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Betty and LeVerne Klaas connected after she saw his name in an Iowa newspaper story about the Japanese attack.
Betty and LeVerne Klaas, who have lived in Stafford for the past 15 years, were married in 1943 in Oakland, Calif. |
By CATHY DYSON
Betty and LeVerne Klaas grew up in the same Midwestern town, but might have never met if he hadn't been stationed in Hawaii on that fateful day in 1941.
LeVerne was a 19-year-old sailor on the island of Oahu when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. After the bombing, his name was listed in his hometown newspaper in Iowa--more than 4,000 miles away--along with those of others "in harm's way."
Betty saw the story in the Davenport Times on Dec. 8, 1941, the day after the attack. She picked LeVerne's name from the 111 sailors and soldiers on the list and started writing him.
The two were pen pals for two years, and not once did either hint that anything more might come from the relationship. When LeVerne announced in 1943 that he wanted to visit Washington, where Betty had gotten a job after high school, Betty figured she'd show him the sights.
But fate, which already connected the two, had other plans.
Within 10 minutes of meeting face-to-face, LeVerne asked Betty to marry him. Betty needed five minutes to think about it, then said yes.
The two have been together for 66 years and have lived around the world.
They moved to Stafford County 15 years ago. He's 87 and she's 85.
"It's just the strangest thing, I think," Betty said about how they initially connected.
It all came about because she literally picked his name out of a hat.
"I'm glad she did," LeVerne said, smiling.
'IT WAS PARADISE'
After high school, LeVerne was 19 and eager to see the world, so he joined the Navy. He was thrilled when his first permanent duty was at Kaneohe Bay Naval Air Station on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
"I thought it was paradise," said the Iowa native who grew up along the Mississippi River, where temperatures dipped to 22 degrees below zero. "It was great duty as far as I was concerned."
Until Dec. 7, 1941.
A few minutes before 8 that Sunday morning, LeVerne was working in a hangar. He was an aviation metalsmith assigned to the PBYs, or patrol bombers, housed at the new naval station.
"All I remember was the bullets raining down on us everywhere, and we had nothing to shoot back with," he said.
Just like in the movies, the guns were in one armory, the ammunition in another, and no one around to unlock them. LeVerne hates to admit it, but he and others hid in the stairwell until the strafing stopped.
The Japanese hit the Kaneohe Bay station on their way to attack Pearl Harbor on the other side of the island. Of the 36 planes that LeVerne might have worked on, 27 were destroyed and six were damaged.
Eighteen sailors died at Kaneohe Bay, according to GlobalSecurity.org.
LeVerne and others in the three squadrons didn't know how widespread the attack was. They were more concerned with rumors the Japanese had invaded.
"I don't think we even knew that Pearl Harbor was attacked until a day later," LeVerne said.
A PEN-PAL CONNECTION
Back in Iowa, Betty was a 17-year-old with stars in her eyes. She'd recently seen the movie "The Hurricane," about love and adventure in the South Pacific.
After Pearl Harbor, she figured a pen pal would be her connection to tropical paradise.
In her letters, she asked LeVerne about life on the island, and he described the warm sea breezes. She told him about people he knew at school in Davenport, but he couldn't say anything about his work or where his squadron was assigned.
She mentioned that she liked gardenias, and one day she came home from school to find a box filled with five of them. She pinned three on her blouse, put two in her hair and had her picture taken.
LeVerne still keeps that black-and-white photo on the dash of his car.
LeVerne and Betty wrote about once a month, and the relationship never progressed past the pen-pal point--at least on paper.
"There was nothing like 'I'm eager to meet you' or anything," Betty said. "How it happened was the biggest surprise of all."
SHE FOLLOWED HIM WEST
Betty got a job with the FBI out of high school and was doing fingerprinting in the Washington bureau.
In 1943, after LeVerne decided to visit, they agreed to meet at the Lincoln Memorial. They walked across the bridge into Arlington and sat on a bench, where LeVerne popped the question of marriage.
Betty's father "had a fit" when she told him she was quitting her government job to move across the country to California, where LeVerne had been reassigned.
Betty's parents hadn't met LeVerne.
When Betty got to California, she and LeVerne had a small ceremony in Oakland. She wore a dress of blue velvet and carried a bouquet of gardenias.
"We were the poorest church mice you ever saw," he said.
He had $15 in his pocket and gave $10 to the minister. They each had a hot dog for their wedding dinner.
THEIR LIFE TOGETHER
During LeVerne's 26 years in the Navy, Betty got to see the tropical paradise she dreamed of as a teenager. The couple and their only child, Skip, were stationed on three islands in the Pacific, as well as in Alaska, North Africa, Japan and Europe.
Betty and LeVerne found out a lot about each other after they married, but their letters had provided pretty good insight into each other's character.
LeVerne knew Betty was a reasonable person--and quite the looker--and she could tell he was kind and caring.
The spark that was created the first time they saw each other in person--and he was impressed by her classy high heels with the strap around the ankle--hasn't dimmed.
"We still hold hands every night," Betty said, cupping her hand over her mouth as she giggled.
Cathy Dyson: 540/374-5425
Email: cdyson@freelancestar.com
