Though the Rose family hasn’t lived in Dublin quite so long as others, the four Roses – Clayton, Jr.; Barbara; Carol and Don – have as much right to call Dublin home as anyone. Don, the youngest at 77 years old, was the only one born in Dublin, but each of the Rose children grew up playing on Bridge Street, in the Scioto River and the now-gone public pool in Shawnee Hills. Don Rose, the fifth Storyteller of the series, vividly remembers playing in Dublin as a child. The family moved to Dublin in 1937 when it was still a rural farming community, as his siblings wanted to be in the “country.” Although Dublin can’t be described as such any longer, Don has no thoughts of leaving the town he’s watched grow throughout his life.
Don Rose and Barb Headlee. The four Rose children, all of whom still live in Dublin, see each other frequently.
I think Mom and Dad – Phyllis and Clayton Rose – moved here because they loved being on farms, and wanted to get to the country. Barbara and Clayton both enjoyed their grandparents’ farm in Paulding County, so they put pressure on them to move. They enjoyed the experience of farming and being in the country. There were 200 or 300 people in Dublin itself, and at the time the people who went to school had parents who were farmers. Some who worked in Columbus, which was our case. It was mixed in that respect.
We had a nice house that Dad could only buy because he was a judge at the time of the Depression; he had a job. He paid $12,000 for 28 acres, and then built onto it. We didn’t have any luxuries, but we all loved that house and the grounds. The house sat in the middle of five acres of trees – big beech trees. We had a nice childhood.
Another thing that I think is interesting is that, out of the goodness of their hearts, Mom and Dad took in kids to live with us from the children’s home over the years. One of them, John Shook, came from a very dysfunctional family. My mom invited his mom to his high school graduation, and he didn’t know who it was. My mom had to introduce him to his own mother. Each of the children that lived with us were a part of the family; that’s kind of the way things were.
The swimming pool in Shawnee Hills was the place to be. People didn’t have private pools, we didn’t have air conditioning, so going there in the summer was the way to beat the heat. Clayton worked there in high school and he ended up buying it while he was still in college, and he did well with it. He employed all of us; that was the hangout.
Don Rose's parents, Clayton and Phyllis Rose. The pair moved to Perry Township -- what is now a part of Dublin -- in 1937.
For a while, I lived on a sailboat with my wife, Robin. We sold our house and everything, and lived on the boat for two and a half years, and traveled 11,000 miles. I wrote a book about the trip – my wife actually wrote it, she won’t take credit for it – but she kept a journal, and I turned it into a book called Living Aboard the Sailboat Robin Lee. After we got off the sailboat, we worked for about seven months, then we drove an old junker down to the Mexican border and sold it, then spent three months in Mexico. We were living in cheap hotels, then spent two months in Central America, then went down to South America and spent about five months. So, counting the time to go down to the Mexican border, the trip altogether was about 10 and a half months.
When we got back from that, we spent about another year working, then bought round-the-world plane tickets. We spent six and a half months going around the world, then came back here to Dublin; it’s our home. We had a lot of favorites, but Robin loves Paris, and so do I. I’d say the most fascinating place was Bali, and also Nepal; people there have a very different kind of life.
The Rose children and their spouses in 2002. From left to right: Lee and Barbara Headlee, Betty and Clayton Rose, David and Carol Scott, Robin and Don Rose.
I recently wrote a story about the fire at the Ohio State Penitentiary, A Night of Horror: 1930 Ohio Penitentiary Fire. Before our dad was a judge, he was an assistant prosecutor in the Franklin County Prosecutor’s office, and he helped to investigate and prosecute the guys who started the fire. It was arson; 320 prisoners died, they basically cooked in there. When I was researching to write a book about my dad, Judge Clayton Rose, Sr.: The Boy from the Great Black Swamp, I’d found that he worked on that case, and I decided I would write a book about it. It happened 85 years ago, so not many people know much about it. I’ve gotten more interested in history as time goes on; I think more people get interested in history as they become historic. I still don’t feel like an old timer, because I still know so many people who were here in Dublin long before we came. It’s home. It’s very different from what it was, but it’s grown into a nice city.
Life Lessons
From left to right: Carol Scott, Barbara Headlee and Don Rose as children in front of Shriver's Confectionery, now the location of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, on Bridge Street.
Don Rose’s sister, Barb Headlee, began what are now cornerstones of Dublin City Schools’ physical education classes
Barb Headlee describes herself as a child as “Daddy’s tomboy.” At 16, she bought a car and overhauled the engine using borrowed tools and knowledge from working on a lawnmower engine with her father. She went on to teach physical education for 25 years at Dublin Coffman High School – then, simply Dublin High School. Headlee knew that her students would get more out of a program that challenged them and taught them lessons they could apply to life. In 2010, she was inducted into the Dublin City Schools Alumni Association Hall of Fame for her revolutionary approach to physical education.
Fencing, skeet shooting, archery and orienteering (the act of using a topography map and a compass to hike and camp) were all a part of Headlee’s physical education class. For students up for a greater challenge, Headlee began a program that all Dublin students are familiar with: outdoor pursuits. Three times per year, Headlee took a group of students over a weekend to Delaware State Park and taught them everything they needed to know about camping and hiking for a weekend. In one weekend, Headlee taught bicycling, orienteering, camping and canoeing.
Outdoor pursuits with Barb Headlee was popular, but no walk in the park. The trip began Saturday morning at 7 a.m. with a 33-mile bicycle ride to Delaware State Park, with one stop halfway to use bathrooms. Once they arrived at the park, Headlee taught canoeing, followed by dinner for the 30-some students and adult chaperones on the trip. After dinner, the group would take a night hike, then tell stories around the bonfire. When the trip was over on Sunday, students biked another 33 miles back to the school.
“That was fun. We’d eat s’mores and do the usual camp thing,” says Headlee. “I had wonderful cooperation from the staff and administrators and the community.”
But Headlee’s trailblazing didn’t end there. She also founded the gymnastics program and ski club in Dublin schools, both of which still exist.
“I’m very glad to know that’s still going on,” says Headlee.
At 86 years of age, Headlee hasn’t given up her passion for the outdoors, and has a home in Frisco, Colo. – where she lives each winter – and two shared cabins in Ontario, Canada, where the Rose and Headlee families visit in the summer. She still golfs, skis and rides her bicycle. Headlee waterskied until she was 76, when her children made her quit.
When asked what she enjoys doing for fun, Headlee responds, “I play.”
Amanda DePerro is an assistant editor. Feedback welcome at hbealer@cityscenecolumbus.com.
