Their backgrounds and life stories strikingly contrast.
John Boosalis, a Minnesota native, served in World War II, when he survived a plane crash in the South Pacific and, weeks later, read his own obituary. He moved to Lincoln in 1961 and became part owner of the Knolls Country Club, and has held Nebraska football season tickets since 1965.
Thelma Chase, born and raised in Maywood, Nebraska, married a high school football, basketball and track coach. When her husband died in 1993, she spent the next 25 years living alone in a cabin on Lake McConaughy near Ogallala, baking, gardening and canning tomatoes.