Dear editor,
Thank you to Dean Karau for his September 16th guest column on The Kewanee Voice. It featured Neponset native and nurse Marie Girvin, who died in service to her country during World War I. As Mr. Karau mentioned in his column, Miss Girvin died after being sick with Spanish influenza and pneumonia, and after the war, the first Neponset American Legion Post 297 was named after her. Before serving in the war, she worked as a nurse at St. Francis Hospital in Kewanee.
Mr. Karau mentioned that Miss Girvin grew up on a farm southeast of Neponset on the Kentville Road. My grandparents, John and Elizabeth Golby, purchased that farm in the 1940’s, and the farmhouse that Marie grew up in, and where my grandparents lived, still stands.
Marie attended the Douglas one-room school with my grandpa Golby, which was also located along Kentville Road, just west of where my grandpa grew up. They, and other schoolmates, are pictured in front of Douglas School in the Neponset Historical Society book, Neponset on the Q. (History of Neponset, Illinois, 1834-1996)
My grandparents spoke highly of Marie Girvin, her parents, and the entire Girvin family. They spent a lot of time together as neighbors and friends, and each year the two families would alternate hosting their annual Fourth of July party on their respective farms.
I appreciate that Dean Karau did the research needed to recognize an outstanding, courageous young woman, inspired by a Central Boulevard photograph of 31 trees in memory of those who died in World War I.
Sincerely,
Marty Golby
Geneseo
