Cecilia “Mac” Beyte, Jason Theriot, and Hewitt Theriot

-The day the U.S. declared war Beyte was working at a bank in New York; that week she signed up for the Red Cross
-Had an interview and went to D.C to have training, which was supposed to be 6 months but after one week she was in San Francisco being sent out overseas
-After 3 days on the ship they finally told them where they were going: Auckland, New Zealand
-It was completely over run by American soldiers
-New Zealand had been fighting for the last 3 years so their men were gone, just the elderly, women and children were left
-When those men fighting in the war did come back they found their women had not been faithful and there were more children now that were not theirs, lots of tension later on
-New Zealand had been fighting in Egypt, Italy and Africa
-They landed in June 1943

-Travelling by ship, the “Matzoonie,” she was so fast they did not send her in a convoy
-It was more of a passenger ship but converted into a troop ship
-There were serval nurses, the Red Cross group of 16 and 5,000 troops
-The ship made good time as it zigged zagged a lot
-When they reached the equator they stopped to have an initiation for them (Red Cross)
-Few days later they went through a hurricane

-While on New Zealand Beyte was assigned as a recreation worker at the hospital
-There was 3 ships, known as the Unholy Trinity, which would take men from all over to battle and bring back the injured to New Zealand
-They would go on the ships to take care of the men before dropping them off on New Zealand; Beyte was never on a hospital ship
-They stayed more on the north island of New Zealand and there was thousands of men
-Always building barracks for the men and women; New Zealand did provide some food, lots of mutton

Stayed at Auckland for 5-6 months (16:10)
-Left when Eleanor Roosevelt came to Wellington to speak and Beyte was picked to be her escort; she never actually got to speak with her
-Beyte was put up in a nice hotel with a few other service women and men
-Mrs. Roosevelt was there to be a morale booster for the troops
-When Mrs. Roosevelt left, Beyte stayed on at the hotel as no one told her to go or where to go afterwards
-Did some sightseeing and worked at the hospital
-One night Beyte came back to the hotel after helping out with a dance for the Red Cross, all her things were packed and put outside;
-she was supposed to have left with Mrs. Roosevelt
-They let her sleep on the couch as it was 2 in the morning by then
-Next day her supervisor sent her to the Navy hospital in Silver Stream, Base 4
-That’s where she met her husband, Johnny (“Putsey”) who was a dentist for the Navy (Louisianaian)
-They began dating but he had a fiancée already in California (the last place he had been stationed)

The war was moving closer to Japan (25:36)
-So troops and people were moving and the hospital and Base 4 was closed
-Beyte went back to Auckland and Johnny was shipped to Nuemea in New Caledonia
-Eventually Beyte’s rest area in Auckland was closed and she was transferred to Nuemea
-At that time Johnny asked Beyte to marry him but she hadn’t finished up her year of service in the Red Cross
-As it wasn’t like the the army, the Red Cross did not have a strict policy on them for staying the full year or even staying on longer; many girls never finished a year but Beyte wanted too

"Question: How did these ladies manage to get back home? They were not military or did any battle time so no one had to respect them and send them home right away" (28:26)
-All depended on where they were stationed as to how they were treated
-In New Zealand they were told that they were under the same rules and code of conduct of the nurses;
-Like dating an enlisted man could get you sent home

End of service (32:20)
-Beyte’s year was up around the same time as Johnny’s tour was too
-Red Cross gave them a vacation and then would allow them to sign back up again
-Johnny was going back first so Beyte told him to talk to the girl he was engaged to and they would see how things went from there

-Landed in San Francisco and went to D.C to hand in her resignation
-From there she went to visit her parents in New York and then got on a train to New Orleans to get married
-Beyte had wrote and told her father about Johnny and how she was in love
-he wrote back to her about that she should give serious thought to the marriage and her going to Louisiana to live with him
-Moved to St. Martinsville with her husband Johnny after their honeymoon in New Orleans

Cuts into silence (43:16)

Stories from Working in the Red Cross (44:34)
-When stationed at Silver Stream that was when Beyte saw the truly bad injuries of the war
-They were always trying to find things for the men to do
-Men that couldn’t write thanks to their injuries were left to the girls’ care to write for them

One man that came couldn’t speak at all as all of sudden he was paralyzed, and no one knew why (48:32)
-They would talk to him but he made no sign if he heard anything and one day all his belongings came in and they found out his name and letters that his family had written to him
-he was a young Jewish boy named Pack
-Beyte read the letters to him and he began crying so they knew he hear them
-eventually a ship came that was heading back to San Francisco and he was able to get on it
-She wrote to his mother to let her know that he was coming home
-when Beyte got back to the States the mother had written her to say that Pack had had a brain tumor and died a few days after he got home

At Home (54:53)
-Got home and married all in 2 weeks’ time
-Johnny had 2 weeks leave and everyday they’d go and see if he had gotten his orders; their hope was he would be stationed in California
-Eventually his orders came in he was being sent to Algiers (Louisiana); Beyte at the time thought he meant a place overseas before someone told her
-They were living there when the war ended
-They were playing golf (around 11:00) when the news came and the church bells began ringing; whistles blew and the horns on the boats were going off
-Then they came back to St. Martinsville as they couldn’t find any place to live in New Iberia
-Johnny had had his practice in New Iberia so he wanted to go back there

Life after the war and living in New Iberia (1:05:00)
Stories of:
-Looking for a house
-Where they did live; their neighbors
-Starting a family
-Living in New Iberia

Transcription:
Cecilia MacDerment Beyte
Born: March 11, 1918
Red Cross Volunteer- New Zealand

The day we declared war I was working at a bank in New York. That week I went to see the president of the bank and he was associated with the Red Cross and I asked him if he would recommend me to join the Red Cross. And he did.

I wrote to them (Red Cross) and interviewed with them and the next thing I knew I was in Washington DC at their headquarters. I remember going there and getting my uniform and I was very proud to wear my Red Cross uniform. Ideally we would have three to six-months of training. One week later I was in San Francisco. I was headed overseas. We were at sea for three days before they let us know where we were going. We were headed to New Zealand. We went over on the Matzoonie. We were 16 girls in our group with about 5,000 troops on board. We stopped at the equator for the initiation. It was fun. We ran into a hurricane a few days later. I was lucky because I never got seasick.

I ended up in Auckland New Zealand about June of 1942 (1943?). This was less than a month after I had joined the Red Cross. Auckland was completely over-run with Army, Navy, and Marine Americans. The New Zealander's had been at war for over three years in Egypt and Africa. Their mother country is England, so when war was declared New Zealand and Australia went to war. They were fighting the Germans way before we did. It was sad because there were no (native) men in that country. It was sad too because when the men returned from the war they found out that there were a lot of children not spawn from them. Their wives and girlfriends had not been too faithful.

It is the most beautiful country. The north island is tropical, but the south island is glacier and snow covered mountains. It's the last stop before the South Pole.

I was a recreation worker assigned to the hospital. When the GI's would get wounded they would bring them there it get treated and rest up. I stayed there for about 5 or 6 months.

I left Auckland because Eleanor Roosevelt came to speak at Wellington. And she needed an escort, so I was chosen to go to Wellington with Mrs. Roosevelt, whom I never really got to speak to, but anyhow they sent me there. They put me up in a hotel in Wellington. It was really nice. She was charming and so homely. (She was there to boost moral among the troops.) That was her supporting role. I was in her company for a few weeks. I was really just a tag along. After she left, I stayed at that hotel and really enjoyed myself. Nobody told to leave so I stayed there for a while. I had a wonderful time.

While I was down there I was working at the hospital. I would go and do my hours and then tag along with Mrs. Roosevelt. After she had left I came back to my room late one night after helping out at a dance that the Red Cross had put on, and all of my bags were packed and waiting outside. They told me that I was supposed to have left with Mrs. Roosevelt. Well this was two o'clock in the morning. They let me sleep on a sofa in the lobby, so I did. The next day I got in touch with my supervisor and they sent me to Silver Stream. There was a Navy hospital. It was a beautiful place on this golf course. That's where I met my husband, Putsey.

He was a dentist in the Navy. We met and started dating, but he was engaged to a girl in California. The war was moving along and troops were moving up and people were getting transferred. They closed down this hospital and sent me back to Auckland. Johnny was shipped to an island-Nuemea in New Caledonia. Some time later I was transferred and they sent me to Nuemea. He always said that I chased him all over the South Pacific.

He had asked me to marry him, but I hadn't finished my year in the Red Cross. A lot of girls left before their year was up, but I decided to stay.

From day one we were told that we would be under the rules and code of conduct that a nurse had to follow. Rule number one was that we couldn't date enlisted men. If you did you could get in trouble.

In Nuemia there were dances on Friday and Saturday night with an orchestra. I was dating John then, but I did not know that his nickname was Putsey till after we got from the war. I was 23 and I can't imagine that I would have married a Putsey!

Well my year was up and his tour was ending right at the same time. We were both going home around the same time. He was going home first so I told him, "You better go and tell that girl you are engaged to that you asked me to marry you. And we'll see how it works from there."

I had written a letter to my father, and told him about John, and I told him that I was in love. He wrote me back, and I still have that letter, giving the mean temperature of southern Louisiana, the population as to black and white, and all about the culture down here. He told me that I should really give serious thought to this marriage.

Before I left to go overseas there was a girlfriend of mine who had joined the Red Cross with me. She caught the measles right before we left so she didn't make it with us. Well when I get back to Washington I ran into her. Come to find out she went to India and had got married to an enlisted man. They were less restricted than we were. Come to find out she had married a man from Lake Charles, and so I told that I was glad to hear that because I was moving to a place called St. Martinsville which I knew was near Lake Charles. She said, "Well you can go to St. Martinsville, but I'm never going back to Lake Charles." She said, "If you think India was hot, and you think India was rainy…" She said, "No way am I going to live in Lake Charles Louisiana, thank god he is going to move to Connecticut." So I'm thinking, "Oh Lord, what am I getting into?"

So I got home and landed in San Francisco. That's when I found out that his nickname was Putsey. He had been waiting for me. So I came to DC and gave them my resignation and went and visited my parents in New York, got on a train and came to New Orleans and got married.

At that hospital in Silverstream they had a patient, a marine that everybody was talking about. They were saying he was a hero, he was this, he was that, and come to find out it was Walter McHelhenney.

After we were married Putsey took me out one night in St. Martinsville to the old Hill Top Club and we were sitting at this bar and Sheriff Hebert walked up and Putsey introduced us and he said, "She's a Yankee." This darling little man said, "May sha that's OK, we gonna absorb you." I'll never forget that.

While I was in Auckland I was doing real recreation work; arranging for dances, arranging for trips for the men, arranging sight seeing, making sure they were entertained. I didn't see the real side of the war until I went to the hospital in Silverstream. A lot of the wounded had come from the neighboring islands: Guadalcanal and the Russell Islands.

One of our jobs was to write letters home for the wounded GI's who couldn't. There was this one young man there who couldn't speak at all. He was on an island when all of sudden he had gotten paralyzed. So they sent him to New Zealand. I went to visit him everyday, to see how he was doing, but you really couldn't tell if anything was getting through to him or not. His belongings finally caught up with him at the hospital. We found out that he was a young Jewish boy from New York City. When he arrived at the hospital, of course all these letters arrived from his family, his mom and dad. So I would read the letters to him, and tears would come down his face, so we knew he could hear us. Finally a ship came in and was taking some of the wounded back to the states and when he found out he was going home he let out a great big yell. And that was the first thing he said or done in many weeks. His last name was Pack.

The skipper of the ship told me I could find his mother; and I had been reading her letters to him. So I wrote her and told her what had happened and that he was coming home. So she came all the way from New York to San Francisco to meet him when he got off the ship. After I got back to the states she wrote me and thanked me and told me she was able to see him just before he died. He had a brain tumor and died a few days after he got back.

After I got back and resigned my mother and I went to New Orleans and Putsey and I were married there during his two-week leave. The war was still going on then. Everyday for two-weeks we would go to see if his orders had come in. Finally they came in and when he read his orders he said, "Damn." I got worried, and said, "Where are they sending you?" He said, "They are sending me to Algiers." Well I burst into tears, you don't think I knew that Algiers was across the river in New Orleans. They finally told me where Algiers was. But he was disappointed; he wanted to go back to California. So we lived on St. Charles Ave. until the war ended. I was playing golf that day and all of the church bells in city started ringing, and we said, "Oh my God the war is over." It was really exciting. But I hope we never have another one.

And then we moved here to New Iberia. His practice was on Church Alley and we lived in the brick apartment across the street from Delahouse's Restaurant (Corner of Lewis St. and Main St.) We lived upstairs from the Mestayer's Brothers grocery store.