The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1918-02-09
CAPTURED BY THE
COLLE[NS
Many American Sailors Succumb to
the Charms of the Irish
Maidens
(Associated Press)

Base American Flotilla in British
Waters Correspondence. Every
part of the United States has sup
piled a hero in love romances that
have eliminated in happy marriages
between American bluejackets and
blue-eyed Irish maidens since the ar
rival of the American destroyer forces
in the sout hof 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 Ameri-
can sailor.
All the brides are looking forward
to that happy day when they will see
what their husbands so proudly pro-
claim as "God's country" Already
the American sailor has supplied his
Irish bride with all necessary docu-
ments to establish her identity as an
American and some have even had
their property in the United States
transferred to their wives as a pre-
caution 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,
Colorado. 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 Linn
erick, and there is plenty of anecdote
connected with the family's relations
to the O'Rourke's of kingly fame. 81
don't know anything about ranching,"
Mrs. Adams told the Associated Press
correspondent, "but / am preparing
myself for the fair land Bert has told
me so much about by studying his
tory of Colorado"
Then there is the case of Mary
Ridge, head waitress at the leading
hotel here, who lost her heart to Har-
land G. Ritchie, a machinist's mate,
first class, of Alliston, 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 Ritchie contrived to see her when
she was off duty. They knew each
other for four months before Mr..
Ritchie led her to the altar of the vii
lage 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 Schnectady, 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 Valachovic is GO
ing 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 Ply
mouth. Another English bride is Nora
Elizabeth Kit, who married Joseph
/ w. Highfield of DesMoines, Ia.
| DuG Lu6 1HdJOIlIy u the AnSIACdLS
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. Lee Vim
cent FlaveH of Hanover, Mass, and
Mrs. 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 Ed
ward G.. Turner, expects to desert the
trying climate of southern Ireland,
for that of sunny San Jose, Calf,
which is her husbands home. William
Spaulding of DeLand, Fla, has mar
ried Esther 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
wife here are Benjamin J. Moore OF
Dallas, Texas; Ebert R. Buckingham
of Pensacola, Fla, Harry E. Holder
of Denver, Colo, and Michael ]. Della
Roco of Schnectady, n. I. And the
list gives promise of growing stead
lily.