Ardath and Kenneth Moore -- the remarkable couple behind a WWII telegram

Sometimes I find an item from WWII that could become a valued family memento, but there is no family left. Such was the case with a telegram I found today on eBay. It led me to the story of a remarkable couple from the Greatest Generation.

The telegram is dated May 15, 1944; sent from Camp Shelby, Mississippi; addressed to P.H. Diles in  Groveport, Ohio; and signed “Ardath” (no last name). The message read:

“Arrived safely – have room close to camp bus line – possibility of working and living on post – tired but happy – letters soon – don’t worry – love – Ardath.”

It took a little sleuthing, but I figured out who “Ardath” was. Here is the rest of the story.

Ardath was Ardath Adale Adams Moore. She was 20 at the time she sent the telegram. Her husband was a soldier, Kenneth F. Moore, 22. They had been married a little less than two years at the time of the telegram. Her obituary says she earned a B.S. degree in animal husbandry, but that wasn't the end of her education, as we shall see. 

Ardath and Kenneth Moore

The telegram was addressed to a man named Pearl Diles in Ardath’s hometown of Groveport, Ohio. Pearl and his wife, Lucy, were in their late sixties. Lucy was Ardath's grandmother, and Pearl was her step-grandfather. The young wife was letting the folks back home know she had arrived safely to be with her husband.

Ardath and Kenneth were married August 16, 1942, and he entered the Army 13 days later. I suspect he had received his draft notice and they got married before he reported to the Army. At the time of his enlistment he had one year of college. After the war he earned a doctorate in agronomy from Ohio State and taught at Ohio State and Clemson University. He fought in Europe during the war, and his obituary said he was awarded a Bronze Star medal. Ardath's telegram was sent three weeks before D-Day.It's likely Kenneth shipped out for Europe not too long afterward.

But that’s just the beginning of their story. Ardath died August 5, 2014, and Kenneth on September 28, 2015, in Ormond Beach, Florida. His obituary in a Daytona Beach newspaper recounts their remarkable career together after he retired from teaching:

He returned to Springfield, Ohio where he became CEO for an agricultural trade school at Clark County Technical Institute. While he was there, he met a pastor, Mr. Edgar Aleshire. Mr. Aleshire hired them to tend his afflicted daughter, Bobbie. After some time the winters got too hard on them so they moved to Daytona Beach in 1971. After Mr. Aleshire and Bobbi passed away, Kenneth and Ardath went back to school and each earned A.S. degrees in nursing and as registered nurses they worked with several doctors in this area. Kenneth and Ardath provided a Christian Clinic for more than 10 years, helping indigent people with medical needs. Ken's caring for others began early in his life as he and Ardath took in many needy students when they were in college.

Kenneth and Ardath were married on Aug. 16, 1942 and at her passing in August, 2014 they were eleven days shy of their 72nd anniversary. Kenny and Ardath served Daytona Beach First Baptist Church in the Baptist Ministry for more than 20 years. He is now a charter member and Deacon Emeritus of Providence Church in Ormond Beach.

Ardath and Kenneth were honored in 2005 with a Points of Light Award, given by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in honor of their work with the free clinic. In addition to running their free clinic, they reared seven foster children. They also survived a terrible ordeal in 2001. They were attacked and robbed while visiting Tampa, and both were severely beaten. According to a newspaper report: “Kenneth Moore, 79, suffered a dislodged eardrum, some hearing loss, seven fractures on his face, jaw, and collar bone, and damaged teeth. Mrs. Moore, 77, had damaged teeth and a severely bruised face that required surgery.”

They forgave their attackers. After they recovered from their injuries, the Tampa Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau coordinated a free return visit to Tampa, including Busch Gardens and other attractions.

Although they reared seven foster children, Ardath and Kenneth had no children of their own. Their only survivors were his sister and a niece. Her obituary is here and his is here.

'Linda is as mean and sweet as ever'

It’s been hot this summer, even by Las Vegas standards, so I’ve spent more time than usual at the computer, looking at WWII postcards on eBay and finding other ways to waste time. My indolence paid off with the discovery of a positively fascinating postcard.

The photo on the card, postmarked April 9, 1943, depicts Main Street in Pratt, Kansas.  Someone had written on the photo, “This is our room,” with an arrow pointing to a third-floor window in the Hotel Calbeck. The town of Pratt was the site of Pratt Army Airfield.

The return address on the card and the “Free” frank were written in one person’s handwriting, while the message and the recipient’s address were in a different hand. The return address was Private Albert C. Watts, and the card was addressed to Miss Elizabeth Uekman in North Little Rock, Arkansas. The message read:

“Dear Elizabeth: Well, here we are in this big city. Ha ha. It is rather nice though. We are moving into our apartment in about an hour. Linda is as mean and sweet as ever. Will write more when we are settled. Love, Ann, Watts, and Linda.” (Mr. Watts went by "Watts" at that time.)

In the hundreds of WWII postcards I’ve looked at, a handful were written by a soldier’s wife. I was intrigued by the reference to “Linda,” who was “as mean and sweet as ever.” Could Linda be the daughter of Private Watts and his wife, Ann? Is she still living? If so, could I find her in case she wants the postcard?

I started by searching the National Archives database of WWII enlistments for Albert C. Watts. There were five men by that name. One of them was from Arkansas and was married. I figured he was probably the one I was looking for. He was born in 1920.

I then searched the web for men named Albert C. Watts who were born in 1920. I found an obituary of Albert C. Watts, born 1920 and passed away in 2006 in Charleston, SC. The obituary said he was from Arkansas and moved to Charleston in 1956 as a store manager with S.H. Kress & Co. He was preceded in death by his wife, Ann, in 2003. Among his survivors was a daughter, Linda Watts Brown of Beaufort, SC. It seemed I had found the “mean and sweet” Linda.

After a good bit of searching and many dead ends, I finally found a phone number and called Linda. She’s a former math teacher, been married more than 50 years, and has 10 grandchildren. She was very sweet and not the least bit mean. When I read her the card, with the date and the recipient, she confirmed that the card was indeed written by her mother. We had a pleasant conversation, and she followed up with an email:

“I am so thankful to you for finding this. My daughter has bought it and it will be here Thursday and will be framed and put in a place of honor in my home. My dad was in the retail business with S.H. Kress. When the war started, they put him in charge of opening the PX even though he was only 22 years old. They later moved in with a family who owned a dairy. I think they had a one room apartment. All of this is flooding back into my memory of what they told me. I wish my dad was still here to share in this amazing story of the postcard. I don't know where it has been these many years.”

It turns out that the addressee, Elizabeth Uekman, was Ann Watts’ aunt. Linda has no idea how the card ended up being listed on eBay by a large-scale postcard dealer in Charleston. I suspect that the aunt gave the card back to Linda’s mother after the war, and when Linda’s parents passed away the card somehow got away from the family. (I’ve seen many cases where a family keepsake disappeared, including a postcard that was lost in a flood and reappeared 60 years later, and a Silver Star medal that was stolen by a caregiver.)

Albert Watts would have been among the early military personnel at Pratt Army Airfield. Construction on the base began in 1942, and the first prototype B-29s started arriving in the summer of ’43, right after Linda’s mom sent the postcard. The base was short-lived, closing in 1946.

I checked Google street view for a current image of Main Street in Pratt, Kansas, and was able to find almost the same view as was depicted from 1943 on the postcard. The Hotel Calbeck building is still there, but it’s no longer a hotel. You can see the window where Albert, Ann, and Linda stayed.

Pratt Main Street today. Hotel room is still there.

North Platte Canteen: 'It's a fine idea, I think'

One of the most inspiring home front stories of World War II is the North Platte Canteen. People from 125 communities around North Platte, Nebraska came together to fed six million soldiers who passed through their town on troop trains. It was the subject of an excellent book, Once Upon a Town, by Bob Greene.

I recently found a postcard on eBay that was written from the canteen by a Private W.H. Harris to his sister, Caroline Harris, in Tampa, Florida, on July 2, 1942.  In it, he writes: "Dearest Sister: We have just left North Platte, Neb. The ladies there gave us a big basket of cookies, magazines, candy, etc. They do that for all soldiers that come thru. It's a fine idea, I think."

The photo on the card is a San Francisco street scene, which may indicate that Private Harris was traveling east from California.  I've been unable to identify Private Harris from military and census records. Hope he survived the war.

Read more about the North Platte Canteen here

'I often dreamed of seeing these places.' The WWII journey of Private Joseph P. Hudacs

One of the many effects of World War II was an unprecedented amount of mobility. Many young men and women who might otherwise have never ventured more than a few hundred miles from home traveled across the U.S. and to foreign lands. In some cases (like my parents) a spouse went with them for part of the journey.

One such soldier was Private (later to be Sergeant) Joseph P. Hudacs of Scranton, Pennsylvania. I learned about him through a postcard I recently found on eBay. Joe was born in 1922 and enlisted in the Army in March 1942, three months after Pearl Harbor. He was soon on a train, heading for California. Somewhere along the way he bought a postcard with a photo of an Indian chief (see attached image) and mailed it to his brother back home. It’s postmarked Holbrook, Arizona.

 

In the card he said he saw “some of these fellows and their reservation,” and added, “This sure is some trip. I wish you could see the scenery along the way.” Then he wrote something I think was typical of many soldiers:

 

“I often dreamed of seeing these place but I thought I would have to make a fortune before I could make a trip like this. But here I am and getting paid for making the trip.”

Two years later Joe saw Europe, but under very different circumstances. He took part in heavy combat, as recounted in his obituary when he died in February 2015:

“Born in Scranton, son of the late John and Mary Novak Hudacs, Joe was a veteran of World War II, leaving school before graduation to join the Army when Pearl Harbor was attacked. He was a sergeant with the Sixth Armored Division, was in the Normandy Invasion and the Battle of the Bulge with General Patton's Third Army and worked to free the dying people in the concentration camps in Czechoslovakia.”

The obituary also said, “Joe was a kind, generous, faith-filled man who lived a simple life.” He worked at Tobyhanna Army Depot and Pennsylvania Gas and Water Co. It appears Joe never married or had children, as his obituary does not mention a wife or children, only nieces and nephews.

Joe Hudacs is typical of the millions of American men of that era who did their duty, often under horrendous circumstances, and then returned home to a quiet and productive life.

His obituary can be found online at http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thetimes-tribune/obituary.aspx?pid=174217328