Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1918-02-08
j. s. SAILORS MARRY
PRETTY IRISH GIRLS


Waters, Jan. 91.-(Correspondence
Associated Press EVERY part of the
United States has supplied a hero in
love romances that have eliminated
IN happy marriages between Ameri-
can bluejackets and blue-eyed Irish
maidens since the arrival of the Amer
lean destroyer forces in the south of
Ireland. After the war, every part of
the United. States from Maine to Cal
ifornia and from the Great Lakes TO
Florida, will boast of an Irish bride
who was wooed and won in her ma
tive land by an American sailor.
All of the brides are looking for
ward to that happy day when they
will see what their husbands so proud
ly proclaim as Gods country" Al
ready the American sailor has sur
prised his Irish bride with all nee
essary 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.
There is the marriage of a former
ranchman, Bert Adams, to Bridget o.
Rourke, whose family descends from
an Irish king Of that name. Adams,
who is boiler maker on one of the
destroyers, halls from Hugo, Colora-
do. He is now arranging to have his
ranch in Colorado decided 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 connect
ed with the family's relation to the
O'Rourke's of kingly fame. II don't
know anything about ranching," Mrs.
Adams told the Associated Press cor
respondent, "but / am preparing my
self for the fair land Bert has told
me SO much about by studying histo
ry Of Colorado.
Then there is the case Of Mary
Ridge, head waitress at the leading
hotel here, who lost her heart tos Har-
land G.. Richie, 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 pre-
sided is out of bounds to enlisted
men, but Richie contrived to see her
when she was off duty. They knew
each other for four months before Mr..
Richie led her to the altar in 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 ma
chine shop of the General Electric
Company at Schenectady, N. Y. He
fell in love the first day he stepped
ashore here from his destroyer. Ada
Jones. Cork girl, was the object Of
Cupid's dart. After the war Valacho-
vic 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 "a, whose home was in
Plymouth. Another English bride is
Nora Elizabeth Kilt, who married JOS
eph w. Hishefild, of Des Moines, Ia.
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. alschi, of Mt,
Carmel Pa. After the war Mary
O'Keefe, who became the wife of Ed
ward C. Turner, expects to desert the
trying climate of southern Ireland
for that of sunny San Jose CAL,
which is her husbands home. William
Spaulding, of DeLand, Fla, has mar
-lied Esther Allen, while Oral E. Cox,
cf lola, Kansas won the hand of Phyl-
lis Rose Rogers.
Among others of the American sail
ors who have taken to themselves a
wife over here are Benz. J. Moore,
of Dallas, Texas; Gilbert r. licking
ham, of Pensacola, Fla; Harry E.
Holder, of Denver, Col, and Michael
j. Dello Roco, of Schenectady, N. Y.
And the list gives promise of growing
steadily.