Ardis becomes a nurse, joins the army and meets Captain Duke.
Sunday, July 6th, 2008Mom borrowed the money from Aunt Doyle to go to nursing school. She attended the Baylor School of Nursing in Dallas/Ft. Worth. After she graduated she joined the Army as a surgical nurse. She was Second Lieutenant Ardis Derry.
Mom met Dad (Captain Claude Duke) in San Antonio in 1944, while she was stationed at BAMSI and he was training pilots. Walter & Nell Scott introduced them. Mom told me that they knew each other for four months and were engaged for two weeks. When I went through Mom’s stuff I found her orders to transfer from San Antonio to Chickasaw, OK. It itemized every item of clothing the army issued to her. She thought she should pay back the money she owed Doyle before she and Dad married, but he didn’t want to wait.
They married after she transferred. She met Dad, Walter & Nell Scott & Doyle in some town in Arkansas or Oklahoma. They made Nell loan her white suit to mom, so she could get married in white. It was too big, so they had to pin it to make it fit. I have pictures of her in her borrowed wedding suit. It was August 18, 1944.
(Dana)