Mystery of CC trunks resolved at Upper Iowa University

Staff report

The mystery of a 1920s stage actress’s discovered trunks has been solved.

Two trunks found in a Charles City home were under the investigation of archivists after Loyal and Norma McLean discovered a manufacturer’s guarantee inside one of the trunks, naming Zinita Graf as the owner. Through the search efforts of granddaughter Leah Reineke, the McLeans learned Graf was a celebrated alumna of Upper Iowa University where she received her bachelor’s degree in oratory and liberal arts in 1913. In December, the McLeans and a few family members delivered the trunks to UIU, where they are on display in the archives with other Graf artifacts.

Reports of the donation caught the eye of Betty Salpekar of Woodstock, Georgia, who remembered two trunks in the family that had gone missing after moving from Charles City. Salpekar and UIU archivist Janette Garcia pieced together the story from there.

Salpekar’s mother, Delores Nicholson, herself a 1957 alumna of Upper Iowa University, purchased the trunks at a Graf Estate auction in Fayette in 1956 or 1957. Salpekar’s father was employed at the Oliver tractor factory in Charles City at the time and the family moved there in the summer of 1957. The trunks were placed in the attic of the family’s new home, where Delores mainly utilized them for storage.

In early 1962, Salpekar’s parents sold the house to the McLeans and moved to Cedar Rapids. A few days after the move, Delores realized that the trunks hadn’t been delivered to the new house. She called the moving company, but they denied any knowledge of their location, insisting that they had emptied the attic. Salpekar’s mother settled on the notion that the movers had stolen the trunks.

Salpekar said that her family is very happy that the McLeans donated the trunks to UIU, where they are in good hands and appear in the University Archives Zinita B. Graf exhibit at Fayette Campus.

Graf was a successful stage actress who made her debut in 1917 with the Deveraux Dramatic Company, playing Beauty in the classic play “Everyman”. Through Deveraux, she participated in transcontinental tours throughout the United States and Canada, although no evidence suggested Graf ever visited Charles City. Graf died in 1930.

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