For more than half a century, area farmers with balky or broken-down tractors had a virtually fail-safe remedy. They turned to Corky Wieberg. Renowned for his skill and meticulousness as a farm mechanic, he got them back in the fields. He literally kept the wheels of agriculture turning.
Corky, one of three brothers who owned and operated Wieberg Implement Co. in Martinsburg, and later Mexico, died Friday, Dec. 17, 2021, at the Lenoir Woods senior community in Columbia with his family at his side. He was 93.
With the exception of the past four months, when he was a resident at Lenoir Woods, and two years spent in service to his country in the Army, he spent all of his life in the Martinsburg area.
A funeral mass was celebrated Tuesday at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, with the Rev. Philip Kane officiating. Visitation was before the service.
Burial was in St. Joseph Cemetery south of Martinsburg.
Carl William “Corky” Wieberg was born Sept. 29, 1928, in Martinsburg, one of five children of Theodore and Ottilia Marie Dubbert Wieberg. His nickname came from a character, Corky Wallet, in the Gasoline Alley comic strip who’d been born as part of the strip’s storyline less than four months earlier.
Corky graduated from Martinsburg High School in 1946. He played town team baseball – a second baseman – and did odd jobs around the blacksmith’s shop his father owned. The family also farmed a small patch of ground, and Corky did custom work for others in the area.
He entered the Army in 1951, served 1½ years in Germany during the Korean War, and was discharged as a corporal in 1953. Later that year, he married the love of his life, Margie Ann Fecht of Mexico, whom he’d met while she was in high school. They spent 66 years together, until her death in June 2020.
Corky “started fixing things,” as he put it, while working with his dad after finishing high school. He would spend 59 years as a mechanic and the shop manager for Wieberg Implement Co., which grew out of Theodore Wieberg’s old blacksmith’s shop. As essential as farming and farmers are to Martinsburg and Audrain County, Corky was essential in that time to them. He finally retired in November 2004, having passed his skills on to sons Tom and Tim.
He gained nearly as much renown as a Sunday afternoon fisherman who pulled bass and catfish – invariably stringers full – from farm ponds and lakes around the area. He never lost his touch. His last outing was two summers ago, when he was 91 … and landed half a dozen bass.
Surviving Corky are his five children: Steve Wieberg and wife Paula of Liberty; Tom Wieberg and wife Becky and Tim Wieberg of Martinsburg; Janis Deimeke and husband Clarence of Laddonia; and Greg Wieberg of Boonville; 11 grandchildren; and 16 great-grandchildren (with a 17th due any day). Also two sisters, Jane Frick of O’Fallon and Claire Brinkmann of St. Louis, and sister-in-law Virginia Dixon of St. Peters.
In addition to his wife Margie, he was preceded in death by his parents and brothers Joseph and Robert “Bud” Wieberg.
The family asks that memorial contributions be made to the St. Joseph Catholic School Trust Fund or St. Joseph Cemetery.
Arnold Funeral Home in Mexico is handling the arrangements.
Online condolences may be left at www.arnoldfh.com.
