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Fort Knox Girl 1940


patches
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Isn't this a cool foto!

 

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One Mary Jo Richerson of Elizabethtown Kentucky, poses for a Ft Knox public relations photo by the Army Signal Corps, Richerson was a civilian stenographer on the post when she was asked to pose for this in July 1940. I guess the Army wanted some publicity for Knox as the new home of the Army's Armored Force which was official established at this time. Richerson remained at Knox the whole war, and actually got married there at the post chapel in 1946 to a returning Inf officer James A. Jones.

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  • 2 years later...

You know I'm intrigued at the helmet she's wearing, plastic, light weight metal? certainty a novelty/kiddie sort of thing. any input on that? like maybe a item sold somewhere at a store on the post (PX) or maybe a off post 5 and 10?

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  • 1 month later...

Patches,

Great photo! I may very well have the style of helmet she is wearing (without Fort Knox artwork). This is kids tin helmet I figure late 30s/early 40s vintage. It is 9-1/2" in diameter. My guess is it was sold with a cloth chin strap as there are "hoops" in the rim for attaching one.

 

post-169074-0-68005100-1510522518.jpg

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Inside view.

 

Tanks Alpha 1 5. That could very well be it, or a the very least one like it, that's assuming there were a few makers of this type, and may vary form maker to maker.

 

By the way, what sort of a liner if at all do you think it had?

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Nice Photo, Does anyone know what it says in the triangle?

Beieve you mean the small black wording directly under the triangle, Hunt thought the the legend around it I'm gathering, which as we see does say what Hunt said :).

 

So lets see, I just saved it to my documents to make use of the ZOOM feature, and it says ARMORED FORCE.

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Patches,

To try and answer your question as for a liner in my kiddies tin helmet. If it ever had a "liner" I suspect it may have had a stuffed cloth pad glued into the inside top. But this is pure speculation on my part. Should anyone else have a similar piece please post so we all might learn something new. Collecting U.S. Military toys from the 30s/40s/50s was another of my once upon a time interest.

All the best,

Mike

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Patches,

To try and answer your question as for a liner in my kiddies tin helmet. If it ever had a "liner" I suspect it may have had a stuffed cloth pad glued into the inside top. But this is pure speculation on my part. Should anyone else have a similar piece please post so we all might learn something new. Collecting U.S. Military toys from the 30s/40s/50s was another of my once upon a time interest.

All the best,

Mike

Yeah that's probably what it was, we're seeing that big blemish there inside the dome, probably had a cloth chin strap or maybe a leatherette one.

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  • 1 year later...

Found Mary Jo's Obit, she passed in 2010 at 86, interestingly this would make her around 16 when she started work and posed for the photo in 1940, she does seem older looking right, like say 20 or 21, unless there is a caption error and photo is from 1941 or even 1942, which would still make her 17 or 18 years old.

 

Additional info on her during WWII that I neglected to add in the opening post, has her taking a position with the State Department sometime in 1944, where she's sent to Rome to work as Cryptographer at the Embassy in Rome, this clearly after June 1944 when we took Rome on 5 June, and as there was two Italy,s, that Salo group up north with Mussolini, and the new government allied with us, so not sure exactly when we reestablished our embassy there in Rome and we recognized the friendly Italian government, maybe the fall of 44?

 

Anyway Mary Jo leaves Rome by the summer of 45 and goes back to Knox again to work there.

 

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/louisville/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=143997219

 

 

 

At that time in 2010 her husband, James Allison Jones, the former Army Officer, the one she married at Knox in 46 was still living, but he passed in 2014 at 92.

 

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thenewsenterprise/obituary.aspx?n=james-allison-jones&pid=171109204&fhid=15400

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  • 2 years later...

James Allison Jones, Infantry newly commissioned date unknown

 

1164724835_maryjo10001.jpg.8c5b3d794e464cdba95a0356df87af58.jpg

 

And their wedding at Knox, Jones interestingly isn't wearing his CIB, I do believe he should of had one.

1092145089_maryjo10003.jpg.05a54f1a30c1ce4ee4f650b1dc1e625b.jpg

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  • 2 years later...

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