Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 March 1918 — COLLEENS WIN AMERICAN TARS [ARTICLE]

COLLEENS WIN AMERICAN TARS

Every State in the Union to Boast of Irish Brides After , the War. CUPID BUSY AT NAVAL BASE Brigid O'Rourke, Descendant of King, Weds a Rancher From ColoradoRecord for Love at First Sight Goes to Seaman. Base American Flotilla in British Waters. —Every part of the United States has supplied a hero in love romances that have culminated in happy marriages between American bluejackets and blue-eyed Irish maidens since the arrival of the American destroyer forces in the south of Ireland. After the war, every part of the United States from Maine to California and from the great lakes to Florida will boast of an Irish bride who was wooed and won in her native land by an American sailor. . All of the brides are looking forward to that happy day when they will see what their husbands so proudly proclaim as “God’s country.” Already the American sailor has supplied his Irish bride with all necessary documents to establish her identity as an American, and some have even had their property in the United States transferred to their wives as a precaution in case they lose their lives for their country. Rancher Weds Irish Maid. , There is the marriage of a former ranchman, Bert Adams, to Brigid O’Rourke, whose family descends from an Irish king of that name. Adams, who is a boilermaker on one of the destroyers, hails from Hugo, Colo. He is now arranging to have his ranch in Colorado deeded to his wife as a precaution in the event of his being torpedoed. His wife’s relatives live in Bruce, County Limerick, and there is plenty of anecdote connected with the family’s relation to the O’Rourkes of kingly fame. “I don’t know anything about ranching,” Mrs. Adams told the Associated Press correspondent, “but I am preparing myself for the fair land Bert has told me so much about by studying a history of Colorado.” Then there is the case of Mary Ridge, head waitress at the leading hotel here, who lost her heart to Harland G. Ritchie, a machinist’s mate, first class, of Allston, Mass. She was one of the most popular girls in town. The dining room over which she presided is out of bounds to enlisted men, but Ritchie contrived to see her while she was off duty. They knew each other for four months before Mr. Ritchie led her to the altar of the village church.

But the record for love at first sight among the Americans belongs to a young seaman, Paul Valachovic by name, who used to work in the machine shop of the General Electric company at Schenectady, N. Y. He fell in love the first day he stepped ashore here, from the destroyer. Ada Jones, a Cork girl, was the object of Cupid’s dart. After the war Valachovic is going to take her back with him to that thriving city in New York. A few of the Americans first met their wives on visits to England. Charles Harmon Cobia of Charleston, S. C., fell in love on the beautiful Cornish riviera with Ada Gilbert, a widow of twenty-four, whose home was in Plymouth. Another English bride is Nora Elizabeth Kitt, who was married to Joseph W. Highfield of Des Moines, lowa. Cupid Busy at Naval Base. But the majority of the Americans married Irish girls who lived in the vicinity of the American naval base and whom they met at the dance hall or roller skating rink. Thus Doris Francis Phillips is now Mrs. Leo Vincent Flavell of Hanover, Mass., and Mary Ellen Sullivan has become the wife of Thomas A. BalsChi of Mount Carmel, Pa. After the war Mary O’Keefe, who became the wife of Edward C. Turner, expects to desert the trying climate of southern Ireland for that of sunny San Jose, Cal., which is her husband’s home. William Spaulding of DeLand, Fla., has married Ester Allen, while Oral E. Cox of lola, Kan., won the hand of Phyllis Rose Rogers. Among others of the American sailors who have taken to themselves a wife over here are Benjamin J. Moore of Dallas, Tex.; Ebert R. Bicklngham of Pensacola, Fla.; Harry E. Hblder of Denver, Colo., and Michael J. Della Roco of Schenectady, N. Y. And the list gives promise of growing steadily.