Saturday afternoon at the Elks Club. … [Bogue] read them a letter of thanks received from Gardner Morris [director of the Red Cross Bureau of Canteen Service] in appreciation of their work. … The Canteen of North Platte has made a wonder- ful record for itself and Lincoln County. The Ladies have closed the Canteen for regular duty but will remain in service and will answer special calls. The World War I Red Cross Canteen served 113,190 servicemen during its relatively brief life, The Daily Bulletin would report on Aug. 14, 1946. Stories like this 1955 article in the Telegraph- Bulletin — which quoted Sarah [Kelly] Taylor, secretary of that first Canteen — have kept its memory alive. Telegraph-Bulletin | July 19, 1955 The first Canteen came to attention this week when Elmer Coates of North Platte found a picture of the Canteen and brought it into the Telegraph-Bulletin office. … Whenever a troop train that was bulging with tired and hungry service men was scheduled to make a customary stop here, the women were notified … “We were all subject to a 24-hour call but had special days and times when we were supposed to be on hand,” Mrs. Verne [Sarah Kelly] Taylor said. Mrs. Taylor was an officer for the World War I Red Cross women. “We didn’t always go by days, but mostly in
Anna Bogue and her Canteen mates served hot coffee and lunches to the crews of five Army planes during a cross-country race on Oct. 9, 1919. They landed at a newly designated airfield east of North Platte that would be named in August 1941 for Army Lt. Lee Bird, killed when his plane crashed in San Antonio on Dec. 6, 1918. On at least two occasions (1926 and 1935), the World War I Canteen workers marched in North Platte’s Armistice Day parade. Telegraph readers were reminded of their importance before the 1926 parade by retired Tribune owner and editor Ira L. Bare, who later would serve the World War II Canteen. Evening Telegraph | Nov. 6, 1926 Ira L. Bare, “A News Reel of City and County” All ladies who were members of the Canteen service during the war period will be asked to be in line for the Armistice Day parade. Certainly they should be represented, for none of the stay- at-homes [during World War I] rendered more ap- preciated service than the Canteen corps and none gave of their time more freely. A parade without them would be far from complete. When America was once more dragged into worldwide conflict, the women of North Platte would remember that first Canteen right away. That memory, and their decision to act upon it, would change millions of lives.
rotation of companies,” she further stated. “We boarded the trains and cared for the ill, along with our food program.” … Of the 13 women pictured, seven are still living. They are Mrs. [Hildegarde Clinton] Richardson, Mrs. [Sam] Bergman, Mrs. [Rae] Ogier, Mrs. [Fenna] Simms, Mrs. [Emma] Lannin, Mrs. Taylor and Mrs. [Mildred] Koch. [Other Canteen workers in the published picture were Almetta Coates, Ada Kelly, Anna LeDioyt, Winifred Scott and Etta Derryberry.] Two of the women, Mrs. Richardson and Mrs. Taylor, helped in the World War II Canteen. North Platte’s 1918 Union Pacific Depot can be seen at right, just below the railroad corridor, in this 1935 aerial photo of downtown. Other landmarks still standing in 2019 include the Hotel Pawnee (right of center), the Lincoln County Courthouse (far left) and St. Patrick Catholic Church (lower right).
1918–19 17
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