Gayward Neal Mann Memoir

Gayward Neal Mann Memoir

Gayward Neal Mann

Gay was born June 16, 1920 in Wichita Falls Texas to Overa and Claude Columbus Mann. Everyone called him Gay for short but his name is Gayward Neal Mann. I think Vera, his mother knew someone she liked or known from the First World War by that name and evidently she liked it and named Gay after him, I do not know.

When Gay was five years old the family moved to Denver, Colorado. The apartment address was 2200 Tremont Street and his grandmother lived on South Clarkson Street in Denver. Her youngest son, Rod also lived with her. Gay’s father was a Salesman and Vera worked as a Seamstress in the Denver Dry Goods Department Store in the men’s Tailor shop. His mother being an expert seamstress made all Gay’s clothes. When he was older she and Mr. Kleiner, who was the supervisor in the men’s alternation Department made all his suits. Gay never bought any of his suits. He was very particular about how he dressed, even on Saturday he would put on his best instead of casual clothes to relax in

Gay went to the normal grade school and junior high and graduated from East High School in June 1939. His two best friends were Cal Powers and Bill Marcus. Since Gay had inspirations of being a Physician he took many science courses during high school and received many high grades.

Pearl Harbor was attacked and bombed on Sunday, December 7, 1941 by the Japanese and so many young men enlisted in the service instead of being drafted and Gay and his friend Bill Marcus enlisted in the Air Force. After basic training Gay was promoted to Sergeant and was an instructor in the Armament Technical School at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver. He was scheduled to go over seas to the European Theater area and Bill, his buddy was also in the same division and went but Gay not having regulation eye glasses was held back until he received the proper glasses. He then was sent to the Pacific area and was the first battalion to land in Japan after the Atomic Bomb fell on

Hirochima. I remember him saying how scary it was to get a haircut and saying how easy it would be for the Japanese barber to cut his throat. He told me about his cousin Jack Hammack being in the Lost Texas Battalion, the battalion fought it out virtually alone against 80,000 Japanese before being captured. They were prisoners for 41 months. Zack was in the “Death March” when the Japanese marched the prisoners from

Mariveles to Camp O’Donnell in the Philippines. .

After the war and discharge from the service Gay registered at the University of Denver on the G.I. Bill as a pre-med student. I met him in a Zoology class and I was majoring in Institutional Management which is now called Dietetics.

One of our first dates was to a Masonic dance. It was to be held on a Saturday night but Gay’s father had a heart attack and was in the hospital and he had another heart attack in the hospital and died. Gay had already bought tickets for the dance so he asked his

friend Bill Marcus to take me to the dance which he did.

We continued to date and loved to go dancing at many places in Denver especially going to Elitche’s Amusement Park or Lakeside Park to dance with the Big Bands that played at these Amusement parks. Some of the bands were Kay Keiser, Les Brown, Guy Lombardo etc. Many times we would go to dinner and dance at the Brown Palace Hotel in downtown Denver. Many times we would take trips on Sunday to the mountains and have a picnic lunch with my family. We went on many hikes in the mountains.

Gay proposed to me before we graduated from the University of Denver and I announced our engagement at a Sorority dinner. We both graduated the same year June 1949. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree and I received a Bachelor of Science degree. Gay was a little upset that I received a B.S. degree and he received a B.A. Degree. He was the one who took many more science classes as he was a pre-med student. After graduation Gay continued his classes in Casper Wyoming and I went to Dayton Ohio to complete my internship in Dietetics at Miami Valley Hospital for a year Sept. 1950 to Sept. 1951.

We were married June 8, 1952 at Washington Park Community Church and also had a reception there at the church. Not having too much money we took a short trip to Colorado Springs and stayed at the Broadmoor Hotel for our honeymoon. While there we went to the Garden of the Gods and a trip up to Pikes Peak.

He was accepted to Colorado Medical School and to a Medical School back east. It is extremely hard to be accepted to medical school and because of his high grades he could go to either school. He accepted the one in Colorado instead of going back east. This was his desire all his life to go to medical school and become a physician. Something went wrong. He did not get along with one of the professors and received a failing grade for that class. He had never received a failing grade in all his school years and was so exasperated and disappointed he refused to take the class over and refused to go back and dropped out entirely.

Gay worked for the Denver Water Department as a Chemist and then for the Government at Rocky Flates in Aurora Colorado. He was transferred to Alamagodo, New Mexico and worked on Atomic or Rocket fuel in the White Sands testing division.

He would drive up to Denver almost every weekend to see me, but one time when he bought a new car which was a red and white Ford Fairlane I drove it down to New Mexico going only 50 miles per hour to break in the engine. Another time on one of his trips to Denver I drove the car to downtown Denver to shop and when I came back to the car the police had put a “boot” on the back tire of the car. There I sat until the police came around and I had to follow the police car down to the police station and had to pay all the parking tickets Gay had ignored because he had an out of state license plate and thought he was exempt in paying the tickets.

Gay did not feel right about being a Chemist all his life and I suggested that he look into going to Law School and he did and registered in University of Denver night law school. He seemed happy studying law and received high grades and one time got all “A” in Torts (I’m not sure) and received a book “ Corpus Juris Secundum” with his name engraved on it. He graduated from law school in 1960 after four years of study. Since he had a scientific background he wanted to go into Patents, Trademarks and Copyright Law. He thought he needed experience in handling Patents so applied to the Government Patent Office in Washington D.C. to be a Patent Examiner and was accepted. We moved to Washington, D.C. and I found an apartment in Arlington, Virginia. I flew our dog, a Cocker Spaniel called Smitty and found an apartment that would take dogs at 1712 Taylor Street which was nice as there was a wooded area in back of the buildings where we could walk Smitty.

I found a job as an administrative Dietitian at Faulkier Hospital in Warrenton, Virginia about 35 miles from Arlington where we lived. We bought very little furniture as we knew we were not going to stay there. We always thought we would eventually go back to Denver as both our mothers were there and we always called Denver our home. Our daughter was born while we were in Virginia at Washington Hospital in D.C. March 23, 1962. Gay took a picture of me when I was pregnant to send to his Aunt Jewel as she would not believe I was expecting as we had been married ten years. Gay suggested the name Linda so she is Linda Elaine Mann. Both our mothers came to visit us for this special event.

We went to the Kennedy Presidential Inaugural in 1962. The night before there was a blizzard and Gay had a hard time getting home as there were few buses running and all the hotels were full of people coming to D.C. for the inaugural. He finally caught a bus but it got stuck on the bridge going into Virginia from cars abandon and stuck in the snow. He finally got home after getting off of the bus and walking the rest of the way home. We did go the next morning to the Inaugural, and the parade.

While in the Washington D.C. area we found so much history there and Gay got so interested in the History of the Civil War era and we took many trips to the battlefields in Virginia, and Pennsylvania etc. When we first arrived in Washington the reactment of Manassas was going to be preformed with actual cannons and soldiers dressed in Confederate and Union uniforms. It was a real hot day and we sat in the bleachers and both got sunburns. We found it so interesting that every weekend we would take a picnic lunch and go to a different battlefield. In the winter months we took advantage of the many tourist spots as the Smithsonian Institute, museums, Ford’s Theater where President Lincoln was shot and many more interested places in D.C. and Virginia.

Gay also enjoyed playing tennis with his friend he met at the Patent Office, Bob Beers.

Gay’s next position was with a Paint Manufacture company and moved to Cleveland, Ohio. We then found an apartment in Brecksville, a suburban of Cleveland. I also started working at Highland View Hospital as a Therapeutic Dietitian. The hospital provided day care for employee’s children which I took Linda to while I worked. We enjoyed many plays, concerts and the theater in Akron. We still had our hopes or desires that we would get back to Denver and Gay wanted to have his own law practice in Denver We only stayed a couple of years or so in Ohio. We eventually decided to make the move back to Denver and Gay opened an office in downtown Denver in the American National Bank Building and I took a job at Rose Memorial Hospital as a Dietitian. We stayed in my mother’s house, 1415 South Franklin Street. My hours were from 3 P.M. to 11 P.M. and my mother would put Linda to bed when I worked. It was wonderful being in Denver with family but it did not last long as it was hard for Gay waiting for clients and doing some cases given him from the other Patent Attorney’s office already established in Denver. We found it very hard to keep the office open and Gay got discouraged and applied for a Patent Attorney position with the government that had an opening at Point Mugu Naval Base Patent office in Camarillo, California.

One good thing while we were in Denver we learned to Square Dance. I convinced Gay to go to a Pot luck Square dance activity at the church on a summer evening. We went although he said Square Dancing didn’t interest him, and went only to satisfy me. I square danced at University of Denver and liked it very much. I promised him we would go home after the pot luck but after the caller got us all in a large circle and taught some of the basic steps and then put us in squares, Gay had the time of his life and could hardly wait until September to take lessons.

We also played Bridge with John, who Gay had gone to law school with, and his wife Marty every Saturday night at either our house and their house.

It was hard to leave Denver and to leave our mothers again, as Gay accepted the position at the Point Mugu Naval Base in California. We went to Ventura, California and found an apartment at the Buenaventura Gardens Apartment complex. The two bedroom apartment was nice being close to the Ventura mall and to the Grade School. Linda really enjoyed the swimming pool and met some nice friends there. We stayed in the apartment about a year or so and decided to buy a house in Ondolondo, Ventura as the management was going to make the apartments into Condos. We bought the house at 872 Colina Vista which is a three bedroom home in the “well to do” residential area in the hills above Ventura . Since we had a house Linda wanted a dog so on her 7th birthday we adopted Dixie a white Cockapoo. Gay’s secretaries dog had puppies and one day Gay arranged with his secretary for us to come see the puppies. So we went to dinner and told Linda we were going to visit Rosie. She was kind of unhappy but when we got to Rosie’s house and asked her if we could see the puppies, Linda was very happy and we picked out a white puppy and we named her Dixie.

We enjoyed Square Dancing all over---Camarillo, Bachelors n Bacheloretts in Ventura

Ojai, Santa Barbara, and many Knot Head trips all over Los Angeles. We Joined a Square Dance Club in Oxnard called the Romping Stompers, and held all the offices in the club as Secretary, Treasurer, Vice President and President. We went to many parties and picnics and had a lot of fun visiting other clubs and stealing their banner so they would come visit our club to retrieve their banner. I think Gay liked his position in the Patent Office and many times they would get to gather at the Point Mugu Officers Club. Over the holidays we had many functions to attend with friends. The head of the Patent Department always had a Christmas party and Jenny and Joe Bandarra, members of the square dance group always had a New Years Eve party and the square dance group would go on a block buster party (that is to visit different members homes and have a appetizer at one house, salad at another and have the main course at Jenny and Joe’s house such as Chili).

Our lives abruptly changed when Gay had his first heart attack which he recovered very quickly and was back square dancing. On Monday, Columbus Day October ninth he woke up at 4 A.M. with severe stomach pains and I called Dr. Hart and drove him to his office and from there to Community Memorial Hospital and was admitted into the Intensive Care Unit. I came home about 7:30 A.M. and got Linda off to school and then went back to the hospital. Gay died at 1 P.M. that afternoon. Vera wanted me to bring him back to Denver and I knew the Mann family had family burial plots so I consented but when I got to Denver the Crown Hill Cemetery representative told me there was no vacant plots in the Mann family area. At that point I wished I had stayed in California. For the services I called the Minister that had married us, Mr. Halbert, and when I picked out the flowers Linda picked a beautiful rose and it was laid in the casket. I called some friends in Denver and they were pallbearers and the Masonic Lodge did their service at the grave.

The weekend before his death he took a half day off from work on Friday and went to Linda’s grade school and talked to the Principal about Linda not being picked for the choir which she wanted to join. The following week the principal made arrangements and she joined the choir. Friday night we went to the fair and Linda invited a friend to go with us. Gay went on many rides with Linda and bought both girls a leather purse. Saturday we went square dancing as usual.

Hobbies: Gay loved to read and was always buying “Pocket-books” and could read a book in a day or two. He read many books on the Civil War and bought many books written by Bruce Catton, as The Centennial History of the Civil War, Never Call Retreat, The Civil War as We Lived It., He read Abraham Lincoln and the War Years, and Civil War Volume I and II. Other books he read The Universe, The works of Plato, Biblical Archaeology, The meaning of Dead Sea Scrolls, Pocket History of the World, The Story of the Bible, and Kings of Kings, and many more.

Favorite foods: Steak, potatoes, tossed salad, and dessert. I never fixed casseroles, or mixed dishes and maybe meatloaf occasionally. We enjoyed eating out every Friday night to a Lobster, Seafood or a Steak house restaurant and in California the Captain Table was a favorite restaurant. One time in Virginia he came home and smelled ham and beans cooking and thought it sounded good so Janice who lived up stairs had cooked the ham and beans invited us up to dinner. All she had was the ham and beans, salad and dessert. Afterwards Gay thought it so odd there was no meat served, I told him the ham and beans was the main course that families didn’t have a separate meat served at the same time.

Religion: Gay and I went to church most every Sunday to a Methodist or Presbyterian Church. When we were in California we went to the Church of the Foothills. One time we went to one of Billy Graham lectures and Gay thought he was pretty good.

Ancestry: Gay’s Aunt Jewel did a little Genealogy on the Mann Family Tree in trying to trace ancestors from Rachael Strickland whose family had land in Texas. His family was one of the three hundred settlers to settle in Texas and was given land that could not be sold or conveyed to another. Aunt Jewel was interested in the land now because there is oil and gas on the land and wanted to claim the royalties. She put a lot of money into this project and found it hard for one person to fight the big oil and gas companies and win even with a Lawyer in Texas.

Sports: His father loved fishing and I think Gay acquired his love of fishing from him. After we were married we had no time to go fishing except he always talked about it. He went on a fishing trip with friends in Washington on a large cruiser, and talked for weeks about going. The wives provided quite a lot of food for the men. As it turned out Gay was so sea sick he did not eat or able to fish. He was very disappointed. He was a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals and always listened to Baseball games over the radio and T.V. and sometimes had both on and listening to separate games. He loved Football and many times when we were in Denver we would go to the Football games between South High and East High as they were rivals. I went to South High and he went to East High. He would keep track of all the College games and could tell you a lot of the players names and the different plays they would make.