William Melvin Gillen

To Commemorate the Life of William M. and Evelyn V. Gillen on the 50th Anniversary of their Death, 20 November 2022. Researched and compiled by Kevin M. Gillen from 2020-2022

Prologue – William Melvin “Bill” Gillen and his wife Evelyn Virginia Gillen both died on Monday, November 20, 1972, in Lakeville, Indiana, the result of a 2-vehicle crash. The death notices and obituaries of the time made their deaths more prominent than the lives they led. There were gaps and errors in the information that I have always wanted to edit and augment. This memorial is the culmination of my goal. 

1. Beginnings – William Lawrence Gillen Jr. was born November 20, 1913, in Louisville, Kentucky. He grew up around St. John, Kentucky, the first of two children born to William “Larry” Gillen and Zera Bertha Beeching. Bill's father was a rural school teacher known for his eloquence and penmanship, renowned for being a commercial artist and prolific sign painter, and recognized as an accomplished musician who played guitar and violin. His mother was especially adept in the kitchen whether frying chicken, baking pies or making her own soap. She was exceptionally skilled at hand making quilts, growing beautiful flower gardens, and producing and canning many vegetables and fruit. 

2. Ancestry – Bill’s ancestors include the surnames Bennett, Benward, Burns, Dunn, O'Neal, and Thomas. They were farmers, craftspeople, laborers, manufacturers, and rail road workers, coming from Connecticut, New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Virginia, and Kentucky. Most of his fore-bearers emigrated from England, followed by Ireland and Scotland. A smattering of others from Germany, Spain, and Italy. The Irish line emigrated before and during the potato famine of the 1840s, while other lines made America their home well before the Revolutionary War. 

3. Childhood – Named for his father, William Lawrence Gillen Jr.'s name had a curious evolution. As a toddler his nickname was Boojie—a name he would later call his pet chihuahua. Then he went by “Larry” Jr., but at some point, his name was officially and finally changed to William Melvin Gillen—an apparent nod to his maternal grandfather. After this, he was primarily known as Bill. In his preadolescent years, Bill picked up both functional and aesthetic traits. He helped carry “eggs to market” along the train tracks from St. John to Cecilia, and spent many an hour picking weevils off of tobacco plants on the family farm. And as a precursor to the artistic skills he later developed, Bill won a Snuggle Pups comic drawing contest in the Louisville Courier when he was 10 years old. 

4. Education – Bill received his primary education from his father in the One-Room School House in Summit, Kentucky (preserved in 1978 as a tourist destination and is now in Freeman Lake Park, Elizabethtown). He was taught beautiful penmanship that he used for life. Bill went onto complete 3 years of high school in Attica, Indiana, but the Great Depression ended his formal education. From this point on, his “education” came from real-life experience, much the way an apprentice learns a trade. 

5. Skills – What stands out is Bill’s woodworking skills. His craft was artistic, diverse, and remarkable. He created a bunny-shaped full-sized cradle, a Christmas nativity set from scrap wood, a small, detailed model train car, bird houses of many kinds, and many scalloped window treatments. Bill also had a keen understanding of anything mechanical and spent many an hour working on all kinds of engines, motors, or outdoor vehicles. He was superb at vegetable gardening, could fashion a diving rod from willow wood and find water, and absolutely loved (and lived) to fish. Bill also had a mastery of camp-cooking; his cast-iron breaded Bluegill was a special favorite. He also made Log Cabin Cinnamon Toast, his own unique "country" applesauce, and had concocted his own special secret recipe mixing Bosco Syrup and some ‘secret’ ingredient. 

6. Career – Not known for one career path, Bill found work that paralleled his practical skills. He applied his knowledge of farming, harvesting, cooking, carpentry and motors to his employment. At about age 17, he took a job at a general store during the Great Depression. He once recalled that he had to bike 10 miles to the job, and “If I was late by even a minute I would be fired because so many others were waiting for that job.” He worked at the Blue Boar restaurant in Louisville, then when in Indiana, did manufacturing work at Ball Band, was an inspector at Studebaker, a maintenance worker for the Mishawaka City & Electric Plant, and finally, as a custodian for the Methodist church in Mishawaka. 

7. Adulthood – At 25 years of age, Bill married in Kentucky, but this marriage was not destined to last. Years later, he left Kentucky to start a new life in Mishawaka, Indiana where his mother was living. Bill married again, and had four children. In 1962, he entered into a final marriage to Evelyn V. Mikel-Habel. In 1968, the two of them moved to rural Etna Green on property that had a house, fruit trees, vegetable garden, fire-pits for outdoor cooking, a nearby woods, and access to the Tippecanoe river. This was previously a "Fisher Man's Camp", with a few rustic cabins formerly used as "no frills" overnight sleeping for people to catch fish at early dawn. 

8. Personality – Bill had a contrasting view of life. Gentle and respectful to certain parts of nature, particularly birds, yet, as mentioned, he was an avid fisherman as well as a hunter. He felt that dogs (for the most part) served a utilitarian role instead of being a beloved family pet. He had no compunction about using live worms and “crawdads” for bait, yet he gently showed his family about how a mother bird carefully makes a nest and raises a family. His interest in mechanics and auto engines was a good fit for his desire to work alone. Bill liked to smoke his Newport cigarettes, but was never much interested in alcohol. He was impatient and could get pretty frustrated if things didn’t go as he planned. When his temper rose, some curse words were sure to follow. But one fact for sure, and he readily claimed this himself, mosquitoes left him alone! 

9. Passing – William M. Gillen’s 59th birthday was on November 20, 1972. Both he and Evelyn died as a result of injuries sustained in a vehicular crash that morning. He was preceded in death by his father, and survived by his mother Zera Bundy, his sister Lillian Hunter, as well as his former wife and four children. 

10. Memories – Documents say that Bill was just under 5' 9", weighed about 140, had gray eyes, light chestnut (or) brown hair, and possessed a fair (or) light complexion, and a small irregular scar on his left knee cap. But memories say that he was a lithe dancer, a classy dresser, and a charismatic charmer. He is remembered for being slender, and almost always wearing green Dickies work clothes, smelling of sweat, machine oil and cigarette smoke. He often had promising ideas and good intentions, but rarely a path to “get there.” Bill once worked on converting a commercial bus into a sleeping camper, as well as building a row boat from scratch. These projects often stayed in a kind of an “almost completed” zone. To balance this though, one fun memory was that he liked to scoop and eat bacon lard with his hand, and could easily entertain with a joke about beans and "tooting". 

Epilogue – In about 1971, Bill had planned on refurbishing one of the “Fisherman’s Cabins” to be a simple guesthouse where he would take in his aging mother. This was not meant to be. By this time, Bill was semi-retired, just a few years short of collecting Social Security. Evelyn was still working for the next few years. They had planned a world cruise for the Winter of 1972-73, that was also not meant to be. Nevertheless, the abrupt ending of their lives together set the stage for this “timeless” memorial, 50 years on. Perhaps their unexpected fate helped preserve the memories of their lives all the more vividly.