Comments on: Our Women Veterans (Utah history)

By: Jon W.

Jon W. — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 05:37:48 +0000

Great addition Ardis. Often I think we forget the role women played in wars prior to their “active” roles they play these days. Often it is surprising for those us unfamiliar to learn just how involved they really were.

Thanks again.

By: Maurine

Maurine — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:04:35 +0000

Loved the pictures of your mother.

By: m&m

m&m — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:09:31 +0000

Awesome, Ardis…especially to honor and feature pictures of you mother as well.

(I linked to this at Seguallah.)

By: micah

micah — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:05:24 +0000

There were also nurses from Utah in the WAC, and probably elsewhere. And they put on the uniform before WWII. Mom put on a uniform after graduating from Dee in about ’38; it was a way out of Utah. Her service was more extensive than she’d planned – experiencing the Blitz, then Normandy about June 8, 1944, keeping just behind the front for the next year or so.

By: S. Taylor

S. Taylor — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:41:26 +0000

Ardis,

This brings to mind a story I heard Woody Deem,former DA of Ventura County and brilliant and demanding professor at J. Reuben Clark Law School tell regarding the manner in which he met his wife, Norrie, who served in the Marines during World War II.

At the outset of the war, Woody decided to join the service, but wondered which branch to enlist in. He saw a red-headed woman on a Marine recruiting poster and was very impressed with her beauty and her and idealistic soulful expression as she gazed at the sky. This poster somehow played a role in his decision to join the Marines. (I don’t know if he expected his drill sargeant to resemble the woman on the poster or if he merely anticipated that this move would to lead to a good story or what. At any rate, one could say the poster worked, as far as the Marines were concerned.)

After Woody had been given the usual working over provided at government expense by Marine basic training, Woody was stationed near Washington, DC. There, while crossing the street at a stoplight, he noticed that the soldier driving a military truck stopped at the light was the very woman in the recruiting poster. He pointed at her and shouted, “You, your the reason I’m wearing this suit!” Somehow things moved from that point to an acquaintance and Norrie and Woody were married and adopted eight children.

It appeared to us who shared the privilege of enjoying his criminal law classes, that the basic training he had received in the Marines served as his model for law school, and now, as I think about it, we, also,were blessed by Norrie’s war service and her loveliness in that poster.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:21:02 +0000

I know it broadened my mother’s horizons. Before her service, she worked in local, deadend jobs — partly, I suppose, because of her youth and because of the Depression, but also because it didn’t occur to her to do otherwise. After her service, there was no stopping her. Off to the big city for her, work where she wanted as long as she wanted, then free to choose something else on a whim, no looking back.

Then in her mid-30s, she gave all that up to raise a family. With her it was always all or nothing, and I don’t think she could have done both at the same time. She chose us.

By: Researcher

Researcher — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:04:55 +0000

Lovely pictures. What an amazing new opportunity for women including your mother. I wonder how most of these women stood returning to civilian life and homemaking after all that excitement and usefulness to society.