Yeah, John. I've done that, but that setting is to either "do nothing" or let the phone delete the email from it's server when you receive/download it the first time from your email service. I had it "unchecked" which meant it should NOT ever delete it from Earthlink, and it wasn't doing that when it downloaded. However, when I deleted it (moved it to trash), once deleted FROM the trash folder, it was making it disappear from my Earthlink account. There appears to be NO setting to stop that.

I went with the suggestion to try K-9 mail program, and after a day of using it, while it's a bit different visually, it at least gives you options on server deletion and has solved my issue. Considering it's free, you can't beat that.

Thanks all !