Story told by Zelma to daughter Patricia in 2008

When I met Johnnie he was 20 yrs. old. Johnnie worked as a butcher at meat market.

Johnnie attended Memorial Catholic H.S. As a teenager he enjoyed restoring old cars. He loved to hunt and fish.

Zelma age 15- High school sophomore attended Bossie High School. I liked gym in High School. I took tap dancing and loved to skate. My favorite music: Stardust

I would see a group of boys all the time after school and they scared me because they had the last name of Weisheimer and had a reputation of being mean.

I was walking home with groceries. Johnnie and my brother Robert were walking on the opposite side of the street. Johnnie told Robert he wanted to meet that girl. Robert told him that was his sister. Johnnie told Robert to tell me that he would be over to my house on Sunday. On Sunday I went to the movies – Johnnie was waiting outside of the show. I slipped out and went home shortly Johnnie showed up at my house. Our first date was at the movies.

My first job was helping a lady in a cafe. At 16 I worked in a cigar factory rolling cigars.

July 1941 a minister in Newberg married us. Johnnie worked at Sunbeam. 1942 Patricia was born. Johnnie joined the Army after Pearl Harbor was attacked. Patricia was about 4 months old. Boot Camp in Texas, Camp Shelby, Mississippi and shipped out of California. When the time came for Johnnie to get out of the Army he told Zelma they offered him a position in Japan. She said no I do not want to take Patricia out of the country. He was discharged. We use to go hunting in Kentucky. My grandparents, great grandparents, and relatives lived in the Cool Springs area not too far from Beaver Dam.

(2)

My Uncle Joe and family were going to Arizona for their daughter’s health. Lena Marshall, my mom, encouraged us to go with them. We did.

Johnnie started his business as a painting contractor in Bisbee, Arizona. My Uncle Joe bought a café in Lowell, Az. It burnt down and he rebuilt in Warren, Az. The mines shut down & Johnnie’s painting got really slow so we moved back to Evansville, Indiana. We moved in with Grandma and Grandpa Weisheimer. Johnnie worked at a paint store. Johnnie and Patricia started having health problems. We moved back to Arizona. Johnnie went back into the painting contractor business and did a lot of work for the government at Fort Huachuca. Sissy, Johnnie’s sister and mother of Phyllis, came out to Visit Arizona. We drove them back to Indiana. We had a wreck in Hope Arkansas. A truck hit our back bumper and spun our car down into a ravine. Sissy and daddy were thrown out; Mom was penned under the front seat. Daddy was under the car. Phyllis and I were in the car. Daddy raised the car up off of him. His adrenalin was working overtime.

We lived in old Bisbee on the side of a mountain on Brophy Ave. next to Uncle Joe and Aunt Clevy and their daughter Jonell. We met Barbara and Joe Domingus (they ran a gas station near Brophy Ave.) They turned out to be our best friends. I was God-Mother to Mark their youngest boy. They had 2 boys: Mark & Freddie and daughter DEE DEE. Our son, Johnnie, was born in Douglas, Arizona (abt 30 miles from Bisbee) All of our Doctors were in Douglas. Bisbee Doctors were for the Phelps Dodge miners. Patricia started school at St. Patricks catholic school. We moved to Warren on the 16th Terrace. We moved out to Huachuca Terrace and Patricia got her first bicycle. It was on flat ground. Ha. Johnnie built a greenhouse and started a Nursery as a hobby. He grew and sold rose bushes He loved roses . Our second son, Michael, was born. Next house was in San Jose Estates, House on Naco Rd and our last house was back in Warren on Hoveland Ave.

We belonged to the Elks Club, Kiwanis Club, American Legion, Country Club, Knights of Columbus, Boy Scout leader, and did a lot of work with Saint Patricks. He would sponsor writing contest at St. Patricks School and take the winners on special outings. He went hunting and donated the meat to the priest and the nuns.

(3)

Later we moved to Truth or Consequences , N.M. I worked for St Anns Hospital and Carrie Tingly Hospital. Johnnie was working at St. Anns Hospital as a maintenance man. He went and took the test for a contractor’s license in New Mexico. He scored 100%. He was checking on something in a tube under St. Annes building he crawled into it and had a heart attack. He was sent to the VA hospital in New Mexico where he had open heart surgery. He came through the surgery but died of breathing complications from too much fluid in his lungs.

My mother was Lena Kininmouth Marshall. After all of us kids grew up and left she married Clyde Embry, he was her mail man out in the country. She use to always say she would live to be 90 yrs. Old. She died on the eve of her 90th birthday. My father was William J Marshall he operated a Jack Hammer he died at a young age from an infected throat. I was 7 yrs. Old.

Zelma F Weisheimer