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RAVELER OF THE MONTH
The story of Mrs. Gertie De Lonais was one of grief, loneliness, and untiring search. But it came to an ending so happy that she has forgotten those long years of tragedy.
TOMMY
A MOTHER who had lost her baby boys twenty-three years ago and was finally reunited with them — that's the wonderful story which makes Mrs. Gertie De Lonais, of Pawhuska, Oklahoma, our traveler of the month.
It's a story with the happiest of happy endings, but, earlier, it's also a story of grief, loneliness and an endless, unpromising search. When Mrs. De Lonais told that story before our ABC microphone at our Welcome Travelers party at the College Inn of the Hotel Sherman in Chicago, many a mother in that room quietly touched a handkerchief to her eyes.
Twenty-three years ago, Mrs. De Lonais (she used her first husband's name then) was a young married woman in Helena, Oklahoma. She had two handsome little sons, Roy, 4, and Coy, 2. She was pretty and young, and so was the world.
Then, her marriage broke up. Suddenly, she was alone with the boys, with no way to support them. As she had no particular skills, this meant hard work, at low pay.
She struggled along as best she could, but, as she told me:
"The boys weren't getting enough to eat, and I couldn't be around to take care of them properly. I thought I'd put them in an orphanage in Helena for a little while, then come back to them. It seemed so simple at the time. I'd be unhappy for a few months, but soon I'd be with my boys, forever."
So often, we've learned at Welcome Travelers, life's tragedies begin in just this casual way. The young mother went away for four months, working in restaurants and saving her pay. Then she returned to claim her boys. But:
"When I got there, the world sort of fell apart for me. I was told that my babies had been given out for adoption. I demanded that they give me the names of the families who had taken them, so I could get the boys back. But I was told there was a state law which kept the names of the families a secret, even from me."
There it was. (Continued on page 74)
Welcome Travelers, with M.C. Tommy Bartlett making friends with the people who pass through Chicago on their journeys, is heard every Monday through Friday at 12 Noon, EST, over stations of the American Broadcasting Company network.
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