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Anchors Aweigh!
U.S. Navy band
Click the flag for music,
[it takes awhile to play]
Directory
of Officers
PRESIDENT
Bettie Johnson
VICE PRESIDENT
Avis Lowe
SECRETARY
Virginia
Maitland
TREASURER
Patricia
Saint Amour
PAST PRESIDENT
Marion Grattan
STATE DIRECTOR
Shirley
Bentgen
REGIONAL REP
Victoria
Lisenbee
NATIONAL
PRESIDENT
Jan Roy
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Bettie’s
By-line
 It
rained the whole weekend we were in Houghton Lake for the June
meeting, but 26 members braved the weather for a fun time.
Wanda Kearns conducted the program and many members brought
antiques to be appraised.
Marion
Dunstan and Ellen Waggoner told about their trip to Normandy.
They were the only female veterans in the group and were
presented a medal from the French people.
We had no
time to review the Region VII conference, so I’ll do it now. We
spent Friday on an all-day tour of the Canton, Ohio, area. The
first stop was the Hoover Vacuum Cleaner Museum. On display was
the first machine to our modern day cleaners.
Did you know
that Hoover is now owned by Maytag?
We visited
the Ohio State Veterans’ Museum with all their Medal of Honor
winners represented. The medals are still owned by the families
and when they want to display them, an honor guard escorts them
to the family.
We had
lunch at the 356th Bomb Squadron Restaurant. It was like going
into a bunker with sandbag walls.
Really neat!
Our next
stop was the Warther Museum where we saw the very fine ebony and
ivory carvings of trains. Wheels still worked, some for over
fifty years. This tour alone made the trip worthwhile. |
Vickie
Lisenbee, WN Region VII Director, and Ruby Gilliam, Ohio State
Director, welcomed us on Saturday. A bell ceremony honored the
year’s deceased members. The business meetings took care of
conference items to be sent to the mid-term officers’ meeting,
and a review of plans for the Portland, Oregon National
Convention were discussed. Barbara Romano gave an emotional
review of the activities of the Vietnam Wall visit to Canton.
We were
entertained at the banquet by Mr. Dick Waco, a long-time radio
host. He knew everyone who was ‘someone‘ in the 40s: Frank
Sinatra, Benny Goodman, big band leaders and other celebrities.
His stories brought back many memories.
Sunday
morning we had a farewell breakfast and all departed for home.
If you were not there, you missed a great time!
On May 16,
the quilt made by the women veterans (for
which some of you contributed patches)
was displayed in the State Capitol. Six Unit 101 members
attended the ceremony. Some representatives said they felt
service women deserve more recognition, perhaps an annual
celebration.
(It may or may not happen, but the thought was nice.)
Too much to
say in so little space, so I will close and hope to see all of
you in Bay City on July 28th to see the tall ships and share the
time socializing with your friends.
‘Til then. ....
Bettie 
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