|
Topics |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Directions |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Communications |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Newsletter |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Community Service |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Altar Guild |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Fundraisers |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Church School on Sundays |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Pictures |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Church yard |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Vacation Bible School |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Pastoral Care |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Sitemap |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
World War II Remembrances for Sally and Jackson Raley (Tech. Sgt., U.S. Army Air Corps) Submitted by their daughter, Mary I. (Mollie) Raley, October 2009, with heartfelt thanks to her four surviving Burroughs siblings, Ginny, Kenny, Janet and Mary Emily) for their stories of, and contributions to WW II. Our mother, Eva Elizabeth Burroughs (“Sally”) Raley (1917 – 2009) was a life-long member of All Faith Episcopal Church. She was the daughter of Ray and Esther Burroughs, and grew up on their nearby family farm. After graduating with honors from the University of Maryland in 1940, she returned home to teach Home Economics at Margaret Brent High School, her alma mater. In 1941, while attending a field day event for students from different schools in the county, she renewed her acquaintance with fellow MBHS alumni, John Jackson Raley (1919 – 2002). Mom coached the high school volleyball team. Sally and Jackson started courting (dating) and fell in love. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, they figured it was only a matter of time before our father would be drafted, and planned to marry, so the outbreak of WWII hastened their marriage in February 1942. Dad entered the U.S. Army Air Corps shortly thereafter, tested well, and was recruited to be a pilot. And yet one test, color-blindness, prevented him from becoming an aviator. Instead, they asked him to become an airplane mechanic. Jackson rose through the ranks to become a Tech Sergeant, and Crew Chief, leading airmen in the repair of planes such as the B-24 “Liberator” bomber. Mom left home and her teaching job in summer 1942 to join Dad while stationed in Biloxi, Mississippi, for Army Air Corp training. Dad recalled it was her first real vacation, i.e., a time when she didn't have to work, do something to earn her keep, etc. Also, both recalled how Mom had the chance to swim with the dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico that summer, too. Mom stayed with the wife of an oil company executive who shared lots of stories and mementoes from their travels to oil fields in exotic locals like South America, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran. Mom thoroughly enjoyed her summer vacation with Dad. Her siblings all recalled hearing about Biloxi when my grandmother read her latest letter aloud to them. Uncle Kenny recalls Mom left her car for him to take drive and take care of while gone. She returned home in Fall ’42 to resume teaching at MBHS. They moved on, invariably by train, for more training elsewhere. Dad said after such trips, Mom would be covered in soot from the coal-fired passenger trains of the day. Early in ’43, Mom left her job and home to join Dad while he trained in Pueblo, Colorado, where she taught at a one-room school for grades 4-7, all subjects. Later that spring, Sally followed Jackson to McCook, Nebraska, where they rented an apartment with another couple. Mom got a job on base as a timekeeper working for an airplane company. She stayed on, “expectantly” in McCook while Dad was transferred to Denver Mom traveled from McCook back home to St. Mary’s by train, sleeping on a top berth, "very great with child", before Christmas 1943 to live at home, and deliver their first child, Esther, in early Feb. '44. Dad was stationed in Fort Dix, NJ at the time, yet had his Army buddies cover for him while he went AWOL one weekend to see his wife and newborn daughter before shipping overseas to England on the R.M.S. Queen Mary. Back home on the farm, Mom & “little Essie” lived with Grandmom and Grandpop Burroughs, and four younger siblings remaining at home: Kenneth (“Kenny”), Martha (“Marty”), Janet, and Mary Emily (“Tootie”). George, Louise, Warren and Lillian had their own families, and Virginia (“Ginny”) was away in Washington where she graduated from Temple University, worked for the Justice Dept., and met her future husband, Roy Miller. They were married in‘44, before he became a Naval Officer. Like Mom, Aunt Ginny was able to travel and live with her sailor husband while he was stationed in Philadelphia. Uncle Kenny had undergone his pre-induction physical in Baltimore, but the War ended before he could be drafted. In late Spring ‘44, Mom went back to teaching at Margaret Brent, this time science and civics (she was certified to teach high school science, too). Grandmother Esther watched little Esther at home on the farm. Aunt Tootie, the youngest, recalls she wasn’t told much about her big sister and a tiny baby coming to stay with them, but learned to watch over that babe (Esther) “like a mother hen” as they grew up. She also remembers shortly after the invasion of Normandy that my Grandmom Raley came to visit at the farm, and reported, “something was going on over there in France”. Folks paid rapt attention to news of the War, with loved ones serving at home and abroad. Three Raley brothers served at the same time: George E., Jackson and James. Aunt Janet, next to the youngest, said she “remembers Pearl Harbor like it was yesterday, and of course, the death of Roosevelt”. (FDR was President from 1933 –1945). Uncle Kenny recalls being at a Redskins game in Griffith Stadium when the news broke on Pearl Harbor. They usually received news of the war by radio, The Baltimore Sun and The St. Mary’s Beacon. All siblings recalled how everyone had a strong sense of patriotism, working together, and shared sacrifices for the common good, or “the War effort”. Air raid drills required them to turn all the lights out, and they moved to the porch until the “all clear” sirens sounded. Uncle Kenny received training through the Mechanicsville Fire Dept. on how to put out incendiary devices with water hoses, and served in the “Minute Men”, a civil defense unit that trained up at Charlotte Hall Military Academy, prepared to defend local towns in case of an invasion, armed with shotguns and 22 caliber rifles. Janet and Tootie wanted to be Red Cross nurses (and later chose nursing for their profession, attending school together). Living on a farm, they were allotted a gas pump, but still had gas ration stamps. Supplies were often scarce. Recycling for scrap metal, “Victory gardens” etc., was all commonplace, and harvesting of milkweed pods for threads to put in flak jackets was a novel effort. Running a farm meant being self-sufficient with butter, eggs, milk and meats, so Grandmom traded her butter food ration stamps for sugar to use in baking, canning, and preserves. Saving $18.75 worth of quarters for $25 U.S. Savings Bond cards was another activity. Aunt Lil took in borders at her home in D.C., because there was a housing shortage. Aunt Ginny recalls that GI’s traded cigarettes - and nylons - sent to them overseas for a good local meal (better than K-rations). Nylons were in short supply, since the fabric was used in parachutes and other WW II equipment. One Halloween, Mom organized a party at the Burroughs Farm for her young siblings, their many cousins and nearby nieces and nephews, complete with apple bobbing and taffy pulls. Halloween wasn’t really celebrated in rural areas (no trick-or-treating back then), so Aunt Tootie recalls the novelty of the event. Mom told them to “let the little ones go first”; she was always good about fair play. When the war ended, Aunt Tootie remembered you could hear church bells ring everywhere, even down on the farm. Our Mom let the younger siblings all have a sip of wine to celebrate (she was 9 years old). Mom & Dad wrote to each other faithfully in ’44 - ‘45 while he was away at his 8th Air Force outposts in Southern England, including pictures whenever possible. Aunt Ginny recalled how excited Mom would be to receive a “V-mail” from the postman, or letter from overseas. Accounts of the War were guarded, as “Lose lips sinks ships”, and all mail was subject to censorship. Dad flew over Europe on 6/7/44, the day after D-Day, and on subsequent missions, snapping photos of the countryside, cities, and bombing runs (seen after the war). Aunt Ginny recalled how she and Mom cried on Christmas Eve ’44, because they hoped their husbands could get leave from active duty, but it did not come to pass. Jackson came home from England after VE-Day in May 1945, had a few summer furloughs to visit his family, and went on to train out west at New Mexico airfields. Fortunately, Dad did not have to go to the Pacific Theater before VJ-Day came in August 1945, as the war was over. He was "mustered out" shortly afterwards, and went to work as a carpenter, later as a building contractor. Mom found a house to rent near St. Clements for their little family, and later in the village of Mechanicsville before John Jackson, Jr., an official “Baby Boomer” arrived in March 1946. Sally and Jackson went on to have more children (Charles or “Charlie”, Elizabeth or “Betsy”, Ray aka “Larry”, me, and sadly, Timothy, stillborn), ending up with a family of six, and the seventh (Jackwelyn, or “Jackie”) born a year after buying their first home, just down the road. The original Peverly place was a big, beautiful old turn-of-the-century house and farmstead on the hill along Old Rt. 5, “at the headwaters of Hayden Run”, as Mom would say. I will attest it was a great place to grow up, with lots of space to play, inside and outside! They worked very hard, and we kept them very busy. Our parents kept us very busy, too. Mom went back to teaching Home Ec. at MBHS in ’53-’54 to help provide for us, and then back in ’58-’59 as Phys. Ed. Teacher & Coach after the youngest came, resuming Home Ec. in 1960. Mom was asked by officials to become a school guidance counselor in 1964, helped open Chopticon High School in 1965, and finally returned to Margaret Brent Middle School in 1971, where she remained until her retirement as a school counselor in 1979. She continued to perform her professional and community volunteer service, including duties like food prep, newsletter, Altar Guild, and Vestry for All Faith Church, for many years after retirement. In September 1979, my parents took a camping trip out west, and re-traced some of their outposts, including Pueblo, CO, and McCook, NB, where they found the place and met the son of a couple who rented to them. My sister, Esther, said that given their modest backgrounds, growing up on family farms, and being rooted to this area, traveling around the United States in WW II was a real adventure for them both. Serving overseas was a whole other adventure for Dad. To honor that service, Mom asked that a poem given to her* be read at her 90th Birthday Party, entitled: “Those American Friends of Ours” (from “Reminisce” Magazine) about the Yanks serving in Britain in WW II. As many folks noted after hearing the poem, “there wasn’t a dry eye in the house”. It gave her a warm remembrance of the contribution, sacrifices and endearment her soldier, and other American soldiers made to our English cousins, benefitting the whole world to save us from tyranny, and bring us peace. They were part of “the Greatest Generation” our country has known. *Poem spotted by her friend and hairdresser, Emily Norris. |
|
||