TO: Colleen Haynes Rongey,

This is to thank you for submitting Elta's work, "McElroy Family of McElroy Gap", to the Newton County, Arkansas Families web site. I just finished reading it, and found it delightful.

As a child, we lived at McElroy Gap with the people I knew as great-grandparents, Anna and Marshall. It was a happy, loving time and place. Grandpa was blind, and we "worked" together as he puttered around, using me as his eyes. Grandma was a remarkable lady. She attended a college in Ohio before marrying--a rarity in the late 1800's; she was something of a feminist, well ahead of her time, and frustrated, even in her old age, because of opportunities that had been closed to her.

So, are you a member of the McElroy family? Whatever, thank you bringing back delightful memories.

Thank you again.

Marvin Villines

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Hello Marvin...You must be a cousin to the Gilmores I referred to, Robert Gilmore has a son by the name of David Gilmore... Robert told him many stories about his/your grandparents there at McElroy Gap...Will send you Davids address so you can write him...Do not know if he is on line or not.

Now, tell me about yourself and how you came to leave Newton Co and go to Guam...

You still have lots of Villines around there who would like to hear from you, and how are you related to the McElroys? I also have a story that Elta wrote about the death of her brother Ted in the oil fields of Oklahoma...

Thanks for your interest....and your letter

Sincerely, Colleen Haynes Rongey

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Hi, thought of something else...No, I am not related by blood to the McElroys, but their Grandaughter Betty Lou Gilmore Grosclaude was my best friend at Deer High School and I spent a lot of time at their home there in McElroy Gap as we grew up...

After High School we lost touch because her folks took her to Calif ....and I went another direction from the mountain...on the 50th High school reunion, I saw her sister Virginia, she gave me Bettys address in CT...I called her and my husband and I drove to Connecticut to see her and spent some time there, visiting...she was ill already with her heart...but we wrote and talked constantly until she died two years later...

While we were visiting Betty and her husband that day, in Connecticut, .She dug down in a drawer and came up with the piece by Elta and we went to town that day and copied it...I later did send it to the paper, this was in about 1995....

The day she died, Her daughter Lynn called to tell me she was gone and the same day... I got a little package in the mail from her...Nothing in the package except ...her favorite earrings and scarf...not one word written in the package...But I got the message...I wrote a poem called Tribute to My Best Friend and had it sent to CT and placed in a wreath on her casket...

Later, I wrote up the history she had given me to put in the Newton Co Times (I write a piece called the Voices of Newton Co) now and then... and people send me their story...that is how I came to write the wonderful stories...

Since then, I still write an occasional piece for the Newton County Times paper, and have a web site you will want to visit...Look for the link on the Families Page where you saw this piece... And...Again, thanks for asking

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Colleen,

What a touching story of friendship. I haven't had news of Elta's family in more than 20 years. I last saw Patty, and Betty Lou when we took them (and Elta) to Harrison to begin their trip to Oakland. In 1965, I visited with Elta and Virginia during a trip to CT to visit my grandmother.

You ask about my relationship to the Gilmores; also, how we left Newton County and ended up on Guam. I'll try to summarize the story.

My grandmother, Dorothy McElroy Brasel was Elta's sister. Dorothy married my grandfather, William "Jap" Brasel when my mother was a girl; so although she was mother and grandmother, there is no genetic relationship.

In the 30's, my parents and I lived with Anna and Marshall at McElroy Gap. My mother was a first grade teacher in the Deer School; my dad, a surveyor--by the way, I just mailed him a copy of "The McElroy Family of McElroy Gap".

We eventually moved to Tulsa, where my Dad remains. I grew up in Tulsa, with summers back in Parthenon and Boxley, moving to Nebraska to begin a teaching career a few years after graduating from the U of Tulsa.

One day when the wind chill factor was lower than anyone likes to think about, I answered an advertisement in the state educators newsletter that was recruiting teachers to come to Guam and "see the world." So, we came to Guam, saw a lot of the world, and have been warm ever since. I retired from the Guam Public Schools in 1990 and began another mini-career three years ago when the Department of Defense opened a military school system here.

So, that is the story. I was last in Newton County in 1976 for my grandfather, Robert "Hez" Villines' funeral. I have an aunt, Mary Phillips, in Jasper, as well as a few cousins I know. And I'm sure many more distant cousins I don't know. Someday, we'll be back. In the meantime, we'll follow the web pages and correspond with wonderful, interesting people like you.

Marvin Villines

You can reach me by email, Marvin Villines

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