.

She said she wished it could have been June 25, their anniversary, but the 24th falls on a Saturday.

&#8220We were married June 25, 1944. That was a good year. It was in South Gate, Calif. We had a garden wedding - that was before they were fashionable,” she said.

The union led to what his wife said was his greatest achievement.

&#8220The highlight of his whole life and all his accomplishments was our son, Jerry,” she said. &#8220That was the pinnacle of his life.”

Mary Ann said her husband's death still hasn't hit her, and for now, she's thankful for the years they had together. Also, her son has a vacation planned next month.

&#8220Yesterday, he pinned the itinerary on my bulletin board. I'll leave on Valentine's Day and come back on St. Patty's Day,” she said, adding they'll pick up her 33-year-old granddaughter Rachel and spend time on Jerry's sail boat in the Caribbean.

&#8220He lets me get out at the helm sometime. That's when I live, when I get on the sailboat. That's when I really come to life. Orville didn't like the ocean the way I do, but he liked to watch me at the helm,” Mary Ann said.

Contact Dawn De Busk at 352-2252 or dawn.debusk@ frontiersman.com.