| |
||||
| |
|
|
||
| |
|
|||
| |
|
|||
| |
||||
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||
 |
|
|||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||
 |
|
|||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||
 |
|
|||||||||||||
 |
|
|||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||
 |
|
|||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||
 |
|
|||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||
 |
|
|||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||
 |
|
|||||||||||||
 |
|
|||||||||||||
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Collections Highlight –War Brides & Wedding Dresses
War Brides. The very words evoke images of a tearful new bride kissing her GI husband goodbye before he ships off to war. While it’s true that during World War II many US servicemen married their sweethearts before going overseas and some took brides in foreign lands, there’s another war-bride story that is seldom told and often overlooked–American military women who wed during the war. Wedding dresses in the Women’s Memorial Foundation Collection are an unusual sight; but these rare artifacts tell this little-known war-bride story and further enrich our understanding of military women’s history.
For many US military women who married while in the service, preparing for their nuptials simply meant donning the uniform of the day and carrying a bouquet down the aisle, but others longed for more traditional attire. Though luxuries were hard to come by during wartime, some servicewomen turned bride-to-be still had dreams of satin and lace. Three dresses in the Foundation’s Collection speak to the resourcefulness and creativity of a few of these service brides.
A Military Issue Wedding Dress?
Army nurse 1LT Nellie Adrian was one such bride. While serving at a field hospital in France, her courtship with Army Air Corps pilot LT James Ratican was swift. Just four months after they met, the American couple exchanged wedding vows at the famed Sacred Heart Chapel of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, on June 30, 1945.1The bride wore a traditional gown of silk, but the silk itself was anything but traditional–some might even say it was “military-issue.” A Parisian dressmaker used the only silk available–the groom’s Army Air Corps-issued parachute. Despite its unusual beginnings, Nellie’s wedding dress turned out beautifully. The floor-length dress has a yard train behind, a tight bodice with a V-neckline, leg-of-mutton sleeves and a skirt that follows the lines of the parachute. Donned in her “military issue” wedding gown and Juliet cap with fingertip veil, the Leesburg, VA, native and her groom said “I do” before 300 guests on that June afternoon.2 The couple honeymooned in Cannes, France, before returning for duty in Paris. A year after their wedding, they returned to the United States, both were honorably discharged from the service and the bride continued her work as a civilian registered nurse.
Nellie donated her wedding dress–one of only two parachute-silk dresses in the Collection–to the Women’s Memorial Foundation in 1997. Housing more than 4,000 artifacts, including photographs, documents, textiles, artifacts and audiovisuals, the Collection includes all eras and branches of service. In addition to the wedding dress, the Nellie (Adrian) Ratican Collection includes her headpiece; an original copy of her wedding announcement; a photograph of the wedding party; copies of business cards of the Parisian dressmaker, headpiece and veil maker, and florist; and a copy of a newspaper clipping of the couple’s wedding announcement that appeared in the “Loudoun Times Mirror” (VA) in 1945.
Parachutes & Trousseaux
Though parachutes would never replace the customary silk, satin and lace of traditional wedding dresses, at least one other overseas service bride wore a dress of this silk.1LT Virginia Nickerson, a native of Portland, OR, who joined the Army Nurse Corps in June 1942, met her future husband, Army LT Vincent DiGiacinto, during the North African Campaign. While serving in France, the 25-year-old bride-to-be brought parachute silk–also procured by her betrothed–to a local French seamstress, who made her bridal dress and trousseau out of the material. In fact, the bride paid for the dress with the leftover parachute silk. With two attendants each by their sides, the couple exchanged vows in Dijon, France, in 1945.3
1LT Virginia Nickerson and Army LT Vincent DiGiacinto, circa 1945. Virginia (Nickerson) DiGiacinto Collection; Gift of Vicki Ingrassia, Joy DiGiacinto and Valeria DiGiacinto; Women’s Memorial Foundation Collection. In 2005, Virginia’s daughters donated her dress to the Foundation’s Collection. In addition to her wedding dress, the Virginia (Nickerson) DiGiacinto Collection also includes copies of photographs of the couple during their courtship and at their wedding.
A Stateside Wedding
A third wedding dress in the Collection, though not made of parachute silk, tells the story of a war bride who served stateside. In May 1943, 26-year-old DeLois Swoboda received orders from the Chief of Naval Personnel, directing her to report for duty as an ensign in the Navy Nurse Corps.4 While serving at US Naval Hospital Memphis, TN, the Indianapolis native fell in love and planned to marry. Like some other service brides, this young nurse dreamed of saying her vows in a formal gown.Donated to the Foundation by Barbara Hyde in 1994, DeLois’ circa 1945 dress is made of white rayon silk and features a chapel-length train, a sweetheart neckline filled with white net edged in satin and braid scrolls, and long sleeves with points extending over the backs of her hands. The bride wore a crown-style headpiece accented with pearls and a fingertip veil.
Unlike her sisters in the Army Nurse Corps, DeLois left the service soon after her wedding. World War II-era marriage policy for military members varied greatly from service to service, but marriage while serving in the Navy Nurse Corps during this time brought immediate dismissal.5 DeLois was honorably discharged in March 1945. The DeLois (Swoboda) Woodard Collection also includes her Navy Nurse Corps uniforms, service papers, a USN compact, a scrapbook and a photo album.
1944-45: WAC Weddings In Italy
Besides these three wedding dresses, the Foundation has another artifact in its Collection that highlights love and marriage in war. Measuring just 7 ½ by 5 ½ inches, this small, cloth-covered wedding scrapbook tells a big story.While serving as commander of the 6716th Women’s Army Corps (WAC) Headquarters Company, Peninsular Base Section, Naples and Leghorn, Italy, CPT Mae Simas not only led the WACs under her command, she often gave them away–in marriage. Although she failed to note at which weddings she gave away brides, she was present at 17 ceremonies that year, beginning with the 1944 marriage of T/5 Mary Jo Marling to LT Robert Spangler, which, according to CPT Simas, was the first WAC wedding in Italy. On these special days, CPT Simas stood ready to serve her WACs in whatever capacity needed. In fact, on at least one occasion in 1945, she acted as “Best Man,” when groom T/4 Edward H. Nauman wed PFC Doris McCarter at the Evangelical Church in Leghorn.6
Growing accustomed to her new “duty” of giving away brides, CPT Simas began to feel much like an old pro and after three times down the aisle, she stopped attending dress rehearsals. The wedding veteran took her role quite seriously and even felt a bit nervous at times. Of the Nov. 2, 1944, wedding of T/5 Phyllis Dukeshire and CPL Valen Mullenax she wrote, “The ceremony began. I was listening intently so I would not miss my one [c]ue. It didn’t come. The ceremony seemed to be half over and I was still there. I tried to push the bride over to the groom but the chaplain shook his head NO. … Then I heard the magic words, ‘Who gives this bride in marriage?’ I weakly murmured, ‘I do,’ and stepped back.”7 Read CPT Simas' full account of the Dukeshire-Mullenax Wedding.
Regardless of which hat she wore, the WAC commander recorded each wedding in her tiny album, along with a photo or two of the bridal couple. She documented the names and ranks of the wedding couple, the date of the ceremony, names and ranks of honor attendants–often fellow WACs–as well as the name of the marrying official and where the ceremony and reception took place. Many of these service brides were wed on the patio or in “The Convent,” at the Instituto Femminile in Naples. Receptions were routinely held in the “Inner Sanctum,” a large room, which was normally reserved for WAC company members only with no male guests allowed.
CPT Simas, who later turned down a promotion to major to marry her sweetheart Charles Howe, had served briefly in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps before signing on with the WAC from Sept. 1943-March 1946.8 The WAC wedding album and the Dukeshire-Mullenax narrative were donated to the Collection by Dorothy Simpson in 1996.
Servicewomen, their families and friends who are interested in donating photographs, artifacts, documents or uniform items to the Women’s Memorial Collection, should contact Britta Granrud, Curator of Collections at curators@womensmemorial.org or by calling 703-533-1155 or 800-222-2294.
.gif)
