Final Years in Florida

Over the years, Rollin, his parents, and his married sisters moved among Vermont, Maine, and Florida, all visiting one another frequently. They generally spent summers in New England and winters in St. Petersburg, Florida.

This postcard captures downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, the city where Rollin spent his final years. Tichnor Bros., "Aerial view of the Heart of St. Petersburg, Florida: 'The Sunshine City,'" ca. 1930–1945. Courtesy of Digital Commonwealth.

Eventually, Rollin moved to Florida permanently and, in 1954, when he was seventy-three, worked as a manager in a newly opened Goodwill store in St. Petersburg. A photograph of him at the cash register appeared in the Tampa Bay (FL) Times. He was a slightly built and clean-shaven man with short, curly hair combed back from his forehead and horn-rim glasses. He wore a white button-down shirt, a dark tie, and belted slacks, showing the same attention to the norms of white-collar professionalism that he had when he donned a gray flannel suit over fifty years before.^[1]

Rollin probably enjoyed the sunshine and seashores of St. Petersburg, Florida, where he eventually moved by the early 1950s. Tichnor Bros., "Waterfront Park and Downtown Hotel District, St. Petersburg, Fla., 'The Sunshine City,'" ca. 1930–1945. Courtesy of Digital Commonwealth.

Rollin died on January 4, 1966, at the age of eighty-four in St. Petersburg.^[2] He was buried in Burlington, Vermont, in Lakeview Cemetery, next to his parents, in an unmarked grave. The funeral was probably arranged by his younger sister Marion, the only immediate family member still alive at this point.

Elizabeth A. Allen, photograph of Rollin Morgan’s burial place, Lakeside Cemetery, Burlington, Vermont, Champlain Section, lot 65, 19 October 2024.

Rollin persisted in his quest to socially transition and establish himself as a socially respectable, financially independent, middle-class man. Despite repeated exposure, public humiliation in national news, and periods during which he was forced into a feminine identity, he persevered. He used all resources available to him, including record in the U.S. Census as the son of the family, (eventual) social support and influence from his family, and milestones such as marriage, voter registration, draft registration, and jury duty to certify and buttress his manhood. Aside from his many social transitions, his life seemed rather unexceptional, marked by his work in interior decoration, his close relationships with his parents and sisters, and his winters in Florida. He went to extraordinary lengths to live a life that his cisgender, White, New England fellows would probably have considered ordinary.

Notes

[1] “First Customer” [Times photograph by Johnnie Evans], Tampa Bay (FL) Times, 30 October 1954, 6.

[2] “Obituaries: Morgan, Rollin K.,” Tampa Bay (FL) Times, 6 January 1966, 17.