In
1944 the world was embroiled in war, but at a recently-constructed
airfield in Liberal, Kansas, hope and love prevailed. A clean-cut,
Army Air Corps man met a striking, dark-haired woman who worked on
base as a civil service worker. The two dated and fell in love; and
a few months later Edwin Etgen proposed to Winifred Stainbrook. On
November 19, 1944, Ed and Winnie wed in a small, private ceremony;
and as so many wartime couples did, they courageously began life
together not knowing the future of the country or their own lives.
They
moved into a tiny trailer located in a base trailer park designated
as housing for married military personnel. “The trailer wasn’t
even as big as a one-car garage,” Mother told me. “But we
made it our home, celebrating our first Christmas and New Year
together.” Throughout early 1945, Edwin worked as a mechanic on
the flight line while a pregnant Winnie continued her civil service
job and made preparations for motherhood, eagerly awaiting the
arrival of their first child. But in August, the Japanese
surrendered; and the Liberal Army Airfield was deactivated altering
the course of Ed and Winnie’s lives. Edwin was re-assigned to
Florida, and Winnie moved to Springfield, Missouri, where her parents
lived and where she gave birth to their first son, David, in August
1945.
Edwin
was discharged from the service on December 8, 1945; and the couple
moved to Dallas, Texas, and began life anew moving into a small one
bedroom duplex. Later, they did as many post-war couples and bought
a home using the GI Bill. Ed and Winnie had two more children, Sara
and Eddie, whom they raised in their sparsely-furnished, tiny
two-bedroom home in Garland, Texas, never once complaining about
anything lacking in their lives.
My
brothers and I matured, began our own careers, and married. Ed and
Winnie accepted their son- and daughter-in law into the family;
nurtured their grandchildren; established their own business;
retired; and grew old, living 60+ years together. Despite life’s
challenges, uncertainties, obstacles, and changing circumstances, the
love they found for one another at the Liberal Army Airfield
sustained them and remained constant, as constant as the sea.
