Art Sackles told me that Bill Bischof “has a good story.”
And he sure does.
If you read it the other day without snifflin' just a bit, you've got no sentimentality. You're too mean and ornery or too busy counting your money.
Bill took a shine to the six-year-old orphan in France during WWII. And although he modestly says he didn't do much, he'd have a whale of a time convincing that woman today.
She remembered the GI and she spent 25 years looking for him. She is now a mother of an eight-year-old son and a resident of Las Vegas where her husband is employed with the Hughes Tool company.
Mary Gardner, who is not an aunt of Bill, went to France on a tour in 1950, five years after the Nebraska City GI had seen the orphan child.
Miss Gardner said she does not recall how she located the child, except that she met her in the company of another older girl.
The trio had lunch together and Paulette was whisked ayway by her companion after the meal.
That was the last seen of her.
Imagine the reunion will be quite interesting.
Mrs. Tom (Myrna) Powell has been working several weeks on stories for the American Legion on its 50th birthday and she has found valuable information in the national Legion magazine.
The only known picture of the organizational meeting held in 1919 in Paris, was reprinted in the March issue.
At the Legion meeting the other night, Earl Story pointed to one of the soldiers in the picture and to a man who was having dinner with Legionnaires of Adam Schellinger Post No. 8.
He is Tom Foster, 75, 1705 First Avenue.
Mr. Foster said he was only at the meeting for an hour and a half, didn't know a picture had been taken and had never seen the 50-year-old picture that appeared in the Legion magazine.
It was quite a surprise.
Mr. Foster spent many hours looking at the picture with a magnifying glass and he couldn't help but feel unsure that was him.
Not so for the better half. Mrs. Foster took one look at the young soldier dressed in his WWI uniform and said that is her husband.
Congratulations to Jim Ricketts who received his Eagle Scout badge and to Tom Hanks and Jim Wirth who were named winners in the Elks contest.
Air Force Cadet David Nielsen, Plattsmouth, who was pictured the other day, is the cadet who welcomed a group of newsmen and Nebraska Guard General Lyle Welch on a visit last spring to the Air Force Academy.
The cadet met with Nebraska newsmen briefly in the conference room then returned to his heavy schedule of classes. He was cited the other day for high scholastic ability.