History of Saint James' | Life During WWII

Originally posted 09/23/2015

“World War II was on, back in September 1942, when a number of us in the Signal Corps Cryptographic School were transferred from Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, to what seemed then a quaintly named rural post called Vint Hill Farms Station near Warrenton.  The quarters on the base were still not ready so we officers- almost all of us newly minted shavetail second lieutenants – were billeted in town.  I joined up with two others to rent a room in the second floor front of the Shadow Lawn Tourist Home directly across Culpeper Street from St. James’.

“We soon became acquainted with some of the local young women.  We did this at Jeffries Drug Store on Main Street across from the end of Culpeper Street.  This, not to be confused with the other more modern and sanitary-looking Thornton’s Drug Store beyond the Post Office, where the more adventurous officers met the more sociable local women.  We did this over ice cream sodas and soft drinks.

“It was, perhaps, to provide a less sordid venue for this kind of hospitality that St. James’ Parish decided to stage a dance in the Parish Hall.  There, the whole gamut of Signal Corps Officers could meet a wider segment of the local young women.  And it was there that I met Anne Camden Barrett, visiting home for the weekend from her job with Arthur Murray in Washington.  I remember telling my two roommates that night about the unusual girl I had met.  She was someone I couldn’t quite fathom.

“Marriage was in the air that night.  Anne’s uncle, the Rev. Paul Bowden of The Oaks had given Anne a ride in from the country where her family place, Ridglea, bordered his.  He was Rector of St. James’ and he had a good reason for setting out early for the dance.  He had to stop on Lees Ridge Road where a farmer parishioner had finally decided to marry his housekeeper of many years*.  Anne helped by signing on as a witness to that ceremony.

“We were married a little more than three months later on January 30, 1943.  Paul Bowden officiated at the wedding along with our friend Tom MacLean, the Presbyterian Minister”

(written in 1998)

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The late Anne Camden Barrett Marks (1913-1978) was first cousin to Betty Gookin.

* Thomas W. Evans, 64, married Lucy Lyons Stone, 63, at the home of D. H. Lees, vestryman of Saint James’ Church.

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