Iowa
Old Press
Waterloo Sunday Courier
May 9, 1943
Mother’s Day Means Sadness for Many a Waterloo Mother
Wearing their service stars as proudly as any 4-star general wears the insignia of his rank, mothers of servicemen will lead the parade this morning as the nation pauses to pay its annual tribute to motherhood.
To those who are fortunate enough to have their son home on furlough, there will be special added joy. To others, no more is needed than the words, “Dear Mom” whether scrawled on cheap note paper from the hellholes of the Pacific, or monogrammed stationery from post exchanges in the United States.
But to those mothers who don’t know the whereabouts of their own son, whose No Man’s land ranges from Burma to Iceland with a thousand way stations with unpronounceable names in between, Mother’s Day is one of the saddest of the whole year.
Sorrow for Mrs. Fortune.
Sorrowed beyond words this Mother’s Day is Mrs. I. W. Fortune, 303 Bratnober street, whose son, Pfc. Merrill Lewis Fortune, was reported missing in action in north Africa, Feb. 17, 1943.
She has spent weeks and months praying that the War Department listing of him as “missing in action” may prove untrue, still hopeful, she expressed confidence Saturday that her son may still be alive.
Her other son, Sgt. Marvin Fortune is stationed at Hartford, Conn. He is the father of a new daughter, Sandra Kay, born Wednesday in Detroit, Mich. This word brought the only cheerful ray for Mother’s Day, for her arrival made Mrs. Fortune a grandmother for the first time.
Mrs. Sullivan’s Burden.
Also bearing a burden seldom equaled in history is Mrs. Thomas F. Sullivan. Five gold stars replace the first blue ones in the service flag in the window at her home, 98 Adams street, but a bright blue one has recently been added for her daughter, Geraldine who enlisted in the WAVES, for vengeance of the death of her five brothers, who went down on a single ship.
Then there is Mrs. Frank Ray, 204 Rath-Peek apartments, who has lost two sons in the present war and will soon send a third boy to the Navy.
There are some mothers who are fortunate to have their son home on furlough this Mother’s Day. Proud, indeed, is Mrs. Clara McClintock, 411 Wellington street, when her sons in uniform will escort her to church this morning. They are Sgt. Lloyd McClintock and Pvt. R. Vernon McClintock, both of whom will return Monday to their stations.
Sergeant McClintock, who is stationed with the parachute infantry at the army air base, Alliance, Neb., took his basic training in Georgia and already has 16 parachute jumps to his credit. He entered service in April, 1942. Her youngest son, Private McClintock, is stationed with the ordnance division of the army air corps at Big Spring, Tex. Before his induction, he was a draftsman at the John Deere Tractor company.
In War Work, Too.
Another son, Cpl. Roger McClintock is stationed with the field artillery in Australia, and her eldest son, Delmar, 709 ½ West Eighth street, is awaiting his induction.
Besides sacrificing three sons in service, Mrs. McClintock is engaged in war defense work herself, and punches the time clock each day at the Associated Manufacturing company.
Whistler’s conception of Mother, an arrangement in gray and black, is a far cry from the 1943 version. For the American mother has undergone as great a change as has almost any other part of wartime society.
Certainly her job reaches new and frightening heights in complexities, even if she has no sons in the Army or Navy. She may have to build her household about the odd hours of a swing shift worker; already she has adapted her kitchen to shortages and ration points.
“Best Soldier of All.”
To her, such household adversities provide almost the same brand of mental stress that her khaki-clad son finds in laying a successful mine, digging a foxhole, handling a successful platoon.
But her tasks achieve drabness because the added element of danger is removed and perhaps supplanted by a sense of inadequacy in contributing to the war.
Yet, like a good soldier, she finds time to smile, to write cheerfully to Johnny at the front or Bill at camp, to do civilian defense or Red Cross work.
No wonder they call her “the best soldier of all.”
[transcribed by L.Z., Nov 2019]