Lake museum acquires copy of letter from Eleanor Roosevelt
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff writer
As luck would have it, Marion County Park and Lake Museum now has a copy of a letter that was written in October 1936 from former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt to Robert Horsley, the commandant of CCC Company #4755.
The company was made up of African Americans who helped build the dam to create Marion County Lake. They were stationed at the site for three years.
Through happenstance, Dwight and Helen Beckham learned that Norma Jean Gotche, Horsley's daughter, lives in Great Bend. They made contact and discovered she had the original, typewritten letter in her possession.
"I got goose bumps when I heard that," Helen said.
The letter was prompted by the company's visit to Florence to greet President and Mrs. Franklin Roosevelt during a stop on their train trip through Kansas.
According to local newspaper coverage, Norma Jean and her parents were among those who met the train. The four-year-old child carried a bouquet of flowers to present to the first lady in behalf of the camp but, because of her short stature, was forced to give the honor to her mother.
A camp reporter wrote that little Norma Jean tried to get up to the platform, but a guard kept her off. Finally, getting impatient, she had told the guard, "I wish that man president would get through his piece so I can say mine."
Two days later, her father received a signed letter from Eleanor Roosevelt thanking camp enrollees for their hospitality.
"My dear Lieutenant Horsley," she wrote. "I hope you will thank all of your boys in CCC Company 4755 for their kind remembrance. I was delighted to receive the flowers and deeply appreciate their thought of me. Very Sincerely Yours."
After her parents died, Norma Jean acquired the letter. She and her husband, Irving, recently visited Marion County Park and Lake, and Norma Jean presented a copy of the letter to the Beckhams for display in the museum.
They were thrilled to receive this newest addition to the museum, and Norma Jean was excited to learn about the time she and her parents spent at Marion.
Living in Marion
The Horsleys lived in Marion from April 1936 through December 1937.
On May 14, 1936, Norma Jean turned four years old, and her parents celebrated by giving her a birthday party. Those invited were Janice Meisner, Barbara Brose, Mary L. Tibbetts, Anna Lou Hoch, Bobby Reinke, Buddy Hannaford, Lieutenant and Mrs. Singer, and Lieutenant and Mrs. Kees and son.
Norma Jean's mother was active at the camp. She organized a picnic for the Army and technical service personnel and helped establish a Women's Camp Club for their wives. Club members prepared boxes of cigars, cigarettes, fruits, and homemade candy for the men who were taking a five-day leave to visit their families at Christmas time.
Robert Horsley had a reputation for being a strict military-style disciplinarian. He was in charge of the men while they were at the camp and turned them over to E.C. McBurney, construction engineer, during the work day. The men called Horsley "Old Iron Horse" and held him in high regard.
He stressed the need for thrift. When the war veterans among the men received bonuses in the form of bonds, they were encouraged by Horsley to place them in safe-deposit boxes provided by the commandant. Others deposited their checks in banks for safe-keeping and a rainy day.
"It is not expected any vets will quit the camp which is extremely unusual and creditable," the camp reporter wrote.
Greeting the President
Through a special telephone ring which was disbursed throughout the rural telephone systems currently in use in the area, many people were given a short notice about the President's unexpected stop at Florence on October 15, 1936.
Thousands converged on the town to greet the President. Horsley received permission from McBurney to take the men away from their tasks to go to Florence. They loaded onto trucks for the trip, then disembarked, marched to the station led by the bugle corps, and lined the street on both sides of the railroad tracks for two blocks, providing an impressive honor guard for the President.
The letter from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt is a lasting memento of that occasion.
Lieutenant Horsley, along with his family, was transferred to Missouri in December 1937.
Norma Jean doesn't remember much about her time spent at Marion or of the meeting with President and Eleanor Roosevelt, but she recalled playing with a black child at the camp.
The news reports in the Marion County Record and Cappy's Camp Courier, as compiled by the Beckhams, provided her with insights into her life at that time. When told of her remark to the guard at the train station, her husband said to her with a laugh, "You haven't changed any."
Because her father was an Army engineer, Norma Jean spent the first seven or eight years of her life moving from place to place. The family finally settled at Salina, where she graduated from high school and college and met her husband. They have lived in Great Bend for many years.
To see the copy of the letter from Eleanor Roosevelt and the many other interesting items on display at the Marion County Park and Lake Museum, call the Beckhams at 620-382-2671 for an appointment. The little, limestone museum is located west of the lake office. It originally housed the CCC camp laundry
