Fran Williams, the indomitable Fayetteville lady leading the Red Cross, established a 1919 Christmas tradition all by herself.
The Fayetteville Observer reported: "Miss Fan Williams, chairman of a team of volunteers under the auspices of the Red Cross chapter, went out to Camp Bragg Christmas Eve night and distributed Christmas stockings to all the boys sick in the hospital at the time.
"The stockings contained candy, fruit, cigars, cigarettes, matches, handkerchiefs, et cetera."
Holiday hospitality linking the Army post in the Carolina Sandhills and the community down the road has been a tradition ever since that Christmas event.
By December 1919, Camp Bragg was a permanent post, at least for the time being.
Two understrength artillery regiments and service units were on post, about 1,500 officers and enlisted men.
Several dozen families lived in converted. barracks. Officers lived in singe-family structures.
A half dozen Army fliers were stationed at Pope Field, the camp's cotton-patch landing field.
The post was isolated, even from its neighbor, the textile-and-courthouse town of Fayetteville, seven miles away. You got there over a dirt road or riding the train from Manchester siding on the eastern edge of the cantonment.
People of the town were trying to establish traditions of hospitality linking post and town.
During earlier 1919 after the first troops arrived, Camp Bragg soldiers marched in town parades welcoming local World War I veterans, on May Day and Thanksgiving, and on the first "Armistice Day."
By Christmas 1919, everybody was ready for a party.
Many of the town's younger set were absent for Christmas 1918. They were in the Army in France.
In 1919, the Jazz Age reached all the way to the Presbyterian valley of the Cape Fear River as the polka and waltz music of prewar parties gave way to a new sound.
It was in this atmosphere of cordiality and fun that Camp Bragg greeted its first Christmas.
The Fayetteville Observer described it: "At Camp Bragg there was a Big Christmas at the Liberty Theater, under the auspices of the camp Education and Recreation Department."
The Observer described the scene: "The theater was filled with enlisted men and a number of officers and civilians.
"After films were shown on the screen, the curtain was raised, revealing an immense, beautiful Christmas tree, decorated in varicolored lights, Christmas bells and novelties. Santa Claus had remembered every man, woman, and child in the camp, and there was a present on the tree for everyone of them.
"Each soldier received a stocking filled with Christmas goodies, a handkerchief, a pair of sox, and cigarettes.
"On Christmas morning at the hostess house at the camp, Mrs. Pogue entertained at a delightful party for the children where all children on the reservation received presents and a Christmas stocking."
And on the evening before Christmas came Fran Williams and her crew of Fayetteville ladies.
"Miss Williams was assisted by Mrs. W.A. Stickley, Miss Jane Myrover, and Mr. Arthur McGuigan, director of service clubs of Camp Bragg. Quite a few of the kind-hearted people of Fayetteville have extended invitations to the enlisted men to partake in Christmas dinner with them."
While enlisted families were at Liberty Theater, several officers and their ladies were at the sprawling Officers Club for "a delightful Christmas dance, with music by the orchestra of the Fifth Field Artillery Regiment."
Meanwhile in town, festivities matched the post.
In the textile factory neighborhood of Massey Hill, families were welcoming home husbands and sons who had served in France.
At the "Happy Village of Tolar-Hart," factory families gathered in the company-built community center to light a Christmas tree. The "girls of the mill spinning room" presented a gift to Miss Lucie Currie, the company-paid social worker. "There were presents for children, and each family was presented with a large bag of fruit and Christmas goodies."
As the textile villages celebrated, so did Fayetteville's "uptown" society.
The Observer went all out describing it: "The Big Ball in the Marsh-McKethan Hall, the most brilliant event of the fall and winter season. One of the most beautiful dances held in Fayetteville in many years."
The venue for the big postwar social gala was the 1880s building still at at the southeast corner of Market Square and Person Street.
The newspaper reported: "Several hundred couples were on the floor, many of them from surrounding towns and cities, and the beautiful belles and handsome beaux of the upper Cape Fear section delighted in terpsichorean revelry until the wee small hours."
Most impressive was the music, supplied by a popular outfit of the emerging Jazz Age, the Meyer Davis Orchestra from Washington.
The grand march was led by handsome Charles Marsh, an ex-Navy aviator, with Miss Mamie Holt on his arm.
And reflecting social ties developing between post and town, "Ex-Lieutenant L.C. Mallory of Milwaukee" was dating Miss Bess Cotton.
Mallory was among the first Army fliers at Pope Field.
By Christmas 1919, he was evidently matching his dazzling flying technique with an equally dazzling technique on the dance floor.
Roy Parker Jr. can be reached at roypark2@aol.com.Source: http://fayobserver.com/articles/2011/12/25/1145176
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