Franklin Daily Journal 7 Apr 2007
John Neal Green

John Neal Green, 79, died Feb. 14, 2007. He was a resident of Davis, Calif., and a former resident of Taylorsville.
Survivors include his wife, Amy Green; and two sons, Derrick and Brett Green.
A memorial service was conducted March 23 at the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Davis in Davis, Calif. Graveside military services will be conducted April 21 at Old Union Church Cemetery in Taylorsville. North Sacramento Funeral Home handled arrangements.



Columbus Republic 31 Jul 2007
Family fills in blanks left in story of Dorothy Green
By Harry Mccawley

I doubt that Dorothy Green knew she was leaving a legacy in the boxes she had stowed away in her Pasadena, Calif., home.
No one really knows how long they had been hidden away. Dorothy died seven years ago and most of the material dealt with things and people that dated to World War II and earlier.
They were discovered by a stranger four or five years ago. His name was Richard Dixon, a contractor in Orange County, Calif., who had been in the process of renovating the house.
It was his wife however who had become consumed with the owner of the boxes. She has spent the past four or five years looking for a connection to Dorothy Green, someone with whom she can share Dorothy's "treasure."
Valerie Dixon's search took her to Bartholomew County where Dorothy was raised and schooled.
A column earlier this month provided directions for finding Dorothy's surviving family and deeper insights to a woman who, ironically, was brought back to her native state for burial.
Dorothy's remains are in the Old Union Christian Church Cemetery 2 miles north of Taylorsville.
An even more ironic note is that her brother John - the one person who could have best related to the contents of Dorothy's boxes - is buried only a few feet away.
His services were held earlier this year after his death in California.
Story through photos
Photos of the Green family plot were taken by Charles Snyder, who also filled in some of the spaces in the history of Dorothy and her family by linking items found in California to what happened here decades before.
One of the items in the boxes was a yellowed newspaper clipping from The Evening Republican (now The Republic) detailing the tragic death of Jenny Zigler in an accident near Taylorsville.
Jenny Zigler was Dorothy's grandmother.
In writing the column about Valerie Dixon's search I wondered about the inclusion of such an item in a box of treasured mementos. I wondered even more when Kay Metz of Taylorsville e-mailed me a copy of the same article after reading the story and Charlie Snyder brought up the death in recounting his memories of the family.
Cousin remembers: I came to understand more about Dorothy after talking with her cousin, Charles Boxman of Indianapolis who recalled her mother raised three children alone and in the midst of the Great Depression after the break-up of her marriage.
The mother worked at the shirt factory in Columbus at 12th and Washington streets, but eventually the family moved to Indianapolis.
Things got worse, and they were forced to take help from family. They moved to Taylorsville where Dorothy and brothers Bill and John lived with her grandmother - Jenny Zigler.
"For much of her youth, that house was her only home," Charles Boxman said. "She was extremely close to her grandmother."
Dorothy was a student at Columbus High School when Jenny Zigler left the house one night to make a telephone call.
"She had gone to the house of Elizabeth Richards where she could make the call," Charlie Snyder said, noting that Elizabeth Richards was the mother of legendary Bartholomew County educator W.D. Richards for whom Richards Elementary School in Columbus is named. Years later, W.D. Richards would move into that house.
Jenny Zigler was on her way back home when she was struck and killed by a truck while crossing a Taylorsville street.
Dorothy graduated from Columbus High School and went on to earn a degree from Franklin College.
"She graduated magna cum laude," said her cousin. "She immediately took a teaching job in the South Bend area and that's where she met her husband."
The husband was an engineer and eventually obtained a position with Cal Tech University in California, an explanation of the Taylorsville-Pasadena connection.
Unfortunately, the marriage did not survive. Like her mother, Dorothy divorced and ended up alone.
The couple did have one son, Jason, who has been a missionary in the African country of Chad for the past 18 years.
There were explanations for some of the other items in the boxes. There were packets of letters, correspondence from soldiers and sailors serving during World War II. Many were from former Columbus High School classmates but some might be traced to the fact that her brothers, William and John, served in the Navy.
Charles Boxman was able to provide information about John Green's widow who just happens to live in northern California. From her there is the potential to find a way to get the material to Dorothy's son Jason