On Thursday, May 26, 1910, a lovely Spring day, Beatrice Ayer and George Patton were married at Beverly Farms Episcopal Church near Boston, Massachusetts. It was in the same Gothic church years later that both of their daughters would also be married.

Beatrice, the daughter of Frederick Ayer of Boston who was owner of the American Woolen Company, could have done much better than George Patton, a shavetail career soldier just two years out of West Point. At least that was the consensus among many family friends.

Luckily, "doing better" never occurred to Beatrice. She loved Lieutenant Patton and he loved her. They were devoted to each other.

Hardly anything has ever been written about Mrs. Patton or about the Patton marriage, yet, it well deserves more than just a few lines. It deserves a chapter of it's own.

The Patton marriage was not like the marriages of today, which seem to be based negatively upon a pre-nuptial contract deciding who gets what if the marriage breaks up. The Pattons began their marriage with a foundation of love, trust, and devotion. When they vowed to love, honor, and obey, they both meant every word of it.

Beatrice and George met for the first time when they were children. Beatrice had been visiting with relatives, the Bannings, on Catalina Island. The Pattons, mutual friends of the Bannings, were also on the island. George was a tall, slim boy of 14. Bea was still a child carrying around a doll which was almost as large as she was. Beatrice would follow George wherever he went, always at his heels. When she was 13 years old, Beatrice decided that she would either marry George or become an old maid.

About three years later, when Beatrice was noticeably more "grown up". George realized what Beatrice had known all along. They were destined to be with each other. As a member of the Patton family said later, "Neither of them ever had another sweetheart."

Even before they were married, while George was at West Point, he entered in his diary, "Should a man get married, he must be just as careful to keep his wife's love as he was to get it. He must always love her and never adopt the attitude of 'now that I've got you, I can take you for granted'. Don't do that, ever."

After George's graduation from West Point, he visited Catalina Island again when Beatrice was at the Bannings home. He galloped his steed up the front steps onto the porch, jumped off, bowed deeply with a sweep of his hat, and at Beatrice's feet asked her hand in marriage.Beatrice was not just in love with George, she was wholeheartedly devoted to him. She made up her mind quickly that she would be a true "soldier's wife", dedicating her life to him and his career. Very early on she realized his desire to achieve greatness.

One of the reasons that he had to be great was because of Beatrice. He had to prove to her that he was worthy of her love and that she deserved only a man who could achieve the highest ambition.

Knowing full well how important her attitude was in it's effect on George's career, she once remarked, "There is no career except that of a minister's wife in which a woman can be of such a help, or such a detriment, to her husband as that of an Army wife. She lives practically at his place of business and sees his associates daily. Her reputation begins at her first post and sticks to her as closely as her skin until she dies. I have known several able officers to be ruined absolutely by malicious, gossipy wives."

"I joined the Army in 1910, in the piping times of peace. But the older women knew. Before my first child was born I had seen my husband's bedding roll at the front door, ready to leave if the regiment went to Mexico. Since then I have seen him off to three wars. He has led troops in battle, he has been gravely wounded, and he has been decorated for extraordinary heroism. Now I belong to the older generation of Army women who preach, "Be happy today. Who knows what tomorrow may bring."

A great deal is said in Beatrice's "Be Happy Today" slogan. One of the truths that must to be faced as an Army wife is that when a husband leaves, he may never return. What did Beatrice think of the "Farewells of Wartime"?

She confided, "They are the ones that must be said bravely and cheerfully, though they're the hardest of all to say. The thing is actually not to say good-bye at all. You are just sort of casual about it. After all, the only important thing is how he feels. How you send him away. You can say, "I love you" and "I'll miss you", but it's not fair to cry or to make a scene. It's too tough on the man who's going."

Remarking on love and what it is, Beatrice's feelings were, "Of course, young people don't believe older ones can really be in love. They think love is the possession only of youth. They don't realize that love grows stronger and closer, bigger and finer, and more essential with each year that passes. Especially, if it's the only love you ever had."

It is little wonder why George loved Beatrice. When away from her, separated by war, he would write every day and often he would write twice a day. Though he was a professional soldier who loved his job, he loved and missed his great lady far more than anyone knows or can understand.

An excellent example of the letters that George wrote to Beatrice can be seen in one written after he had been in an accident in Mexico. A gasoline lantern had exploded in his face and he was badly burned. He wrote to her on October 7, 1916, "I love you with all my heart and would have hated worst to have been blinded because I could not have seen you."

Throughout his career, when he was away from Beatrice he often wrote such intimacies. One letter, dated March 19, 1918 reads, "Well, this is the second letter that I have written to you today. I only wish it were not necessary and that I could hold you in my arms and squeeze you. I have almost forgotten how soft you are even with corsets on, to say nothing of your softness in your wedding nighty. I love you so, Bea ... I am not so hellish young and it is not spring, yet still I love you just as much as if we were 22 again on the baseball grandstand at West Point the night I graduated."

He often sent poems to her that he had written or jokes that he had heard. One such joke that he sent to her in a postscript went thusly, "Here is a nasty story. You will like it. A wife once woke up in the night and said to her husband, "John, if that is your elbow sticking in my back, turn over. If it is not, I will."

During his first tour of duty at Fort Sheridan, while Beatrice was visiting relatives, he wrote to her, "Darling One: You are one fierce woman. What in the Hell do you mean by "Doing what I like best to do -- reading." I would a damned sight rather look at something else than a book, and you know what it is, too. It looks like a skunk..."

Their marriage was as a marriage ought to be.

It was a full partnership, vital to endure all hardships. Each personality complemented, enhanced, and strengthened the heart, the very soul of the other.

On one occasion, when asked if it didn't add to her concern for her husband to know that the very lives of many thousands of American soldiers depended upon him and his personal judgement, Beatrice replied very simply and matter-of-factly, "I always think how lucky they are to be with General Patton." She was always giving to him what was not possible to supply through logistics. She was giving him faith and courage.

Beatrice was more than just "Mrs. Patton". She was in every sense of the word a rugged individualist, a great person in her own right. She came from the same tough stock that had sculpted a new land of freedom out of the harsh environment that the "New World" offered to the Pilgrims.

She had a great deal of her father in her. Once, when one of his mills burnt down, Frederick Ayer was asked, "Do you wish, sir, to be driven down to the mills"? He inquired, "Was anyone killed or seriously hurt"? The answer was no. He stated flatly, "Then what use is served by looking at ruins? No, order my carriage, I will go to the station. I'll take the train into Boston and just borrow the money to build a new and better plant."

Mr. Ayer was indeed an individualist himself. He was the first New England businessman to give female employees a monthly day off with pay at a time of their own choosing, although other manufacturers claimed that he was insane and that it would ruin his business. He also ignored their advice when he helped to finance Alexander Graham Bell and the New York subway system.

Beatrice had the same grit and determination, the same practicality, that her father had.

During WWII Beatrice was very popular with the War Department. She was asked, and she consented, to make a number of tours all over the country speaking at Army camps, women's clubs, factories, and giving radio addresses. She would tell how proud she was of everyone, of the young Army wives, of the women of America, and of how everyone had to work together, as a team, to believe and sacrifice for victory.

Later on, after George had died in 1945, Beatrice became a very forceful and persuasive public speaker in defense of the draft. She advocated and debated for the cause of universal military training in the United States. Her argument, in accordance with her late husband's beliefs, were that if strong measures were enacted it would prove convincingly to the Russians that the United States meant what it said. She was completely outspoken in the conviction that her husband's judgements, especially concerning the Russians, were ultimately sound.

Beatrice was popular, in and out of the Army, long before WWII. She had translated many French books of instruction and regulations for the U.S. Army. She was completely bi-lingual in English and French, as was her husband.

Beatrice was gifted in many ways and was very versatile. She was a fine writer. While stationed in Hawaii, she wrote two books. The first, a book published in French called, "Legendes Hawaiiennes", was a complete collection of Hawaiian fairy tales, legends, and historical stories of great importance to Hawaiian culture. It grows in importance as the years pass, when considering the number of true, full blooded Hawaiians who remain on the Islands and the commercialization that has overtaken the tropical paradise.

Her other book written about Hawaii is entitled, "Blood of the Shark". It is an historical novel about an English seaman around the time of the James Cook expeditions. The Englishman makes a decision to remain on the Island and marry one of the daughters of the King of the Islands. The book deals with his subsequent life and death.

Beatrice later put together another volume which consisted of stories that her father, who died in 1917 at the age of 96, had told her about the Ayer family and their New England heritage. This book named, "Reminiscences of Frederick Ayer", was privately published by Beatrice primarily for family consumption. It is, however, a very interesting book revealing some of the hardships encountered by the early New Englanders.

In addition to her work as an interpreter for the Army and her writing, Beatrice was an excellent musician, composing many pieces of music for her family. For her husband in 1941, she had written a song called, "Song of the Armored Force". It is a rousing piece which originally began with pistol shots and a siren, much the same as the cannon fire of the 1812 Overture. Today, that musical piece is called the "Second Armored Division March". It is still the official song for the Second Armored Division. The Second Armored was the first division that Patton commanded. It is noteworthy to mention that history was made in 1974 when Patton's son, George S. Patton III, accepted command of the same unit. It was the first time in American Army history that a son took command of a unit previously commanded by his father. There can be little doubt as to why the unit continues to be referred to as "Patton's Own".

Beatrice had many talents, too numerous to detail in a book this size. She was an expert equestrian, thought by friends to be as good as her husband. She was a fine lecturer, and an able sailor who owned her own sloop and won many cups racing it.

For her small size, Beatrice was, indeed, a daring and courageous adventuress. One of the true stories about her activities involved a new prototype of a tank that Walter J. Christie had been trying to sell to the United States Army. George had been working with and following the development of Christie's armored vehicles for a few years and he had arranged a trial demonstration to be viewed by a congressional committee and some of the higher echelon Army brass.

The locale was Fort Myer, Virginia, in April of 1932. The dignitaries present were from the "Military Affairs Committee", and the light tank was called the "Christie Crawler", after it's inventor.

Overall, it was a very impressive demonstration of the tank's toughness, speed, and maneuverability. It ran in and out of deep tank trap ditches, through water and over steep bunkers at high speed. Nothing like it had ever been seen anywhere in the world. After the show, George asked if any of the committee would like to try a ride in it to show it's safety. When all present declined, he then strapped goggles and a helmet on his wife and let HER ride the machine on a second run through the same, exact course. She emerged from the turret afterwards, grinning broadly, cloaked in dust, but completely unbruised and happy. A congressman later came to George and confided to him, "It's a beautiful tank, Georgie, certainly the best we have ever seen. But, we're not going to buy it, you know. I doubt that we would even if it were driven up the steps of the Capitol, loaded with votes. We just aren't going to spend the money."

It may be noted here that the British and French also decided against the tank. However, the Nazis and the Russians thought it very worthwhile. They bought prototypes from Christie, who after offering it to his own country, and being turned down, had to sell them to keep from going bankrupt. It was the Christie tank that was the forerunner of the Panzer Division tanks which overran Europe; the backbone of the whole of German armor.

Of course, in any marriage of 30 years, especially one of two people as "individual" as the Pattons, there must be disagreements.

There were many explosive episodes during the Patton's 30 years together. One of them occurred in 1912 after George had place fifth in the Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. He had attended the games at his own expense and afterward, with permission from the War Department, he stayed in Europe to attend special fencing classes offered by the French Army School at Saumur, France. After the course had ended, Beatrice had spent many hours packing their belongings and finally had everything crated, sealed, and ready to board the ship. George came running into their flat with a couple of new French swords that he had just purchased. He handed them to Beatrice demanding that she open one of the crates she had worked on so long and hard, and re-pack it with the new acquisitions. This was the last straw for Beatrice. Her temper flared. She unsheathed one of the swords and chased "Saber George" around the room, cursing with expletives that should have made her warrior husband proud. After she had "treed" him on top of the crates, stabbing at his legs, and making him dance quite a jig, he pleaded, "Goddamnit, Bea, I'm sorry! I'll pack them myself!" And he did.

As quick as she was to loose her temper with George, she was just as quick to loose her temper in defense of her husband.

On one occasion, she inflicted some substantial damage on the person of a man who unjustly criticized her husband. It happened just after the Great War. George had parked their car and had just come in the door to join Beatrice for a dinner party. He was in full evening dress uniform with complete medals. A drunken Reserve Colonel saw him and made the mistake of remarking, "That man's one of those all chicken -- chicken on his shoulder and chicken in the heart."

Beatrice had already knocked him down and was on top of him, pounding his head on the oak floor before George could get to her to a neutral corner.

The bottom line is that Beatrice Patton was, although a fearsome individualist, an asset to George and his career. She adopted a "whither goest thou" attitude and never allowed anything to stand in his way. She was just as determined to stand by him as he was to become a great commander.

She and George loved each other solidly, firmly, and completely. Neither was ever out of the heart and mind of the other, even when separated by thousands of miles of ocean and a war. It was truly a marriage that worked because they made it work.

Dinah Shore is back from France with a pearl handled pistol presented by Lt. Gen. George S. Patton when she sang for his men and then turned loose on the Germans via the American Broadcasting station in Europe with some psychological lyrics especially tailored to the tune of "I'll Be Around".

She serenaded the Nazis, Miss Shore said, with "I'll Be Around When We Get Into Berlin, I'll Be Around, That's No Lie".

Singing and speaking in German, French, Danish, and English, the little Tennessee star said she had little trouble rolling foreign phrases across in her first spoken message to the Germans. Here's what she told them:

"German soldiers, here talks Dinah Shore. I have just returned from Paris where I sang for American troops. Meanwhile, our boys entered Germany to re-establish order, freedom, and justice. I hope they will succeed real soon for then you'll be able to return to your Fatherland and your families and start a new life."