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Joe Colvin was born on August 6,1911 in Greemup County, KY. On August 21,1934 he married Adele Berger in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Below is Adele's story of her time with Joe:
"During my first week in Athens, only the football team was on campus. I first saw Joe Colvin. I didn't meet
him until several weeks later on a train going to the Miami U.C. football game. At first, I thought
him very attractive looking, but different. I wasn't sure I liked him. He didn't have the usual
"line" of flattery etc. and liked to talk about serious subjects. By Christmas time I knew he was
the man for me, I was really in love.
Joe graduated from Ohio U. in June -pre-med. He had played football in High School at
Portsmouth, Ohio and earned his way thru O.U. playing football and working in one of the Women's
dorms. He was chosen all Ohio center and offered a good salary if he would play professional
football, but he knew if he didn't start medical school immediately he probably wouldn't. So when
I started work at U.C., he started his freshman year in medical college.
The following August we were married by Father Lilly in the Jesuit Chapel at Xavier U. Joe
had taken instructions from Father Lilly and received the Sacraments. Altho I would have married
him as a protestant, it was a wonderful blessing that the Lord gave him faith, and our marriage was
much better because we shared our religion. Like most other converts he was a very good Catholic
and I admired his zeal and enthusiasm.
For one year we lived in a St. Louis apt. near the med school, then moved to 219 Hosea,
when my parents bought that double house. Florence and Al lived downstairs. Mary was born
during her dad's junior year. His classmates took up a collection to buy the baby a gift and it
amounted to $3.54. No one had money.
Joey was born in Jewish hospital two days before his dad started his internship at Good
Samaritan Hospital...During Joe's year at Good Sam interns were paid $35.00 a month. Joe worked summers at General Hospital and got
interested in research under Dr. Mills.
Joe opened his first office on Vine Street near the zoo. We lived on Terrace Avenue in Clifton when
Annie was born. About six months later we were able to buy an old house on the
comer of Whitfield and Ludlow in Clifton. The first floor front rooms were Joe's office, our living
and bed rooms were on the second floor, and on the third floor was a large playroom. It was from
this room that Joe shot the practice arrow that missing the target, landed in the middle of the
streetcar tracks on busy Ludlow Ave. Here, too, the children enjoyed the tower room. In the fall of
1941, we decided to redecorate our living room. and got new wall to wall carpeting, wallpaper and
draperies. Everything was just completed when Pearl Harbor changed everyone's plans. Joe enlisted
in the Navy in Feb. 1942, and in March 1942, went to Chicago as a Lieutenant (Jr. Grade) in the
Navy Medical Corps. I stayed in Cint. until June, when Joe was sent to Cleveland, Ohio to the
Officer Procurement Office. We rented a lawyer's home in Rocky River for the summer. In the fall,
two days before we had to vacate, we finally found another house- (inside unseen) -we wired an
Army Colonel in Washington to rent it - and stayed there, 21669 Kenwood Ave. Rocky River, thru
the fall and winter. Mary went to the parochial school and Joey to kindergarten. In the spring Joe
had orders to report to Washington D.C. with help from Margretta Shriver Forbes, who lived in
Washington, we found a house. Before we could move in, Joe had new orders to New York. We
left the children with Meg, finally found a house in N. y., but before we signed the lease, again Joe
had his orders changed and we had to house hunt in Washington all over again. After 6 months in
epidemiology training, Joe was sent to the naval air station in Corpus Christi, Texas. We drove there
in Sept. 1943 and fIrst lived in one room on North Beach. Then, we had a three room cottage, where
I swept the sand thru all 3 rooms right out onto the beach, and washed clothes in the bathtub. Here
too, we lived thru the hurricane scare, with Joe unable to leave the base, and the locals telling us they
should be able to get us out, tho the last bad storm with tidal wave had completely washed out North
Beach. After 6 weeks we found a house - 1300 Florida Ave. and lived there until March of 1944.
Joe expected overseas orders so he drove the children and me to Cinti. We stayed with Mother and
Dad while I looked for an apt. I finally found a large St. Louis Apt. - 3394 Bishop St. - Two houses
from Shrivers. In April, Joe got his orders for overseas, and flew out of Corpus Christi and San
Francisco to the Pacific.
He was at Pearl Harbor on his way to the invasion of the Mariana's (with the Marines) when
Adele was born. He was on Tinian, Saipan and Guam when the war ended on Aug.
6,1945. He was finally sent home in Nov. 1945 and then to Norfolk, Virginia. We found a small
house, 8246 Bygax Rd., in a Navy housing project - to rent the house we had to buy the furniture.
After 6 weeks Joe got new orders - to Washington D.C. during a snow stonn we moved to 419
Shepard St., Chevy Chase, Maryland to an old house on a dead-end street. There were 37 children
on the block. The old furnace blew out on me and singed my eye brows as I tried to fIre it. The
children still tell the story of Joe climbing out the 2nd floor window when they thought he was
locked in and appearing at the door with ice cream for them and of Adele at 2 1/2 years walking to
the store by herself and ordering an ice cream cone. Saying her daddy would pay for it.
During this year, Joe tried three times to resign from the regular Navy (he had gone from the
Naval Reserve to the Regular Navy During the war) and fina1ly his last resignation was accepted.
He liked the Navy, but would soon have been a commander, and then have done administrative work
instead of practicing medicine, which he wanted to do. Then too, Joey had been sick 2-3 days out
of each week. At the naval hospital they told us his coughing and vomiting, which had started when
he was 5, was due to bacterial asthma. We hoped a drier climate than Washington's might help him.
We spent Christmas 1946 in Cinti. with Mother and Dad. On January 1, 1947 we left for Tucson,
Arizona, leaving Mary and Ann at Sacred Heart Convent. We took Marcia with us, thinking a
change of scenery would be good for her. Soon after we reached Arizona, Joe had to fly her home
as she refused to eat and we did not think we could get her proper treatment there. We had a small
apt. for the first few days-near, the R.R. yards and I thought the trains were coming right thru our
rooms. With Helen Moffitt's help (she is Joe's cousin) we found a small house near the edge of town
lookipg toward Mt. Lemon. When I returned to Tucson years later, our house was no longer on the
outskirts, but close in. We spent January, February and half of March there, and realized that tho Joey was
better, warm climate was not the answer. We returned to Cincinnati and Joey started school at the
Summit. Joe found temporary work with the Athletic Director at U.C. That spring, Joey got very
sick had 105°t. for days. We finally took him to Children's hospital and later that same nite I went
to Jewish Hospital and Susie was born. It was Holy Thursday. I came home Easter
Sunday to our old house on Whitfield. We had made a first floor bedroom as I wasn't allowed up
and down steps. Juanita, our black African Methodist Deacones, came as nurse at nite, and Tanta
Loretta during the day. Between the two of them, I was about out of my mind. Neither could find
anything the other had used and I was anchored down in bed. In September of that year we sold our
house on Whitfield, as we were planning to go to Fort Worth, Texas, where Joe would take a
residency in Orthopaedic Surgery under Dr. Clayton. During October, we lived in Grandma Berger's
old house on the hill (it was furnished but unoccupied). From there in November we left for Texas,
pulling a fold-up trailer for all our necessary goods. We stopped frequently to heat a bottle for Susie
who was 7-8 months old. We also had "Chippie" our part Chi puppy who lived in a motel on the
east side of Fort Worth. While Mary was the babysitter, Joe and I house hunted. We found a red
brick house on Ashland Ave. in Arlington Hts. We changed it from a 3 bedroom and study to 4
bedrooms and added 1/2 bath. Joe started his residency at Harris Hospital, Jan 1 1948. Monsignor
Langenhorst accepted the children at St. Alice school, tho we really were within the geographical
boundaries of St. Patrick's.
In June, 1949, Joe finished his residency at Harris and needing money, started in general
practice with Dr. Leroy Bursey. They opened their office in Ridglea on the corner where the drug
store is now located. Joe's brother Buzz, and his wife Ann were divorced and Ann with a new baby
(Chris) was working as a nurse in a children's home in Columbus, Ohio. We asked her to come to
Texas to live with us. Our house on Ashland wasn't big enough for two families on a permanent
basis, so we leased a farm on Mary's Creek with a large old house and a smaller house for Ann and
the children. Here we acquired our first three horses (the barn was larger and newer than the house)
We stayed here only 6 months, as Joe found our present farm, and we moved to it on June 2,1950.
The years on the fann were busy and happy ones, and we gradually learned more about
farming...I knew nothing about milking cows, but Joe said he did. He milked by
hand one morning, then went down to Leonards Farm Store and bought an electric milking machine,
which the children learned to operate. We had a cooler installed in the garage and the cream off the
top of the milk was something to remember. I made ice cream, butter, cheese and we gained 10
pounds.
Soon after Joe had started to work with Dr. Clayton at Harris Hospital, he found out that
Dr. Clayton's daughter had the same condition as Joey and had been successfully treated by Dr.
Patterson in Dallas. We took Joey to him, at fIrst, every week, then less frequently he had, as we
knew a cardia spasm of the esophagus, a condition common in old people, but uncommon in
children. We had been told a cure would involve major surgery. Dr. Patterson had him swallow
a boogie and under fluoroscope dilated the muscle between the stomach and the aesophogus. Joey
soon learned to do this as easily as a sword swallower. In a few weeks time he had gained many
pounds as, for the fIrst time in years, he retained all of his food. We were very thankful the Lord had
sent us to Texas, for altho Dr. Patterson had been using this method of treatment successfully for
many years, he had not published anything on it.
Joe had stayed with Dr. Bursey for only 1 year, they basically disagreed on some principals,
and then the summer of 1950, when we moved to the fann, he also moved his office to a building
at 5201 Camp Bowie Blvd. This building was purchased from the Harveson and Cole Funeral
Home. He rearranged the interior of the building to include on the east side an office for Dr. Bob
Kline a Dentist. Bob stayed there until I sold the building in 1978.
In 1957, the Knights of Columbus needed space for their meetings. So Joe remodeled the
basement to rent for a K.C. Hall. Here they had fish fries every Friday nite, to make needed income
for their council as well as for social reasons. The K.C. left the building in 1960 to acquire their own
hall and Bryce Evans used the space for a dance studio- later it became a bridge hall.
Joe was interested in registered quarter horses and added many more to our fIrst three, which
the children had ridden over from Mary's Creek when we moved. Belle and Jack Summers and their
children, lived in our little tennant house for five years and Jack worked with the horses. We entered
them in many shows and won numerous ribbons and trophies. One year we won both first and
second place in the colt class at the Fort Worth Stock Show. After the Summers left, Mr. and Mrs.
Booker who needed a house, stayed in our little house for a year. Then Shorty Dixon and
his family Marie, Randy, Sheila, Sandy and Keith, moved in and were with us 11 years, leaving
finally for their own farm very near to us. Shorty still came to help out with farm chores until our
help became "home grown."
In the fall of 1959,...Joe got sick. He came home from a deer hunting trip with severe pain, and finally was convinced he had to go to the
hospital. He had an embolus that settled in his lungs. After several weeks of hospitalization, he
recovered and early in 1960 returned to his practice. He had not really recovered, however, and had
nephrosis which necessitated giving up his practice completely. He stayed at home to rest and
recuperate, but did not recover his good health. Getting progressively weaker .
In 1961, bored with staying home, as he had not the strength to work on the farm, as he had
hoped to do, he took a job as medical director of the dispensary at the Army General Services Depot
on Hemphill in Fort Worth. He worked there until February of 1962. On March 9, 1962 he died at
home having decided he did not wish to go back into the hospital. He had gone thru all the phases
of facing death, denial, anger, bargaining and finally acceptance. We drove into Mass and
Communion each day, as long as he could and then Father Nelson brought him Communion each
day until he died. Mary came from Houston to help me. I couldn't have done without her. And so
ended 27 1/2 years, of a happy and fulfilling married life."*
* from 'Adele's story'.
Note:
1. In 2009 Joe(Jr.) gave me the 2 great photos of his Colvin and Jones ancestors. He also gave me a copy of handwritten Colvin and Jones ancestor charts. These charts showed the occupation of his male ancestors. Joe said his Dad use to love to joke about the notation 'no trade' written under his grandfather Ballard Jones name.
2. Doctor Joe delivered my brother Paul Trefzger while he and his family lived on Ludlow and Whitfield in Cincinnati.
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