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Resident Spotlight:

Dick and Betty Jeffrey

Colony Voice Spotlight would be hard pressed to find a more fitting subject for December than Dick Jeffrey.   Nearly seventy years ago, on December 7,  a date that FDR correctly foresaw would “live in infamy,” Dick Jeffrey was serving on the USS Maryland when the U.S. fleet came under attack by the Japanese in Pearl Harbor.  Miraculously, it seems, Dick survived the attack of 500 lb bombs which sunk his ship.  As has been our recent practice, we will tell the rest of Dick’s story as well as that of his wife, Betty, who reside at 1562 Frontier Avenue.

Dick and Betty Jeffrey have been married for 18 years, both being widowed after 40 years of marriage.  Dick jokes: “You’d think we would have learned something [about marrying] after all that time.”  Dick and Betty met on a MOAA bus trip, which as a MOAA officer, Betty had organized.  Betty, living at the time in Satellite Beach, was quite active in MOAA, not to mention her membership chair of the Singles Club and officer status in the Navy League, all at PAFB Officers Club.  Newly widowed, Dick decided to take the trip and sat up front on the bus trip. Betty took the suggestion of a colleague and went up the aisle to invite Dick to join the Single’s Club, and Betty says that he “talked and talked and talked.”  Three and a half months later, on July 3, they were married at the Officer’s Club.  Betty reveals that “this man has sent me flowers on the third day of every month since that day.”

Dick and his late wife moved from Satellite Beach to Suntree and then became early settlers at IRCC.  They built the first home on Frontier.  Winnifred had a disability and they thought that it would be better to live on the mainland in case of a beachside evacuation, plus Dick loved the golf, tennis and the bountiful water.  After Dick and Betty were married, they decided to stay at IRCC and Betty sold her beach home.  They have been active socialites in the community ever since.

Dick was born in Lemonister, Massachussets on December 31, 1916, “one day after the federal income tax went into effect, something my father never let me forget,” he muses.  His irrepressible sense of humor continues:  “Massachussets was too hot for my parents so when I was two, we moved to St. Albans, Vermont,” where he grew up, attended public schools, and enjoyed the outdoor life on Lake Champlain, winter and summer, ice skating, skiing and boating.  He recalls great snowfalls and his caddying days at local courses.  He played tennis for his high school team and later at the Naval Academy, as well.  His dad was a traveling salesman so his mother, a teacher, held the reins at home.  In his senior year, she took a major, life-altering initiative on his behalf .  Knowing that they couldn’t afford college and that he liked boats, she “prevailed upon” Vermont’s Senator Warren Austin to appoint Dick to the Naval Academy.  At first he was named an alternate to the Academy, but he received the appointment after the first appointee failed the physical.  “Que sera, sera.”  Dick graduated from the Academy in 1939.

Shortly thereafter, he married Winnifred, the sister of a high school friend from St. Albans. He was then shipped off to his first tour of duty.
For his first assignment he made two requests, a Pacific tour and service on the USS Maryland, and both were granted.  However, Dick chuckles as he adds: “I figured that there was nothing better than going to Hawaii, but the damn attack by the Japanese wasn’t in my plans.”  On the morning of that infamous day, Dick, an engineer in training, found himself serving as chief engineer, a position staffed by a commander, because more senior officers were ashore.  A snapshot of his personal recollection is as follows: The attack took place at 7:55 AM with the first wave of forty Japanese bombers aiming at battleship row, which was their primary target.  The USS Oklahoma took nine torpedoes and was quickly turned upside down.  The USS Maryland, on which I was serving was bombed with 500 lb bombs, bringing the ship down seven feet to the harbor bottom.  We pumped out the water and brought the ship to full power in record time, but we could not steam out of the harbor because the USS Oklahoma was tied to our ship.   The USS West Virginia and USS Tennessee were astern and an auxiliary ship ahead was on fire.  We were disabled and this kept us moored to Ford Island.  There were 2030 men killed within the first 30 minutes of the attack.  Eventually, all ships, except the Oklahoma and Arizona, were repaired and returned to war.  The USS Maryland had a new bow welded onto the front of the ship.

Dick Jeffrey’s account of the attack on Pearl Harbor was video-taped by the U.S. National Park Service and is now an oral history in the archives of the USS Arizona Memorial in the harbor at Pearl.  We all are blessed that Dick Jeffrey survived and is here to tell us his personal account.

Later, Captain Dick Jeffrey served in Headquarters Supreme Commander Allied Forces under Supreme Commander-in-Chief  Allied Forces Europe, General Eisenhower.  He was awarded the Bronze star for his work to seek out and find former German naval ships and equipment for disposal.  Ironically, Dick’s mode of return to the states was what he terms “a very unique experience” for any American serviceman.  When he reported to the port for his passage home, he was stunned to find that he was to sail aboard the German cruiser “Prinz Eugen,” which the U.S. had taken over.  He says that initially he and a dozen other US Navy officers felt endangered on board a fully staffed German ship, but soon realized that the fate of the “Prinz Eugen” had already been decided by the outcome of the war.  After retirement from thirty years of active service, Dick became a professor at Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner, MA, and retired from there as Dean Emeritus.  He, also served, as professor at The Naval War College.

Betty Jeffrey grew up in the northwest side of Chicago during the post depression era, and for a period of time lived with both her paternal and maternal grandparents, both quite positive, memorable experiences.  While living with her father’s mother, her parents divorced, an uncommon experience in those days, because it was impossible for “two women to occupy the same kitchen,“ as Betty tells it.  When her dad lost a great job, she moved to Wisconsin where she lived with her mother’s parents, a delightfully idyllic experience as she excitedly describes it.  She walked to a one room schoolhouse for 5th and 6th grade. The farm was self-sufficient so she experienced everything from sheep shearing and slaughter of hogs to riding a horse and in a model-T Ford.  She fondly recalls the weekly trip to the general store in town, which was more of a family/community social event, with mothers gathering in the back room to gab, and fathers sitting out on the porch sharing the latest news.  When her mother finished hairdressing school, earned her license, and opened her own shop in Chicago, Betty returned to live there.  She attended Irving School and graduated from Carl Schura HS in NW Chicago.

After high school, Betty graduated from Evanston Secretarial School and went on to become head teller at the Bank Of Chicago.  She married Bill, a high school classmate, who became a pilot in the USMC.  After his USMC MAG-25 career, he flew as the Chief Pilot for Hess Oil.  At that time, with Hess headquarter in NJ, Betty worked at the First Bank of Trenton. Betty traveled with Bill throughout Europe.  She jokes that with Bill a USMC pilot, she flew around the world, and now with Dick, a USN Captain, they sail around the world.  Betty has three daughters: Renee, Deirdra, and Sybil, the latter having just bought a house on Santa Maria Ct.  Sybil’s husband is a US Naval Academy grad, class of 1971.  Betty has five grandchildren who live in Ohio and North Carolina.

For hobbies, both Dick and Betty have done considerable writing, both professionally and for community publications.  Betty has always been active in the theatre, from high school through the present day with Cart Barn Players.  She has appeared in numerous major stage productions here, including The Foreigner and Plaza Suite.  Both she and Dick love dancing and have been active ball room dancers.  Betty has especially enjoyed the Hawaiian dance program at IRCC.  Dick has been an avid tennis player and golfer.  He says that he turned from his favorite game of tennis to golf when he was commanding officer at Guantanamo Bay, because too many women had taken up tennis and became good players.  He was fearful that one would beat him.  He figured that he had a better chance maintaining an edge at golf.

With such a colorful, eventful history, it’s marvelous that Dick and Betty continue a busy, fun lifestyle today at IRCC.  Conversation with them is filled with smiles and laughter, punctuated by Betty’s inimitable giggle.  They are truly a couple and neighbors see them frequently coming and going together in their navy blue Lincoln Town Car on their many errands and social merrymaking. On December 7, six days after this publication reaches your mailbox, ponder about and say a prayer of thanks for all those who served on that “Day of Infamy,” and for their families.