Telegraph | Family Weekend magazine May 12, 1973 By Bill Eddy August, 1972 Editor: Nearly thirty years ago a Navy troop train stopped in North Platte. I was on it, and I will never forget what I saw when the several hun- dred of us went into the waiting rooms. There were tables all around the walls and those tables were loaded with everything good to eat … chicken, pheasant, ham, pies and cakes … even a dozen birthday cakes … just in case some fellow happened to have a birthday. I have planned for years to write you so you can say THANKS to the people of North Platte for me for this wonderful, unforgettable gesture … William Richardson Danville, Virginia And so the letters continue to arrive, even 30 years later, from men and women who stepped off long-haul troop trains, onto the red brick platform of the Union Pacific depot and into the hospitable welcome of the North Platte Canteen. Telegraph | May 14, 1973 By Bill Eddy The atmosphere was truly authentic as the North Platte Canteen reopened its doors … Mick McNeel’s orchestra, which seemed to grow in size as the afternoon went on, provided dancing melodies of the early ’40s.
Members of the World War II Salesmen’s Club — who first got together through gas-rationing car pools — served cake and coffee as they often did during the Canteen’s heyday. And there were armed forces representatives — local recruiters whose parade-day dress contrasted with the troop-train uniforms of their World War II predecessors. Former radio announcer Ed Launer was at the emcee’s mike, recalling the daily Canteen shows he did for KODY 30 years ago. And Mrs. Jessie Hutchens, one of the early and tireless Canteen workers, returned for another look at the place. … Retired Air Force officer George LeRoy, now superintendent of Scout’s Rest Ranch and also a [North Platte] Centennial co-chairman, recalled that his first stop at North Platte was on a troop train. “The thing I remember most of all was that somebody was here at 2:30 in the morning and gave me something — hot chocolate and a dough- nut — to remember North Platte by.” … Sam Drummy, representing Union Pacific, also noted that his first trip through North Platte was aboard a troop train. Now having his office in the former depot, Drummy said he sees many ex-servicemen who, while passing through North Platte, stop in to reminisce about the Canteen. From them, Drummy said, he had concluded that “the North Platte Canteen put North Platte on the map even more than Buffalo Bill.”
The North Platte Telegraph
Telegraph | May 3, 1971 As the train pulled into the station at North Platte Saturday night, a rail buff stood at the front of a dome car and sighed, saying to himself, “This is the end of a great era.” In 1973, North Platte celebrated the centennial of its incorporation as a city. Another Canteen re-enactment was part of the celebration, led this time by Doris Dotson, who had started volunteer- ing at the Canteen at age 14 and collected ser- vicemen’s unit patches on a jacket now displayed at the Lincoln County Historical Museum.
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