A new year rife with war

JERRY PERSON

With 2004 upon us and as the past year fades into memory, we should

reflect upon what happened and how Huntington Beach residents

celebrated the New Year’s holiday.

If there were ever a New Year’s to celebrate it would be the one

in 1946. World War II had ended, rationing was nearly over and our

servicemen were returning home to friends and family.

But not everyone from Huntington Beach who served in the military

was able to return home for the holidays, and had to celebrate the

coming year in some far-off place.

This week we are going to see how we in Huntington Beach

celebrated that coming year of 1946.

Huntington Beach serviceman Bud Galvin had to contend with

celebrating his New Year’s Day on far away New Guinea while stationed

in the Army Air Corps at Biak.

Woody Kemp’s wish that year was to be off Saipan and back home

with his family in Huntington Beach.

Also stationed in the Dutch East Indies were Lawrence Mollica,

Jack Jenkins and Elton Barnes, all good Huntington Beach boys.

Bill Pitts and Ernie Lynn were too busy to be able to enjoy the

holiday, as they were kept busy with military duties.

Back in Huntington Beach, Nettie Peebles surprised her daughter,

Nadine, on her 20th birthday by getting up early and baking her an

angel food cake for breakfast.

Main Street businesswoman Eve Druxman celebrated her New Year’s

Eve in Hollywood, in the company of movie actresses Joan Leslie and

Alexis Smith.

Martha White was elected president of the Starlite Club and her

friends will be glad to know that Martha is still driving her car

downtown, but this year had to give up her home on Second Street and

move into a retirement home.

Huntington Beach postal clerk Barnett Medford was preparing for

his upcoming marriage to Marjorie Hanson on Jan. 24. Marjorie

graduated from Huntington High and worked in the Standard Market’s

soda fountain. Barnett was home recovering from being wounded at

D-Day in Normandy.

Longtime resident baker John Eader and his wife Minnie had a lot

to celebrate that year, when their son Howard came home after serving

in the Army in England and France.

Standard Oil Company’s repairman Lawrence Burdick and his wife

Kathryn were able to spend their holiday with their son Frank at home

in Huntington. Frank had been able to obtain a leave from Alaska to

be with his family.

Herb Day had to return to base in Dalhart, Texas, to get his

discharge from the Army Air Corps.

But he was still able to spend 10 days with his wife Millie and

daughter Hollie at their home at 515 1/2 Tenth Street.

Jake Steidinger said “I do” to Betty Jean Cropsey in a double-ring

ceremony on Dec. 29 to be able to spend their first New Year’s Day

together as husband and wife.

Police Chief Don Blossom engaged Hazel Allen to cater a farewell

retirement dinner for police officer Jack Tinsley. Tinsley was a

25-year veteran on our police force and our first police and fire

chief.

William and Margaret Cookerley’s daughter, Frances, attained the

rank of captain in the Army. She would be in charge of arranging camp

shows for the troops in the South Pacific.

As dramatic director, she would act as hostess as formal

receptions and also would act in camp plays and do a little tap

dancing for the GIs.

The Plumlee clan held a family reunion at Lake Park, which

included several members of the family at a buffet-style lunch and

along with Tom and Florence Wyllie and their daughter Judith.

Roy K. Smith and Hazel Ranney helped deliver a nine-pound baby boy

to Jane Ranney Hollen in Smith’s ambulance at the corner of Beach

Boulevard and Lincoln Street on Dec. 30.

Lloyd and Zelpha Dye also became parents on Dec. 30, when their

seven-pound, 12-ounce daughter was born.

Over at the First Baptist church, Rev. Luther A. Arthur joined

Elizabeth McCoy and Carl Kutter in holy matrimony.

Phyllis Laue was honored to become queen of Job’s Daughters in a

ceremony that included Shirley Moore, Barbara Ries, Kathryn Achey,

Ardeth Frederick, Nancy Wilson and Betty McCubbin.

The Blue Star Mothers baked and packaged 100 dozen cookies and

sent them along with a box of apples, a box of grapes and two boxes

of oranges to the wounded boys in the Long Beach Navy Hospital.

Baking those cookies were Pearl Elliott, Myrtle Hermann, May Olsen

and Ruth Paxson.

Vell Duvall and Perry Tunstall spent their day at home and Leland

Pitts spent his New Year’s Day at home waiting for orders to report

for duty.

Shirley Tayloe and Leonard Van den Bergh got engaged in that

wonderful start of 1946.

These events would be repeated throughout Orange County and in

every city and town across America as the echoes of war gently faded

into our history.

Little would they know that many of our sons and daughters would

again leave their hometown in a few years to be serving their country

again, only this time in Korea.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.