"Old Boyfriend Shows Up After 64 Years" (1945-2009)
It starts out...there is a young lady, Bonnie, that lives in my Apartment complex, upstairs. I have even got her asking questions now about the Church. During our talking and visiting I gave her one of my WW II Photo Diary proof books, with the plastic binding like many of you in the family have.
This young lady, Bonnie, has a sister, Angie, both good Catholic girls, that I have gotten to know as she visits her sister often. (The names Bonnie & Angie are important as you try to follow my story). The sister, Angie, had been dating a boy, Rick, that had been born and baptized in the L.D.S. Church; and as a youth (for reasons I know nothing about) never went to church and had never been active.
Rick’s mother had since passed away and his father, later in life, has remarried, is active in the church and now lives in St. George, Utah.
Angie and Rick got engaged and then were married, two weeks ago, Sept. 2009 on a Sunset Cruise Charter Boat on Lake Coeur d'Alene. Rick’s Father and Step Mother came up from St. George, Utah, for the wedding. Rick’s father asked them where an L.D.S. Church was, near to them, so he could go to Church on Sunday. Angie told them her sister’s (Bonnie’s) neighbor (myself) was LDS and went to church every Sunday; so Bonnie came to my door and asked me if Angie's new father-in-law could come to church with me. Of course you know my answer was, “My pleasure.” So two weeks ago, Sunday Sept. 27, at 10:45 a.m. I met them in front of our Coeur d’ Alene 4th St. Chapel, as our ward started at 11:00 a.m.
( hang in here on this story it gets better)
A surprise to me the whole family showed up! Bonnie, Angie, Rick, 1 friend from California and Rick’s Father and Step Mother. With myself, my son (Mike), and his wife (Teresa), it made 9 of us; we filled the whole row in the chapel. I felt like a missionary with a whole investigating family! After church Aggie’s Father-in-Law & I got to talking and he said he was turning 83 in December. I told him he was just a kid, as I was turning 83 in a couple weeks, Oct.17th. So we both talked about WW II.
We then said our goodbyes, as he was leaving for home in St. George, Utah, the next day. I went home, had dinner, and watched some football. I was half asleep, or maybe asleep...
When my phone rang sometime in the late afternoon. I was still more asleep than not, but Bonnie was on the phone, talking kind of fast and excited, saying something about Angie’s Father-in-law said he "dated Mary Lou!” (my wife).
Bonnie was telling me, as I still was trying to wake up and understand, that Angies family were talking about WW II and Angie told her Father In-Law about my WW II Book. Bonnie then went home and got her copy of my WWII Book for him to read. She said they were all sitting around reading, and some playing games, when Angie’s father-in-law yelled, "I dated this girl, Mary Lou Wilhite!” He was looking on page 270 in my book, I believe most of you grandchildren have my book and can see Mary Lou’s picture on page 270 that caught hie eye. I don’t know if it was the picture or the name Mary Lou Wilhite in the caption that caught his eye first.
I'll now call him Ivan, not ‘Father-In-Law’ (his name is Ivan Walton). Ivan then got on the phone with me, and I said, "You must have been pretty good looking for Mary Lou to date you!” Of course I had to be a little rude! By then I had started to wake up. I said, “As a service man you could have only met her at church. Did you attend the Little Rock L.D.S. Branch?” I knew the answer and he said, “Yes.” I then told him, “If you attended the Little Rock Branch during WW II your name will be in Mary Lou's ‘Life Story’ Book.” I then got the phone number and told him I would call him back.
I opened Mary Lou's “Volume Two, My Life Story” Book. ***The last 41 pages Mary Lou has listed every service man from Camp Robinson, Little Rock, Arkansas, that attended the Little Rock Branch from January 3rd, 1942, to August 10th, 1945. Ivan Walton is #569, on page 233 of Mary Lou’s “Volume Two, My Life Story.” Many of you have her books.
About 20 minutes later I called Ivan back at Angie’s home and got him on the phone. I asked him if his home address was, “2140 Morse Ave., Chicago, Illinois; and his Bishop was Bishop Merrill Maughn, North Shore Ward, Chicago Stake, with a date of March 8, 1945 for being at the Little Rock Branch?”
Ivan was so stunned and surprised as I told him, “Your name, Ivan Walton, and address are right here in her book!” He said, "That's my home!" Can you imagine how excited Mary Lou would have been!!!
End of the story!...
*** About Nov 1941, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reorganized a Branch in Little Rock, Arkansas, and called Mary Lou’s Father, W.F. Wilhite, to be the Branch President. At that time there were only a few families in the whole State of Arkansas. Her Father asked, “That’s fine, but what are we going to do for people?” The mission President, Samuel Benson said, “I don’t know, but the Church wants to organize a branch in Little Rock.” The next month the War started, with the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, and Camp Robinson became a big Basic Training Camp. Many L.D.S. service men were sent to Camp Robinson for Basic Training all through the War. This gave the reason for the new L.D.S. Branch and gave the L.D.S. soldiers a place to go to church. Mary Lou’s Father was a good record keeper. Every service man or woman from the camp that attended Church, her Father would have them fill out a card with their full name, the Company they were attached to in camp, their home address, their Bishops name, Ward, and Stake. He kept all this in a card file. After the War her Father typed all the information on 8 ½ " x 11" sheets of paper. It took 41 pages. Mary Lou was insistent that all those names went into the back of her book, saying some day someone will see a name they know. So after Ivan Walton said he went to church in Little Rock, I said, “It would be in Mary Lou’s Book.” I found Ivan’s name on the 38th page of the list.
I asked Ivan to send me a picture of himself when he was at Camp Robinson, Little Rock, Arkansas, taking Basic Training In 1945, to put into the story I am going to write for the ending of Mary Lou's book. I also have one of Ivan taken at his son Rick’s wedding, Sept. 19, 2009, for her story when I write it.
Grandpa Bud
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