War Bride and Mayor

According to The Daily Telegraph, it is estimated that there are "... 15,000 Australian women who married American servicemen based in Australia during World War II and moved to the US to be with their husbands."


The man that the newspaper calls "Edward" is Edwin Pershing McClurken who was born Nov 11, 1917 and was apparently named after U.S. General "Black Jack" Pershing of WWI fame. His bride-to-be is Frances Sophia Erney. They were married April 26, 1946. They had two children.

Edwin served in the South Pacific for three years during WWII. I never knew or met the man or his wife although he was one of my grandmother's cousins.


My Great Aunt Eleanor was quite a woman. She was opinionated, outspoken, and loud. She had a great zest for life and she fought the cancer that eventually killed her as bravely as anyone I have ever seen.

One of my biggest memories of her, centers around her and my grandmother. You see, my mom, my younger brother, my grandmother and I were out in California visiting Eleanor, who was my grandmother's youngest sibling, some time back in the 1970s.

My grandmother was about as different from her sister as one could be - she was demure to the point of being meek - and did what the wife did for her husband. She remembered being poor when she was growing up - you might remember that her father was killed and her brother stepped up to help support the family...and then of course, she survived the Great Depression, learning not to waste anything at all.

So it was, we went to sightseeing while we were California and while we were in San Diego, we went to the most elegant Hotel Del Coronado for either lunch or "high tea". While we ate (with pinky fingers held high), my grandmother took some of the rolls and extra butter, wrapped them in a paper napkin she brought into the hotel in her pocketbook and then stuffed the package into her coat pocket.

My Aunt watched her do this with great interest, her sparkling eyes rolling the whole time.

After we ate, and on the way out through the glorious wooden lobby, my mom and grandmother decided they should "powder their noses" and make use of the facilities while they had the chance. It was a long-ish drive back to my Aunt's house.

While we were waiting for "the girls," my Aunt asked me if my grandmother was living in a cardboard box "out east" and wasn't my grandfather taking care of her?

I replied they had a beautiful home being rather confused by the question (I was only about ten years old at the time). When my grandmother and mom returned to the lobby, my grandmother was awkwardly trying to slip some paper towels she had taken from the ladies room into her already very full pocketbook. When my Aunt saw this, she exclaimed in a very loud voice, clearly heard throughout the until then genteel lobby, "For God's sake Edith!!! We'll buy you some G--D--n paper towels!!!"

I can still hear the words ringing in my ears - colored by her unique blend of Philadelphia-Nebraska-California hodgepodge accent.

So now, when in a restaurant, when my mom slips a stray packet of sweetener (or ketchup) into her pocket or handbag, I'll say, "For God's sake Mom! I'll buy you some gosh durn Sweet-n-low!!" and we will all crack up laughing, lost in the warm memories of my Great Aunt.

She is greatly missed.