A life filled with “dumb luck” led to some incredible adventures for Vernon Collins: making his home in Arkansas, meeting the love of his life and taking trips around the world. He’s navigated great joy and tremendous loss, including the death of a granddaughter – and then the passing of his wife, Paulette, last year. Through it all, he’s found home and community and feels a sense of gratitude for it all.
He grew up in Merchantville, New Jersey, where his grandparents owned a candy store, now called Aunt Charlotte’s Candies. While that would have been a dream for most kids, Vernon was highly allergic to eggs and chocolate – major ingredients for much of the inventory. He celebrated his birthdays with pie rather than cake.
While his dad was on a two-week leave during World War II after serving in Europe, the war ended. His parents celebrated by splurging on a $25 pink ceramic pig bank for then 6-month-old Vernon, which he still has.
He attended grades K-12 in a single building, the very one where his mother and grandfather were schooled. He was on the swim team, yet too short and squatty to excel. Though among the tallest boys in eighth grade, he stopped growing soon after. He struggled academically in school, which he now credits to a learning disability that runs in his family.
However, his parents urged him to attend college, and he was recruited by Arkansas Tech University in Russellville. He knew nothing about Arkansas other than the Little Rock Central High Crisis of 1957, which occurred when he was in junior high. When his parents drove him to the Arkansas River Valley from the tightly packed suburbs of Philadelphia, they found a state with ample open landscape between its cities and towns.
With a lower cost of living in Arkansas, the money sent from home went much farther, and he spent many hours in the local movie theater. As a college sophomore, he also discovered alcohol and secured a fake ID. Two of his best friends now, Charlie and Henry, were his college roommates.
In his youth, Vernon’s grandmother and mother had given him bank and tobacco company shares, and he thought becoming a stockbroker would be a good way to make money. But he quickly decided business wasn’t for him, and he switched majors to history and political science.
He worked at the university’s cafeteria and went to summer school, earning extra money so he could buy a car. After graduation, he informed his family he was staying in Arkansas, and he looked for teaching jobs. He landed one in the Alread isolated school district in Van Buren County, teaching history, typing and accounting at first. He later taught reading, English and home economics.
BUILDING A LIFE AND FAMILY
Vernon said he’s done two “dumb things” in his life that turned out to be two of the best things that could have happened to him. First, at age 24, he quit a job before having another one. When he tried to get his job back in the Alread district, the superintendent said the only position open was librarian. So, he took the required certification courses, and also taught typing and reading again. When he took his next librarian job, in Oark, he moved to Clarksville and into his first apartment
on his own.
The second dumb but great thing happened when a female friend asked him to be a witness for her wedding. His friend’s friend, Paulette, was the other witness; she had a shapely figure, was shorter than him, and liked to laugh. The first time Vernon saw Paulette, he told himself he was going to marry her. Though they both attended Tech at same time, “She was a strait-laced Baptist, and I was a wild Presbyterian,” he said, so they’d never met. After spending just 15 days together, they eloped.
They started their life together in Clarksville, and she worked for a bookkeeping firm, while he continued teaching. They bought a house in Russellville, and he got a librarian job in Atkins. Their three-bedroom home had two pecan trees on either side and a nice back yard. Their two sons, Trey and Jeff, arrived during their four years living there. Then the family found a five-bedroom, tri-level house — built on the side of a hill — that turned into a money pit. Once the boys were grown, the couple moved to a house on Crow Mountain overlooking a watershed.
At 38, Vernon felt intimidated by younger teachers earning graduate degrees, so he got a master’s degree in educational media. Then when the manager of the Arkansas Tech credit union retired, he and Paulette took over running it. Operating from their home, she handled the books, and he handed out the loans. Over six years, the credit union grew from $300,000 and 300 members to over $1 million and 700 members. Vernon stayed on as chairman of the board until the couple moved to Fayetteville.
While still living in Russellville, the couple got some devastating news. Their oldest granddaughter, Hannah, was killed in an auto accident, just two weeks after graduating from high school. Today, Vernon has two grandsons, a step-granddaughter, a step-grandson, and a great-grandson.
NAVIGATING THE HIGHS AND LOWS
Vernon and Paulette’s life together involved several shared hobbies. Early on, when he wasn’t teaching in the summers, he spent his time at home with their two young sons and became obsessed with plants. He tried to grow as many as he could, of all varieties. In later years, they got involved with a daylily club and became officers. He also started growing figs in his yard and eventually had a small orchard – even though he’s allergic to the leaves.
“I have this problem with hobbies; once I start new things, I go crazy on them. Like I wanted every plant there was in the world,” he said.
They also got interested in antiques, particularly Vernon Depression glass, which was rare and hard to collect. They collected glass bottles for food products that turned into banks, such as Log Cabin maple syrup. And they also collected Vernon kiln plates, a type of souvenir plates — eventually amassing 400 of them. One such plate is displayed in his kitchen, imprinted with “The Arkansas Traveler” scene and song lyrics.
In 2003, when Paulette was in her mid-50s, she started having neurological problems. She couldn’t control the movement of her eyelids. Not knowing any better, they set off to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, with health insurance but no appointment. After spending six days in the waiting room, they saw a doctor who said Paulette had facial dystonia. They were told the condition is hereditary, and stress is a well-known trigger.
Sometime later, she was suddenly unable to walk. They had taken their granddaughters to Six Flags in St. Louis, where Paulette fell to their hotel room floor and couldn’t get up. They saw a neurologist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, who diagnosed her with myasthenia gravis and prescribed some pills. Within a half-hour after taking the first pill, Paulette was up walking – after not being able to walk for about a month. With the medication, she continued to improve.
MAKING EVERY MINUTE COUNT
In September 2018, Vernon and Paulette moved into a one-bedroom apartment at Butterfield Trail Village, but never fully unpacked. They spent most of their time on timeshare trips to locales such as Branson, Missouri; Austin, Texas; and Taos, New Mexico. In October 2019, they moved into a two-bedroom apartment on the south side of Butterfield’s main building that required a full renovation. “This is the first time I’ve felt like I had a brand-new house,” he said.
Though Paulette’s illness had improved with prescription medication, she suddenly got worse again. She was hospitalized, put on a ventilator with a tracheotomy and was fitted with a feeding tube. After 20 months, including time spent in Butterfield’s Health Care Center, she improved enough to return to their apartment.
Over the years, Vernon remained friends with his college roommate, Charlie, who was a witness in his wedding and had even traveled with him to Iceland. After Paulette was able to leave the Health Care Center, Vernon and Charlie went on a “cruise from hell” to places such as Dubai, Oman, India, Kenya and South Africa. Between the two of them, they missed flights, tours and safaris. They lost (and eventually recovered) luggage and a cell phone and even managed to contract Covid and pneumonia.
After his overseas misadventures, Vernon and Paulette decided to take their grandchildren to Branson in April 2023. While there, she was suddenly unable to hold up her neck. The doctor
increased her prescription dosage and put her back on steroids, but nothing helped. One day, while taking her pills in their apartment kitchen, Paulette sat down in a dining chair and fell backwards. Vernon grabbed her, and she slid to the floor. Paramedics revived her on the way to the hospital, but she wasn’t able to survive for long. Some family members got there just in time to say goodbye.
FINDING A NEW DIRECTION
Since losing his wife of 51 years, Vernon has turned to old and new friends, as well as his family. Henry and Charlie, also now both widowers, understand what he’s going through.
Vernon and Henry, who lives in Van Buren, see each other a few times a month. They are taking a trip to Niagara Falls in October, and they’ll stay in timeshares along the way. Stops during the month-long journey include Vernon’s New Jersey hometown and the family candy store, Dollywood, the Poconos and Colonial Williamsburg.
He and Henry like to go shopping – which has been a necessity since Vernon lost 50 pounds over the last year. His doctor put him on Mounjaro, to combat diabetes and help with sugar cravings. He also exercises in the BTV fitness center. He’s an active bridge player, which he learned in his youth, taking part in games at BTV and a local Catholic church.
And he’s returned to one of his favorite hobbies: plants. One resident on his floor said she was able to cope with the death of her husband by staying busy, and another gifted him an African violet. Staying true to his all-in commitment to his hobbies, Vernon has since filled his kitchen counters and the glass shelves above the sink with dozens of thriving African violet plants that bring him great joy.
Words by Michelle Parks | Photos by Stephen Ironside
