Notes for CLINT ROLLO:

Son of Austin and Mary Maude (Summers) Rollo.
Born: November 16, 1914 in Pine, Gila County, Arizona.
Died: January 7, 1952 in Wellton, Yuma County, Arizona.
Census: January 3, 1920 - Mesa, Maricopa County, Arizona.
Married: Della Randall August 5, 1933 in Lordsburg, Hidalgo County, New Mexico.

When Della was a senior in high school, a new principal started working at the Pine High School. Clint Rollo was 27 years old and had begun his teaching career when he was only 18 years old. He was a brilliant man who had graduated from High School at the age of 16. He was an excellent administrator and got along well with the teachers and students. After Della graduated and school was out in May - Clint and Della started to date. This was during the depression and soon Clint and Della decided to get married secretly and she would still attend college the next semester at Tempe Normal School (which now is known as Arizona State University) and he would live at the CCC or Civilian Conservation Camp near Payson where he was employed as an Educational Advisor. So on August 5th 1933 in Lordsburg, New Mexico they were married with friends of Clint's standing in as witnesses.

As was planned Clint went to the CCC at Payson and Della went to school at Tempe Normal College as a special student. She wanted to take all of the PE classes she could to make up for her not getting to take any of these classes in high school as Pine was too small to offer these classes. She took tap dancing, interpretive dancing, tennis, typing, tumbling and PE. During her PE class she played hockey, basketball, softball, and swimming. She really enjoyed her year at college. She roomed with her cousin La Veda Westover and friends Eloise Kleinman, Nelda Gardner, and Leona Aldredge for the first semester.

For the second semester she lived with Jay Correllie, another country girl in a small apartment on South Mill Avenue. Their rent was 15 dollar a month. W.J. sent Della 30 dollars per month to live on so she managed quite well. Della loved Mexican food and would eat lunch almost every day at the Spanish Kitchen on Mill Avenue. Soft drinks were 5 cents each, tacos, enchiladas, and bean burritos cost 10 cents each so, Della would spend 25 cents a day for lunch. One of her favorite activities while attending college was to jog up to the top of the top of the Tempe Butte there by the school each morning about 5:00 a.m. - she considered that a "warm up" for all her other exercise classes.

When school was out in May, Clint and Della went to Pine to tell her parents about their marriage. They weren't too surprised as they had heard rumors about the marriage but they were hurt because they hadn't been consulted by Clint and Della. This was 1934 and Clint and Della moved to the CCC Camp on Mt. Graham, near Safford and spent the summer there. Here they lived in a tent with a wood floor that was about four feet up off the ground. Della loved it up there and enjoyed being in the forest. They were on the mountain around 13,000 ft. high. At the end of the summer they moved to Pima and rented an apartment there. The apartment was an old adobe home with no indoor plumbing and a good well located just outside the kitchen door. The outdoor privy was down the street, about 1/3 of a block away. The cook stove and heater used wood, of course.

While living in Pima - Clint suggested that they take his car and go visit his sister Nellie and her family who lived on a cattle ranch at Springerville, Arizona next to New Mexico. They loaded up a full carload - Mom Greer and Clint's brother Roy were in the front. Three of Clint's sisters - Mary, Virginia and Katie Ruth were in the backseat - and Della rode on the car's front fender, straddling the headlight most of the way. Della described it as a lovely drive - especially traveling along the Coronado Trail and through Hannigan's Meadow. The narrow winding road only allowed them to travel about 20 miles per hour.

Della was comfortable in her place here at Pima but often was lonely as Clint was only around on the weekends, working at the camp the rest of the time. She became good friends with Joel and Edith East who owned the apartment they rented. The next year her loneliness was ended when she gave birth to a baby girl and they named Joan. The weather was very hot in July and Della took sick after the baby was born. Clint was promoted and moved to district headquarters in Tucson. He rented an apartment and moved his family to Tucson where they lived for about 8 years. Clint was hired as the principal of the Houston Elementary school in Tucson just across the street from where they lived.

Della said in her later years that "Joan was a joyous child" and she loved her dearly. She bought her several "learning books" and Joan could talk as plain as an adult could by the time she was two years old. Clint was gone a lot, so Della and Joan spent a lot of time together talking and playing games.

When it came time for Joan to start kindergarten, Della went down to the Sears & Roebuck store in Tucson and bought Joan 4 or 5 dresses and paid .29 cents apiece for them! It must have been an end of summer sale!

In the fall of November 1942 another daughter, Elaine joined the family. Della had been quite sick with this baby and had gone to Thatcher to spend the summer with Clint's mother Grandma Greer. A close neighbor "known as Grandma Windsor" told Della one day that "she might as well shape up and get over being sick because she wasn't going to die and get out of having that baby."

When World War II broke out Clint applied to be reactivated in the army. He was stationed at Camp Hahan near Riverside, California and served as a Public Relations officer. Della, Joan and Elaine moved there to join him there.

The next few years saw the family move around and spend time in Chandler, Pine, Thatcher, and Wellton - a small rural town about 35 miles east of Yuma. While in Wellton they bought some land with two small houses on it. Clint worked for several agricultural groups and set up an office. In January of 1950, Clint became very ill with some form of the flu and wasn't expected to pull through but due to the wonder drug, Penicillin shots, his life was saved. It took him months to recuperate and Della ran the office for him. She was expecting her third child at the time and it was really rough on her trying to raise her family and take care of everything. Della was home alone the day Eloise was born in June and almost didn't make it to the hospital in time to have her. She felt like the Lord's hands were with them and made sure that everything turned out o.k.

The next year, 1951, saw the Della and the girls moving to Mesa so Joan could attend Mesa High School for her junior year. In January of 1952 Della received a phone call telling her of the passing of her husband Clint. This was such a shock to Della as she buried her husband in Thatcher where his family had a lot. Although this was a sad ending to nearly 20 years of marriage - Della counted her blessings as she looked at her lovely daughters.
(Based on a short life history written by Della in the 1987)