Just a bit of information to lead you over to our auction site to bid on Evelyn’s Collection
(part I) starting this Sunday September 25th auction will be ending Thursday September 29th. We hope you can join us for a fun-filled week of Home Decor and more. The following was shared by Evelyn and Roy Korb with us. Enjoy~

Hi,
My name is Evelyn Korb and I would like to share with you about Home Interiors and Gifts Inc. This is where most of the gifts and accessions you are viewing came from. I was a displayer for this company’s products for 36 years. The owner of the company was Mary Crowley, a wonderful devout Christian who was taught by her grandmother to always tithe 10% to God. She even went so far as to have a silversmith make 2 shovels with a chain to hang around her neck 1 large one and one small one. When anyone asked her about the shovels, she explained, “I gives a small shovel full and receives a large shovel full in return and it never failed”.

She believed in providing quality products to sell. She even started some factories to supply these products that were not available in the existing market place.

They had yearly seminars in many cities across the United States. These seminars were primary for the displayers and other family members invited to attend. The purpose of these seminars was to recognize accomplishments, show new products, serve great food, and entertain    everyone that attended. The entertainment over the years included well known entertainers as Pat Boone, Barbara Mandell, Johnny Cash, Bob Hope, Billy Graham and many others.

I remember one seminar in particular that was held in Dallas Texas. This was probably the largest one ever held with about 17,000 displayers and family members attending (75% to 80 % were women displayers and managers). Bob Hope was the entertainment that year and his monolog (normally on TV his monolog lasted 15 or 20 minutes long) His monolog this day lasted 1 ½ hours long and he kept the audience laughing for the whole time. Bob Hope had been in many movies and never had an Oscar for any of his movies. Home Interiors decided he should have an Oscar. So they had one made especially for him. It was 9 feet tall and they wheeled it in on a cart and presented it to him right there.

Mary Crowley hired many handicapped people to pack and ship the products to the displayers.

Sadly, Mary Crowley passed away from cancer in 1986. Her son Don Carter and grandchildren helped her run the company for several years before she died. Don ran the company for several years after that but it was never the same after Mary passed on. The company was eventually sold to someone else. They were never able to achieve the success that Mary had when she was in her prime.

Now more about Evelyn herself…and know that she will be at the gallery to meet in person when you pickup your won items!

My name is Evelyn Korb. I was born in a small town in Pennsylvania. I was a shy but typical little girl who enjoyed playing with my doll, playing hopscotch, Jacks & jump rope. I was pretty good at all of them. I also loved to help my mother with cooking, cleaning, dusting the many pretty things that she made.

I did not get much formal education as because of illness that prevented me from going to school as most children do. I spent a lot of time with my mother and grandmother that had a great deal to help shape me into be the person that I am today.

When I was 12 years old I was given a pair of shoe skates in exchange for agreeing to have my tonsils removed and spent several years skating around on those tiny wheels. When I was 20 years old I met my future husband (Roy) at one on these skating sessions. About 1 ½ years later we eloped and were married in Kokomo Indiana. We had a six week honeymoon in Florida.

We went back to DuBois PA and lived in a small apartment there for about one year. At this point I was pregnant for about 6 months. Good job prospects were very scarce at that time in Pennsylvania. We talked about our future lives and what we wanted to do about the future. It seemed that staying here until the child was born would almost certainly mean that we would be stuck here for a long time. We decided to take a chance for something unknown.

We loaded what we could in our car, said good bye to relatives and departed for a destination unknown at this time. Our goal was to find a place we both liked and had good prospects for a job for Roy. It turned out the first place that seemed to meet what we were looking for was Sacramento, CA. We got to Sacramento on Thursday latter part of June 1959 and rented an apartment. Roy went looking for a job on Friday and was working the following Monday. We have lived in Sacramento for the last 57 years.

Our first son (Keith) was born on September, 13 that year. It wasn’t long till the second son (Raymond) was on the way. He was followed shortly by a daughter (Brenda). We did not tell anyone back East that we were expecting. It happened that Brenda was born on the same birth-date as my mother (February 23). I called my mother with the news that she was a grandmother again. She was so surprised by the news that she went to work that day and when she opened her lunch bag all that was in it was one piece of toast with one bite missing from the toast and she forgot any money to even get a cup of coffee that day to keep from getting a headache.

In addition to being a stay at home mother, I was a den mother, Sunday school teacher, youth adviser & PTA president. I also lived with my mother for 1 ½ years as a caregiver for my mother until she passed away. This was a learning experience for me being a nurse and all that goes with it.

I started as a Home Interiors & Gifts displayer in 1972. This continued for the next 36 years. As it turned out I was my own best customer. I would buy a few things more than I had sold to get free shipping or the next step in what I wanted for free gifts. This is the reason I have so many things to be sold in the current auction.

Thank you,
Evelyn Korb