Small Town America in World War II: War Stories from Wrightsville, Pennsylvania

Chapter 4: Evelyn “Ebs” Myers

Chapter 4 Evelyn “Ebs” Myers “Government Girl” US Department of State Cadet Nurse Corps Hines Veterans Hospital Born on 27 February 1918, in Wrightsville, Evelyn “Ebs” Myers was the daughter of foundry molder Guy Myers and his wife Caroline. Evelyn had two younger brothers and a younger sister. Refusing to accept deadend jobs, she decided to seek employment as a clerk/typist with the US Department of State in Washington, DC. With the country appearing to be headed toward war, the federal government was hiring large numbers of men and women to fill a variety of positions. Sensing the opportunity this presented, “Ebs” and thousands of other career-minded young women headed to the nation’s capital to take jobs as “Government Girls.” For “Ebs” there were financial opportunities in Washington that were unavailable in Wrightsville, and in addition the big city offered a chance to expand her horizons beyond this small town and experience new things. After three years with the State Department, she came to the conclusion that anyone could do her job and that she was not really doing her part for the war effort. As a result she left Washington and 62 SMALL TOWN AMERICA IN WORLD WAR II decided to enter the Cadet Nurse Corps, eventually becoming a registered nurse. She returned to Wrightsville a changed woman, but she found that Wrightsville had changed very little. Following the war, she married Richard McCune of Columbia, Pennsylvania. The couple built their home in Columbia and raised an adopted son there. Evelyn died on 13 November 2002.1 After graduating from Wrightsville High School in 1936, Evelyn’s future prospects did not look promising in the midst of the Great Depression. Wrightsville High offered only an academic curriculum at that time: “I graduated from Wrightsville High School in 1936. Then I went to night school at Thompson’s Business College in York. It was a secretarial course, really—typing and clerking and things like that. During my high school years and even when I was going to Thompson’s, I worked for Etzweiler’s—the undertaker family in Wrightsville. That consisted of babysitting, running their errands, cleaning their house, and just generally helping out. Well, I was, like, at a dead end because I wasn’t getting anyplace with the night school bit. “I thought that if I took a civil service test, it might lead to something worthwhile. It was kind of vague to me, but it sounded good, so I thought, ‘I’ll try it.’ I had nothing to lose, and I had everything to gain. So, I took the test at the York Post Office, and that is how I got my foot in the door. It took me forever to get the results. But then my first inkling that I was supposed to maybe end up in Washington was the fact that I got a telegram from the State Department in August 1941 saying that they had a clerk/typist position available. “I had never been very far away from home except maybe to go to the New Jersey shore. But the news from overseas was getting so grim that I just felt a need to do something—I’ll call it important—because the draft had already started, and the young men were starting to leave town. I think they had to serve for a year, and then they could come home. So, I felt that I wasn’t doing anything important, and this job with the State Evelyn “Ebs” Myers 63 Department would be something important. Besides, it would get me out of this small town, and it would broaden my vision and interests. It was getting rather boring to be in that little town and never learning anything new, really. I was at a standstill, and this was an opening for me. And I also knew that my pay would be far greater than what I was making as a domestic in Wrightsville. “But in hindsight, I have often thought, ‘If I had thought about it too much, I’d have probably not done it.’ It would have been frightening, because Washington to me was the capital of the world at that time. I didn’t feel like I was that great a typist or clerk or whatever. I didn’t think that I was that experienced, but I thought, ‘They must think I am qualified, or they...