Do you remember the old game show “I’ve Got A Secret?” Someone would come on and the celebrity panelists would try to guess what that person’s big secret was. Well, I’m going to tell you a secret and you wouldn’t guess it in a million years so don’t even try. This is one that not another living soul knows. In fact, I’m pretty sure my mom was the only other person who ever knew. I didn’t keep it a secret intentionally. In fact, as most of you know, I’m pretty much an open book. No, I kept this secret in the safest place possible. Forgotten in my memory! Until last week, that is. And I still can’t remember what triggered it for me, but here it is. When I was a little girl, I wanted to be Jean Marshall when I grew up. At the time, many little girls wanted to be movie stars or teachers or nurses or beauticians or any number of other dreams. Me? I wanted to be Jean Marshall, at least for a period of my childhood. Unless you lived in Flippin in the 1950s, 60s, and/or 70s, you may not know who Jean was. Jean was City Recorder for Flippin for several years back then. She and her husband, Karl, had a small jewelry/watch repair shop on the south side of Main Street, I’m thinking in the space that is now Frederic’s Salon. Back then, the Recorder didn’t work at City Hall, so Jean conducted city business out of their shop. Mostly, at least that I was aware of, Jean was who you went to see to pay your water bill. There may have been (and likely were) other duties involved, but the water bills were what I recall. And one very distinct memory I have is that she kept the payment stubs, cash, checks, etc. in a cigar box! For some reason, I was enamored with that cardboard cigar box. I don’t know if it was because of the contents or just because I thought it was a cool box with a lid that flipped up and everything! Hey, I’ve always been pretty easily entertained. Jean was also something of a local historian and, if you read the History of Marion County
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