Living History: Vivian ‘Arlene’ Vargus
by Bickford of Muscatine
December 30, 2020

MUSCATINE, Iowa– A native of southeast Iowa, Vivian “Arlene” Vargus spent her early childhood growing up in Henry County. She attended elementary school in Brighton and graduated from Washington High School.

Vargus married her husband, Joe Vargus in Memphis, Missouri and the couple chose to settle in Muscatine because of the abundance of jobs there following the Second World War. Together, they raised three children. All three attended Muscatine’s public schools, and Vargus feels that each of them received excellent educations.

For more than 20 years, Vargus worked in the lab at Grain Processing Corporation. A very precise worker, she weighed individual feed samples for various projects. Her late husband worked as well, having a career at Carver Pump that lasted for more than two decades.

In her spare time, Vargus enjoyed collecting both dolls and and agate rocks as well as completing puzzles and playing card games. A very talented needle worker, she took great pride in creating cross stitched pillowcases as gifts for family members. A big fan of the Iowa Hawkeyes, she also liked to keep up to date with how do in many different sports.

Since first coming to Muscatine so many years ago, Vargus has taken full advantage of all the amenities the city has to offer its residents. She has fond memories of spending time outside at Weed Park and on the riverfront as well as shopping downtown.

She also values the friendliness of the people of Muscatine and all the good neighbors she has had over the years. Now that she lives at Bickford, Vargus feels the staff there have the same kindness she sees in people everywhere in the city. She feels glad she decided to move to Bickford and describes it as a, “really nice place, (with) good food and friendly staff that help take care of me.”

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