Marvel Before Elmer
Quimby High Class of 1937 - Marvel and K are right side, third row.
Before Elmer, Marvel had a beau. A boyfriend so serious, he became a fiancee. Some know this story. For others, this is a new story; 82 years later.
The best telling of the story comes from those family members who experienced this period of life with Marvel. Below are excerpts from memories shared by Marvel’s brother, Bob Hahn, and his wife, Mary.
Bob: One Sunday afternoon when we were living in Plymouth County on the Collier place (rented), Uncle Wes, Aunt Eva, Marvin (Day), and Frosty (Day) came to visit us. We boys went down to Whiskey Creek, which was bank full. Marvin went wading in it. So when we came back from the creek and went to the house, there was Marvel and K. Rollins. I said to everyone that Whiskey Creek water was up to Marvin’s belly button and Marvel got really embarrassed about me saying that. I think Marvel was in nurse’s training and am pretty sure they were engaged at that time.
While Donald was going to high school in Quimby, he boarded near the Rollins’ household. He knew K. Rollins's younger brother, Dean, and used to go to their home. One time they were up in the attic and he saw Marvel’s picture with the glass broken. K must have already been in the service at that time. K and Marvel were engaged at one time. Apparently, she broke the engagement after she met Elmer. I think she was a nurse when Elmer was in the hospital with “sleeping sickness”.
Mary: I got to know K’s mother while I was a member of the General Federated Women’s Club. The Rollins’ had a hardware and furniture store in Quimby, IA before they retired. They were well-to-do and after WWII built a house just a block north of the school. Mrs. Rollins asked me one time if Bob was Marvel’s brother and then would give us some of Marvel’s things that were sent to her after he was killed. I think he was an officer/pilot and was shot down over the water. She invited me over one time, but all she gave me was Grandma Fox's (Stewart) hymnal which was salvaged from the Methodist Church in Quimby after it had a fire. She never brought it up again. When Ethel was in the Sioux Valley Hospital in 1985, Mrs. Rollins was across the hall for a short time. When I went to see her, she asked if Marvel ever came up and if she did, would I send her to the room. So Marvel went down one day to her room. Marvel didn’t discuss the visit and I didn’t ask. But I would imagine it was a closure visit for both of them.
Added note from Marvel’s brother, Lorne, as told by his wife, Janet:
Lorne didn’t remember Marvel being engaged before she met Elmer. However, at one time she was engaged to K. Rollins, a pilot killed in WWII. He is in Marvel’s graduating class picture. My sister’s husband, Paul Samuelson, was also in the same grade. He says that Rollins was a quiet guy and bashful around girls. Paul was surprised Rollins got engaged.
Quimby High Seniors - Play Cast - 1937
Quimby High Seniors - 1937
Marvel Pick in a photo taken in 1939. Note the engagement ring on her finger. K and Marvel broke up sometime between September and November of 1939. Marvel met Elmer during the fall of 1939.
K. Warren Rollins, know as simply, K, was born in Quimby, Ia on September 13, 1919 (coincidentally the same day as my birthday and Elmer and Marvel’s wedding anniversary). He was the son of Ray and Nina Rollins. K had one brother, Dean, who was a friend of Don Hahn (see memories above).
After his 1941 graduation from Iowa State with a degree in ceramic engineering, K was briefly employed at the American Porcelain Enamel company in Muskegon, Michigan, before entering the U.S. army air cadet corps in March of 1942.
K was very active at Iowa State participating in Delta Chi, the American Ceramic Society, and various campus intramurals.
Following his enlistment, K received his basic training at Santa Ana, California. As an army pilot, he was a navigator instructor stationed in the Air Corps at San Marcos, Texas. He was advanced to first lieutenant in October of 1943.
K married Texas native Mildred Smith on January 1, 1944, in Austin, Texas. Mildred was a graduate of San Marcos State Teachers College and was born in 1919, the same year as K. The newlyweds made their home in San Marcos, Texas before being transferred to Lincoln, Nebraska, and Geneva, Nebraska.
In July of 1945 First Lieut. K. Warren Rollins was reported missing in action. Only overseas for a month, he was flying over Guam when his plane went done. K was buried at age twenty-five in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was later awarded the Purple Heart Medal.
Below is a slideshow of news articles spanning K’s short life (tap on each image to bring up the next).
K’s widow, Mildred Lois Rollins remarried Robert George (Bob) Porter on February 5, 1949. They met while both working for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in Denver, Colorado in 1945. Mildred was a chemist and Bob, a food inspector. They made their home in Colorado until her death in 2000. Mildred lived to eighty-one years old. Bob, a Colorado native, died in 2014 at ninety-five.
They were married for over fifty years and moved frequently while working for the FDA. They lived in the cities of Albuquerque, Salt Lake City, Denver, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. until transferring back to Denver in 1972 with Colorado being their final home. They had a large family, but no children.
