Sisters, Widely Traveled – Reunited in Missoula – 1942
Sisters, Widely Traveled on Opposite Sides of World Are Reunited In City of Childhood
The strange fortunes of war have struck heavily at a one-time Missoula family, which is now partly reunited in the town in which it lived so many years ago.
Mr. Bjarne Leed of Honolulu, T. H., and Mrs. James C. Davis of New York and Philadelphia, spent several years of their childhood in Missoula and are here together again for the first time since their departure. Mrs. Leed arrived first, coming to the city last June when with other wives and families of men in service, she was evacuated from the Pacific war zone. Her husband is still stationed in Hawaii at Pearl Harbor.
Evacuated From Hawaii
With her small son, Rolf, who was under a year of age at the time, they were embarked for the United States on a convoy last June. The experience proved to be a harrowing one, for not only was the ship crowded, but ships of this type do not have rails and the task of watching small children under such conditions was nerve-wracking, to say the least. One of the unpleasant memories of the voyage is that of seeing two young sailors washed overboard when they bumped into each other and were devoured by sharks in sight of all passengers who were on deck.
Going at first to her husband’s people in Tacoma, Mrs. Leed later came back to the home of her girlhood to be with her brother Ellsworth Amundson, a Missoulian linotype operator, who was residing here, but who has since gone into service. He is now stationed at Jackson, Miss., with the Army transport division.
Mrs. Leed has just become the mother of a second son, Eric, who was born at Thornton hospital a few days ago.
When the war is over, Mrs. Leed, who was a laboratory technician in Honolulu prior to her marriage, having taken a position in the Islands when she was graduated from the University of Oregon, expects to return to her home there. She has traveled widely, an around-the-world excursion having been included among her many experiences.
Mrs. Davis, who is Mrs. Leed’s younger sister, arrived in the city a few days ago, stating that she felt she had to see her sister after so long a time had passed since they had been together. She said that she remembers Missoula as the most beautiful little city imaginable and that she finds it quite up to her memories.
Was on Athenia.
That a war is going on was brought home drastically to Mrs. Davis and her husband long before most Americans felt that it “could happen here.” In Europe with her husband in 1939 and having visited most of the countries that so shortly after exploded in war, they were among the Americans who were rushing home on the ill-fated British ship Athenia, first passenger vessel torpedoed after the outbreak of hostilities in Europe.
About 200 miles northwest of Ireland the Davises were in the dining room when the torpedo crashed into the Athenia. She says that she remembers that all passengers were quiet and orderly in getting off the ship, although 128 lives were lost. She and her husband were put into different lifeboats, but when these were picked up much later by a British destroyer, she said that she would never forget what it meant for them to find each other together again. They were returned to Glasgow, although many of the passengers were taken to the Irish coast. They were entertained there most hospitably by a wealthy American woman, who showed them every kindness. They were then brought to the United States by a ship sent by the United States to pick them up.
Mrs. Davis’ husband, who is in the publishing business, being associated with Ginn & Co., of New York, is now in service, being a lieutenant, senior grade, in the Navy. He is stationed at Glenview, Ill., where she expects to join him soon.
Mrs. Nora Amundson of Opheim, mother of the sisters, is in the city at present also, having come to Missoula prior to her son’s enlistment and to be with her daughters during their stay here.
The above article appeared in The Daily Missoulian on December 24, 1942.