Pearl Harbor survivors' wives were heroes in their own right
Dec. 7—Editor's note: This is a compilation of stories originally published Dec. 7, 2006 and Dec. 7, 2012.
Many of the wives and widows of the men who survived or died in the attack on Pearl Harbor are heroes, too.
They waited and worked on the homefront. And later, they lived with the nightmares and the memories.
Ruth Boone was a dancer with movie star looks when the war came to America's doorstep. She performed in shows for the USO, and — like Rosie the Riveter — she worked in a plant in Taft constructing bulkheads for B-17 "Flying Fortress" bombers.
Carl Boone was a big band jazz trumpeter and soldier who survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. But the war changed him.
"He hardly played after that," Mrs. Boone told The Californian in 2006.
After Pearl Harbor, Carl was transferred to Guadalcanal in the South Pacific, then back to the U.S., where he met Ruth at Gardner Field, a military airfield outside of Taft.
But Carl's wartime travails weren't over, Ruth Boone said. Her husband was sent to Europe, where he flew in cargo planes.
He was shot down behind German lines.
The soldier eventually made his way back to France, where he was saluted by none other than Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and other dignitaries upon his return. Ruth Boone said that was probably the highlight of his military service.
Love was hurried for many during the war years. Young men didn't know if they would live to see 25 and women couldn't be certain they would ever see their sweethearts again.
"I didn't really know the man when I married him," Ruth Boone told The Californian in 2006. "Then he went off again to war. That's the way it was in those days."
But it didn't seem to matter. The marriage lasted 60 years.
In 1999, Carl suffered a severe stroke that left him disabled. But Ruth refused to give up on him.
"I had to feed him through a stomach tube," she said. "I was his only caregiver."
She cared for him for years — until his death in 2004. Though he could no longer speak clearly, Ruth understood him, and in some ways, they shared some of the most intimate moments of their marriage during those final years.
"It was a hard time, but it was also a happy time," she said. "We laughed more then than we ever did before."
At age 84 and living in Delano during that 2006 interview, Boone was not done with life. She bought a convertible — Carl had always said they were unsafe — and was planning a trip to China.
"This will be the first time I've gone on a really big trip without my husband," she told The Californian. "I don't know what it will be like."
We hope it was the trip of a lifetime.
Reporter Steven Mayer can be reached at 661-395-7353. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter: @semayerTBC.
