Help solve mystery of trunk’s contents
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It was 10 years ago, almost to this day in May, that Kay Moody bought a Ford at an auction in Bristol, Tenn.
The Ford hung around their place in Knoxville, Tenn., for years until someone in the family wrecked it. Before giving up on the car, Kay looked in the trunk. There, she found a big box of memorabilia — oodles of fascinating World War II letters and family pictures and even a high school yearbook.
It was always Kay’s intent to find out who the stuff belonged to, but she fell seriously ill for several years and put the box aside until a week ago.
She and her husband, Michael, are locksmiths, which has nothing to do with this story, but he said to her, “You’ve dealt with this box long enough. Do something.”
It had been bugging her, so she chanced to call this newspaper because the box’s contents alluded to Davenport. She had little recollection of the Ford, but had a sticker that said they bought it on May 23, 1998.
“That box left in the auctioned car is a mystery. Can you help putting it in the right hands?” she pleaded.
Kay described letters from a serviceman, a Sgt. Shaw, addressed to Verna Robinson at 2905 Davenport Ave., dated 1945. One was a 1944 Christmas letter, from a U.S. Army general hospital in the “Persian Gulf Command.” This was a sure sign that the sergeant had been wounded or was ill.
Says Kay: “In the box there is a 1949 Davenport High School Blackhawk yearbook with the name Burdene Robinson stamped on the front. There’s everything in this box. Dozens of photos of children and anniversaries. Lovely pictures.”
The house at 2905 Davenport Ave. still stands, a three bedroom place in a nice neighborhood. No one named Robinson lives there. There are 182 Robinsons in the phone book, and I was not about to begin calling all of them. At the moment, Julie Awkerman lives in the house, a rental property.
“This is bizarre. I know nothing about who used to live here,” she says. That’s understandable. Kevin Koster owns the property. He, too, knows nothing about any Robinsons.
Kay is most anxious to put the box and contents in the right hands. Contact me. Maybe we can solve the mystery of the box in the Ford sold at auction.
The rest of the story
Some time ago — before the death on Monday of Elsie von Maur — Evelyn L. Schauland, ex-mayor of Muscatine, was shopping at Von Maur’s in Davenport.
She bought a jacket and shoes, which came to $189. She signed a check for the amount and the salesperson was thrilled.
“I’ve always wanted to meet you. May I shake your hand?” she said.
Evelyn was delighted, but thought it unlikely that being a former Muscatine mayor would cause such admiration in Davenport.
The awed salesperson went on: “I wish I could keep this check because it has your signature. I’ve admired you for so long.”
Evelyn, stunned, looked again at the check.
“I had Von Maur on my mind and had signed it E., first letter of my name, and Von Maur as my last name. In other words, I’d signed my name as E. Von Maur.”
The clerk thought she was Elsie von Maur, the grand dame of Quad-City music and matriarch of the department store family.
The former Muscatine mayor, who is a spritely 88, wears her hair bouffant, as did Elsie, and they were somewhat look-alikes.
“For a few minutes, in the eyes of this sales person, I was a celebrity,” says Evelyn.
Needless to say, she made out a new check.
Bill Wundram can be contacted at (563) 383-2249 or bwundram@qctimes.com.
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