Mom in the military

HAYDEN — Linda Fetherolf wants people to remember the women who served during World War II on Veterans Day.

Fetherolf always thinks of a photo she treasures of her mother, Marie Auer, joining the military when she was 18, “wanting to show the American woman who was in the Army.” 

Her mother had to go through physical fitness training to make sure she and her female compatriots could take care of themselves. 

From the stories told by her mother, Auer enjoyed the time at the recreation clubs and as an excellent cook herself, found the Army food less than desirable most of the time.  

Auer eventually met Fetherolf’s father, Marion Paul Dowell, as she went about riveting together equipment at the Lockheed Burbank plant in California. 

Standing 5-feet, 4-inches tall, Auer had a big personality and a magnetic quality, Fetherolf recalled. People, children especially, were drawn to her.  

“And she was just as pretty on the inside,” Fetherolf said. 

Her mother was only able to keep the job for a couple of years before she got married and began having children, but the military life suited her mother as well as her father. The young family lived briefly in Pacoima, Calif., before moving to a U.S. military outpost in Germany. 

Auer was known for her piano playing and sense of humor.  

“She could tell you a joke about anything in the world,” Fetherolf said.  

Her husband hailed from a farm in Iowa and Auer was always smitten with his good looks, saying that he looked just like Matt Dillon from "Gunsmoke." 

Both parents died young, passing away in their 50s and before she passed, Auer would tell her children, “I’ll be watching over you after I die.”  

“She was always happy,” Fetherolf said. “Daughters and mothers have issues, but my mother and I never did. I wish we could have been old ladies together.”