FITZGERALD, WAYNE R. AND HELEN (ANDREWS)
Wayne Fitzgerald came to Mullen in March 1913, age three years, with his parents and younger brother, Corliss V. The parents, Frank and Edith had lived in the South Loup Valley at Callaway where Wayne was born April 29, 1910 and Corliss, July 20, 1911. They were moving to Mullen to take advan-tage of the need for new homes presented by an influx of settlers, farmers, ranchers and tradesmen. Frank, although a young man was an experienced carpenter-builder.
Helen Andrews, the 8th of ten children came from the Big Creek Valley in Cherry County in 1919. She had attended school district No. 147, Cherry County her first six years in elementary school. Her mother, Gina, brother Gerald and sisters, Doris and Ruth moved into town during the school year so that Gerald could attend the recently established Hooker County high school. Helen and sisters went to the elementary school. Helen in the seventh grade.
Both Helen Andrews and Wayne Fitzg-erald completed their elementary and high school in Mullen and both took teacher or normal training in high school. In the follow-ing years they taught school during the winter terms and attended summer school sessions in Lincoln, Chadron and one year at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
Helen taught in Hooker County rural schools for five years and in the Seneca elementary school three years, 1930 to 1933. Wayne taught one year in a rural school and in the Mullen Grade School from 1931 to 1937.
They were married on July 25, 1931 at Hot Springs, South Dakota while they were in a summer school session at Chadron. Their children were, Denny R. born 1933, Jeriann, born 1938 and Jeffrey L. born 1942.
Until the children left home Helen was a full time mother, making for her family a complete home life. She was an active church member and belonged to several women's organizations and led an active community social life. In 1946 she started as a Stanley Home Products dealer and for twenty five years traveled over a five-county area with Mullen as the hub, conducting home demon-strations and selling. In 1987, the date of this writing and after forty one years she is still in the business.
Wayne had worked at the carpenter trade, beginning at age fourteen, with his father, working summers and on week ends during the school year. For two years after teaching school he worked independently, building houses in Mullen and Hyannis and building country school houses.
He ran for the office of County Superinten-dent of Schools and was elected in November 1938. During his tenure as superintendent the state department of education advocated a reduction in the number of school districts. Nebraska ranked near the top in the number of districts. Wayne and Wesley James, another interested in improving the school system had discussed district consolidation in Hooker County several times. They initiat-ed a petition that ultimately resulted with Hooker county being one of only two counties in Nebraska with a single school district.
World War II brought rationing and price control. Part of the county superintendent's office was used as the local headquarters of the Office of Price Administration and Wayne began as a volunteer clerk for the agency. This led to a job as local board Supervisor for the State OPA. This required travel over northwest Nebraska and later resulted in an assignment as Rent Control Officer for northwest Nebraska towns affec-ted by military installations at Alliance and Fort Robinson, for the most part, Chadron, Crawford, Hemingford, HaySprings and Rushville.
Knowing the Office of Price Administra-tion was an emergency agency probably to be discontinued after the war, Wayne and Helen kept their home in Mullen. In 1946 they returned and Wayne became office manager for Franke Construction Co., an earth moving contractor and Helen began working as a Stanley Home Products dealer. They built a new home at 302 East Third Street in 1950. They have lived there since.
Franke Construction Co. incorporated in 19- and Wayne was a stockholder and Secretary-Treasurer from that time until the company sold out in 1975 and the owner-operators retired. At the time of this writing, 1987, Wayne does hobby-carpenter and cabinet work and plays golf. He and Helen travel and spend some of their time visiting their three children and families, nine grand-children and seven great-grandchildren.