Kermit Brekke’s WWII Workman’s Coveralls

By Sophie Olson

Catalog Number: 2009.015.041

While at first glance these workman’s coveralls may seem plain and unremarkable, it is sometimes the unassuming pieces of clothing that have the most interesting story to tell. This is certainly the case for the owner of these coveralls, Kermit Brekke, a rural Wisconsin farm boy turned WWII soldier and Bronze Star recipient.

Kermit Brekke was born in 1919 in Trempealeau County. His parents were of Norwegian ancestry, and he grew up on a farm near Blair, Wisconsin. In 1942, when he was 23 years old, Kermit enlisted in the U.S. Army and was sent to Oregon for training at Camp White and Camp Adair.

During his training, Kermit’s sweetheart, Evelyn Stutlien, came to visit him in Oregon.  On April 25, 1943, Evelyn and Kermit were married close to the Army training base where Kermit was stationed. Unfortunately their honeymoon was quite brief, as Kermit was sent to North Africa shortly after their wedding. After Kermit was deployed overseas, he and Evelyn exchanged many letters and remained in constant correspondence.

Kermit started his time overseas in North Africa, but was quickly moved to Italy when the Battle of Anzio began. Kermit was a member of the Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 363rd Combat Regiment, 91st Infantry Division. Throughout the Italian Campaign, the 91st Infantry Division continued to march north and drive the German troops out of Italy. While Kermit started out as a rifleman, he soon became a radio operator and repairman. Although he usually carried only a handgun, Kermit was often at the front lines, and many times was pushed ahead of the infantry during the chaos of battle. While he was shot at, nearly bombed to death, and almost captured or killed by Germans on several occasions, Kermit eventually returned home safely to his wife when he was discharged in 1945.

After he returned home, Kermit lived out his life as a farmer in Blair. Kermit continued to be active in the Knudtson-Mattison American Legion Post 231, as well as in his membership with the Sons of Norway and the First Lutheran Church.

Kermit Brekke lived to be 86 years old. While he had many titles throughout his life - soldier, farmer, husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather – Kermit Brekke will be remembered to most by the title of “hero”.

While Italy is often referred to as the “Forgotten Front”, because of people like Kermit Brekke it will be forgotten no more. If you would like to learn more about Kermit Brekke or the life of a WWII soldier, you can view the La Crosse County Historical Society’s Brekke Collection online at http://content.mpl.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/LCCHS.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on August 20, 2016.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.

WWII American Red Cross jacket

By Sophie Olson

Catalog Number: 1991.002.22

This year marks the first time in United States history when all military positions and occupations are open to women. As we mark this significant moment, let us not forget the many women who have selflessly served their country in the past. This WWII American Red Cross jacket was once worn by Mary Ellen Higbee Cameron, an American Red Cross worker who served in post-WWII occupied Japan.

Mary Higbee graduated from Central High School in the class of 1933. She then went on to study at Carleton College, as well as La Crosse State Normal School (now the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse), where she attended the La Crosse State Teachers College Training School. In her mid-twenties, Higbee attended the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee, graduating with a degree in Costume Design. By the time she was 30, Mary Higbee had joined the Red Cross and was stationed in the Phillippines, awaiting a transfer to Japan.

Mary Higbee joined the Red Cross in 1946, right after WWII had ended. She served primarily in Japan, where the Allies had begun their occupation. While we do not know exactly what Mary witnessed herself during her time in Japan, we do know that the war’s end did not signal an end to the Red Cross’s service to soldiers waiting to return home, as well as to the many who remained injured or wounded in military hospitals.

The main role of most Red Cross workers was to keep up morale among the troops. This included a broad range of duties, the most common of which were: hosting parties and dances, operating clubs and “clubmobiles”, making doughnuts and coffee, visiting with the wounded, and comforting the homesick. While it may sound lighthearted, the duties of a Red Cross worker were exhausting and relentless. Most Red Cross women worked 12 to 14 hour days. The work did not come without risk either. During the war years, a total of 86 Red Cross workers, 34 men and 52 women, lost their lives.

After her service, Mary Higbee returned to La Crosse where she married Alex Cameron, a lawyer. Mary continued to pursue her passion for art, working as an art teacher at Logan High School for many years, as well as instructing several local art clubs. She died in 1991, at the age of 75.

Mary Higbee’s jacket represents not only her individual story, but the story of all the women of the Red Cross who served their country in WWII. The war was not only physically scarring, but was also a mentally scarring experience. Without women like Mary Higbee Cameron to provide care and comfort, many soldiers may not have survived to return home.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on August 13, 2016.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.

Summering on Eagle Bluff

By Caroline C. Morris

“Have you ever enjoyed a week in a summer cottage on the shore of the Mississippi river, witnessed the sun rise and set over the hills near by, swam with the kids in the river…hustled water, ice, groceries n’ everything to keep the family and yourself happy?” This description of a week’s vacation on the Mississippi was written nearly 100 years ago, but could just as easily have been written yesterday. The part about hustling “groceries n’ everything” is particularly familiar.

This postcard, published and distributed by the Spence McCord Drug Co. in La Crosse between about 1905 and 1920, depicts one of the summer homes on Eagle Bluff, just north of La Crescent, MN. Starting in the 1880s, wealthy La Crosse citizens began building summer getaways on Eagle Bluff. La Crosse resident Frank Powell started the trend, building a cabin that “boasted all the comforts which one could expect in those days of an abode of that sort,” according to a 1920 La Crosse Tribune and Leader Press article. Over the next few decades, several more “summer residences” sprang up on Eagle Bluff, and Frank Powell’s original cabin went through several upgrades. By 1920, it was the summer home of T.H. Spence, the owner of La Crosse’s Spence McCord Drug Company, and probably the cabin depicted in this postcard.

“Summer residences” became popular for a number of reasons in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. For La Crosse residents looking to distinguish themselves from the pack, the cottages were a symbol of prestige. A select few had the resources to build a second home, and the leisure to inhabit it, particularly in the late nineteenth century.

By the early twentieth century, however, cabins and fresh air assumed new importance for Americans of all means. In 1920, the La Crosse Tribune and Leader Press described a cabin vacation as “life in the open – with cool breezes blowing across spacious screened porches during the hot days and nights of summer, and fresh, pure air untainted by dust and smoke, filling one’s lungs upon awakening.” Several decades of industrialization had left cities cramped and polluted. Asthma and polio were “new” and alarming diseases that seemed to dwell in cities, and people began to seek refuge in the woods, or by the side of lakes, rivers, and oceans. The Mississippi River bluffs provided both woods and water, and rental cabins became a popular destination.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on August 6, 2016.