The Tractor in the Haystack

Roger Lee Welsch, news reporter, author, humorist and folklorist, was born on November 6, 1936, in Lincoln, Nebraska. He was a graduate of the University of Nebraska, receiving a bachelor's degree in German (1958) and a master's degree in German (1960.) He studied folklore at the University of Colorado and Indiana University. His career in teaching included teaching German at Dana College in Blair, Nebraska and Nebraska Wesleyan University. In 1973, he began teaching at the University of Nebraska. He went on to become a tenured professor at the University of Nebraska and was considered a scholar of American Folklore and settler culture of the Great Plains. After he quit teaching, he was hired by Charles Kuralt as a senior correspondent reporting from Nebraska for the CBS news program "Sunday Morning." He had a biweekly segment, "Postcards from Nebraska" for over 13 years. He wrote, spoke, and maintained a website about tractors and farm-implements. He was the author of more than 40 books about love, tractors, dogs and women. In 2005, he received the Henry Fonda Award from the State of Nebraska Travel and Tourism Division. Roger Welsch died on September 30, 2022, of kidney failure. He was 85.

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