Vernon Jack Rayfield (1909–1977) & Opal Myrtle Robinson Rayfield (1911–2002)

Opal Robinson Rayfield — The Keeper of Stories Opal was the family’s storyteller — and its archivist. In 1976, she sat down and wrote “A Tribute to My Parents in This Bicentennial Year Because They Left Their Mark” — a loving, detailed account of growing up in the Robinson household at Des Arc. But the tribute was just one piece of what she preserved. She clipped obituaries and newspaper articles about family, kept handwritten notes from her own genealogy research, and saved her mother Katie’s Bible with its handwritten records of births, deaths, and marriages. She had a framed family tree that hung in her dining room for years — unfortunately lost to extended family and time, and not yet tracked down. In her later years, she passed along mementos and antiques to family members as a way of sharing memories of earlier times and making sure the things that mattered didn’t disappear. That instinct to hold on, to write it down, to hand it forward — it’s the reason so much of this project was possible.

Their Story

Vernon Jack Rayfield was born September 9, 1909, the son of Franklin Rayfield and Myrtle Seal — raised in the same Reynolds and Iron County hill country where Rayfields had farmed for three generations. Opal Myrtle Robinson was born two years later, on June 11, 1911, in Des Arc — the daughter of John Wesley Robinson the blacksmith and his wife Katie Lewis. Both families had roots in the same small communities along the Black River. When Vernon and Opal married on January 27, 1928, in Annapolis, Iron County, Vernon was eighteen and Opal was sixteen. Neither had reached twenty-one, so their mothers — Myrtle Rayfield and Katie Robinson — came in person to give their consent at the ceremony.

Days after the wedding, the newlyweds were in a car collision near Annapolis while heading to church. They went on to have four children: Charlene, born in Des Arc in 1928; Shirley, born in Reynolds County in 1931; Michael, born in St. Louis in 1949; and Jack, born in St. Louis in 1957. The gap in those birth years tells the story of a family in motion. By 1933, Vernon and Opal were living on North 23rd Street in St. Louis, where Vernon worked as a chauffeur. During at least part of the early 1940s they pulled back toward the Ozarks — Vernon's 1941 draft registration lists his employer as J.W. Robinson and Son, his father-in-law's sawmill operation in Steelville — and they eventually settled in Piedmont, Wayne County. Vernon died there on November 9, 1977, at sixty-eight, and was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Des Arc.

Opal lived to ninety-one, dying in Bridgeton, Missouri, on July 23, 2002. She was, in the truest sense, the family's historian. In 1976, as the nation celebrated its bicentennial, she sat down and wrote a tribute to her parents — a detailed, loving account of growing up in the Robinson household at Des Arc. She preserved her mother Katie's Bible, clipped obituaries, saved handwritten genealogy notes, and made sure the things that mattered didn't disappear. Without Opal's tribute, whole chapters of this family history would be dates and census entries and nothing more. She gave them life. She is buried beside Vernon at Mountain View Cemetery.

Vernon Jack Rayfield — Vital Facts

Opal Myrtle Robinson Rayfield — Vital Facts

Children

Note the seventeen-year gap between Shirley (1931) and Michael (1949). The first two children were born in the Ozarks hill country; the younger two in St. Louis. Two different worlds, really — but the same family.

Source Records

Connections to Other Profiles

Family Artifacts

Fact	Detail	Source
Full Name	Vernon Jack Rayfield	WWII draft registration; marriage record
Birth	September 9, 1909	Birthplace variously recorded as Reynolds County, Piedmont, or Union, Iron County, MO. The family moved between these areas.
Father	Franklin Peter Rayfield (1884–1941)	See Franklin & Myrtle Rayfield profile
Mother	Myrtle Lee Seal (1888–1968)	See Franklin & Myrtle Rayfield profile
Paternal Grandfather	John Carter Rayfield Sr	See John Carter Rayfield profile
Physical Description	5′9″, 150 lbs, brown eyes, brown hair, light complexion	WWII draft registration card, February 1941
Marriage	January 27, 1928, Annapolis, Iron County, MO	Minister of the gospel officiated. Both Vernon and Opal were under 21; consent given in person by their mothers, Myrtle Rayfield and Katie Robinson.
WWII Draft	Registered February 1941, Eminence, MO	Listed employer as J.W. Robinson and Son (his father-in-law’s sawmill operation)
Occupation	Chauffeur (St. Louis, 1933); sawmill work (Eminence area, 1941)	City directory; draft registration
Death	November 9, 1977, Ironton, Iron County, MO. Age 68.	Social Security Death Index. Last residence: Piedmont, Wayne County, MO.
Burial	Mountain View Cemetery, Des Arc, Iron County, MO

Fact	Detail	Source
Full Name	Opal Myrtle Robinson Rayfield
Birth	June 11, 1911, Des Arc, Iron County, MO
Father	John Wesley Robinson (1880–1941)	Blacksmith of Des Arc. See John Wesley Robinson profile.
Mother	Katie Lewis Robinson (1878–1946)	Daughter of William John “Uncle Billy” Lewis
Paternal Grandfather	Absalom Parker Robinson (~1856–1936)	The sewing machine salesman of Des Arc
Maternal Grandfather	William John Lewis	“Uncle Billy” Lewis
Marriage	January 27, 1928, Annapolis, Iron County, MO	Both under 21. Mothers present to give consent.
Death	July 23, 2002, Bridgeton, Missouri. Age 91.
Burial	Mountain View Cemetery, Des Arc, Iron County, MO — beside Vernon

Name	Born	Died	Notes
Charlene Marie	December 9, 1928	2009	Born in Des Arc, Iron County, MO. First child, arriving less than a year after the wedding.
Shirley Joyce	July 30, 1931	2010	Born in Webb Township (Clearwater Lake area), Reynolds County, MO.
Michael Vernon	January 26, 1949	—	Born in St. Louis, MO.
Jack Stephen	March 15, 1957	April 5, 2023	Born in St. Louis, MO. Opal was forty-five years old — three months shy of her forty-sixth birthday. Extraordinary by any era’s measure: she had already raised two daughters through the Depression, watched them marry, and started again with Michael in 1949. At forty-five, she began once more.

ARN	Record	Type	Link
ARN0000046	Opal’s 1976 bicentennial tribute — “A Tribute to My Parents”	Family document	View
ARN0000085	Photo — Michael, Vernon, and Opal	Photograph	View
ARN0000087	Kate Robinson Bible pages — handwritten family records	Bible record	View

Holy Bible — Red Letter Edition
Embossed: Kate Robinson

This bible belonged to Katie Lewis Robinson (1878–1946), Opal's mother. It contains handwritten family records in the pages inside. The bible passed to Opal and has remained in the family ever since — gifted to Andrea Harter (née Rayfield), who compiled this history.

See also: The Rayfield Story · Source record ARN0000087