Howdy
Great story, glad you got it back. If I'm not too late, use bronze wool, which you can buy from Brownells, to remove rust. If you don't rub too hard, bronze wool will remove the rust and not touch the blue. Steel wool will remove the blue along with the rust.
By the way, I can remember walking into Sears Roebuck stores when I was a kid. You could buy a Glenfield/Marlin at the time. Made by Marlin, but with a few production shortcuts to keep the price down. The same with a Winchester Model 1894, I forget the name they were sold under, but they were made by Winchester, a little bit less expensive than regular production line Winchester.