Well, This Angel Earned Her Wings

Yesterday was the 65th Anniversary of D-Day, the epic battle in World War II.



President Obama, and the other Allied leaders paid tribute (See "Obama Hails D-Day Heroes at Normandy") and both the Denver Post, and Guardian UK, have great photo galleries posted.

However this is a post I started last week, getting set aside with the cumbersome week we had, however, as it appeared for Memorial Day, it isn't dated, thanks to the June 6th anniversary date.



While she had a sturdy career, most readers (I presume) know Donna Reed, from, ostensibly, three specific roles;

Mary Hatch, in the Frank Capra classic, "It's A Wonderful Life"

Alma 'Lorene' Burke, the dance club girl (an Oscar-winning role) in another WWII classic, "From Here To Eternity"

And, the all-American mother, Donna Stone, from televisions' "The Donna Reed Show"

But, as it turns out, she was also one of the most requested (or appreciated) "pin-up girls" of World War II

This, from a fascinating article that appeared in The New York Times, last week.

Dear Donna: A Pinup So Swell She Kept G.I. Mail

The United States military encouraged the pinup phenomenon as a way to maintain the morale of soldiers far from home. Most of the leading pinups were established stars known for their sex appeal, in particular Betty Grable, blond hair piled high, poured into a swimsuit and photographed from behind, her face turned toward the camera with a smile. There were others: images of Rita Hayworth, Ann Sheridan, Hedy Lamarr and Dorothy Lamour also adorned lockers, barracks walls and the noses of military aircraft.

But “Donna Reed probably came closer than any other actress to being the archetypal sweetheart, wife and mother,” said Jay Fultz, author of the 1998 biography “In Search of Donna Reed.” Since she was also slightly younger, newly graduated from ingénue roles and therefore closer in age to the average fighting man, they often wrote to her as if to a sister or the girl next door, confiding moments of homesickness, loneliness, privation and anxiety.

Reed's daughter, Mary Owen, after getting picked off in the Bear Stearns meltdown, started going through her mothers' possessions, and stumbled upon the letters, from the GI's, which Reed, astoundingly, kept (341 of them).

The soldiers wrote (some gushed) to Reed;

“Donna Reed probably came closer than any other actress to being the archetypal sweetheart, wife and mother,” said Jay Fultz, author of the 1998 biography “In Search of Donna Reed.” Since she was also slightly younger, newly graduated from ingénue roles and therefore closer in age to the average fighting man, they often wrote to her as if to a sister or the girl next door, confiding moments of homesickness, loneliness, privation and anxiety.

And, for all of her apple-pie image;

Later in life, however, Ms. Reed became an ardent antiwar campaigner, serving during the Vietnam era as co-chairwoman of a 285,000-member group called Another Mother for Peace and working for Senator Eugene McCarthy in the 1968 presidential race. In his biography, Mr. Fultz quotes her as saying that “she looked forward to a time when ‘19-year-old boys will no longer be taken away to fight in old men’s battles.’ ”

Check out Dear Donna: A Pinup So Swell She Kept G.I. Mail, for it speaks to an era that yesterday was all about.