Dead Page: WAC-- McHale's Navy

Both obituaries from the November 6, 2009 Chicago Tribune.


DOROTHY LAMB BROWN (1917-2009)

Chicago teacher was counselor in WW II

Dorothy Brown was a member of the Women's Air Corps during the war with a primary job to counsel "shell-shocked soldiers returning from battle." According to her son, Ken, "She was helping them cope with post-traumatic stress, a disorder that back then didn't even have a name."

After the war, she taught kindergarten and first grade in the Chicago public schools until retiring in 1975.

In 1943, she joined the Women's Air Corps, an auxiliary Army organization created to enlist women for non-combat duty and was sent to Fort Kilmer, NJ, where she met and later married Willard Brown.

In 1945, she got a military transfer and followed her husband to Ital where she was a counselor for two years.


CARL BALLANTINE (1917-2009)

Mined laughs from magic

Carl Ballantine performed comedy magic and was a character-actor best-known for playing Lester Gruber in the 1962-1966 sitcom "McHale's Navy."

Tim Conway, who played the bumbling Ensign Parker on the show said "He was a natural; everything to him had humor."

He made a name for himself playing an inept magician, billing himself as "The Amazing Ballantine," "The Great Ballantine" and "Ballantine: The World's Greatest Magician" in night clubs starting in the 1940s, often waring a top hat, white tie and tails. he would say "If this acts dies, I'm dressed for it."