RICHARD MARKER

There are people who don't take me seriously when I tell them I grew up in Puckerbrush. Puckerbrush is an area north and east of Woodburn, straight west of Norwood. The entire family, which includes the Penicks, Haltoms, and Markers, lived in Puckerbrush and all us kids went to Puckerbrush School. I graduated from eighth grade there in 1959. It was the last country school in Lucas County, and the schoolhouse has been moved to and preserved by the Lucas County Historical Museum at Chariton. I have lots of relatives living around Puckerbrush. We lived to the west. On top of the hill was Grandad Marker, and a quarter mile down the hill to the east was where Grandma and Grandpa Penick lived. We kids used to go visit Grandad Marker and listen to his stories. Unfortunately, I must not have listened as closely as I wish I had because I don't remember them.

In each of the Penicks and Markers families, there were five boys and five girls. There were Owen, Glen, Bob, John, Jim, Lela, Mildred, Thelma, Vera (Mom), and Flossie Penick. The Markers were Kenneth, Homer, Jerry, John Robert (Dad), Larry, Frances, Marjorie, Doris, Patsy (Patricia), and Vera. Having grown up together, it was natural that they found marriage partners within the group. My Dad, John Robert, married Vera Penick; Uncle Bob Penick married Vera Marker. Juanita Haltom married John Penick, Thelma Penick married Everett Haltom. Their children are my "kissen' cousins."

Some of the kids, instead of going to Puckerbrush, went to Norwood School. Norwood was a thriving community, with two general purpose stores. John and Eula Haltom owned one of the Norwood stores. At that time the community of Jay had a store, skating rink, and dance hall. It was quite an event to spend a Saturday night at Jay.

There are a lot of advantages to having a large family when we are all congenial. In 1951, when I was six years old, my dad, John Robert Marker, was killed in a car accident where the interstate is now. Lena Marker, his mother, died from complications a week after the accident. We lived with Everett and Thelma Haltom while we were recovering from our shock and grief. Mother was left to raise the two of us, my brother Rex and me, on 80 acres. Of course the family all rallied around to help. Mother remarried in the early 50s, and her husband was the one I refer to when I tell about my military service. I talked to him from Long Beach.

My dad's youngest brother, Larry, and his wife Sherry live in Jay. She gave additional information about the Osenbaugh family, who also lived in Puckerbrush, neighbors to the above-mentioned. Elizabeth Osenbaugh, known as Bessie, has passed away but she worked for Tom Miller when he was a lawyer for the state, now Iowa's Attorney General. Bessie had a strong feeling for her childhood culture, and introduced her office to the concept of pot luck dinners. They became so popular that in recognition of her, the office staff started the Puckerbrush pot luck judging competition at the State Fair. This year (2006) was the 3rd annual judging. There were four categories: bread, salad, main dish, and dessert. It was judged by the Attorney General and his staff along with Bessie's family. Bessie's mom, Betty Osenbaugh, lives in Lucas County, with a Lucas, Iowa address.

Rusty Haltom, the son of Thelma Penick and Everett Haltom, owns the home farm and every year has a Penick/Haltom/Marker reunion, which brings together lots of people. There may be as many 100 to 150 people, and could be called the Puckerbrush reunion. It is kind of a "y'all come," and they do. If pressed they could probably all substantiate their relationship to the three families.

My military story is in the Weldon/Woodburn veteran's book although I actually was drafted in Lucas County. I reported for duty on September 20, 1965, when I was living with my uncle Jim Penick in Osceola. I didn't enlist, I let them find me. I was sent to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and on to Fort Eustis, Virginia, where I took my AIT (Advanced Individual Training) for about 18 weeks. From there we went to Fort Story, Virginia, on the peninsula just outside of Virginia Beach. There we became acquainted with Amphibious Lark V, which is a land and water craft, a boat with wheels. We stayed there until September 1966.

We left from there to go to Vietnam aboard the USS Rose, which had been an ocean liner converted to a troop ship. We went through the Panama Canal, which was an interesting experience. However it is possible, the Pacific Ocean is higher than the Atlantic, and the ship. went up by steps. We were taken to Long Beach, California, where we took on fuel. We were allowed to get off the ship but some of the fellows got a little rowdy and the Marines took over. I was in a telephone booth talking to my step-dad, when a Marine armed with a shot gun, pecked on the window. I told him I'd be through in a minute and he said, "I'm going on down the street and by the time I get to the end of the block, you'd had better be right behind me." I decided he was nobody to fool around with. I was where he told me to be.

We went across to the Philippine Islands to take on more fuel, and there we were not allowed to get off the ship. It was 31 days before we landed on the coast of Vietnam. We sat in Cameron Bay, our home base, for two days, after which a loud speaker told us to get off the ship. We were in sand hills into which shelves had been dug, and tents put on the shelves. That was home, and our job was to haul supplies from ships to land. We unloaded food, ammunition, supplies, even bombs, to take to the depots.

When we first arrived, there were not even piers. By the time we left, people were strung all over the coast of Vietnam. I didn't see any combat. The closest we came was when I was on TDY (temporary duty), and left Cameron Bay at noon on a U-boat, which was a flat bottom barge with motor and propeller. Shortly afterward the Bay was mortared. We spent some time in Natrang, which was an island equipped with radar, and we took supplies and personnel back and forth. While I was there, Larry Carson from Woodburn walked in. His unit was building roads.

When my two years were up, on September 15, 1967, we were flown back home. We landed at Fort Lewis, Washington, where I was discharged. Looking back on it, I wouldn't want to do it again, but I would like to go back to see what it's like now, and how things have changed. Basically, I consider we lost, that it was an expensive, wasted effort. Personally, I had the experience, and I didn't get hurt, which is to say I was far more fortunate than many.

Connie White and I met when I was on leave, before I went to Vietnam. After I came home, we were married and had two girls, Lorie Anne and Lucy Jane, now we have had five grandkids, and love them all. There are Christopher, Jacob, Miranda, Lane, and Valerie. I now do some trucking and Christopher often goes with me. It makes the trips a lot more enjoyable.

Connie works at Robinson's Store and I've had a variety of jobs since my years in the service. I have worked in auto parts with Rusty Haltom, Musselman — actually all the parts stores in town including Underwood's. Then I established a shop and worked on cars at our home. The trucking over the road, that I do now, is mostly to the east coast and back. A fellow in Grimes owns all the trailers, gets the loads, and we deliver — lots of Tones spices, EMCO storm doors, some mining materials to Fort Madison — we haul whatever is moving.

Rex Marker My only sibling is Rex, four years younger than I, so we have had lots of things in common. However, he has two "claims to fame," as he puts it. One is that he was one of four members of the last graduating class in the last one-room rural school house in Iowa. The second was that he maybe the only fellow who ever volunteered to go to Vietnam. He was drafted in 1968, and sent for training in Texas. He hated every day he was there and when he had a choice of what to do next, he chose Vietnam. That was not how much he loved the duty but how much he hated Texas.

Four years later than I, he traveled many of the same roads I did. He, too, came home and married. His wife is Patricia (Smith) Marker. They also had two children — boys, John Robert and William Todd.

Rex has completed 17 years of employment by the Clarke Community School. His title is Transportation Supervisor. So the Marker guys came home from Vietnam with no injuries and can report that their branch from Puckerbrush continues to thrive.

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Last Revised November 6, 2013