Vernon and Fern McELHINEY, Nina, Helen and Marvin first moved to the Maloy vicinity in the mid 1920's. We lived on a farm known as the "Old Goose Pond" farm. I do not remember anything about this. I was too young.

We then moved to a farm just one mile west of Maloy. I believe Chan SHAY lived in the first house. We lived in a small house onthe corner. Doug SHAY lived in the next house and my dad farmed ground for him.

I started school in Maloy. My first teacher was a Mrs. O'CONNOR. I went to the first, second and third grades there before moving to Ottawa, Kansas. Then years rolled by as they always do. We moved back to Maloy in 1937. My folks ran a grocery store there for several years. The grocery store is the brick building just south of the Catholic [Immaculate Conception] Church. We lived in a house just west of the old bank building.

How well I remember my senior year at Maloy, expecially the super basketball teams of which I was proud to be a member, even though I just made the second team.

My two sisters, Nina and Helen, both attended school in Maloy in the late 1920's. Nina, my older sister, married Robert POTTS. They have two sons and six grandchildren. Robert is now deceased. Nina lives in Hopkins, Missouri.

Helen married Vic MENDENHALL. They have one son and four grandchildren. Vic is also now deceased.

I (Marvin) married Jean YEAROUS. We have two daughters and four grandchildren. How time does fly! I will never forget the good old days at Maloy.

After high school graduation in 1938, I enrolled in college at Maryville and then into the service. Later I married Jean and we lived in Yorktown, Iowa, near Shenandoah during our 40 years of married bliss which we celebrated in 1985.

We operated a general store which also housed the post office and "Mac" served as postmaster. I also had a butchering and locker service in the town. The business was sold and a small post office building was built next door to our home. I continued to be postmaster until about two years ago. Now retired, Jean and I travel by car to visit our daughters and families who live in the sunny south and to see other friends and relatives in the U.S.

~ by Marvin McELHINEY

NOTES: Nina Margie (McELHINEY) POTTS was born in Red Oak, Iowa March 2, 1916, and died July 25, 2009. She served her country during World War II by working at the Pratt and Whitney Plant. She married Robert "Bob" POTTS in Clarinda, Iowa on February 28, 1937. Bob passed away October 25, 1984. They were interred at Hopkins Cemetery, Hopkins, Missouri.

Helen McELHINEY and Victor "Vic" MENDENHALL were married at Papillion, Nebraska on October 12, 1940. Victor Hale MENDENHALL, the son of J. Harlard and Edna MENDENHALL, was born in Allendale, Missouri March 5, 1920, and died in Fort Dodge August 3, 1984.

Marvin B. McELHINEY was born October 14, 1920, and passed away in December of 1987. He served as a Major in the U.S. Marine Corps, seeing action in the South Pacific Theatre during World War II. In February of 1945 he attending flight instructor's school in New Orleans, Louisiana where he married JEan Bernice YEAROUS on March 24, 1945. Jean Bernice (YEAROUS) McELHINEY, the daughter of Nathan "Ted" and Hallean (ELLIS) YEAROUS, was born near Yorktown, Iowa on July 8, 1922, and died at the age of 83 years September 10, 2005. Marvin and Jean were interred at Summit Cemetery of rural Yorktown.

SOURCE: Maloy, Iowa Centennial History: 1887 - 1987 p. 144.

Courtesy of Mount Ayr Public Library

Transcription and Notes by Sharon R. Becker, August of 2011