MUSCATINE, Iowa —  Carl Freese took his wedding vows  to heart twice and says the rewards have been great.

“My long life was due to the two happy marriages and the good cooking of my wives,” said Freese, who will turn 100 on Nov. 21.

 His birthday party will be held from 1-3 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 22, at Zion Lutheran Church, 513 Sycamore St.

He married his first wife, Dorothy Nicklas, on Jan. 7, 1942. They had been married 29 years when she died in 1971.

He and his second wife, Marion Dittman Freese, were married for 28 years when she died at age 93 on Nov. 8, 2008.

Freese, who is best known as “Snow,” was raised in Muscatine’s Southend by his parents, John and Bertha Freese.

He grew up playing Thursday night baseball at Oregon field in warm weather and ice skating on the slough in the winter.

He said his adult life was as full of joy as his childhood.

He loved both his wives so much he found it difficult to be angry with them and thought before he spoke.

Most of the time, he just didn’t say anything because he’d decide most of the  things that irritated  him weren’t important enough to argue over.

He said he tried to get angry with Dorothy once, when she asked him to do a chore several times.

“I said, ‘Look, there is not going to be any more of this, you asking me to do something two or three times…’” he said. “But before I got finished with the first sentence, I busted out laughing.”

He and Dorothy married  just before he shipped out with the U.S. Army to serve in World War II.

Shortly after he returned from the war, Freese began working at Grain Processing Corp., where he stayed for 27 years.

“I thank the Lord and I thank GPC for a worry-free retirement,” he said.

Freese said he, Dorothy, and their sons, Michael and David, were active with Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts and Dorothy was a good baker and taught him how to make pies.

The years following Dorothy’s death were made lonelier as his sons, both University of Northern Iowa graduates, went off to college and began their careers.

“I missed Dorothy very much,” he said.

David works for Life Line Emergency Vehicles in Sumner, Iowa.

Michael died of melanoma in 2003.

“That was really rough,” Freese said. “Michael  prayed the Lord would take him in his sleep … I went to visit him that last night and he went to sleep and he was gone.”

Freese had been married to his second wife for 23 years when Michael died.

The couple enjoyed traveling and often visited Marion’s daughters, Betty Crinklaw, 70, of Grand Junction, Colo. and Judith Ann Dittman, 73, of  Sheboygan, Wis.

He’s learning to live alone at Carrington Place apartments. He keeps in touch with Marion’s daughters and enjoys reminiscing with old friends.

“He’s just a good guy, and he’s good to everyone,” Dick Crinklaw, 75, said of his wife’s stepfather. “I guess that’s why he lived to be 100.”