19 replies to this topic

[Guy]

Mel Elam passed away last night at 11:30 P.M.. The funeral will be at the Henry Livingston Funeral home in Council Bluffs Iowa at 10:00 A.M. Sat. For further Directions to the Funeral Home, call this number 712-328-1144

Marble Collecting has lost another great friend and fellow collector. Guy

[Scoop]

Sad, sad news....

I'm not sure if I ever met Mel... But, I've known his name for years....
Seems like we've lost a lot of the older "masters" in the past couple of years.....

Somewhere, there's one heck of a marble show goin' on!!

[TerryT35]

Mel will be missed.......

[spara50]

Mel was a member of the Kansas City Marble Club.

For those that knew Mel we realize we lost not only a friend but a huge part of the marble collecting community. Mel's knowledge of marbles was one of the best and he was well respected for his love of marbles and the quality of marbles he always seemed to have.

He will be missed, that's is for sure!

Craig

[b-80]

Mel was one of the good guys in the marble community. He was a founding member of the Great Plains Marble Society and an advanced collector of oxblood marbles.
We all enjoyed his frienship and pertsonality.
Roy Katskee
Great Plains Marble Society

[Marbleholic]

Mel was a great man as well as a huge asset to the marble community. It is a sad loss to us all and he will surely be missed by all who knew him. The last twelve months have proven to be rough on some great folks in the marble world. Let's hope it ends soon. I personally would prefer not to lose another friend.

DEL

[marbleheadak]

My favorite memory of Mel happened in Amana in the mid 90's. I had taken a friends son with me from Tulsa to the marble show. We had gone into Mel's room looking at what he had. The first thing my young friend picked up was a contemporary lutz, about 2", the venecian ribbon type. He thought it was neat, but I told him to wait until we had visited other rooms.

It turns out Mel had won the marble at an auction a few weeks earlier, thinking he was bidding on an antique lutz. As usual, he was flapping his jaws and not paying attention to what was being auctioned, just heard lutz, so he started bidding.

Later that evening, my young friend wanted to roam out on his own while I stayed in the room showing my collection. He wandered back to Mel's room and picked up the beauty again. A few other fine collector's were there, and Mel looked at my friend, told him he could have it if he didn't come back to his room again. (joking, of course). The stunned boy jammed it into his case, and ran back to the room.

The next room Mel told me the entire story, and we all had a great laugh. He was always lots of fun, and always willing to help out a newbie.

May you rest in peace, my friend!
Gene Stanford, aka marblehead

[tankgrrl29]

like pinx, mel was at just about all the shows i went to. i don't even remember ever being introduced to him...i just remember him always being there, and treating everyone as if he already knew them.

he had the greatest deadpan sense of humor; he'd look you in the eye and say the most ridiculous things with such a straight face that you couldn't help but bust up laughing. he had wonderfully funny stories, and how could you not love his fashion-sense!

i'll miss him.
~chris

[zaboo]

so sorry to hear about Mel. there's 2 more great collectors that we have lost. I just recieved word that one of out IAMC members and long time marble collector millie Morgan passed away. also gone is a somewhat local marble maker and collector Ray Goodnough. (sp?)
both enjoyed the hobby very much. Ray always use to stick a new marble in our kids stuff at marble picnics over the years. A very kind and geneous man. Millie was one of our luckiest show raffle winners. I swear, any contest or drawing she entered she won. they will also be greatly missed.
D.

[sissydear]

Weldon and I bought some of the finest Akro and Peltier marbles in our collection from Mel. Once we even accidentally stole his black light. While looking at his marbles in the Tulsa show, Weldon picked up his small light. I asked is that yours and Weldon said yes. Mel didn't know who got the light, but was really angry that it had been stolen. When we reached our car, we decided we wanted another of his marbles so our friend went back to purchase it. Mel had packed up his marbles and gone to his room. His buddy said he was "pissed that somebody stole his blacklight." Our friend came back to the car and asked if we wanted him to go to Mel's room. I picked up the blacklight and looked at it. I opened the battery compartment and the batteries were PINK. I knew we didn't have pink batteries. I looked further in Weldon's little black bag and found our blacklight. The blacklight was returned to Mel, the marble purchased and we never lived that down. Mel always greeted Weldon with "there's the man that stole my blacklight"
We'll sure miss him. Edna

[mmuehlba]

here is the address for Mel's death notice . Mike

Melvin Leroy Elam, 70, of Shell Knob, Mo., passed away on Feb. 13, 2006.

[tankgrrl29]

mel's service is today. please let us know if anyone from the board attended. (okay, and let me know if anyone was pissed at the racy Betty Page postcard i sent to cheer up mel when we first heard the news !)

rest in peace, mel.........

~chris

[Guy]

Steve Dodson just called me and said he was one of the Palbears (sp) at Mel’s funeral. He said, that the preacher said, that when ever anyone saw a marble, for them to think about Mel’s big smile He also said that Mel was still a kid at heart. Steve said that ol Mel looked really good. There was folks there from OK, Kan. Mo. and Iowa. Guy

[tankgrrl29]

sounds like it was a real nice service. thanks for posting, guy.

~chris

[Mary M]

Yes, thank you Guy for the information. Also a thank you to Mike, as I was wondering about his family etc. I'll miss the visits with Mel, Jonie and their neat dog Diesel. They always had the last room on the far side of the Holiday at Amana. He also was a member of the Tulsa Area Marble club. --mm--

[zmoocow]

I would like to thank all of our marble family who sent cards and telephoned during Mel's illness and passing.
Also a big thanks to the Tulsa Marble Club, and the Kansas City Marble Club for their lovely floral memorials, and the pictures of Mel. Thanks to the Great Plains Marble Club, about everyone showed up at visitation or the memorial service.
A special thanks to Brian Merhar for the beautiful letter he wrote that was read at Mel's memorial. Another special thanks to Steve Dodson who was a pallbearer. When the time comes, Steve will be handling the sale of Mel's marbles. Many thanks to a special friend, Ted Kalka and his wife, Kay. All of you have made me feel so good. So many people knew and cared for us.
Thank you all so very,very much!

Hugs
Joni Elem

[b-80]

Joni,
The Great Plains Marble Society has extended to you in Mel's memory a Lifetime Membership in our club.
It was voted on unanimously by our members at the Kansas City show.
We were all there together when you and Mel discovered marbles back in Fremont.
We hope to see you at the shows come spring and summer.
Roy

[zmoocow]

Hello Roy, Talked to Joni tonight and gave her your message. She said thanks very much for the membership. Joni plan's on going to Amana and visiting with her and Mel's friends...Steve

[spara50]

Look forward to seeing Joni in Amana. She was at almost every marble show Mel was and we will miss having her at them as much as Mel!



Craig

[Jeff Hale]

Awl hell Mel, marble shows will never be the same without yaw.

Must have been 94 or earlier whenever I met Mel. He accidentally participated in a deal where I got my first Guinea, at the old Springfield MO show. Then I got my first set of Sparklers from him an hour later. No more late nights playing marbles (show and tell) it seems. Shoot..