Elmo Joslin
(March 11, 1891 to April 16, 1946)
Elmo Joslin was the first of J.C. & Hettie (Hester) Joslin's 8 children. J. C. had been married previously and also had a daughter, Anne, and a son, Manfred (Mannie) from that marriage. The family moved to Amarillo, Texas from Cooper, Texas, where most of the children were born sometime before 1910. While I don't know where his siblings were educated, Elmo went to Goodnight College in Goodnight, Texas and probably graduated about 1909 or 1910. While there, he met Katharyn Lass (also a student) and in October, 1911 they were married. Elmo seemed to have been an accountant working for different railroads, as Katharyn's memoir indicates that he moved around from Dallas to San Antonio and back in search of better jobs, always finding a higher paying one. Their daughter, Xelpho Von Dell, was born while they lived in Dallas, in September, 1913. Unfortunately, Elmo must have been unhappy in this marriage, as he asked Katharyn for a divorce in early 1917. Shortly thereafter he enlisted in the army, to serve in World War I. Kay has his enlistment paper, as well as his discharge, in order to go to officer's training school. He eventually was given the rank of Second Lieutenant of Infantry in the Officers Reserve Corps of the Army in November, 1918. By this time, his divorce from Katharyn was final.
However, he did not stay single long and in November, 1919, he married Pearl Wilson, an Amarillo girl who was a friend of one of his sisters. While family lore states that Elmo was a 'CPA', and while Kay does know that he worked for Ernst and Ernst at one point in his career, no real knowledge of that certification has been located to date. It is evident that he was quite a successful business man, buying and selling both stocks and real estate. Elmo and Pearl did not have children, and that marriage, too, faltered. He was divorced by Pearl in May, 1937.
Most likely on the rebound, Elmo married either a widow or a divorcee, Mrs. Edna Happold in 1938. This was not a happy union and the bride tried to kill herself while on their honeymoon in Hawaii. Elmo returned alone to the continent and again went through divorce proceedings. Once again, Elmo married in April, 1939, to Mrs. Blanche Cameron. This marriage lasted only until September of that year.
Kay's mother, Xelpho, always said that Elmo married Pearl for a second time, and, indeed, surviving papers show his marriage to " L.P." in about April of 1940. Unfortunately, that marriage also ended in divorce in November, 1945.
As Kay has all of the preceding divorce papers, many of which list the assets to be divided, it is safe to say that Elmo Joslin was very successful -- but only in business. He was a faithful father to Xelpho, however, and always provided child support. He even bought her a car for her 16th birthday. Thus, he was asked to attend Xelpho's wedding in 1932 and happily went. (Kay has a letter he wrote wishing the young couple happiness.)
Attesting to his extreme unhappiness, Elmo killed himself in April, 1946, in Wichita Falls, Texas, while visiting his youngest sister, Edith. He put a gun to his head. Elmo had a well-written will from several years earlier, and left his car, his clothes and 20% of the value of his estate to his brother, Ivan, 10% of his estate to his mother, Hettie Joslin (his father was no longer living at the time he made the will), and the remaining 70% of his estate to his daughter, Xelpho Markey. In this will he notes that his brother Ivan is a deaf mute. It took Kay quite awhile to validate this, but eventually, she found Ivan on the 1910 Census, in Austin, Texas, attending the Texas School for the Deaf. As family history always said that he met his wife there, Kay also found that Azelia Patterson was a student at the same time. As Ivan's wife was named Azelia, Kay believes that it is safe to say that this must be Ivan's future wife.