King and Queen at Pioneers Farmers Show
2026 King and Queen, Mark Oldenborg and Margaret Johnson! at Pioneer Farmes Show
This year we have two individuals for the honor of King and Queen. I will start with our Queen, she is a long-term member, former board member, her and her husband’s business provided a vital service needed to keep our grounds sanitary and user friendly, to keep our attendees happy and well taken care of. This business is now run by their son. This young lady kept our kitchen running with great food and a fun friendly place to volunteer along with her sister Phyllis our 2025 Queen. The 2026 Queen is Margaret Johnson; we all call her Mugs. Besides working with her late husband Ruben, running Solid Bottom, providing Porta Potties, sewer cleaning and other services, “Mugs” (Margaret) worked in the kitchens at the Shevlin School and Bagley School, then she transitioned in the maintenance department. All that hard work of cleaning and organizing has carried into her service at the Pioneer Farmers. “Mugs” is always organizing, cleaning, conducting maintenance and the general upkeep. When she sees a need, she fills it. “Mugs” also stays on top of working with Brendon Speck and his family to get our buildings stained.
Our King has been a member for a few years; he got involved about 9 years ago because of his special friendship with a member. Our new King was friends with Mugs late husband Ruben. The 2026 King is Mark Oldenborg. Mark is an electrician. Over the last eight years, he has committed to many projects, including but not limited to; adding new service and replacing outdated electrical. His commitment to LIRPF (Lake Itasca Region Pioneer Farmers) is commendable. Mark’s wife Karen and his daughter Kim surprised Mark at the show. Mark’s son John showed up over the weekend to celebrate and see his dad and Mugs lead the parade. Mark went to St. Thomas and got his degree in Finance. Would you believe that Mark’s first career was in sales, I myself find that almost hard to believe, but he had three different positions in sales. The last position in sales was at Hartzell Manufacturing, Mark decided to take night classes to become an electrician. During this time at Hartzell he was able to apply for his classroom training at Hartzell as he continually worked to fix the various issues that arose from the many machines they had. He started his new career with Merit Electric in St. Paul in 1999. Mark worked there for 23 years. He retired in 2022 and has all kinds of time to help us. Hopefully he still will after the surprise of being crowned King of 2026.