Donna was fairly tall, probably about 5'9" or 5'10". She had dark hair, almost if not totally black, blue eyes, fair skin, and soft, warm features. She was well proportioned and had a slightly low voice with a soft, melodic accent.

The one thing that can be said about Donna with certainty is that she was intense and ardent in her emotional feelings. Her emotions ruled her relationship with her family and her acceptance of friends and lovers. Her emotions also ruled her passions and her anger.

She genuinely cared about people and wanted everyone to be happy. She had a natural charm and graciousness which flowed from her physical beauty like a sweet breeze. She liked being where people were, liked to socialize, and was an incurable romantic.

Because of her early circumstances and environment, Donna developed an intense need for security, to the extent of a parent fixation. Self-justification became her driving force as her opinion of herself subconsciously became quite low, almost to an inferiority complex. She misunderstood her need for self esteem as a need for love.

Her instinct for self-approval was an index of her personal worth; her need for approval gratified by a search for love as a substitute for esteem. She was softhearted, but curious about the sensational, especially in romance, and willing to try almost anything once, within reason. She could be imposed on -- and was. And even though burned, still trusting her feelings, she would bounce right back, but a little wiser.

Donna's magnetism was strong, emanating from her in an aura that one felt. She gave the impression of impulsiveness, but it was her sincere nature, her trustingness, and her reaction to emotional stimuli which occasionally got her into trouble.

Her moral standards were the highest, but her morality was that of Heaven and Hell rather than of the confining flesh, and she wouldn't be forced into contact with people or circumstances which offended her sense of good taste. But Donna saw no good reason not to follow her emotions since she didn't trifle with them. Others did. She gave of herself, often to obviously unworthy people, because she was trusting, and she wanted people to be happy; and because she was sensitive, she was hurt. But Donna put her disappointments behind her, learned from her experiences, and continued to trust her emotions.

Donna could also be outspoken and blunt. She could build a person up and tear them down by what she thought of them. Her silence was as pointed as her voice. She said what she thought, and not always with diplomacy.

In later years, inclined to irritation and anger, Donna had a temper and a sarcasm which could be ferocious. She could be vacillating, quarrelsome and self indulgent, and sought escape in questionable forms, such as dance halls and beer gardens where there were people having fun, or while away idle time in a picture show where she could peek at another side of life.

* * *

Older son, Ron Bosley: "Our mother never had [the distance and reserve of her elders]...our mother always wrapped her arms around us...she would kiss us..."

"...pretty much of a happy-go-lucky person, cheerful and optimistic. She wouldn't let anything get her down.

She'd give you the shirt off her back..."

"...she had a real tough time with math, but she was good in English, languages...liked the sciences. And she liked to read...romance stories...but she liked to read a bit of anything. She liked history."

"...she liked chicken...fried chicken. And biscuits, beans, cornbread, "down home" food. What kind of music did she like? She liked easy listening type music, sentimental songs..."

* * *

Cousin Josephine Meadows: "She loved fried pork chops and fried potatoes..."

* * *

Childhood friend and sometime teenage dancing partner, "Chick" Godar: "Well, she wasn't a quiet person...she wasn't a wallflower. She'd go out and everything. We had a good time and everything...we'd go dancing down at the East Market Gardens...go dancing and roller skating at the Goodrich Local Union Hall. Over to Summit Beach. Ardell [Godar] and Earl [Waring], Donna and me. We didn't really date or anything; we just enjoyed dancing. We'd all hide and sneak a smoke...we weren't supposed to be smoking. We had a good time and everything. She had problems, you know. When she got a bit older...she got real sick..."

* * *

Sister-in-law Virginia Corbin-Henderson- Call: "I always liked her an awful lot because she was a nice person...and we got along great, you know? Living not too far from each other...we got along great together. More so than the rest [of the family], I guess because we lived closer together. And we were always in and out of the house. We used to go down there and spend the whole day together...my kids and you kids. And we had a great time."

"She was the type of person, she'd go along with anything...as long as it wasn't...how shall I say it? Because I guess it was because her and I got along so good. And the woman next door to us, the Hazletts...we were all about the same age...and we just had a great time."

* * *

Son Ronald: [So, other than her shifts in mood would you characterize Mom as a cheerful happy-go-lucky person?] "She always looked at the bright side of things. Nothing ever really got her down...except when she would get in these black moods; she just would never talk, ok? She just wanted to be left alone..."

* * *

I don't know if Donna ever read her proper natal horoscope, but she certainly lived it!

She was born Donna Lenora Davis on 21 October, 1914 in Elkins, Randolph County, West Virginia to Dallie Arnold Davis and Florida Gay Ramsey.

She was named after Donna Ramsey, a second cousin who was the daughter of Grand Uncle William J. Ramsey, on her mother's side; and Lenora Brown, a daughter of Gay's maternal grandfather, Robert Brown.

Donna was eight months in the womb when mother Gay attended the funeral of Sarah Melissa Brown Ramsey, Gay's mother. Donna was born 27 days later on a cold Wednesday in October. Donna's older brother, Philip Ronald Dallie had died just 11 months earlier, just before Christmas of 1913. He died of pneumonia at the age of two years and eight months. He died before his sister ever got to meet him.

"We had a little treasure once,

Gay took little Philip R.D.'s death with difficulty, one of the many

losses she would suffer in her life.

* * *

Donna's real sense of well being was paramount. Born of a mother who had lost one child and sought to protect this one. But the clouds were on the horizon, threatening to overshadow her warm security with dissension, angry words, dissolution. Her Mom and Dad were to separate.

By the age of three Donna was aware of the world around her, was sensitized to it and to herself. There was to be a change in relationships and feelings to that end. There was to be separation from her parents, although of a temporary nature from her mother, it would be of a permanent nature from her father. A move to a new home and a new environment. A definite altering of the course, the direction and the pace of her life. A period of unforgettable stress, with major changes going on inside her. A time for this toddler when sentimentality disappeared and was replaced by uncertainty. Tensions, temperament, physical and nervous illness; an inner resentment to confusing and distasteful changes.

* * *

Some time in the spring of 1917, the April 1910 marriage of Donna's parents fell apart; they separated. Donna would have been about two and a half years old. She was left in the care of Gay's oldest sister, Aunt Stella, and Gay headed north to Akron, Ohio, to find a job in the rubber shops. Gay had gone off to Akron in her teens when the big rubber shops were opening up to make tires for those newfangled autos. She had no taste for the drudgery of life on father Philip Ramsey's farm.

There were trips back to Elkins during the holidays, and for visits with Donna, as Gay would send or bring money to Stella for her daughter's keep.

A Christmas party at Stella's when Donna was four years old. Donna came staggering into the warm, fragrant kitchen where everyone was seated. Rose and John Slaughter broke up laughing. Donna had gotten into the hard cider!

Donna's holidays at Aunt Stella's were not gloomy for lack of holiday cheer. Several photos of Donna at her Aunt Stella's home show a beautifully decorated Christmas tree, lots of brightly wrapped presents, and a cornucopia of delicious food on a dinner table set for royalty. In those photos Donna appears to be having the fun of a kid in a candy store.

As Donna's growing experiences taught her to sort out her emotions, certain basic truths were impressed on her about separation from loved ones and those she is close to by circumstances.

First, she lost her father when her parents separated. Then, she lost her mother who, for all Donna knew in her child's mind and heart, went off and left her. She was soon to lose her Aunt Stella, who died shortly after Donna left her household. Donna's and Aunt Stella's birthday fell on the same day.

They probably shared a birthday party and enjoyed their celebrations together. There were gay holiday parties in Aunt Stella's home, when Donna's aunts and cousins might have visited for the festivities.

THE TWENTIES...DONNA'S TIMES

The 1920s have been painted as a morally loose era of illegal but plentiful gin, free-spiritedness and the ever-present wheeling-dealing stock market.

To be sure, history's account of Prohibition is near the mark. This was the time of the flapper, gangsters and bathtub gin. The "Swells" and the "Upper Crust" turned a blind eye to the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. But such accounts did not speak for the entire country.

Author Henry F. Bledford in the book, "The Americans: A Brief History Since 1865" maintained that such claims were simply legend, symbols of the era that stood out because the truth about the 1920s, the somewhat mundane lives of average women were not as glamorous as the legend.

This was the 1920s that Donna lived in, the average, the mundane daily struggle to survive and grow up and live life. She could marvel at the legend in her youth, as it was portrayed on movie marquees and in glossy magazines, but they were merely the daydreams of innocents.

So the history of life during the Twenties is recorded in the written word; a not-so-careless and crime-ridden decade of excess.

Most people ordinarily acted on such old-fashioned truths as tolerance, thrift and temperance...and humdrum conformity was characteristic of the generation. In the generation of the Twenties, was the "old-fashioned girl" with all she stood for in sweetness, modesty and innocence, in danger of becoming extinct? Or was she no better or worse than the 1920's girl, who in turn was destined to become the "old-fashioned girl" in a later generation?

In Ohio, as in other states, a bill had been drafted in the Congress, prescribing that "...plunging necklines shall plunge no more than two inches, that no garment shall be sold made of transparent material, nor any garment which unduly displays or accentuates the line of the female figure..." "...And no female over fourteen years of age shall wear a skirt which does not reach to that part of the foot known as the instep."

Concern and discussion would center more specifically over modern dances and the conditions surrounding the associations of boys and girls. Said a dean of a women's college in the Midwest, "There is nothing wrong with the girl of today." It was the perennial case of the youngster versus the oldster. But many "oldsters" championed the new and freer ways of that generation.

Said the Hobart College Herald, Geneva, New York: "The outstanding objection to the modern dance is that it is immodest, and lacking in grace. It is not based on the natural and harmless instinct for rhythm, but on a craving for abnormal excitement. And what is it leading to? The dance in its process of degradation has passed from slight impropriety to indecency and threatens to become brazenly shameless..." "Even the most callous devotee of modern dancing cannot think with unconcern of the danger involved in any further excess..."

And such were some of the moral concerns of those in the Twenties who had time to worry about them.

The Twenties slid in on the shirttail of Prohibition. The 18th Amendment to the Constitution in the form of the Volstead Act was passed by Congress in 1919, and went into effect on 16 January, 1920, heralding a decade of bootleg hootch and booze-sneaking from the Atlantic to the Pacific seacoasts.

Like each decade before it, the Twenties introduced excitement, happenings, incidents and tragedies.

In October of 1920, the Cleveland Indians defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers 3-0 in the seventh game to win the World Series.

In August of 1923, President Warren G. Harding died suddenly of "apoplexy" and was succeeded in the presidency by Vice President Calvin Coolidge.

In July of 1925, the nation was entertained by the celebrated Scopes "Monkey" trial which took place in Dayton, Tennessee.

In May of 1927, Charles Lindbergh single-handedly flew non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean and landed in France.

In February, 1929, Chicago law enforcement officers went after the "mob" after the "St. Valentine's Day Massacre in which seven "hoods" were slaughtered. Ninety-eight persons were killed in the Cleveland Clinic disaster and, finally, in October of 1929, Wall Street collapsed, causing the financial ruin of many and introducing the national calamity that came to be known as the Great Depression of the Thirties.

* * *

Donna wasn't even in school at the start of all of this. She was still busy, and would be for some time, with the business of child's make-believe. Her world would be touched only by the everyday happenings of life through the many adults of her mother's family around her.

* * *

July 1, 1922 - Akron Beacon Journal (Saturday)

"Railway workers go on strike [headline]

Logan, W.Va.-Approximately 160 men, including machinists and boilermakers in the Peach Tree shops of the C&O strike at 10:00."

"Walk-outs at Alexandria, Va., Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Toledo, Newark, Canton, Dayton, Chicago and Columbus."

July 1, 1922- Akron Beacon Journal

"President Harding tells coal operators and mine workers to end strike--that the Administration means business--'You are admonished to arrive at such understanding with measurable promptness, among yourselves. If the adjustment cannot be reached by you alone, government will be available at your joint call'."

"Thunderstorms, 79 degrees-cooler tonight. Sunday fair and cooler.

* * *

Aunt Stella was ill. Gay brought Donna to Akron and enrolled her in Allen Elementary School on South Main Street in September of 1921. They lived not far away at 782 South Main Street in a building above the business-lined street. Stella died ten months later. Donna was listed on her school record as in the third grade, but she would have been only about seven years old, so the record was probably in error.

Donna's life in the relative calm and quiet of Aunt Stella's care came to an end. All she had become to this juncture of her life is what she brought with her to start her new life with Gay. She brought with her the same temperament, more the personal Donna than the practical.

After Aunt Stella's illness and subsequent death brought Donna and her mother together again, she found herself in the new big, rubber town of Akron, bustling with factory workers instead of farmers; soldiers returning from the Big War, and apartment living. No more big house, no more green lawn or back yard. Again, her environment changed dramatically, this time leaving the quieter Elkins, the hills and forests in West Virginia, for the glitz, concrete and noise of life on the edge of Main Street, Boomtown.

Donna entered this new lifestyle with her mother, adapting to living under Gay's roof, getting to know her mother all over again on a daily basis. Now she attended school and her personality intermingled with those of her classmates, and her West Virginia ways, ideas and speech were on display.

* * *

July 4, 1922 Akron Beacon Journal (Tuesday)

"Fair, with rising temperature"

July 20, 1922 Akron Beacon Journal (Thursday)

"Find woman slain following party. She was identified as Elizabeth Brickner, 22, of 222 E. Crosier Street. Four men held on suspicion."

"THREE DETECTIVES SHOT FROM AMBUSH -- Monongahela, Pa.

Three Pennsylvania railroad detectives and a constable were shot while patrolling a rail line."

"One thousand Klan members meet in Akron. They were addressed by Dr. C. L. Herrod, the King Kleagal, of Columbus."

"Dr. Friedjof Nonsen reports to the League of Nations that 24,000,000 Russians are starving, too exhausted to work their fields."

Coal and railroad strikes continued.

Akron weather, clear, 70 degrees-Warmer Friday.

* * *

In September, as Donna was preparing to enter Akron's school system, the world around her was lurching through its historical fits of hostility, suspicions, violence and bloodshed.

The Chicago, Quincy & Burlington Railroad made headlines threatening to keep up its "warfare" against its shopmen who were still striking from the July walkouts.

Henry Ford's auto plants shut down from lack of the coal needed to operate, and the railroads to ship by; as he had threatened the coal and steel industries he would do.

Russia threatened to join Turkish Nationalists to take Constantinople against the Greeks as Mohammedans slaughtered Christians. The British fleet was ordered to halt the Turkish invasion.

A 62-year-old moonshiner in Chicago slayed her husband whom she claimed beat her all night; and "false" prophets in Geneva, Switzerland, "chattered idle words while Islam called for a religious war".

* * *

18 September, 1922 - The Monday morning school day greets Donna with a fair day of 50 degrees, up from an overnight low of 45 degrees. Cloudiness and showers expected for Tuesday.

* * *

Donnie Harrison, girl artist, fought for her life after wanting to "end it all" by taking poison a few days earlier.

* * *

And a deputy marshal in Silver Lake was under $5,000 bond as he was accused of shooting an alleged bootlegger following a fist fight.

* * *

The following 5 September, 1922, Donna's records showed she was advanced from grade 3B to grade 3A. Normally, a child's progress starting in September would take her through grade 3B, and some time in January of the following year the child would advance into grade 3A. Donna was to demonstrate this ability in successive years; however, she obviously had some difficulty adjusting to her first year in Akron.

In January, 1923, she was advanced to grade 4B and seemed on her way to a normal school routine. However, in the semester for January of 1924, in grade 5B, Donna missed 14-1/2 days of school, setting a precedent which followed her through her school career.

In the Fall of 1924 she was enrolled in November, again in grade 5B. This enrollment was two months later than normal. She was absent only four days, but the following semester, beginning 16 January, 1925, in grade 5A, Donna missed 12 days. The September enrollment for that year she was advanced to grade 6B and was absent 18 days. She was required to repeat grade 6B on her semester enrollment in February of 1926; that school period she missed seven days.

* * *

In 1925, when Donna was eleven, Gay made a trip to Aunt Rose's in Huntington, West Virginia and brought Bob Burns, her new interest, with her to show off to the family. "He was handsome", according to one of Donna's cousins.

* * *

In 1926 they moved to 1137 South High Street and Donna was transferred to Miller School. She was enrolled in October, a month late, in grade 6A. Donna missed nine days of school during that period. However, on January 31, 1927, the record shows only five days missed.

* * *

In an interview with Ron, Donna's older son, he related to me that Donna cared a great deal about her father, Dallie Davis. She must have missed him. She wrote him a long letter once. Either he came to see her, or she went to see him. She wrote him a second time, but she never got an answer to her letter.

* * *

Although the Akron City Directory for 1935 lists Gay as the widow of Dallie, Ron claimed Gay would have said something like that; that she wanted nothing to do with

Dallie, or would have considered him dead, even though he might not be. This atmosphere could certainly have provided a reason why Donna never received a reply to her letter!

* * *

There were trips back home to West Virginia. They were as frequent as Gay could manage and afford. Travel was difficult by 1988 standards, but this would merely be a minor obstacle for Gay to overcome. All of Gay's and Donna's kin were back down home in West Virginia.

When she was 15 Donna went to visit her cousin Roscoe, Aunt Stella's son with whom she had grown up, and his wife, Hazel. While there she paid Cousin Josephine Slaughter a call. Aunt Rose, Jo's mother, was separated from her husband, John Slaughter, and she had an apartment with her daughters. Donna and Jo were especially close, but then Donna was close to all of her kin.

Donna made the return trip to Akron accompanied by Roscoe and Hazel.

* * *

 In September of 1928 her school records show Donna was enrolled in grade 8A at South High School. She is listed as residing at "19" East Voris, but the Akron City Directory gives the correct address as 14 East Voris Street. She is listed as Donna L. Davis, living with Robert W. Burns (and wife Gay F.) at that address.

* * *

[Charles ("Chick") Godar, Jr.]: "When they first moved in, they moved into my dad's front house. There were two houses there...the front house was 14 East Voris, and 12 East Voris was behind...had the covered outside stairway. It also had an old-fashioned slate roof...they've since torn it down.

* * *

[Ron]: "When Mr. Godar started renting that top [apartment at 12 East Voris], he put that kitchen in up the stairs; then they moved in at 12 East Voris".

[In answer to the question, "Did Donna ever hold down a job, either before or after her surgery?"]

"As a waitress in a restaurant...and then she worked for Stump & Dickerhoff, a hardware store on the corner of Main and South...used to be right across the street from Codish [drugstore]...Codish was on one side, Stump & Dickerhoff was on the other side."

[What did she do there?] "Clerk...just clerk. She used to work in a little restaurant behind Stump & Dickerhoff, on South Street...had the best crullers in town. Ardell used to work there. In fact, Ardell's the one who got Mom the job there."

[Were they close?] "Yes...very...for a while. Grandma broke up the relationship. Earl Waring was going with Ardell, and Chick was going with Mom. That's how Grandma got to know the Godars. Mom was only 14 or 15."

* * *

[Chick Godar]: "We never really ran around all that much together, you know. Just me and Ardell...and there was Fred Niedert, lived a couple of houses down the street. His dad owned Niedert Distributing Company. We all went together, played together, whatever you want to call it. Played kids' games. We'd sit there and listen to...course we liked the music that was played at the time...contemporary music, which was our music at that time."

[Did she like hillbilly music?] "Oh yeah, yeah, even Ardell, myself, even my dad liked it and he's a foreigner, you know; even he liked country. He'd hear "Nashville, Tennessee" [announced on the radio], and he'd come and we'd listen to it. And we'd play; we played outside a lot too. Games and stuff like that..."

* * *

Then a strange thing occurs in her school records; to backtrack, she enrolled at South High School on September 10th; three days earlier, Mary Godar, wife of landlord, Charles Godar, Sr., and mother of Donna's schoolmate, Ardell, died at the comparatively young age of 43. On 28 January, 1929, her school record showed Donna living at 701 Coburn Avenue in a house next door to the family of William L. and Anna Burns

(a family which plagues this writer as being related to Robert Burns in some fashion). Donna still attended South High School, but that semester she missed 23 days of school. She had missed 14-1/2 days in the first semester of that school year.

* * *

On February 24, 1929, two-year-old Robert F. Burns, son of Harry Burns of 699 Coburn Avenue, right next door to Gay and Donna's duplex, died of pneumonia.

On September 9th of that year, Donna enrolled for a second term in 9B at South High School. This time her residence was listed as 664 Coburn Avenue. She accrued 55 days absence from school, and her school record contains the notation, "unable to return Sept. 1929." On January 6th a notation lists, "Did not know address-Miss Pierson has card".

* * *

Some time between 1929 and 1930, Robert Burns was killed in an auto accident.

* * *

Tuesday, 23 July, 1985

9:00 A.M. Abbie and I stopped at the Akron coroner's office off the freeway and talked to the receptionist, Betty F. I explained the nature of my request concerning Donna's death certificate and asked in regard to an autopsy report. Betty indicated to me that there was no indication that an autopsy was considered at the time of Donna's death, nor was one performed. She did indicate that seemed unusual in that Donna was pregnant at the time. She said that current policy is that in the event of a pregnancy at the time of someone's death, an autopsy is an automatic requirement and would be performed.

Betty called the county jail on my behalf to determine if there was any record of Donna's incarceration in November of 1945. She was apparently told that their records only went back to the early 1950's.

9:40 A.M. Abbie and I drove over to Mount Peace Cemetery to find Donna's and Gay's gravesites. I had called ahead a day earlier for assistance in locating the sites. I was told Donna's location was Section 24, Grave number 689. Gay's location was Section 24, Plot number 958, Grave number 2.

On our arrival at the cemetery office, I introduced myself and asked if there were any additional family information included in the cemetery records. I was told that there was no data on the card other than the grave location. The records did, however, indicate that Gay's grave had a headstone, but there was no indication that Donna's grave had one. I said that there should be one, and that I would drop by the office on my way out to verify that fact.

After locating the graves, I took photos of the stones for the album and family history. We returned to the office and verified to the female attendant that the stones were both in fact in place. Later, I commented to Abbie on Superintendent Freudman's surly attitude---a man who didn't like his job.

10:15 A.M. We arrived at the Akron Public Library to once again research the city directories. I checked for 701 Coburn Avenue, and 664 Coburn Avenue, where Donna's school records indicated she'd lived, to determine ownership. I noted what were obviously different occupants for 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930 and 1931. The record showed only the residents for those years, and not who owned the property; apparently a high-occupancy turnover.

I decided to try to find the Akron Beacon Journal obituary for Robert Burns' fatal accident, and looked through the microfilm records for Burns for the period September, 1928 through February, 1929. I found only the obit for Mary Godar, mother of Ardell, and wife of Gay's landlord at 14 East Voris; and two-year old Robert Burns, child of Harry Burns of 699 Coburn, of the family of William L. and Anna Burns of the same address. It had been my long-time hunch that a relationship existed between Gay's Robert Burns and the William L. Burns family of 699 Coburn Avenue.

12:30 P.M. We drove over to the Akron Beacon Journal with the hope that we might be able to search through their newspaper 'morgue'; maybe we might find something we had missed at the library.

The guard at the Beacon Journal's front door politely refused us entry for our mission, citing the newspaper's policy which excludes public access to its records. No help there. We went back to the library after a brief lunch, and once again looked at the newspaper film, found the Godar and Child obits, and made the notes that I had earlier failed to make. Abbie checked in the family history section, and looked for 1800's data for Frederick County, Virginia, and other West Virginia census data, to no avail.

We returned to Cleveland, arriving home at 4:15 P.M.

(Ultimately, our search for the Burns obituary was to cover the periods 1 September, 1928 through 29 February, 1929; 1 August, 1929 through 31 January, 1930; 1 February, 1930 through 30 June, 1930; and 1 September, 1929 through 1 January, 1930, plus the in-between dates from late 1928 to early 1930, the only films available at the library).

December 24, 1929 Akron Beacon Journal (Tuesday)

"Snowfall heralds Christmas"

"U.S. gripped by blasts on Holiday Eve"

"While Akron is belted by a snow storm during the day with

temperatures of 22 degrees, the evening forecast is for a

rainy Christmas Eve with warmer temperatures."

* * *

The usual headlines of deaths, gang activities and Royal plots lent little holiday cheer to an already solemn period.

Christmas day, Wednesday, December 25th brought colder temperatures and snow flurries.

The Holub Building at 866 South Main Street was engulfed in flames. Twenty persons, including four children of P. W. Skinner were forced from the burning apartment building. The Skinners were put up by neighbors.

For those who stayed at home that New Year's Eve, the radio offered True Romances on WADC at 8:30 P.M., followed by New Year's Eve Studio Party at 10:30 P.M., followed by New Year's Eve Party at 11:00 P.M., and Midnight Melodies at 12:05 A.M. on WTAM. Rudy Vallee's Vagabonds lit up the airwaves at 12:30 A.M.

* * *

In Donna's private world, all hell broke loose! Instead of Donna's nagging fear of losing her mother to marriage, she now must contend with her ties to her mother being broken altogether.

In 1930 the Akron City Directory lists the following: "Donna L. Burns, student, 58 W. Thornton Street; Mrs. Gay F. Burns, 58 W. Thornton Street, works Goodyear".

In 1931 the directory notes "Mrs. Gay F. Burns, 18 West Voris Street".

In 1933 the listing read, "Gay F. Burns, 21 E. South Street".

It's not hard to realize the trauma which beset Donna's life in those days because it's not difficult to understand the trauma that beset her mother, Gay.

Gay's beloved was dead. In all likelihood Gay died a little on the inside too. Gay was to carry Bob Burns' surname in 1931 and 1933 city directories, whether carried over by the publishers or as given by Gay herself. It was in her nature to pine with a fierce fervor the death of the man she was going to marry. Gay was of a bent to cling with tenacity to a love given by someone and accepted by her. She would not be content until she found total quality in one man. Gay seemed so affected by Burns' death that she was not to marry again.

* * *

This was the second time Donna lost her mother. All the discipline inside her rebelled by seeking emotional support away from home.

Donna's cousin, Jo Slaughter married John Meadows in October, 1931. Donna had written to Jo somewhere around that time, before Jo's marriage, to tell Jo how lonely she was. Gay was working in the rubber shops. She often stopped at a beer garden after work, and Donna "had nothing to do".

Then Donna wrote to tell Jo she "met the best looking guy".

* * *

On the 11th of April, 1930, an application for marriage was filed between Donna Davis, age '18', of 844 South Main Street, and Osborne Stout, age 22, of 14-1/2 North High Street. Donna was 15 years, six months and ten days old the day of the application.

Donna broke the old ties by the formation of new ones. Her marriage to Osborne was on impulse, to get away from her old, painfully familiar life. It was not a good time to make a successful marriage, because Donna was touchy. Her personal magnetism was strong, but self centered and self indulgent. Willfulness and temperament were her dowry.

* * *

11 April 1930

The headlines on the eve of Donna's wedding greeted her with news of death from heart attack of 17-year-old Gladys Mitchell of 237 Berman Avenue. An ironic conclusion of another teen's life

And there was Miss Clara Sweeney, 19, of Westside, New York, who accidentally swallowed liniment, and was fatally poisoned. Miss Sweeney hadn't wanted to bother anyone to take her to the hospital since her symptoms seemed mild until her collapse.

The temperature had been a sultry 87 degrees and partly cloudy. Rain was forecast for Saturday.

12 April, 1930

Donna's wedding day was a comfortable 74 degrees. General Electric Hour was featured on WTAM radio at 9:00 P.M., followed by Opry House at 10:00 P.M.

* * *

In my research of Donna's life, I was constantly watching for useful aids to help interpret my findings. Among the aids I reviewed was handwriting analysis. Approaching this topic with caution, I noted the admonition that handwriting analysis was useful primarily with goodly samples of a person's writings. Having only Donna's signature on her marriage license applications as a sample, I used this technique with appropriate pessimism; it was the only sample I had.

We think of a person's handwriting as being as unchangeable as their fingerprints. Quite to the contrary, our handwriting is a mirror of our emotions, disposition and state of mind. While our style of writing is our own, its flow changes with our mood.

Such factors as pressure, line thickness, writing size, spacing, letter size and letter slant are clues to our moods and our state of mind.

An analysis of Donna's signature on her April, 1930 marriage application suggests its essence is one of adolescent confusions. A girl who is emotionally off balance, indecisive and childish, inconsistent in her responses to others and caught up in her own feelings, often moody and immature, but not without her own charm.

Donna was markedly aware of what she was involved in, and about to embark on, almost with a mark of precision. In addition to her attempt to take care of her circumstances and her life, she was also attracted to the pleasurable prospects of her impending marriage. She was filled with anxiety, but raring to go!

* * *

"...Undeveloped intelligence and ambitions, who is an idealistic dreamer with a demanding conscience, self critical and can be critical of others. Under pressure, she may flee her dreams. She can display a sense of humor and originality, and who shows determination and, on occasion, stubbornness.

Her signature shows fatigue or depression and a moody attitude. She is generally amiable with a sensitive nature, who is quick to elation or disappointment. She lets her feelings influence her decisions.

There is emotional instability and inconsistency of reaction which makes her difficult to understand and sometimes hard to get along with. There is some anxiety and impatience.

She is attentive to detail, inclined toward an intellectual approach to life. She has a significant desire for tactile stimulation and physical contact. She is attracted to pleasurable activities, is physically oriented, and may tend to verbal expression of sexual innuendos. Can be distracted.

She is emotionally off balance a good deal of the time and inconsistent in her response to others. She is caught up in her own feelings, indecisive, childish, often moody. She is also immature, but not without her charm."

* * *

Donna was 15-1/2 years old at this point in her life, had dropped out of high school in her beginning years, the result of high absenteeism, the tragic loss of her mother's fiance, perhaps even the events of the stock market crash. Her father, whom she cared enough about to have kept his school days' photos, was apparently out of her life. Heavy burdens for a fifteen-year-old.

* * *

On 1 December, 1931, on Donna's behalf (since she was a minor), Gay filed as Plaintiff's Friend, a petition for divorce for Donna from defendant Osborne Stout, residing at 331 Jefferson Court, Akron. Donna resided at 18 West Voris Street with mother Gay. Donna's attorney was Simon Kail.

The petition states that Donna "has been a true and faithful wife and has conducted herself as such towards" the defendant. The defendant, on the contrary, has been guilty of extreme cruelty and non-support in that "ever since their marriage he" "neglected to provide a home for her, that he seldom worked to earn enough money to provide her with the necessities of life", "proper clothing" and in order for her to survive "she was compelled to live at the home of her mother'" who "used her own earnings to pay for food and clothing" for the plaintiff, etc.

The petition also asked that she be restored to her maiden name, Donna Lenora Davis. The petition was entered in the Summit County court record files as case #91895.

* * *

8 July 1930

The Tuesday of Grandpa Philip's death was greeted in Akron by a temperature of 92 degrees with occasional showers. There were heat-related deaths all over the country. A 65-year old man in Virginia, Minnesota was overcome by heat and died, while in Hatfield a 50-year old man, who was in ill health, committed suicide to find relief from the heat. The temperature was recorded at 100 degrees in Cairo, Illinois. In Elkins, the temperature was somewhere between 82 and 92 degrees.

Tallmadge demanded Akron annex all or none of the Township in a move to incorporate a business section.

And, the Pretender to the Hungarian throne, Crown Prince Otto, planned to seize power. He had been residing with his mother, ex-empress Zita, in Belgium.

Mt. Vesuvius erupted near Naples, Italy.

* * *

18 September, 1931 (Friday...Ron's Conception)

Just five days earlier, on Sunday, 13 September, 1931, Aimee Semple McPherson surprised her congregation as she married her third husband, David L. Hutton, a baritone in her entourage.

* * *

The 38-year old Aimee dashed to Yuma, Arizona for her wedding to the 30-year old singer. The wedding was sure to offer romantic controversy to her followers as a $200,000 "heart balm" breach of contract lawsuit was filed by an attorney for an old flame of Hutton's, Myrtle H. J. Pierre.

The evangelist's mother, Mrs. Minnie "Ma" Kennedy added to the controversy as her erstwhile husband, Guy Edward "What a Man" Hudson filed for an annulment from Mrs. Kennedy when his wife, L. Margaret Newton-Hudson made an unexpected appearance over all the wedding publicity surrounding the blissful Aimee.

* * *

Cousin Jo stated during my interview with her that after Donna and Osborne were married they had moved in and lived with Gay. She 'kept Osborne for one or two years' before he got on his feet. They actually had lived with Gay for three years.

In 1931 the same city directory listing for Gay Burns indicates "Donna L. Burns, 18 West Voris Street".

For whatever reason, Osborne (also known as "Oscar") chose to use his mother's maiden name of Bosley as his surname, passing that name on to his children, even though he continued to use his father's surname, Stout, on legal documents.

On February 14, 1932 Donna's divorce was granted.

* * *

According to a family source, after Donna's divorce from Osborne, he went to Canada to find work. The country was in an economic slowdown as a result of the 1929 stock market crash, and manufacturers were laying off and closing down one by one. The Great Depression was on its way and there would be little or no work to be found. And Donna was well on her way to having a well-developed brain tumor.

When Osborne returned he stopped to see Donna, and found her pregnant and showing. According to the same source, Osborne's reaction was to comment, "I knew when I came back I'd find you with a big belly".

Gay was reduced to asking Osborne to stay and "give the baby a name" when it was born and "make it legitimate". There has never been any doubt that the child was Osborne's...he grew up to a strong resemblance to his paternal half-brother. According to the source, Gay pleaded with Osborne. agreeing to let him stay, to provide them with food, and Osborne with cigarettes. Osborne agreed, and "he went to bed with Donna that night". This arrangement had to be a bitter pill for Gay to swallow. She had always felt that Osborne was lazy, and wouldn't work.

Tuesday, 10 May, 1932 was Gay's birthday and the day saw Donna's pregnancy full term and she was due any day. Outside it was cloudy with rain expected, a mild 70 degree May day.

* * *

The newspapers reported that the dirigible "Akron" was battling rain and high winds as it cruised through an electrical storm high over the Rocky Mountains on its way westward.

* * *

The May primaries were marked by disputes as the Election Board offices were swamped with phone calls from irate voters. Ballots were apparently missing at some of the precincts, amid cries of "foul! "

* * *

Events over the Lindbergh child's kidnapping dotted the front page as the return of Charles Lindbergh, Jr. was sought.

* * *

It was 4:20 in the afternoon that Wednesday, May 18, 1932 when Dr. Fulton spanked life into tiny Ronald Edmund. Seventeen-year old Donna Lenora was exhausted as she lay in bed at her home at 1079 Grant Street in east South Akron. It was a cool 62 degrees outside.

* * *

The Lindbergh baby's kidnapping was still headlining the front page. Pope Pius XI set aside eight days for world prayer to avert the perils of terrorism and anarchy as charges of greed, accumulation of wealth and of communism and revolt against God threatened nations, calling for prayers for the Feast of the Sacred Heart on June 3rd.

* * *

A two-year old baby, kidnapped from its crib in Steubenville, Ohio, was found behind a fence wrapped in a quilt.

* * *

And the Japanese and Chinese were engaged in fierce fighting in Manchuria.

* * *

And, likely, Donna and little Ronald were worlds away from all of that!

The entries on this child's birth certificate were incorrectly recorded as Roland Edward Bosley, son of Denova Lena Davis and Osborne W. Bosley, both of 1079 Grant Street. Osborne was employed as an automobile mechanic. In later years Ron would have that record corrected to Ronald Edmund.

On 17 August, 1933 application for marriage was filed on behalf of Donna Lenora Stout, age 18, daughter of Dallie Davis and Gay Ramsell [sic], residing at 932 May Court, Akron; and Osborne W. Stout, age 23, a rubber worker, residing at 273 West Cedar Street, Akron. He was listed as the son of Charlie Stout and Gertie Bosley...a remarriage for both!

The marriage was solemnized by Reverend C. E. Neitz of Calvary Evangelical Church in Akron on Friday August 18, 1933.

* * *

The Akron City Directory for 1933 listed Mrs. Gay F. Burns as residing at 21 West South Street, and Donna Davis listed with her. Osborne W. Bosley was listed as residing at 206 South College Street. My investigative mind concluded that both Gay and Donna had lived here prior to little Ronald's birth, Osborne occupied the College Street residence also in 1932, and that both listings were carried over into the first part of 1933. Otherwise, these folks lived out of their bags at three different homes, or fibbed on their applications.

Donna's signature on her marriage application had shown distinct indications of "physical motor distress". She was less than three years away from major brain surgery. She was also two months and three days shy of her 19th birthday as she signed that application.

* * *

The period of Donna's life from about 1934 to the early 1940's was a watershed to the events begun in the later 1920's, at what was to be her mid-life era at 15 years of age.

On the cold winter Monday of March 12, 1934, Donna's Aunt Cora, Gay's second sister, died. She was 54 years old, just seven years older than was eldest sister Stella was when she died.

* * *

The Akron City Directory's listing for 1934-35 records:

Mrs. Gay Davis (widow Dallie), residing at 932 May Court, Akron. Was this also the same period in Donna's life when her father, who she was to lose out on growing up with and whose photograph she had kept all those years and whose absence from her early childhood must surely have impacted on her, would die and be gone forever? Or was the directory entry simply an expression of Gay's attitude toward Donna's father and, as such, an expression of Donna's lot concerning her father?

Donna and Osborne were listed in the directory as residing also at 932 May Court, along with Gay. Other records, however, indicate that perhaps it was only Donna who shared her mother's home.

Donna was in ill health, and passing through a time when her ego was being hampered by circumstances and by her own personality. And she instinctively rebelled. It was this rebellion, as well as the circumstances, that made things difficult. There were certain world realities, and certain problems with her relationships. And then, there were gaps in her own personality. She dealt with what she could see, and it tended to deepen her character and broaden her personality. But Donna was locked in, feeling sorry for herself, very much misunderstood, and emotionally pushed around. It would take some time for her to see that she herself was doing the pushing. She needed to accept what was, to conform to circumstances when necessary, and to take people as they were. The only person Donna could control was herself. Her vitality was low, and her urge to impress her personality, her feelings and her will on those around her probably generated many quarrels and some strife.

This difficult period would have lasting effects going beyond the stressful events, indeed for years. She would constantly be at war with her world, if not openly, then resentfully within herself, so that what could have been a vigorous and zestful life's adventure became instead a tedious struggle. This should have been a time of a gathering of blessings and self assessment. But there was that temperament, when the personal intruded on the practical and had to be firmly dealt with.

* * *

On June 1, 1936 Donna found herself sitting on a surgical table in Room 331 of the Cleveland Clinic. A surgeon, Dr. Gardner by name, was drilling into the bone of her forehead with a Hudson drill. He was assisted by Drs. Fisher and Blood.

They were performing a ventriculogram --- an exploratory probe into the lower frontal lobe of her brain.

Donna had been exhibiting motor disfunction. Her behavior had been erratic, stumbling, abnormal. After she had fainted in the Tastee Market on South Main Street in South Akron, she was seen by a doctor who made arrangements to get her into the Cleveland Clinic. She was case number 287-436 that June morning.

Saturday, June 6, 1936; in Cleveland it was 63 degrees and clear skies. In Akron it reached 83 degrees by the end of the day. Cloudy skies and showers were expected for Sunday.

It didn't matter to Donna, as she awaited the results of her exploratory procedures, waited with raw anxiety for the verdict of her future.

* * *

Outside the politicians "politicked" as the country geared up for the coming November presidential elections. In Cleveland, a bitter struggle ensued over the Republican platform by the Alf Landon camp which wanted "New Deal" planks in the platform.

In Europe the French government launched its own "New Deal" to break the strikes of millions of Frenchmen in an attempt to help business. Political amnesty and a 40-hour workweek were among the proposals.

Some time toward the end of 1982 I called the Cleveland Clinic to get a copy of Donna's surgery report, thinking it would be no problem since I am her son. I was told by a staffer in the records department that only a lawyer or a physician could obtain that information.

On January 12, 1983 I asked my family physician, Dr. Aaron (last name omitted) to request her records. Since he was treating me for hypertension and she had died of a cerebral hemorrhage, I wanted to know something about the circumstances of her death from cerebral hemorrhage. He agreed to request the report and I gave him what little information I had as to how she might have been admitted, under what name, etc. When I called his office for the report, he said the Clinic needed more data on what other name she might have been admitted under. I offered Davis, Ramsey, Stout, and finally, not knowing exactly when she had been admitted, Corbin. Eventually the doctor received the report; however, when I asked for a copy of it, he balked, relating that there was nothing of significance in the report that would concern me or my hypertension. When I asked if he would at least tell me what the report said, he said there was nothing in it that I would appreciate, or words to that effect. When I exploded on the phone over his recalcitrance, he simply ignored my pleas. Abbie even called him back to congratulate him on the fine job he had done of elevating my blood pressure over this issue! I changed doctors post haste, seeking to find a physician who would level with me.

I put the issue on hold for a while so that I could collect my thoughts about what my next steps were to be, since I now had no physician to visit for my blood pressure medicine, and no feelings of warmth for the medical profession!

The report was in three pages, and it was horribly garbled (which told me that Dr. Aaron, the former family doctor, would not have been able to read it without extensive deciphering, and he obviously hadn't tried).

With the aid of three medical dictionaries from a Cuyahoga County branch library which specialized in medical literature, Abbie and I settled down to two weeks of intensive studying and deciphering of the three pages. We wrote out the most obvious words first, studying the text for case histories, and the dictionaries for descriptions. Finally, on March 3, 1986, I sent one copy of each page, along with a letter, to Dr. Keith, thanking him and offering my interpretation of the report for his files.

After final interpretation of the report, I set out to the library for more books on surgical brain procedure, prognosis, and the ramifications for the patient and the patient's family. It was a comprehensive explanation of brain trauma, and opened many doors to understanding what were dark mysteries for me for much of my growing years. I finally had some inkling of who my mother had been during my young life before her death. (See report following..)

NAME Donna Stout ROOM NO. 331 CASE NO. 287-436 OPERATION Ventriculogram DATE 6-1-36 ANESTHETIC Avertin TIME 41/2 SURGEON Gardner

ANESTHETIST ASSISTANTS Blood, Fisher

With the patient in the sitting position. Openings made in the occipital bone with the Hudson drill 6 cm. above the occipital protuberance and 3 cm. to either side of the mid-line through short linear incisions. The dura was nicked on each side and a cannula was introduced, readily encountering the right ventricle, and after two attempts the left ventricle was encountered. By tilting the head in various directions 45 cc. of fluid was obtained and 10 cc. of air was introduced into the left ventricle. The cannula was withdrawn, the wound closed and the patient was sent to x-ray. The resulting film showed distinct evidence of left frontal lobe tumor. The anterior horns of the ventricle were dislocated to the right. The third ventricle was not visualized. A left frontal craniotomy was decided on.

Dict. Dr. Gardner

NAME Mrs. Donna Stout ROOM NO. CASE NO. 287-436 OPERATION Left Frontal Craniotomy with Removal DATE 6-1-36 of From the Anterior Horn of the Left Vent.

ANESTHETIC Avertin TIME 4-1/2 hours SURGEON Dr. Gardner

ANESTHETIST Mattley ASSISTANTS Blood,Fisher

With the patient in a supine position a left frontal craniotomy was performed by the usual technique. The tension of the dura was extremely high necessitating the administration of 150 cc. of 50% sucrose before the tension was reduced sufficient to enable the operator to open the dura. The exposed brain bulged moderately through the craniotomy opening. With a lighted retractor the inferior surface of the frontal lobe was explored with negative findings. The optic nerves appeared to be normal. A brain cannula was introduced and at a depth of 5 cm. encountered increased resistance. Cortical incision was made in the mid-frontal region and carried toward the suspected tumor which lay approximately in the neighborhood of the anterior horn of the ventricle. At a depth of 5 or 6 cm. the tumor was encountered and enucleated by blunt dissection. During the removal of the tumor there was an escape of air and fluid from the incision indicating the anterior of the horn of the ventricle had been opened. Owing to the depth at which the tumor had been encountered it was not possible to determine whether the tumor lay within the anterior horn or beside it. The [nubble?] of the tumor removed was about 4.5 cm. in diameter. It was quite firm and irregular in shape. After careful hemotosis the wound was closed. As it did not appear likely all of the tumor had been removed and because of the herniation of the brain the brain flap was not replaced. The scalp was closed with a tier of interrupted (black?) silk suture without drainage.

 Dict. Dr. Gardner.

PATHOLOGICAL REPORT

NAME Stout, Mrs. Donna CLINIC NO. 287436 PATH NO. 30486

AGE 21 ROOM NO. 331 SERVICE DR. Gardner DATE 6-1-36

PATHOLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS: GRANULOMA, BRAIN

[CROSS: ?] The specimen consists of a mass of tissue recovered from the anterior horn of the left lateral ventricle. Specimen weighs 17 grams (.6 oz.) It measures 3.5(1.7") x 3(1.2") x 2(.8") cm. (1.768 cu/in.) It is a fairly solid piece of tissue. It does not appear definitely encapsulated and there are a few areas in which brain tissue is adherent. On one section the tissue is grayish white and firm. There are areas in which edema is marked. Here, the cut surface is more gray. There is probably considerable connective tissue in the tumor. In one area is a small portion of what appears to be blood clot. This, however, may be aneroid. Three blocks, one of which is fixed in (benzoic?) (acetic?).Impression deferred.

MICROSCOPICAL: Sections show a localized inflammatory lesion characterized by rather extensive central necrosis and a peripheral zone of inflammatory infiltration of lymphoid and mononuclear cells chiefly, with fibroblasts, a few plasma cells and leucocytes. Around the peripheral zone there is a well marked perivascular round-cell infiltration. There are many thin walled bloodvessels and newly formed capillaries around the necrotic areas. There are no histological tubercles and no typical giant cells of the Langren type. There is nothing to suggest a neoplast. One other section shows localized proliferation of fibroid tissue cells associated with multi-nucleated giant cells, surrounded by a wide zone of lymphoid cells. In this section there are several giant cells having peripherally situated nuclei.

The lesion is obviously a chronic granuloma of unknown etiology. Spirochetes and tubercle bacilli have not been identified. (See report by Dr. [Seitman?] of City Hospital).

Dict. Dr. Graham.

Symptoms and Diagnoses

"The granuloma is an intracranial tumor which is a space-taking lesion that shares its space in the skull with the brain. The brain already occupies 1200 cubic centimeters of space. In this confined space 100 grams of tumor is almost always lethal." (Donna's was 17 grams, and growing.)

"A benign intracranial tumor such as a granuloma is slow growing, and where it cannot be totally excised, will be lethal." (Page 2124, Neurological and Behavioral Diseases, 1988)

 "Granulomas take time to evolve, and generally pass through rather non-descript acute stages where there is exudation of fluid, neutrophils, and protein. It is the continual emigration of monocytes and also the local proliferation of these cells which leads to their massing as a granuloma.

Granulomas usually form because of the persistence within the tissues of some offensive agent resistant to the efforts of the body to dispose of it. Such agents can include insoluble but sterile materials such as suture material. It also can include particularly resistant micro-organisms, such as the Tubercle bacillus; Taemia Solium (pork tapeworm eggs); Tortuloma; or Sarcoidosis."

"The net result is a case of 'tissue indigestion'. It should be pointed out that with the excision of the tumor, there is no regeneration of neurons or lost nerve cells." (Underline is author's emphasis.)

"As the benign intracranial slow-growing tumor can arise as a neuroectodermal tumor, the neurosurgeon attempting to remove such a tumor must stay within the confines of the tumor to spare brain tissue. There may otherwise be unacceptable neurologic dysfunction." "...Such tumors as granulomas and paracytic cysts may occur at any age."(Underline is this author's emphasis.) (Page 2125, Neurologic and Behavioral Diseases, 1988)

"The tumor produces generalized symptoms because of their expanding size, and focal symptoms by direct compression on or infiltration into specific areas of the brain."

"As the tumor grows it raises intracranial pressure because the volume of the cavity is fixed. The total mass effect is a sum of both the tumor size and the cerebral edema, or fluid, it produces. The edema itself oozes from leaking blood vessels within the tumor.

Large tumor masses obstruct the cerebralspinal fluid (CSF) pathways, producing enlargement of the upstream ventricular system. As the primary or secondary mass produced by the tumor enlarges, brain tissue may be displaced through intracranial openings producing various herniation syndromes.

Some focal symptoms of brain dysfunction occur as the tumor compresses surrounding brain producing distortion and ischemia. In addition, tumor may infiltrate along nerve fiber tracts, interfering with neurologic function.

The characteristic clinical feature of intracranial tumors is that they produce progressive symptoms. The rate of progression ranges from acute apoplectic, such as caused by hemorrhage or seizure disorder associated with cortical stimulation, to a slowly progressive mental deterioration associated with a slower growing neoplasm.

Headache occurs frequently especially where not otherwise prone to headaches, or a change in headache pattern.

Generalized convulsions along with focal seizures occur in 35% of cerebral tumors, more likely to accompany slower growing tumors.

Mental changes, subtle in quality, and gradual in onset, not noticeable to family until severe behavioral changes are noted. These changes include:

Impersistence in routine tasks, increased irritability, emotional liability, inertia perhaps characterized by apparent slothiness, faulty insight and forgetfulness.

Reduction in the range of mental activity, indifference to social practices, reduced initiative and spontaneity. The patient may complain of fatigue, tiredness, dizziness and lethargy.

There may be temporal retardation and delay in responsiveness in motor function and thinking.

If the tumor continues to grow, such symptoms progress to confusion, dementia, and eventually to stupor." [Underline is author's emphasis.]

"Changes in personality may be described in psychological terms but should be recognized as symptoms of structural brain disease rather than functional anxiety or depression.

Thus, the occurrence of sudden flamboyance, loss of inhibition, impulsive behavior, and the cognitive changes described should raise the suspicion of a progressive intracranial space-occupying lesion." (Page 2126, Neurologic and Behavioral Diseases)

Tumors of the frontal lobe, being in a 'silent area', often first cause impairment of judgement and of intellectual function." "Tumors of the dominant hemisphere are frequently associated with disturbances in language." (Page 2127, Neurologic and Behavioral Diseases)

"Anti-Convulsants [as post-surgical therapy] are given to patients who have seizures, and any patient who develops generalized or focal seizures should be placed on anti-convulsants for prolonged periods; perhaps extending for three to five years, or permanently."

"Seizures occurring late after primary therapy for intracranial neoplasms imply reoccurrence of tumor and should immediately lead to re-evaluation of the patient's status." (Page 2129, Neurologic and Behavioral Diseases)

* * *

Behavioral Diagnosis of Cerebral Dysfunction:

"A personality change in the direction of loss of the usual social graces suggests frontal lobe disease." [Author's underline]

* * *

Frontal Lobe Syndromes:

"Personality changes after frontal syndromes was probably one of the very first neuropathological behavioral syndromes discovered in humans. It is also one to which a great deal of attention has been paid in experimental animals. Despite over a hundred years of study, including clinical observation with post mortem correlation, stimulation at surgery excisions, psychologic investigations, the detailed study in animals of anatomy, physiology and the effects of tissue removal, we remain perplexed as to the fundamental mechanisms of behavioral change after frontal damage."

"The patient with extensive disease of the frontal lobe of this type presents changes in personality often easily thought to be the result of psychiatric disorder.

The most typical feature is loss of many of the usual social restraints, so that the family notices of the making of inappropriate remarks and a lack of normal concern over serious issues, often combined with easily aroused but short-lived anger over trivialities. This anger is most likely to be directed toward the nearest family members. Such patients may become facetious, often in a grossly inappropriate way.

In later stages, they may expose themselves, urinate in bed without concern, and show grave errors in judgement. The shorthand description of this state is Irritable Euphoric Apathy. A typical example is a previously neat mother who stops caring for her house or her children and is not distressed by the death of a sister. In some patients this state is ushered in with a great increase in the level of activity, talks freely to strangers, makes widespread sexual advances and talks incessantly. This state is often difficult to distinguish from manic depressive.

Oddly enough, in the early stages of frontal lobe dysfunction, evidence of intellectual impairment may be lacking even on careful psychological testing. Later, certain intellectual changes emerge. Memory tends to be fully or relatively preserved, but tests are failed that involve manipulation of old knowledge. Some general paretics develop a gross babbling dysarthria."

"Disease of the medial frontal lobe with parasagittal tumors or anterior cerebral infarctions typically lead to paralysis of the opposite leg. Posterior frontal lobe disease produces contralateral paralysis. The left hemiplegia from a cortical lesion is often accompanied by a confusional state and left inattention." (Page 1938-39, Neurologic and Behavioral Diseases)

* * *

Theories of Personality

"Pseudodepression appears most likely to follow lesions of the left frontal lobe. Orbital frontal lesions may introduce abnormal sexual behavior by reducing inhibitions". (Page 295, Symptoms of Frontal Lobe Lesions)

"The brain-injured person is unable to plan ahead, to take into account the probability of something happening in the future, or to thinking in symbolic terms."

"A defect in the abstract attitude produces changes in the personality as a whole and cuts across all forms of behavior . . ." " . . .The person is qualitatively different . . ." "In the case of the severe injury to the frontal lobes the effects are particularly massive -- whatever happens happens to and affects the whole person." (Page 315, Theories of Personality)

* * *

Perhaps the results of the brain surgery left Donna to some degree unable to separate the outer world from the "inner experience". Although the surgery surely didn't totally affect her awareness and capacity to logic, it would have had its affect on her mental condition. Impaired sense of spatial relations; impaired ability to hold a discrimination in her mind for any length of time. Given a task to eliminate a particular letter reoccurring in

And, worst of all, if any of these deficiencies were understood by 1936 medical standards, were they sufficiently explained to those with whom Donna would have ongoing relationships? And, again, if so, were those persons capable of understanding the profound nature of Donna's new deficiencies? Would they have patience with her, and realize she wasn't responsible for some of her strange new behavior?

Perhaps much of the Donna who didn't finish high school, who married at the age of fifteen, who went to live with her mother shortly after that marriage, was a part of the Donna who had a thing growing in her brain and whose behavior might have been totally different but for that fact.

Subtle changes in Donna's personality and behavior were noted by relatives after her surgery, although such changes weren't necessarily connected to the surgery. After her operation, sometime in the spring of 1937, when cousin Josephine's daughter Betty Jo was two years old, Donna was visiting the Meadows' family. She and her cousin, who were close to each other, would take walks in the park with their sons, Ronald and Darrell 'constantly running to the water fountain'. Donna liked to take these walks when she'd be jolly, fun and generally seemed happy. They would pop some popcorn and take it to the movies. Donna wore her hair down past her shoulders, parted in the middle, slightly curled at the ends, thick and pretty. She was around 130 pounds then, which didn't take away from her 5'8" stature. Her voice was lower in pitch than usual without too much home-state drawl."Before her surgery she read all the time. After the surgery, she was silly, giggly, and acted retarded. She wanted to eat all the time, couldn't seem to get full."

* * *

Her Aunt Rose thought she acted retarded. Donna would ask, "Can you give me a dime?" Rose would ask, "What for?" "For a can of spaghetti." Then Donna would ask, "Can I have another dime?" When again asked what for, she would say, "For applesauce". Fixing her meal, Donna would put enough water in her applesauce to make three helpings, then sit down to eat the entire preparation.

* * *

[Sister-in-law Virginia Corbin-Henderson-Call]: [In reply to the author's comment that he could never understand why a suture patch was put over Donna's skull injury instead of a plate.] "At the time they seemed to think it was the best thing for her, the doctors, not to put anything heavy there".

[Why was that?] "I don't know. They wouldn't explain it to us other than that it was best for Donna."

[Did she see a doctor regularly?] "She was supposed to, but she never did."

[We're talking about once a month, every three months, over ten years?] "Yes. She was supposed to have been kept tabs of, the doctor was supposed to...but she never would go back. She said she felt good and she never would go back."

[Did she take medication?] "Well, she wasn't supposed to be on medication right then. Because her doctor said she was doing so good at first. But then, because she didn't go back for checkups, we figured that something had happened that even she didn't realize..."

[As far as...?] "In her, ah...the surgery that she'd had...we just figured that way. And we tried to get her to go back to that doctor..."

[That was Dr. Golden?] "Yeah...and she said she didn't like him. I said, 'Well, there's always others...'"

[That was probably more Donna than the doctor?] "Yes, yeah, she just disagreed with him..."

* * *

[Childhood friend 'Chick' Godar]: [Did you know mom after her surgery?] "Yeah, yeah, I saw her..."

[What was she like?] "Well, she...she was...different, you know what I mean?"

[How would you describe it?] "I would say feeble, you know...more or less...it was like, well, you could say she was, like...retarded...in a way, in a way."

[This [retarded] behavior was before she was married to Elmer, her last marriage?] "Yeah..."

* * *

[Older son Ron]: [Did Grandma ever talk about mom's surgery?] "Not to my knowledge."

[Did mom take any medication after her surgery?] "No..."

* * *

Interestingly, in a book review in the Sunday, June 15, 1986 Cleveland Plain Dealer on Elliot Valenstein's Great and Desperate Cures (Basic Books) titled "Brain Butchery from the Dark Ages 50 Years Ago", psychiatrist, author and contributing reporter David Hellerstein says, '...Elliot Valenstein...traces the rise and fall of the lobotomy as a treatment for mental illness...

"...The lobotomy procedure as introduced in the late 1930's was extremely crude. Variations included lopping off large chunks of the brain, or using instruments to blindly scramble or chop through brain tissue. The scientific rationale was almost laughably primitive. And the studies which purported to show its effectiveness were totally inadequate.

Nevertheless from its introduction in 1936 until the introduction of psycho-active drugs (like Thorazine) in the early 50's, the lobotomy was seen as a magical treatment, a miracle cure of mental illness. In 1947 Life magazine called it "The most daring and direct attack ever made on mental illness" and claimed it produced "spectacular" results. Time magazine, The New York Times, and the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine praised it as well. From 1943 to 1951, over 18,000 such operations were done in the United States alone. The climax came when Antonio Caetano de Abreu Freire Egas Moniz, pioneer of lobotomy, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1949. Yet within a few years, the procedure had fallen entirely into disrepute - and today only a few hundred procedures are done yearly.

The spectacular "success" of the lobotomy is primarily traceable to Moniz, a Portuguese neurologist, who developed the technique, and Walter Freeman, an American neurologist, who refined it and popularized it in the United States. Among the most reknown(?) aspects of great and desperate cures are Valenstein's character studies of these two: Moniz, an aristocrat with the daring of a conquistador, and Freeman, a brilliant, eccentric showman, who loved to shock audiences--he often performed lobotomies with an ice pick!

Both men come across as arrogant, egocentric and consumed with ambition--and for both, the lobotomy looked like a spring board to immortality. In their quest for power and glory, they publicized their success stories and ignored their failures. They minimized the significant and usually permanent brain damage that often resulted. And as a result, thousands clamored to have the procedure done. Many patients who would have spontaneously recovered completely from their psychiatric problem instead had their brains mutilated, and became brain-damaged for life.

But Valenstein doesn't entirely make Moniz and Freeman into villains. He shows sympathetically the pathetic lot of most institutionalized mental patients in the 1930's, when there were no effective treatments for psychiatric illness--and he makes understandable the context in which lobotomy would have been embraced as a miracle cure."

In reading Great and Desperate Cures, one is struck by how much has changed in fifty years. The introduction of more effective treatments: the emergence of ideas, of patients' rights and informed consent; the vast improvement in the quality of scientific research. But one is also struck by the realization that ambitious researchers still make great claims, the press is frequently gullible, and desperate patients and families still often grasp for any treatment that might relieve suffering...'

* * *

An interesting point of view on the history of medical treatment of the human brain, and the future for the brain-trauma patient.

* * *

On November 16, 1936, a petition for divorce was filed by plaintiff Osborne W. Stout.

vs

Donna L. Stout, residing 12 E. Voris St., Akron

Divorce - Gross Neglect

filed 11/18/1936

Record Room 350 (microfilm #284), page 680

Petition and affidavit - 11/19/1936 (600 words)

"The complaint stated that, after his second marriage to the defendant in August, 1933, that she lived with him about three months, when, without any just cause of provocation, she abandoned the plaintiff and went to live with her mother and refused to live with the plaintiff. That said defendant, although plaintiff had always conducted himself as a dutiful and faithful husband, frequented "beer parlors" and dance halls; was addicted to drink, spent her time going to picture shows, and other violations of her marriage vows.

That Osborne suffered shame, humiliation and mental anguish...etc.

Ernest E. Risinger, attorney for the Plaintiff."

Osborne's divorce was granted February 5, 1937.

* * *

The Akron City Directory listing for 1937 recorded:

Osborne Bosley works American Hard Rubber, resides 162 W. Center St. (There was no such address; 162 E. Center St. was a vacant store front; 161 W. Center St. lists Mella Tousey as resident; 161-1/2 W. Center St. lists Emerson L. Shaver; 163 W. Center St., Stephen Bonscik; 163-1/2, Carl E. Leatherwood).

Mrs. Donna Bosley, home 12 E. Voris St.

Mrs. Gay F. Davis works Goodyear, home 12 E. Voris St.

* * *

Headlines revealed "Rebels on the Franco-Spanish War Front Down Five American-Built Planes".

Hitler and Mussolini were holding talks of linking forces with talk of war.

The American Jew Helmuth Hirsch, accused of plotting against the Nazis, was executed by the German authorities to the protests of American Ambassador Dodd. The European continent was on a war footing, posing the greatest conflagration since the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand.

Meanwhile, wealthy industrialist John D. Rockefeller, died, leaving 25 million dollars. On May 4th, the Zeppelin Hindenburg exploded in the air over New Jersey.

At home, the Cleveland Indians had a shot at the World Series pennant. Akron mayor, Lee Schroy decried gambling and nude dancing in area night spots, as 55 were jailed in vice raids.

* * *

And Summit Beach Park was about to open daily for the season. The dance pavilion would fill with people, music and dancing. The smell of lilacs filled the soft late spring air and soft breezes wafted through one's hair.

The week ending Saturday, June 5, 1937 was what in 1988 would be called an "event". The headlines in the Akron Beacon Journal were moderately temperate with such offerings on Friday, June 4th as "Soviet Forces Unite in War Move", "Nude Dancing Shows Banned", "Jean Harlow Is Ill", and "American Citizen Helmuth Hirsch Executed by Nazis for Treason".

Saturday offered, "Jail 55 in Sweeping Akron Vice Raids", "Armed Forces Disperses Pickets at Youngstown in Food Battle".

But the real news was printed in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and broadcast hourly on every radio. The Duke of Windsor, who gave up the British throne "for the woman I love", and his bride, Wallis Simpson, the Dutchess of Windsor, sped through Italy aboard the Windsor Honeymoon Express on their way to their rendezvous with their 'haunted' love castle of Wasserleonburg near Noetsch, Austria, where they planned to spend their three-month honeymoon. For the better part of the previous week the Cleveland newspaper had headlined the defiance of the former King Edward the Eighth toward the Church of England and those who had objected to his marriage to the American divorcee, Wally Simpson. Even the around-the-world flight of aviatrix Amelia Earhart, whose datelines from just above the treetops of the Brazilian jungles clarioned her daring exploits, didn't rival the highly publicized romance of the century.

Cleveland's Great Lakes Exposition was in full swing with exhibits, shows, sports and amusements, something for everyone of all ages. Donna's favorite soaps, "John's Other Wife", "Just Plain Bill", "Linda's First Love", "Pepper Young", "Ma Perkins", "Lorenzo Jones", and all the other continuing radio sagas, simply added to the romantic atmosphere of the weekend. Even the Summit Beach Park was opening for the season, with its dance pavilion and crowds of people, and the Midway. The ominous clouds of war in Europe seemed to be confined to Spain as the rebel Francisco Franco warred with the Spanish crown. That was in Europe, and had nothing to do with the beautiful spring weekend in Akron, Ohio. The weather had turned so pleasant that scientists were reporting it rained at the North Pole. A perfect weekend for romance.

* * *

The Akron City Directory listing for 1939-40 recorded:

Vernon, Wm. (Helen) wks Imp. El. Co. res 332 W. Miller Ave.

Bill Vernon lived at 332 West Miller Avenue. He could look out his window and see the summer crowds crossing Lakeside Avenue from Miller Avenue, pouring into the Summit Beach Park gates just across the street, especially on opening weekend and on holidays.

He enjoyed a good time...and a good time was available in the Park. At the Park dance pavilion, which filled up with guys and gals dancing to the sounds of such bands as Glenn Miller, Harry James and Benny Goodman, he'd find beer to sip and ladies to talk to.

He could hear the music from the Midway coming through his apartment windows, the rattle of the roller coaster crashing its way around the high curves of the track, the screams of the revelers. The Park was a fun place to be!

* * *

Ron said Bill used to date Donna when she lived with Gay. He drove over in his coupe when he called on her, and that they dated for a while. Ron thought he remembered that Bill 'knocked Mom around some, that he could be mean on occasion". He remembered one of Donna's dates when they drove up to Perkin's Woods above the Children's Zoo. When she went out, Gay would make her take Ron along to "keep Bill from 'foolin' around". Bill [Ron thinks it was on a date Donna had with him] sent Ron down the hill to look at the animals. Ron believes he remembers Donna and Bill were necking, and thinks that was the occasion Donna's second son was conceived.

Donna wrote to Jo, saying that she was expecting a baby. She said that had she had to have a husband...

Jo paid Donna a visit in the late summer while Donna was living at 12 East Voris Street. While she wasn't showing, Donna was about three months pregnant. She hadn't told Gay yet. According to Jo, Donna took her, with five-year old Ron tagging along, into a diner just around the corner on Main Street, where she pointed out a "real tall, dark-haired, good-looking man. He was foreign looking 'but not Italian', whom Donna said owned the diner." He was the father. He was about 6'6" tall ["...so tall..."], perhaps tanned? ["...dark skinned...," and big build. He had "black hair and a small moustache..."

However, Jo was also to say that she never actually saw Donna with any of her boyfriends. The one in the diner was the only one Donna ever pointed out.

* * *

Gay was laid off at Goodyear at the end of January, 1938, with Donna now some six weeks away from having her baby. Even though Gay had almost nine years service with Goodyear, cutbacks were a part of working in the rubber shops, and it was her turn.

* * *

The child was born Saturday, March 5, 1938. It was a bleak, cold and rainy winter night, the temperature a sleety 25 degrees. At 10:10 P.M., Dr. Edward T. Meacham delivered the blond-haired, blue-eyed infant to Donna at People's hospital. He was named after her father, Dallie Arnold. Vernon would be the last name he would be raised with, his father's last name. But all that went on his birth certificate was the name Donna knew the father as: Bill Vernon...around 30 years old, born somewhere in Ohio...that's all there was to put on the certificate. Oh, yes, Donna still carried her married name, Stout. The hospital put that name on the birth certificate too, since that was the name Donna was registered under.

* * *

The day had seen rain changing to snow flurries; the high had been 53. The Akron Beacon Journal's headlines were even wet -- "Flood Waters Swirl into Fresno". The death toll passed 200 as a hundred people were reported missing.

In Akron, thirty patrons were menaced by bandits in a West Hill night club, and Goodrich Tire & Rubber Company expected the loss of 5,000 jobs in Akron as the company and its union haggled over a 20 to 30 cent hourly pay cut.

The high temperature for Friday, the day before, had been 36 degrees and Sunday was expected to be generally fair and much colder with possible snow flurries.

* * *

If Donna was nothing else, she was a romantic. She loved to listen to the radio soap opera, and she was always reading, her romance magazines, and others.

Her second child was in every sense a love child; totally unplanned and explained only by her condition, and the mood of the moment.

By 1988 standards the child could have fallen victim to the abortion clinic. He was truly a 'miracle' child, protected by whatever Guardian Angel watches over accidents. Had he been a perfect term baby, he should have been conceived on that glorious weekend of the marriage of Edward VIII and Wally Simpson, the Duke and Dutchess of Windsor, June 5, 1937.

* * *

The child's hair was like white silken threads, fine as spider web. His eyes were the color blue, Donna's favorite color (even if they were crossed). Donna didn't care. He had chipmunk cheeks and rosy red lips, and he was her love baby.

* * *

[Older son Ron]: "We all had the same hair...we were all born 'towheads'. And, as we got older, our hair turned darker. The only difference between you [the author] and the rest was your hair laid in ringlets...when you were born."

"And your hair was real curly...until you had your first haircut." [Really?] "Yeah, I remember...and your mom went home and cried...because of that. Your hair went straight...after your first haircut; never came back in curly." [I don't know where I got the crossed eye from...had to be something in the genes, because....] "Fluke!"

[Interview with my brother, Ron, December, 1988): "After I was born he [Bill Vernon] paid child support of $5.15 or $5.20 a week for 'several years' afterward". That he "saw the check that Donna got through the court."

* * *

Donna was now the mother of two growing boys, seven years and eight months respectively, and they had to eat!

She had now been divorced from Osborne for over two years, and Bill Vernon wasn't responding, when she was able to reach him. Her surgery was two and a half years behind her. It left her different somehow, and giving birth and raising two boys was taking its toll on her. She still lived with mother Gay at 12 East Voris Street.

* * *

The Akron City Directory listing for 1938-39 was:

Gay F. Davis (wid Dallie), residing at 12 E. Voris St., Akron

Donna L. Stout, residing at 12 E. Voris St., Akron.

* * *

These were tight times, even though Gay had been called back to Goodyear in April of 1938, the rubber factories coming out of the Depression's hard times, selling products overseas in Europe. Gay was never paid properly for the work she did. Donna worked waitressing when she could, sometimes with Ardell Godar, daughter of the landlord.

And there was emotional stress, never feeling quite right, Gay fussing...

* * *

July 4, 1939 -- On this Tuesday there was war talk in Europe as the Nazis went out of their way to reassure the world of their peaceful desires, drafting their youth 'for any incidents' or developments. Rumors of a Nazi "putsch" in Danzig, Poland abounded.

Europe and neutrality engrossed President Roosevelt, who tried to hide from callers.

In Cleveland, it was 87 degrees; occasional showers and thunderstorms were expected.

* * *

While she celebrated that Fourth of July Donna was probably thinking about her upcoming third marriage, her second husband, the gent who would help her support and raise her two boys, and who perhaps might give her a new beginning to her all but dull life.

* * *

On July 10, 1939, an application for marriage between Donna L. Stout, 24, residing at 87 West Crosier Street, Akron, and Elmer J. Corbin, age 26, residing at RD 5, Box 87, Akron, was filed at Summit County Court House. He was employed as a truck driver; born February 24, 1913 to Jess Corbin and Anna Seemann. And there was no 87 West Crosier Street.

On July 13th, Donna and Elmer were married by the Reverend Franklin E. Markley at Main Street Methodist Evangelical Church in Akron.

* * *

By 1:00 P.M. that Thursday afternoon the temperature had reached a high of 85 degrees and the weather was fair.

The newspaper was filled with the usual war threats --- F.D.R. and Secretary of State Hull were disagreeing on the outline of their 'neutrality' message. Britain was tilting their arms total to 4 billion pounds, and calling for naval and aerial reserves and conscripts from their Hong Kong subjects.

The United Mine Workers were fighting again, both in court and in the field in Harlan, Kentucky.

* * *

The Akron City Directory for 1939-40 listed:

Gay F. Davis, residing at 12 E. Voris Street, Akron.

* * *

Donna loved pork chops and fried potatoes. On another visit to Dover, Ohio, with her two boys to visit Jo and her family, Donna and Elmer stayed at Jo and John's apartment for three or four days. Donna and Jo spent a part of their time at the movies. One evening Jo was preparing fried potatoes for supper. Donna, looking on, remarked, "I could eat that whole skillet full myself". She would have too had Jo offered.

Elmer wanted to leave Donna and the boys there for a while, but John wouldn't allow it, saying they didn't have the room.

* * *

[Older son Ron]: [How did Grandma feel about Mom marrying Elmer? I assume Grandma didn't know him too well at the time?] "To my knowledge she never put up a fuss, or anything. She never passed any judgement on it. She might have had a little relief, now that she didn't have to care for her daughter and her two little kids, you know...but she never made any comment one way or another. She was never...she would always come in and give Donna advice. Whether they took it or not, she never, you know, she just..."

* * *

July 13, 1939 --

Marriage license application of Donna L. Stout and Elmer J. Corbin

(Donna was 24 years and nine months old at this point.)

Upper zones considerably reduced from earlier signatures, with a smaller mid-zone. The name "Donna" is sloping down; "Stout" is somewhat even. The letter spacing is fairly even, while the word spacing is considerable. The ovals in her name are small; the "o" is open at the top in "Donna", with a small right knot. Her "n"'s are angular, with the 'connectors' almost straight. Her letters are slanting slightly to the right, but are almost vertical. It appears that she retraced her "t" stems, with the first "t" stem a bar at the top of the stem, and the second "t" bar shorter and to the right of the stem. The period after the initial "L" is below the letter, and there is also a period after the entire signature, also below the signature. Her writing pressure appears to be heavy.

* * *

At this point in Donna's life, she had been through her share of family and life traumas; survived two marriages; jilted by her lover, the father of her second son; survived the Depression, with a world war looming on the horizon. Even more significant, however, was that at this point she had also survived major brain surgery, still "carrying" a sensitive spot on her skull. At the time of her surgery, relatively little was known of the effects of such surgery, particularly the invasion of the cerebral cortex, and its attendant psychological trauma on the personality. At this time in her life, Donna was quite simply a victim of her circumstances.

* * *

My memories of the places and events which followed her marriage to her second husband, and preceding her third childbirth, are virtually non-existent...I was but an infant myself! I remember one place that insists on being somewhere on South Main Street, where we lived in an upstairs apartment with an outside stairway going down to the side street on Main. I remember I was in a diaper...and it was wet. Donna had to go 'down stairs' to get me a clean one. After she'd left the kitchen, I decided I wanted a drink of water.

The only address I can attribute to that experience is 881 South Main Street.

* * *

The Akron City Directory for 1943 lists:

Mrs. Fay Ramsey res. 12 E. Voris St.

Elmer Corbin (Donna) wks Minn M & M Co. res (rear) 881 S. Main St.

* * *

According to Ron during my interview with him, after Donna moved from 87 East Crosier Avenue where she lived when she and Elmer married, there was a home, an apartment on Kenmore Boulevard, across from the 'car barns', where the city's busses were parked at the end of each day. I have no memory of that 'home' strong enough to warrant space on this page, but Ron recalled finding some discarded 'treasure' in the dump lot across the street from our apartment, and we spent the day collecting it up and taking it home.

Then there was an experience called "Copley Swamps." Again, this evokes no memories from me, but from Ron, "The only time they [Grandma and Donna] were not "together" for any period of time, O.K., was when they moved out to Copley Swamps. You was with them."

[Run that by me again?]

"When Elmer and Mom...sometime...and I don't remember what...when it was, it was only a couple of months, they moved to Copley Swamps. Now, I stayed with Grandma, but you went out to Copley Swamps with them...but I can't tell you when the hell it was...you know, a kid, that seems like a long time...but it seems like to me they were just there an interim to go somewhere else."

[Was that before Jacquie or Patty were born?]

"Naw, I think both kids were there. It was before Bank Street."

Bank Street, another of Donna's adventures that I don't remember. It brought back a couple of memories to Ron:

[This place I don't remember...]

"This was before we went to [1161-1/2] Arlington [Street]. What I remember about this place is Mom taking us down the hollow back there [over an embankment] [to] the Little Cuyahoga River; that's the East Branch of the Little Cuyahoga. During that hot summer, had to be '43, '42, '43? Cause I remember another incident that happened here. I'll tell you about that...ah, there's the little bungalow, right there."

[That little yellow place?]

"It was white, then."

[How old were you when you lived here?]

"Well, [if] it was '43, so I had to be about 11. Because there used to be, a, the [garbled, Setica?] place. There used to be some people called the Greens, lived here. Right there at that first house. And here, Elmer [had] went with her. Before he went with Mom...well, they were friends of Elmer's. I guess Elmer had grew up with them...all the girls. I used to go to Fraunfelter [School]. I was in the second grade, and I remember that school real well. What I remember, the teacher I had was one mean s-- of a b---h, named Mrs. ......, ok? So, we had summer vacation here...I hoped she would die, that's how bad...and here she went down to South America, and got bit by a damn poisonous snake, or bug of some kind, and she died. Anyway, the third year [of my schooling] I was...we were back at 885-1/2 South Main Street..."

"[The home on] Kenmore was before here [Bank Street], Dallie, and that was after Crosier [Street, where Donna had first married Elmer]...and we moved, ah hell, rapid fire from there to, ah..."

[How come we moved around so much?]

"I don't know...from Crosier, to Kenmore, to Bank...and it all had to be within the time...I went to Allen [School] one year, and then Fraunfelter the next. So you're talking about what...three months...?"

More of Donna's adventures that I don't remember...

* * *

October 21, 1940

The birth of Donna's third child thirteen days hence was preceded by the celebration of Donna's own birthday, although it was probably not much of a celebration.

* * *

That Monday, October 21st dawned with a headline in the Cleveland Plain Dealer of "Fifteen Thousand Bombs Hurled at Nazi Ports" as one hundred bombs a minute blasted German bases for an impending invasion. Britain's bombardment of the Nazi "springboard" ports continued as it prepared for an expected Nazi invasion. The Nazis claimed to have sunk 43 British ships in two days!

The date of the American draft lottery was expected to be announced as Cleveland units of the 145th Infantry were off to Camp Shelby. The Army offered extra pay for volunteer paratroopers.

Cleveland's high was 45 degrees with light showers through the evening. Donna was over eight and a half months pregnant.

* * *

On Sunday, November 3, 1940 Donna gave birth to Patricia Ann Corbin, her first daughter, at City Hospital in Akron. She was a beautiful, dark-haired baby with sparkling brown eyes.

That rainy Sunday afternoon Patricia Ann was greeted by a nation waiting to elect a new president on November 4th. Wendell Wilkie was running against Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the incumbent, as 225,000 Clevelanders turned out at a political rally for F.D.R.

The weather was cloudy with light rain showers and a high of 60 degrees. A low of 40 degrees was expected for the evening hours. The chill in the November air was crisp and the leaves were turning color.

Europe was at war with Hitler on the march, but that was an ocean away. Let the politicians worry about it!

* * *

Donna was three months and 18 days pregnant with her fourth child when, on January 24, 1942, she filed a paternity suit against Bill Vernon on behalf of her second son, Dallie, alleging "that for the past four weeks William Vernon then and there being did contribute toward the neglect of Dallie Arnold Vernon"

"To wit: he did fail, refuse and neglect to provide for and support said minor, he being the father of said minor illegitimate child"; giving her address as 139 West Center Street, Akron.

* * *

She signed the complaint before Deputy Clerk of Common Pleas Court A. B. Ongled, undersigned for Clerk of Court Verne T. Bender, Summit County.

* * *

Whether she was prompted to file this complaint at the behest of her mother Gay, or her husband Elmer, or even on her own behalf, I don't know at this writing. Why she waited so long, I don't know. If she had received support monies prior to this complaint, I don't know; although, if she had, I would offer more surprise and credit to Bill Vernon than I might have otherwise.

I do surmise that with the country at war on two fronts, and with strict rationing in effect as part of the war effort, and with three children to care for, plus one on the way, and with Christmas barely a month past, there would have been an unquestionable need for all just income due. The issue also would be strong cause for strain and clashes within the Corbin household.

* * *

At 7:38 A.M. the subdued buzz of the People's Hospital delivery room was broken by the first cries of the newborn child greeting the bright spring morning of May 11, 1942.

Arriving a day belated, the birth of tiny Jacqueline Melissa Corbin might have been a merry birthday present for Grandmother Gay, who turned 54 on Sunday, if not for such an early hour! Dr. Stephen Greenfield delivered this child for Donna and Elmer, who had anxiously trooped to the hospital from their residence at 885-1/2 South Main Street.

* * *

There was hardly a headline in the Cleveland Plain Dealer that day that didn't herald some war news:

"Europe's War of Nerves Again."

"Chinese Snap Burma Road."

"Forced War Savings Bill Ready Today."

"Churchill Warns Hitler on War Gas."

"Allied Planes Hit More Jap Ships."

"U.S. Confirms Bombing of Tokyo."

And so on.

America had been at war with Japan for six months to the day. The only good news seemed to be the weather; light frost followed by warmer temperatures. The high reached 57 degrees.

* * *

Donna's second husband could be described as a man of tensioned personality. Personable and caring on good days; demanding, selfish and unreliable on bad days; Elmer was incomplete and unfulfilled without the sense of a home life. He saw himself as an authoritative person, and he was generally touchy and easily offended. Basically, he was no great humanitarian.

His and Donna's contrasting personalities set up conditions of stress and an atmosphere of tension which was only compounded by the effects of Donna's brain surgery and the responsibility of four children -- two by the couple, and Donna's two boys.

For some as-yet-unexplained reason, on 15 January, 1943, Donna received a copy of her birth certificate from Randolph County, West Virginia. Perhaps she needed it for her paternity suit, or to get her ration cards.

Donna's energies and her sense of individualism began to run into those old obstacles she had encountered with the birth of her first child in 1932, and now she had three.

It was a tough time for her. While she gave Elmer two daughters, he was trying to provide for four children.

* * *

Aunt Rose, Buck, and Cousin Jo paid Donna a visit when she was living at 885-1/2 South Main Street, some time in the spring or summer. A dinner was cooked up of biscuits, gravy and fried chicken, and they sat up visiting and talking until 4:00 A.M., and then got up that Sunday morning at 9:00 A.M.

* * *

Among my vague memories of childhood, I remember foggy vignettes of the little house at 885-1/2 South Main Street, some time in the 40's. It was situated behind a larger residence which faced onto Main Street. The 885-1/2 residence was down an alley (which could be described as a driveway), which opened onto a large backyard area which served as the front and back yard to our little cottage.

While I don't recall too much of the cottage, it faced in the direction in which South Main Street ran, and at right angles to the larger house. There was an outhouse behind the larger house, and we used it, as did the family in the larger house.

Donna would put me to bed for a noonday nap, but I'd lay there waiting for her to fall asleep so I could sneak out on the pretext of going to the outhouse. My plan was to stay outside in the front yard and play.

After making a couple of efforts to keep me at my nap, she finally hit on taking off my clothes to keep me in bed. Somehow, that didn't stop me, and I'd be outside again after a long enough time passed for Mom to fall asleep herself.

I used to like to experiment when I got up, like the time I wondered what dirt tasted like, so I put a handful in my mouth. I didn't care for the taste or the grittiness.

* * *

Donna and Elmer lived at the 885-1/2 South Main Street address at least from May 11, 1942 to some time before November 28, 1944, the date her second son, Dallie was registered at Voris School, giving 1096 "Meddy" Lane as home address. I suspected that address to be somewhere in the township of Sawyerwood, located between the Akron City limits and Ellet. The township is situated adjacent to Springfield Lake, with the major artery Route 224 dividing the two.

However, I learned in my interview with Ron that Meddy Lane was Meadow Lane, in the Hillwood Homes Projects at Arlington Street and Route 224. The complex had been constructed some time during the war to accommodate the housing requirements of the area. Voris School was some couple of miles away, down Route 224, or Waterloo Road, west toward Akron. We used to walk that couple of miles to school, sometimes in snow up to our knees; many cases of chapped shins during that winter!

An interview with Donna's cousin and sometime buddy, Josephine Meadows, revealed that while living at 885-1/2 South Main Street, Jo and her father, John Slaughter, were visiting from West Virginia. They had come over to Donna's with Gay. Jo and Donna would sit up all night long, chattering, laughing, and having a grand time.

Jo told how Donna would fry up a skillet full of pork chops and fried potatoes, then sit down and eat the whole thing. Donna would mix coffee with her fried potatoes and eat them in that fashion!

On this particular visit Gay and Donna allegedly got into a real serious argument...it might have been over Bill Vernon's child support, over Elmer, or because of Donna's peculiar attitude...or just because Donna had a temperament and Gay was playing the mother role and could be difficult. In any case, Donna allegedly took her four kids, and her husband, and ran away and hid from Gay. Jo indicated that Gay didn't find Donna for six months.

The second son's school records go on to show an enrollment in 1B at David Hill School on January 9, 1945, giving 1161-1/2 South Arlington for a residence. Donna had apparently moved her family from 885-1/2 South Main Street some time after September 6, 1944, to 1096 Meadow Lane in Hillwood Homes before November 28th; then on to 1161-1/2 South Arlington by January 9, 1945. I remember that place, 1161-1/2...what seemed little more than a shack back off the road, a long sort of driveway...it was a long way back in the wintertime. We'd had to trudge down this 'road' in what seemed to me knee-deep snow, no boots to cover our shoes; it seemed awfully cold that night!

As we got to the house, it was coming on darkness. There was a pot-bellied stove in the middle of the room, glowing a dull cherry red. Otherwise the house was barren. There was no furniture.

Ron had disappeared outside. Donna followed Elmer outside to find him, leaving me, Patty and Jackie in the house to keep warm, admonishing us to stay away from the stove. It seemed like a long time before they all reappeared...I was beginning to feel like we had been left behind. Apparently we had gone back to look it over to rent.

* * *

I have always associated an incident of a coke sign boat in an icy creek with that place on Arlington Street. But that was a memory for another place...

Donna and Elmer rented the cottage from a 'Mike', who owned Mike's Groceries on Arlington Street. After we moved in, according to Ron, this Mike started to come on to Donna. He apparently kept after her, and wouldn't leave her alone. Elmer finally "kicked the s..t" out of him, and we had to move because of it.

On February 23rd, the second son's school records show a transfer to Sawyerwood, Ohio.

Recollections can often become shrouded in fog. [Older son Ron's account]: "[From] Hillwood Home we went and moved to Sawyerwood. That was the spring of '45. I remember, that was the last year of the war. And we spent spring and most of the summer, up through August, in Sawyerwood. That's where Elmer taught you and me how to fish.

And I'd go down fishing, and I learned how to swim there, too. And, ah...this was Sawyerwood. And I'd go down fishing, and I'd go down and swim, and I did that most of the summer. And then they bought two lots out on Van Evera in Tallmadge."

* * *

It was in Sawyerwood where the incident with the coke sign boat occurred. Ron and some chum of his had found a boat made out of an old Coca Cola sign. It was red and white. The boat was full of little holes, but the two boys wanted to see if it would float. They enticed me to get in, and proceeded to float the boat in the swift current of a small creek which ran through a stand of trees. I was about five and a half, or six years old. They floated me in the boat because they "wanted to see if it would hold anyone", and followed from the bank as I floated down this shallow stream in the leaking, half-filled coke sign boat.

[Older son Ron]: "It was right here that we found that sign...plugged it up with sticks. It was one of the wide spots in the creek, where we tried that thing. And we put that thing in there, and Dallie's sitting like this, this wire, he's holding on with this wire; all at once this mud started to go 'flup..flup..flup'...and water's still leaking in, and he started crying...then I started panicking because I thought you were going to drown..."

With my pants soaking wet, and chilled to the bone, I was retrieved from the 'boat' in the creek, and we went along with me shivering like a sick person with palsy.

* * *

[Sister-in-law Virginia's son Darrell]: "I remember when Elmer and Donna lived out in Sawyerwood, and they used to bring up ice up the steps, put it in the ice box...I was a little s..t then... [The place had brown shingles...] "[Outside] stairway that went up stairs..."

(Elmer had a Model T)

"Yeah, I remember, they lived out in Sawyerwood before they moved to Tallmadge..."

* * *

I remember, it seems, there were huge grassy embankments on either side of the highway, bordering the road berms, where we kids, Donna, and, I recall, Gay, used to walk from Sawyerwood up Massillon Road, where vegetable stands and a tavern serving 'high power' beer were to be found. It was probably at least a mile or two, and I remember we kids used to scamper up the embankments and yell for Mom to 'shoot' us so we could tumble and roll down the embankment.

* * *

I remember when we lived in this apartment upstairs with the light brown, sandy-looking asphalt siding, the flight of wooden stairs with the wooden banister reaching up from the ground. Donna sent me across the highway, "watch out for the cars" (there weren't many in the early Forties) to get her and me some penny candy. When I got to the store I couldn't decide which of those marvelous delights to buy, so I did the natural thing and bought the penny candy that gave me the most for my nickel. When I got home; that it tasted terrible, whatever it was, Donna said to me, "I don't like it. You can eat it all." I offered to go back and get something else, but she said never mind. Maybe she had spent her last dime? And it did taste awful! So bad, in fact, that I pretended I was chewing tobacco, so I would spit it out after I chewed it. After a while, though, I got used to the taste, and ate it anyway.

* * *

I remember, at that house that summer, I was playing 'driver' in Elmer's Model A Ford. He came storming down the wooden staircase from the second story apartment. He jumped into the driver's seat, sliding me over to the passenger side, and sped away in a fury. I thought he might be kidnapping me for playing with his car or something. I kept asking, "Where are we going? Where are we going?" He drove to a store somewhere, bought something, and drove back to the apartment, much to my relief. And I must say, Elmer seemed to sense my anxiety because I had the feeling after a few minutes that he was trying to be gentle with me there, that he might have ranted about his anger otherwise.

* * *

I remember one day when we all went over to Springfield Lake beach to swim. It was hot, and Gay was with us. She kept worrying that we kids would get "infantile paralysis", or "polio" as it was later known, when we went into the lake to swim. We went in anyway. I used to 'swim' by holding my head above the water, touching bottom with my fingertips, and pulling myself along this way.

* * *

I remember a snowy winter night when we were all in the Model A going somewhere along Triplett Boulevard, one of east Akron's major roads. I had to pee. I'm sure I was between five and seven years old. Elmer wouldn't stop; instead he told me to pee on the floor of the back seat area, which I did. Later we were stalled by the side of the road with a flat tire. I'm not even sure it was the same night. I don't remember how the problem was solved, but it seems that we had to wait for Elmer to come back with a tire.

* * *

These remembrances seem to have depicted the June through September summer of 1944 for, as the school record shows, the child's enrollment was continued at Allen School from Kindergarten to 1B for September 6, 1944; then enrolled at Boris School in 1B on November 28, 1944, giving 1096 Meddy Lane as residence.

* * *

Yet there are those firm memories of some warm weather walks, outings and other activities. There was Ron and Dallie's autumn search in the Sawyerwood woods for sassafras bark and roots with which to make sassafras tea. There was the walk to school in knee-deep snow, crying so hard out of fear of being late for school and, yes, there was the skin rash of impetigo with its nasty-smelling green lotion used for treatment, and the pervasive and cruel itching.

* * *

The school record lists the next entry for the second son as enrolled in grade 1B at Robinson School, which served the young residents of the Summit County Children's Home located at 264 South Arlington Street. The entry was dated November 21, 1945, and his residence is given as 264 South Arlington Street, indicating that he was a resident of the Home.

* * *

However, somewhere between January 9th and November 21st of 1945, Donna's family lived in another "shack" somewhere in Tallmadge, Ohio, just outside the city limits of Akron. The address was RD #8, Tallmadge.

* * *

[Older son Ron]: "...they bought two lots out on Van Evera Road in Tallmadge. Seventy-five dollars a piece is what they paid for them...the two lots were together. It was an acre and a half...I told you it was an acre and a half...it was three acres. Acre and a half lots is what they were. He [Elmer] bought two lots...he bought them on land contract; I think he paid $5.00 down, five dollars a month, something like that...$150 was the total. I think he found out about it from a guy that worked at Goodyear Aircraft Company [Aerospace]... he got some hardwood flooring from a lumber company, some packing crates from Aerospace. He bought 2x4 roughs; that's what they call them...and 2x6's from that Carter Lumber Company. Hauled it all out there, most of it on an old Model A [T?] Ford that he had. And his brother Floyd..now wait...his sister lived on that road. Virginia Henderson was her name. And we put this big...I don't know how big it was...it was one great big room though. And we slept in one corner, and they slept in the opposite corner. The kitchen was in another corner. I don't remember what was...I think we had a living room, was in another corner..."

* * *

[Sister-in-law Virginia's son Darrell]: "...dad [helped] build that house they lived in down there...we started it...during the war, and there was no wood. Wood was so scarce...[we] sheeted the outside. We ended up putting tarpaper on the outside, kept the cold out. It had a dirt floor in it, no wood to put a floor down...we ended up, we couldn't finish the house because there was a shortage of wood, we ended up putting tar paper on it to keep the wind out