How an Iowa Waitress Became an Officer's Wife in Texas

On this episode of Our American Stories, Joy Neal Kidney, a regular contributor to Our American Stories from Des Moines, Iowa, shares her mother’s story of how she became an officer’s wife in the middle of World War II.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports, and from business to history
and everything in between, including your stories. There's some of
our favorites. Send them to our American Stories dot Com.
Up next to a listener's story from Joyneil Kidney and

(00:30):
she listens on who in Des Moines a great heritage signal.
Joy is the keeper of her family's stories, and today
she shares one with us.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Take it away, Joy, and Iowa waitress became an officer's
wife in Texas. It was the only formal gown my
mother ever owned. She bought it for the opening of
the Officers Club at the Marfa Army Air Base in Texas.

(01:02):
Doris had just become an officer's wife by marrying Warren Neil,
an Iowa farmer who durned his pilot's wings. Doris Wilson
had been a waitress in Perry, Iowa, at the McDonald
drug store, which had a soda fountain and a restaurant area.
In fact, she was serving Sunday dinner there when the
announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor interrupted the background

(01:23):
music playing on wh Joe Radio. She remembered thinking that
all of her brothers were liable to be drafted. One
by one, the five Wilson brothers left home to serve.
Doris's brother Dale Wilson, and Warre and Neil were both

(01:44):
Iowa farmers. Enlisted as air cadets in nineteen forty two.
They were awarded their silver wings and became officers on
the same day. A year later, Dale at Roswell, New Mexico,
Warren at Marfa, Texas. A few months later, Doris was
working at Bishop's Cafeteria in downtown Des Moines. Her brother

(02:05):
Dale stopped by in his uniform to see her there.
While a home on furlough. He was sent to North
Carolina NEX for B twenty five combat training. Warren was
retained at Marfa as an instructor for advanced cadets. He
and Doris had dated off and on since high school
and were writing to each other during the war. Doris

(02:28):
even wore pilot's wings on her coat. With four brothers
already in the service and calls for women to enlist
to help with the cause, Doris collected recommendations from teachers
and had begun the process to apply for the waves
the World War Two Women's branch of the Naval Reserve.

(02:48):
Warren was afraid they would get separated forever, so he
asked her to get married instead. Doris, wearing an awqua suit,
and Warren in uniform, were married in May night, eighteen
forty three, in Dexter, Iowa. Warren didn't note a car yet,
so the newlyweds caught a ride to Texas with another couple.

(03:08):
Their first home was the crew's hotel in Marfa, since
everything else was full day after day while Warren was
instructing at the air base, Doris hunted for a cheaper
place to live, but so did everyone else. Billy Cruz,
the hotel owner, said he didn't know what people did
after he had to turn them away. Even the cots

(03:30):
in the hotel halls were all occupied, and people even
lived in areas of the hospital during those war years.
Imagine an army moving in on Adell, the county seat
of Dallas County, Iowa. Then you have an idea what
Marfa is like. Doris asked her mother to send hangers

(03:51):
and other things they couldn't buy, like sewing needles. Right away,
she was invited to a tea for officers wives, then
a lunch. This Iowa waitress had all of a sudden
become an officer's wife. The luncheon was quite a handy affair,
she wrote home, but not as bad as she'd feared.
A few weeks later, Warren and Doris found a home.

(04:14):
For the next year and a half, they lived in
the first Christian Church. They rented a small room in
the front of the adobe church, thirteen dollars per month
for the room, water lights, a bed, and two chairs.
The bath was unhandy since it was at the opposite
end of the church, but they were so thankful to
find some one moving out so they'd have a cheaper

(04:36):
place to live. They'd just got and settled. When they
were to attend the formal opening of the new Officer's Club,
another pilot's wife invited Doris along to shop for gowns
for the dance. Doris's was nearly the color of the
suit she'd been married in a few months earlier, aqua
short sleeved accented with lots of small ruffles. She wrote

(05:00):
home that she had fun at the dance and felt
like Cinderella. With the war ramping up in Europe and
in the Pacific. The Air Corps tried to graduate pilots
as quickly as they could. Warren worked long hours, especially
when they had night flying in cross country trips. By then,

(05:23):
all five brothers were in the service, so Doris was
very busy writing letters. Early that December, she wrote to Dale,
then in combat in New Guinea. She ended her V
mail letter, I'm going to let you in on a secret.
We haven't told anyone yet, but we're going to have
a boy we hope next May. She signed up good

(05:44):
luck and love. Doris Dale never got her message. The
small letter was returned, still sealed, marked missing in action.
Decades later, I, the boys she'd hoped for, was the
first person to open the little V letter and read it.

(06:05):
Doris lost all three younger brothers during the war. There's
no photo of her wearing the aqua gown. I remember
seeing it as a child, only a couple of times
among her keepsakes in the storeroom of our old farmhouse.
But now it's been passed on to Doris as first born,
who eventually became the keeper of poignant family stories and

(06:27):
letters and terrible telegrams, treasures like the Aqua gown to
wonder about did she ever get to wear it again?
To feel like Cinderella once more?

Speaker 1 (06:45):
And a special thanks to joy Neil Kidney. And she
became the keeper of the treasures, the terrible telegrams and
everything else. And there's someone like that in every family.
A special thanks to the folks at WHHOW Radio in
Iowa for putting on on their terrific station. It was
one of the great honors of our show to be
put on WHHOW. And a special thanks again to joy

(07:07):
Neil Kidney and to Monte Montgomery for putting the story together.
And we're looking for your stories too, like this from
listeners all across the country. Send them to our American
Stories dot com. Joyn Neil Kidney's story and my goodness,
what a family story here on our American Stories. This

(07:31):
is Lee Habib, host of our American Stories. Every day
we set out to tell the stories of Americans past
and present, from small towns to big cities, and from
all walks of life doing extraordinary things. But we truly
can't do this show without you. Our shows are free
to listen to, but they're not free to make. If
you love what you hear, go to our American Stories
dot com. And make a donation to keep the stories coming.

(07:55):
That's our American Stories dot com.