It was at the Hollenden Hotel that Merle fell in love with Rosetta “Rosie” Scott who operated the hotel’s elevator.

As described in the Pittsburgh Courier, Merle’s initial attempts to engage Rosie were disrupted by “fleeting departures” as she would always disappear from sight while operating the elevator’s controls whenever he tried to approach. Merle persisted, and was finally able to strike up a conversation with Rosie, a task he later described as one of his more “difficult undertakings" (McKeever, 1959, p. 2).

The couple wed in 1937 and lived in Cleveland with Merle’s mother, Evelyn, who had married Clarence Cowan five years earlier.

Sources

Cuyahoga County Courthouse. (1971). Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2013: Cuyahoga: Marriage Records 1933, vol 169. Salt Lake City, UT: Genealogical Society of Utah. Retrieved from https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9392-B5ZP-P?i=18&cc=1614804

McKeever, D. (1959, June 6). Brilliant Prosecutor Practices Golden Rule. The Pittsburgh Courier, p. 2