Rings and Wings

Out in the west Texas town of El Paso,
I fell in love with a — North Dakotan girl?…

In October 1917 George and Anna Severance received a letter from their soldier son, George Jr., with some surprising news. It seems that fighting wasn't all he had done during the summer of 1916 when he was stationed on the Mexican border. He'd also found time for love.

I don't know the young woman's maiden name, or even her given name. By the time George wrote to his parents about her, she was Mrs. George Severance, Jr. But if I've found the right people in the 1920 Census, her name was Alberta … so that's how I'm going to think of her until proven wrong.

Originally from North Dakota, Alberta happened to be in El Paso at the same time as George, and they struck up an acquaintance that soon developed into something more. And it seems that when George was transferred to an army camp in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Alberta went to Maryland — a not inconvenient distance. In the summer of 1917 they married, and she joined her new husband in camp.

George had reached the rank of Second Sergeant, and so far advanced in his aviation skills that he was now a flight instructor.

On October 21, Anna Severance's mother died in Chicago. George Jr. got ten days' furlough to attend his grandmother's funeral. He and his wife came to Ainsworth, and for the first time the elder Severances got to meet their new daughter-in-law.

The young couple stayed over the last weekend of October, and that Sunday relatives from all around gathered at the Severance home to greet the newest addition to the family. On Tuesday, with his furlough swiftly running out, George Jr. and Alberta left for Gettysburg.

In mid-November the Severances got word that George Jr. had been transferred to Charlotte, North Carolina. The Gazette did not mention whether Alberta went with him.


Sources:
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 5 Oct. 1917; 26 Oct. 1917; 2 Nov. 1917; 16 Nov. 1917.
♦ Robbins, Marty. "El Paso." Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs. Columbia, 1959.