Otis Adelbert Kline's Family

E. Hoffman Price described the family of his friend and co-author, Otis Adelbert Kline:

First, "Curley"--Mrs. Kline, smooth and lovely and soft-voiced and gracious, her youthful face seeming ever younger because of that prematurely gray hair; "Jimmie"--Ora Fay, the tiny dainty blond daughter; Elinor, the more robust brunette; and "Buster" Allen the son, colored very much like his father. (1)

"Curley" was Ellen H. (Grove) Kline (1890-1987), a native Illinoian born in the same month as H.P. Lovecraft, August 1890. Otis and Ellen were married sometime in the period 1910-1914. Their three children were:

1. Elinor Marie Kline Reed, also called Marie, (b. Nov. 24, 1914, Ill.; d. Feb. 25, 1999, presumably in Illinois), a musician who majored in pipe organ at the Chicago Conservatory of Music.
2. Allen Paul "Buster" Kline (b. Jan. 28, 1916, Sterling, Ill.; d. Sept. 26, 1999, Escondido, Calif.).
3. Ora Fay "Jimmie" Kline Gunckel Rossini Rozar (b. 1918, Rock Falls, Ill.; d. May 29, 2009, Greenwood, S.C.), a U.S. Navy WAVE during World War II--and an airplane mechanic at that!--and an artist, she received an M.F.A. from the Whitney School of Art in New Haven, Connecticut. When her father died in late 1946, she took over his literary agency and helped run it for a year and a half before passing it on to Oscar Friend.

Ora Rozar is in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDb). Here are her credits:

• "Notes" in OAK Leaves #1 (Fall 1970, p. 3), in which she discussed her father's life in Connecticut and his death.
• "Notes" in OAK Leaves #2 (Winter 1970-1971, p. 10), in which she discussed her father's literary agency.
• "Notes" in OAK Leaves #4 (Summer 1971, p. 7), in which she discussed life at home in Chicago.
• "Notes" in OAK Leaves #6 (Winter 1971-1972, p. 2), in which she discussed her father's writing, including stories syndicated in the Toronto Star Weekly.
• "Notes" in OAK Leaves #7 (Spring 1972, p. 12), the text of a letter, dated October 31, 1946, in reply to a letter sent by E. Hoffmann Price. In her reply, Ora, or "Jimmie," gave Price details on her father's death.
• "Notes" OAK Leaves #11 (1975, pp. 12-13), in which she offered photographs of her family.

Ora's "Notes" from issue number two is especially interesting:

     After my father died, I took over the agency for 1 1/2 years. I had an infant daughter, born 2 months after his death and my then husband [2] was being transferred to Texas. It would have been impossible to take the agency with me. We turned over everything to Oscar Friend, including material published and unpublished, records, files, etc. I do not know what all was  there, but I know there was an unpublished Mars novel. Oscar Friend ran the agency under the Otis Kline Associates name, and was to handle all material on behalf of my mother, for future sales of OAK [Otis Adelbert Kline] material. At that time, there was little demand for it. Oscar moved to another place and I suspect disposed of practically all OAK material, records, and files. Later on the space programs, TV science fiction programs, etc., renewed interest in the sf field and consumed fiction too fast. The publishers went back to the older material and published OAK hardcover and paperbacks. As this was going on, Oscar kept asking us to send him books or tear sheets for submission to the publishers on material I know we had already given to him

     He kept asking me for an "unpublished novel" which he insisted I had stored away. He had never returned anything to us except contracts of signatures, royalties, and sometimes, complimentary copies.

     The enclosed photo [which I used in my biography of Kline, here] was taken at the same time as the 3/4 pose used on the MAZA book jacket. I believe it was 1929; there were no more portrait pictures taken of him, only snapshots.

If Oscar Friend did indeed discard or destroy Kline's files, then we can add that to a list of literary disasters that is entirely too long, especially in regards to popular fiction.

There's something else to consider here, for by operating Otis Kline Associates for one and a half years, from 1946 to about 1948, Ora Rozar was in a line of descent of Robert E. Howard's literary agents. She may not have done much, if anything, with what she had from Howard, but there it is anyway.

One more thing: if Otis Adelbert Kline's co-author on "The Secret Kingdom" was indeed Allen S. Kline, then his co-author was his brother and not his then thirteen-year-old son, Allen P. Kline. Hopefully all of that can be corrected soon on the Internet Speculative Fiction Database.

I have one more entry on Otis Adelbert Kline. I will use that one to close out the year.

Notes
(1)  From "Otis Adelbert Kline: Two Memoirs" by E. Hoffman Price in OAK Leaves #1 (Winter 1970-1971), page 3.
[2] I believe this was Ora Fay Kline's second husband, last name Rossini. Ora's daughter was born in December 1946. Ora had previously married Ray Herbert Gunckel, Jr. (1916-1980) on April 9, 1939, in Manhattan. In the 1940 census, they were counted together in Branford, Connecticut. Ray Gunckel was the head of a household that included Otis and Ellen Kline. Ray and Ora were divorced in 1944 in Escambia County, Florida. He remarried on February 23, 1945, in Jacksonville, Florida. His new wife was Blanche Pearl Jones, later Oglesby (1924-2021). She died just two months ago. Ora presumably remarried, too, in the period 1944-1946. She was married again, to Josep James Rozar (1923-2008), on June 4, 1966, in Branford, Connecticut. There are still living Kline descendants. Whatever else might be true, I would call that a happy situation.

The Kline family, circa 1938. Left to right: Elinor, Ora, Ellen, and Otis. From OAK Leaves #11, 1975, page 13. Son Allen is not in this picture. Maybe he was the one behind the camera, in which case he should receive credit in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database.

Original text copyright 2021, 2023 Terence E. Hanley