A Soldier’s Plea – Sunset Observer #33…by Whitney Farmer – Un Pop Culture | @MDWorld

May 26, 2014 Whitney Farmer 4 Comments

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The following items have been compiled in honor of Emma Mary Van Horn (who would later become Grammie, my grandmother).

The first section is a transcript of a news article from August 1942 from a forgotten newspaper that operated in the Southern region of the United States. It describes an award she received for her innovative work in support during the War effort. She was the first woman pattern draftsman in her company, and the only woman in a field of 40 in the competition.

The second section is a poem written by Emma Mary when she was 27 and the War in foreign lands had become a part of her life in a small Texas town.

Dedicated with honor to those who fight the good fight. For those who have gone gold star. For the wounded warriors. For those who come back but do not come home. Until there are no more wars.

(TRANSCRIPT OF ARTICLE PUBLISHED WITH PICTURE SHOWN ABOVE)

The entire A.W. Patterson manufacturing company is proud of one of their number who won first prize in a war production contest held recently by the Southern Garment Manufacturing Association.

The winner, Mary Van Horn, is pattern draftsman for the Patterson factory who had been awarded a $100 war bond for devising the most economical pattern for defense work clothes. The pattern had to be predicted upon the material to be used –herringbone twill special – and part of it had to be designed and drafted, since there were no previous patterns to assist.

There were 40 entrants from representative clothing manufacturers in the South and Southwest. She was the only woman entrant.

The contest was conducted by the Philadelphia Quartermaster depot of the War department through the Southern Garment Manufacturers’ association at the Hotel Peabody, Memphis, Tenn., Aug. 18, 19 and 20.

Lieut. Col. G.C. Christie, Jr. of the depot, made the award explaining meanwhile what untold amounts of precious war material will be saved by Mrs. Van Horn’s improved patterns.

Mrs. Van Horn has been doing this work less than a year, having been transferred to that department about a year ago from the sewing room where she was a sewing machine operator. She started as a machine operator in 1939.

The Patterson plant had never had a woman pattern draftsman. The manpower lack was the impetus for the plan and A.W. Patterson and Ralph Hodges said Saturday they were glad they initiated the idea.

“A Soldier’s Plea” by Emma Mary Van Horn, in honor for the fallen during the Battle of Corregidor, May 5-6, 1942.

I hear the boom of the cannon’s roar

from the far off shores of Corregidor.

A dying soldier’s plea I hear

a voice of courage, faith, and cheer.

“We’ll carry on. We’ll make them pay

for every life they take this day.

The Yanks are coming. We’re going to win.

Our goals are Tokyo and Berlin.

Then like a ghost that soldier’s face

staring at me from out of that space.

And I wondered if I that torch he threw

could have been it for the red, white and blue.

Then I saw my son in that soldier’s place,

his golden hair and shining face

enwrapped in his shroud of olive drab

like a symbol of glory for all we’d had.

I knew that moment I saw him there

that I in my selfish thoughtless prayer

had failed to remember for what he gave

the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

The torch he threw from that distant land

shall be held aloft from Liberty’s hand

that the world will know forever more

for what he died at Corregidor.

Quote of the Blog, from Lewis B. Smedes: “Forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new way to remember. We change the memory of our past into a hope for our future.”

Photo of Grammie being honored for her pattern innovation that saved “…untold amounts of precious war materials…”, with apologies to the unknown newspaper in the Southern United States who published this in 1942. Our family continues to research the source of the citation.