Mason's husband, brother fought in WWII
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff writer
Edna Marie Mason spent most of her childhood and teenage years living on a farm east of Marion. Later, she saw a brother go off to war, then her husband. Her husband came back, but her brother never returned.
Marie was born in 1914 in Oklahoma to J.W. and Mabel Fulkerson. Her mother died in the flu epidemic of 1918 after the family moved to El Dorado and brother William was born.
She and her brother lived with relatives in Wichita until her father remarried in 1920 to Clara Mehl of Marion. The family was reunited and lived on the Mehl home place two miles east of Marion.
One of Marie's earliest chores was to clean the coal-oil lamps. At about age 10, she started milking cows. She and Bill milked as many as 25 cows twice a day. The milk was separated and the cream sold.
Marie said she and Bill got the proceeds from alternate five-gallon cans of cream as an allowance.
One day in 1933, shortly after Franklin Delano Roosevelt became president, the two youngsters went to the bank to cash their one-dollar cream check. They discovered that the bank was closed. Marie said her brother was very upset.
They learned later that the bank closure was part of Roosevelt's plan to restore integrity to the country's banking system.
As a farm girl, Marie also shocked bundles of grain and helped grind feed for the livestock. She went through eight grades at Bixler country school.
According to Marie, the Great Depression of the 1930s didn't change their lifestyle because her stepmother always had been extremely thrifty. The family lived cheaply before the depression hit, so life continued as before, she said.
The Mehls acquired much land and were involved in farming and ranching.
In 1939, Marie married Joseph Scott Mason. Scotty, as he was commonly known, was a Safeway grocery store manager most of his life. The couple lived in various places including Eureka, Wichita, and El Dorado.
When Scotty became district manager, they moved to Topeka and lived there until he retired in 1974.
Scotty served in the United States Army from spring 1944 to December 1945. While he was an infantryman in Europe, Marie and their four-year-old daughter, June, lived with her parents.
Scotty was injured in battle but Marie didn't know about it until she received a Purple Heart medal some months later in the mail. The injury was minor, and he was able to return to the battlefield.
He also received the Bronze Star "for heroic achievement in connection with military operations against the enemy," according to the official report.
On January 20, 1945, during the Battle of the Bulge in Europe, Scotty worked many hours under a constant barrage of enemy fire at great risk to his life to repair vital communication lines. He was honorably discharged the following December.
Marie's brother Bill enlisted in 1942. Her father was forced to lease most of the land to others because he couldn't manage it by himself.
Bill enlisted at Kansas City and went to a Texas training camp and took a crash course at Texas A&M with the intention of becoming a pilot. However, he became a gunner instead.
He was sent to England and flew on more than 30 bombing missions to Germany before the plane he occupied was shot down in November, 1944, on the way back from a bombing run.
Bill was listed as "missing in action" for almost six months. The family got word the following May that he had been killed.
"My step-mom cried all day, then she was OK," Marie said, "but Bill's death bothered my dad until he died."
Bill's body originally was buried in Germany and later was moved to a cemetery in Belgium. His posthumously-awarded Purple Heart is at the VFW post home in Marion.
After Scotty retired from the grocery store business, the couple lived for a brief time at Marie's home place east of Marion. They remodeled the house and later sold the homestead to Dave Thomas.
They owned a travel trailer and spent their winters in warmer climates. In 1990, they bought a house in Marion at 302 S. Roosevelt, where Marie lives today. Scotty died in December.
The 88-year-old woman remains vivacious and active, although recent ankle surgery has slowed her down some.
She cherishes many pleasant memories.
"I have no regrets about our life," she said. "We got along fine and enjoyed ourselves."
Marie's three children are June Rasmussen, 62, and husband Steven of Tulsa, Okla., William Scott, 52, and wife Vi of Kansas City, and Jerry Lee, 51, of Houston. She has two granddaughters.
