Over Thanksgiving weekend in 2011, I took a drive with my family up the coast of California in which we met my great aunt Vivian for the first time.
Vivian (Foltz) Silva and Kira D. Foltz, San Francisco, California, Thanksgiving weekend 2011.
Week 45: Stormy Weather
Vivian was the daughter of my great grandparents, George LeeRoy Foltz and Myrtle May Mills. Roy had died at a fairly young age (see his story here) but Myrtle went on to the age of 97. She didn't pass away until the year 1980, so she had a long life to live after her first husband.
Myrtle (Mills) Foltz Haley, undated photo, privately held by descendant Kira D. Foltz.
My father and I had known that Myrtle remarried after Roy's death to a man named Benjamin Thomas "Tom" Haley and she became quite close to a few of Tom's kids from his previous marriage. It was known to be a good union, but tragically also cut short, as Tom died just two years later in 1931.
Myrtle (Mills) Foltz Haley and Ben T. Haley, undated photo, originally submitted to Ancestry.com by Mary Anwar 5 Oct 2010.
From then on, Myrtle was on her own -- or so we had thought before meeting her youngest daughter, Vivian. In 2011, Vivian was 93 years of age, but sharp as a tack and very able-bodied (practicing Tai-Chi every morning, in fact!). She took us out to lunch in her city of San Francisco and was happy to share details of what life was like growing up as the youngest Foltz family member in Walla Walla, Washington. She especially thought of herself as not only siblings with my grandfather Harry, but best friends (Harry had passed away in 1987), so she was ecstatic to see my dad once again, after not having seen him since he was a young boy.
Cropped photo of Harry Foltz with sister Vivian (Foltz) Silva, July 1942; photo belonged to Vivian Margaret (Foltz) Silva. Her son, Bob Silva, inherited the photos and gifted them to her great niece Kira Foltz in February 2020.
The two had lost touch and it was I who discovered Vivian was not only the sole remaining sibling of Harry's, but also residing in California. Though I had been the one to reunite the family, it was evident Vivian felt an even deeper bond with my father. And while sitting at the café in San Fran, she divulged a deep secret to him she felt may be worthwhile to know but not widely….
Vivian (Foltz) Silva and Gary Foltz, San Francisco, California, Thanksgiving weekend 2011.
Her mother Myrtle had gotten hitched to a third man after Tom Haley's death! Although this was surprising news, to say the least, as we had never heard of such a thing happening nor had any photos to corroborate the story, it wasn't the least bit terrible. My dad and I didn't have feelings one way or the other how many men Myrtle had married, and certainly if it didn't bother her own daughter Vivian, then there was no valid reason for it to concern us. But the marriage itself was not Vivian's true secret to tell.
She explained that she didn't recall much about the man and didn't even remember his full name. She knew it was something like "Collins." Then, she leaned over to my dad and whispered into his ear the remainder of the story. By my dad's expression, it did appear to be a somewhat shocking tale, but alas, I had to wait until later for my dad to reveal the details to me in private as Vivian still felt unsure about gossiping too much about it.
On the drive back home down the California coast, my dad shared Vivian's short, but interesting, story about her mother's final husband. Vivian said Myrtle's affair with the "Collins" man was a whirlwind. The two had a fairly short engagement before getting secretly married, but as soon as they were man and wife, he turned into an abusive and short-tempered man. Myrtle wasn't going to stand for it, and during one of their explosive fights, she allegedly shot him and he was never to be seen again!
Myrtle (Mills) Foltz Haley few days before she left for Salem, Oregon, Walla Walla, Washington, 1940, privately held by descendant Kira D. Foltz.
You can imagine how giddy I was to hear this story. I immediately had to do some additional document research when we arrived back home to see if I could back up any of these details with hard evidence. I searched in both Oregon and Washington records for a marriage license, as Myrtle lived in an area close to the state border, but at the time, I could not find anything. I also tried my hardest to find any man with the first or last name Collins or Colin in the vicinity who could be a good candidate, but also came up empty handed.
For years, I slotted this plot point into my timeline for Myrtle's life, but had to come to terms that their marriage may have never been an official one, or perhaps occurred in a different locality I was unaware of, or under a pseudonym, and I may never find papers to support the story. Because Vivian didn't feel comfortable telling me the tale, I felt it best not to disturb her with follow-up questions and make her feel like she couldn't entrust my father with sensitive information. It wasn't until years after Vivian's passing, I miraculously received a hint on Ancestry.com for a marriage return for Myrtle -- and wouldn't you know it, it was to a man named C.F. Collins!
Washington State Archives, Olympia, Washington, Washington Marriage Records, 1854-2013, Collins-Haley marriage return, Yakima, Washington, 12 Oct 1937; Ancestry.com, Marriage Returns 1937-1938, Washington, U.S., Marriage Records, 1854-2013, online database with images (https://ancestry.com : accessed 14 Nov 2021) Provo, UT, USA, 2012.
It was dated 12 October 1937, so just a couple years after Myrtle was made a 2-time widow following Tom Haley's death. And there was no mistaking it was indeed our Myrtle, based on all of the other details included, such as her parents' names, her location, and number of previous marriages, etc. I was elated to see this form and be able to confirm at least a part of Vivian's secret!
By the 1940 U.S. federal census, Myrtle is living alone as a widow again and using Tom Haley's surname once more. She's working as a housekeeper for a private family, and there's no obvious sign of C.F. Collins nearby, so one has to assume she had already run him off by this time, if the story is to be believed -- which I have no doubt it is!
Myrtle's father, George, had also been a reported 'wife-beater' to her mother, Retta. The oral history goes that Retta had run him out of the house as well. It wouldn't be a surprise to hear that Retta had taught her daughter Myrtle well enough to know her worth and know what she didn't need to put up with in the household.
Alpharetta “Retta” Scheetz and daughter Myrtle (Mills) Foltz Haley, ca. 1945, originally submitted to Ancestry.com by Mary Anwar 5 Oct 2010.
When my dad filled me in on the salacious details of Myrtle's final marriage, of course I wondered if she had not only shot the man, but maybe also murdered him and did away with him in secret! But the possibility was apparently too good to be true. While I have not yet found Myrtle's 3rd husband, Charles Francis Collins, on the 1940 census, I do have reason to believe he was living somewhere in the vicinity at the time. In 1942, he was registered for the World War II draft and his card gives his residence as Freewater, Umatilla County, Oregon, listing him as a farmer. So the two were still at least in the same county as one another.
United States, Selective Service System, Selective Service Registration Cards, World War II: Fourth Registration, Records of the Selective Service System, record group number 147; The National Archives At St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, Records of the Selective Service System; Record Group Number: 147, Box or Roll Number: 24, name range: Colbert, Arthur Columbus - Conro, James Abner; Ancestry.com, U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942, Charles Francis Collins draft registration card, no. 980, online database, Ancestry (https://ancestry.com : accessed 14 Nov 2021) Lehi, UT, USA, 2010.
In the end, the stormy weather of this relationship cleared up, and Myrtle lived out her remaining years up in Walla Walla, Washington. She was buried on 11 September 1980 in Mountain View Cemetery alongside her 1st husband, Roy, and their son Orwin.
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