Dash Between: Emil John Evin, 88, Proud First-Generation American, Proud Marine

Emil John Evin, then the oldest member of Marine Corps League Medina County Detachment, gives a salute as his wife, Frankie, looks on at the Marine Corps Ball in 2008. (Photo courtesy of the family.)

Emil John Evin believed his life was spared for a reason, when only he and one other member of his company got out of Iwo Jima alive during World War II.

Evin, a charter member of the Marine Corps League's Medina County chapter, who lived to be 88, filled the years since escaping the bloody battle by working at least two jobs at a time to support his family, helping others and serving his community.

Click here to read the Dash Between March 6, 1923, when he was born in Cleveland, and July 17, 2011, when he died at age 88. The story was published in the Aug. 8, 2011, edition of the Medina County Gazette.

To view the photo gallery that accompanies Evin's story, click here.

Frankie Cannon and Emil John Evin, known to friends as Frankie and Johnny, were married Oct. 21, 1945, in Washington, D.C. (Photo courtesy of the family.)