Roger Corbin remembered
Prolific poet was Traer's last World War II veteran
TRAER — A pen has fallen silent and a chapter of history has closed.
Roger Corbin, originally of Franklin County but a Traer resident for half his life, died Sept. 20, 13 days after his 103rd birthday. He was Kubik-Finch American Legion Post 142’s last veteran of World War II.
Corbin was active until the end, giving up golf and leaving the Traer Public Library board only after he turned 100. He came out of retirement to take command of the Legion post for its commemorative rifle salute on Veterans Day 2022 and 2023.
He even rode in Traer’s Winding Stairs Festival parade on Aug. 10. “Talk about a happy, happy guy … from ear to ear grinning, I think that was one of his best days ever,” Ernie Cufr said at church the next day.
Corbin was known for his poetry, and some excerpts are included here. Over the decades he wrote enough for nine self-published books of poems. He wrote about nature, the military, patriotism, daily life, his Methodist faith, birthdays, holidays, sports, the Challenger disaster, and COVID-19. Most of all, though, he wrote about his family.
One poem, written in 1989, was printed in Memorial Day programs.
If you like being where you are / If you like living free / If you love family, home and car / Then get down on your knee / Give praise to God for paradise / This place you live, and yet / Though thanking God is smart and wise / Be thankful for the Vet.
World War II interrupted Corbin’s college education. He served in Panama and India.
“When we left to go to the Pacific I didn’t figure our chances were much better than 50% of ever being back to the States,” he said for the Grout Museum District’s “Voices of Iowa” oral history project. “The invasion of Japan was going to cost a whole bundle of lives, and I’m one of those who can look in the camera and say, God bless Harry Truman for dropping the atomic bomb.”
A year ago, the National World War II Museum estimated there were about 1,200 veterans of that war living in Iowa. In the time since, the nationwide number has fallen below 100,000.
“I grew up during the Depression when hogs sold for $2.50 per hundredweight and corn for 10 cents a bushel,” Corbin wrote in a reminiscence in 2022. “Milk was delivered for 6 cents a quart and you could buy a new car for around $600. The problem — no one had any money. Neighbors became personal friends, and everyone worked together just to get by.”
Corbin was not above poking fun at himself in his writing.
There are clubs that I know, / I belong to, and so / I have written some words when they ask. / They read them and sigh / And they wonder if I / Was really the one for the task.
His poetry collections all are called “With Love.” Tracy Thompson, his oldest granddaughter and one of 17 grandchildren, said he wrote in longhand with the earliest collections typed up by his wife, and then later Thompson took over the job of typing them to be printed and bound.
A poem “would come to him and he would just sit down and write it out,” Thompson said.
In late 1958, when the Corbin family lived in Latimer, Roger’s first wife was dying of cancer. Des Moines Register reporter George Mills wrote a story about Roger’s present that year — a large photograph of their five children — and a follow-up about donations and Christmas cards sent to them from across the state. Betty Corbin died Jan. 12, 1959 — “the Twelfth of Never,” Roger Corbin later wrote.
But, somewhere down the line of fate / Connections came to two / Who had no cause to celebrate / Who thought their lives were through.
Janice Shroyer of Hampton, who had two sons, lost her husband Feb. 26, 1959. Roger and Jan found each other, married in 1961, and were together for more than 60 years. Jan Corbin died less than five months ago. Only then, after time in independent living, did Roger move into the care center.
Family members filled seven pews at his funeral Monday.
The program included Corbin’s final poem. The last lines:
I leave you with pride in this family I’ve had / You’ve all been quite good, so don’t be too sad. / This legacy I leave you, and I’ll say it loud / Do as well as you can, and you’ve a right to be proud.
My other work can be found on my website, Iowa Highway Ends, and its blog.
I am proud to be part of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. If you’re interested in commentary by some of Iowa’s best writers, please follow your choice of Collaborative members:
Thank you for this beautiful remembrance of my Grandpa, The Legend!! ❤️❤️
Beautiful remembrance! Thanks for keeping Corbin's poetry and memory alive far and wide!