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The good life
Colleen (Knowlton) McLean has lived in Vernon County most of her 84 years. She was born in Harwood and moved to Deerfield to live with her grandmother, Luvenia Tucker as a child. She attended Deerfield Village School and Nevada High School.
Her grandmother ran a hotel and livery stable in Deerfield to accommodate the Katy Railroad customers. Although the hotel no longer stands, McLean has fond memories of it.
"My friends would get into the cellar and eat green apples and salt," she said laughing. "I would leave the hotel and go roller-skating with my friends. I was supposed to be home at a certain time and when I was late, I'd have to decide how to sneak back in without being noticed."
She had two routes back into the hotel. One involved going through the livery stable yard and past a home where a man had died, then getting through a huge wooden gate. The other route was past the homeless men, often called bums, who hung out near the train station.
"I had a choice," McLean explained with a grin. "I could run into a ghost or run into some bums. I'd hold up my finger to see which way to go."
The "bums" weren't a big threat to her. "Grandma fed all the bums that came along. My father was a railroad man and my mother's first husband was an engineer. My grandmother was married three times, my mother was married three times but Collene was only married once and that was enough."
She recalls the hotel as huge building. "It had an old hand pump in the kitchen sink and one of those big wood cooking stoves with little warming ovens on top and a reservoir for water. There was a big dining room and two big porches. My sister knew more about the hotel than me."
McLean remembered a mystery about one room in the hotel.
"On the west side of the hotel had a room with an outside staircase. This woman came in and rented the room then disappeared. That room was never rented out again and since it was always empty, I would go upstairs and play in it. No one ever told me it was supposed to be haunted."
She married Ennis McLean, also a Deerfield native, in 1943 while he was in the military and stationed in Florida.
Her husband served in the Pacific for 27 months during World War II and during that time his son was born.
"He never saw him until he was two years old," McLean said.
Although there were letters from him, they were always several weeks old and carefully censored by the military. She laughed, then added, "He didn't know if he had a boy or girl 'cause they cut that part out of the letters. Finally his sister figured it out and wrote him a letter telling him we'd had a wiener roast."
While Ennis was in the military, McLean lived in an apartment building where several of her family also had apartments. Her sister-in-law managed the building, and she helped take people around and worked in the office.
When her husband returned, they moved back to Deerfield to make their home.
Eventually they bought the Deerfield bank building and made it into a store, building onto it to make a home.
When her husband was appointed post master, McLean also worked in the post office. "You do everything in a little town post office. There are no clerks to help."
McLean commented on the big flood of 1958 when Deerfield was surrounded by water and no one could get in or out for more than a week except by boat.
"The trains were running and delivered our mail. They would bring the mail from the train in a boat and we'd meet them and exchange mail sacks.
The Nevada Daily Mail newspaper couldn't be delivered, so they had a small plane that flew over and dropped the papers into the Weber's pasture and we'd go get the newspapers there."
McLean also worked at the Nevada's State Hospital No. 3 for more than 31 years, wearing many hats during her time there. She counted them off on her fingers. "I worked in surgical, admissions, as a supervisor in the office, in the art therapy department, in the post office in the tunnel and did fingerprinting."
She shook her head and added, "Whew!"
One of her jobs included working in art therapy with Dr. Chew, noted artist and Cottey College instructor. "You could really see how the patients were improving by their artwork," McLean said.
One patient wanted to paint a portrait of Dymphna, the patron saint of those suffering from nervous and mental afflictions.
McLean explained, "She was having trouble with the hands, and Dr. Chew helped her with that part. The painting was sent to the state fair and won first prize twice. It hung in the lobby at the old Center Building for years. But when they remodeled the picture got thrown away. I knew the history of it and asked if I could have it. I took it to Mrs. Chew and she donated it to the Bushwhacker Museum where it still is on display."
During the time she was helping others deal with their problems, McLean faced some serious problems of her own.
"My husband had a stroke on the day of his mother's funeral. He could not talk nor care for himself."
While her husband was ill, she stayed by his side and helped him regain many skills before his death in 1978. In 1994 she had a modified mastectomy for breast cancer.
"I learned very early working out at state, you have to have a sense of humor to get through life," McLean said.
McLean retired from state 1989. Her hobbies include dancing, and attending club activities. She belongs to the Eagles, the VFW at Fort Scott and the American Legion in Nevada. "When I retired, I retired," she said with a sigh. "I'm not involved in much of anything now except keeping track of my grandchildren. My granddaughter is on her way to get her doctorate. She's a teacher. My grandson is getting a surveyor's license. My daughter-in-law taught for years and now is teaching computer science at the University of Missouri. All my family graduated with honors -- I'm the only ignorant one in the family!" She laughed.
"I've always been real proud of my son. He graduated here in Nevada, and won five scholarships. He is a whiz at math. I asked him if he regretted growing up in a little town like Deerfield and he said no, that in Deerfield, everyone knew everyone else and if you needed help, people would help you."
McLean thought for a moment then said, "I've had a lot of sorrow in my life. I lost my father when I was about 12. Lost my husband. One of the bad things about growing old is that you lose a lot of loved ones. I have more family in the cemetery than alive. But you go on, you know. You never know what life will throw at you." She sighed, paused a while then chuckled recalling some fond memory.
Finally she smiled and concluded, "All in all, I'd say I've had a good life."