Iris Waller Family
Here is what daughter Stevie wrote me in e-mail.
“I remember my mother telling me that my father joined the
army and left rather abruptly because he thought he was not the right man for her.
After he left, she took a nursing job in a children's hospital in Ohio where
she met the man to whom she was engaged. My father was discharged from the
Army; went to find my mother. Grandpa told him where she was in Ohio. He went
there, found her and they were married the next day. I do not know a lot
about my mother and father's relationship before he joined the Army the first
time. But, I found a picture of my father that he had painted while he was
in Italy. My father's picture was in pastel colors and there was a picture of
my mother in charcoal which was drawn above his head and an inscription was
written under her picture which stated "Today I received a letter from
Iris, the sweetest girl in the world whom I hope to make my wife." He called
my mother Honeygirl and the picture also said "Honeygirl you are always in
my thoughts." My mother and father met when he came to Lynchburg with his
mother and sister for his father's funeral. He was 21 when his father died so
my mother would have been 19 when she first met him. They married when she was
25 and he was 27. During the six years prior to her marriage to my fahter; she
finished her nursing; and moved to Ohio.”
Daughter Daphne says this photo is about the time Iris and
Herbert got married. It is taken at the Waller home.
I heard this story about the honeymoon morn. When Herbert
woke up he put a piece of soap under his arm. This was an old trick used by
servicemen to make them have a temperature. The nursing instincts of Iris took
over and she nursed the supposedly sick man all day.
Soon after the marriage Herbert found himself back in the
service for World War II. Iris and children went to live with her parents.