Page 43 - Senior Link Magazine Winter 2021- Online Magazine
P. 43
Exceptional
SENIORS
Betty Unfred
Yankee in the
Cotton Patch
by Jane Bromley
n 1922, the Eskimo Pie was High School in 1940 and went to
patented; President Warren G. work in nearby Harrisburg.
IHarding introduced the first
radio in the White House; the But then Pearl Harbor happened.
Lincoln Memorial was dedicated; “It was almost surreal. All of a
the first issue of Readers Digest was sudden, all the fellows were gone.”
published; Doris Day, Betty White, She volunteered at the USO and
and Judy Garland were born; and at the Red Cross. Life changed for
so was Betty Jane Westfall. Her everyone. Betty has documented had already been out with several
parents, Jenny and Harry Westfall, her vivid memories of those GIs from Texas, and she was not
welcomed her into their family important years in our nation’s impressed. But when Dave invited
in Marysville, PA, a small town history. The book is on track to be Betty and her cousin to come up to
nestled between the Appalachian released on her 100th birthday in the base for a dance, Betty threw
Mountains and the Susquehanna 2022. caution to the wind, and the two
River. Betty had a good friend serving in girls rode the bus to Indiantown
Gap. It was February – snowing
Betty had a “very good” childhood the Army’s 3rd Armored Division. and freezing cold, but “we had a
– the only child growing up in Perhaps providentially, the unit very enjoyable evening. Joe was not
a big house the Westfalls shared was moved from California to like the other fellows from Texas.”
with her grandparents. She was Indiantown Gap Army Base – just They were married on July 17,
very close to the elderly couple 30 miles from Marysville. Dave, 1943.
and remembers fondly the who was the CO of the company
summers she spent with them in and her cousin’s longtime Six weeks after the wedding, the
the little borough of Selinsgrove, boyfriend, told Betty he had 3rd Armored Division shipped out
in Pennsylvania Dutch country. “I someone he wanted her to meet to Europe. They were stationed in
loved the farm, the country life, – Second Lieutenant
the outdoors,” Betty reminisces. Joe Unfred, who had
Other childhood memories just finished Officer
include picnics in the mountains, Candidate School. Joe D.
swimming in the river in the had enlisted before the
summer and ice skating on it in the war and was stationed
winter. Marysville had a half-mile at Fort Bliss when the
sledding hill that passed through war broke out. He was
the cemetery and across two the officer over a tank
highways to the railroad tracks. maintenance group. The
Betty graduated from Marysville only downside was that A drawing of one of the planes Betty spotted after
taking a course in plane identification during WWII
he was from Texas; Betty
Lubbock Senior Link 43
