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Ellsworth and Emily were
married February 23, 1945. They had first met in New York
City in 1937 and were engaged for one month that year.
According to Emily, writing later in November 1944, she broke
the engagement. Ellsworth resurfaced in mid-1944, writing
to Bion Bates in Ovid inquiring about the Emily Bates he had
known in New York City. Eventually he got in touch with
Emily and, in November 1944, during leave between his Pacific
duty (ended 11/7/1944) and his officer training in Hollywood,
Florida (arrived 12/26/1944), he showed up in Dayton before
Thanksgiving "and announced his arrival with a corsage of pink
carnations, sent to the office, and an invitation to lunch." Photographs from the occasion, below, show him still in his Navy
Pharmacist's Mate enlisted uniform. (Ellsworth apparently
arrived in the U.S., flew to Dayton on leave, went elsewhere,
returned to Dayton, and then returned
to San Francisco to conclude his leave on 12/11/1944 and travel
to Hollywood, stopping again at Dayton on the way.) Thus, Ellsworth and Emily got together twice more in December 1944, just before Emily went to Mexico. Emily's 12/14/1944 Christmas card to friend Harriet Adams mentions getting ready for Ellsworth's visit but is unclear whether she's referring to a future visit, or to the one in November.
Ellsworth's January letter to Bion, on the other hand, seems to make it clear:
Emily had already suggested to Bion and Wilma she join them in New Orleans, arriving February 13. Before that, however, Emily had to work through her disappointment and distress stemming from the termination of her engagement to Walter Welton. That development, and her temporary relocation to Cuernavaca, Mexico, in search of work (and to escape from memories in Dayton), have been detailed in the section devoted to Emily's life pre-1945. As of January 22, 1945, Emily wrote her folks explaining she simply wished to join them for their vacation in New Orleans. This may have been a temporary misdirection, since clearly within the week (if not earlier) she and Ellsworth had decided to marry. Ellsworth wrote Bion Bates on January 30, 1945, explaining their intention to marry and providing a bit of history, including the fact of his previous marriage and divorce. Bion replied February 4, expressing concern but ultimately resigned to the matter as their decision to make. Both letters are quite profound, Bion's extraordinarily so. Bion and Wilma arrived in New Orleans February 13; Emily expected to arrive that day or the next. Ellsworth departed Hollywood, Florida February 20 and arrived in New Orleans on the 22nd. Thus, Emily had more than a week alone with her parents -- oh, to have been party to those conversations! February 23 arrived, and the
wedding. We have photographs taken on the occasion; some
of them may have been taken by Bion, but as to others including
both couples we don't know the photographer: After the wedding, Wilma sent Richard Bates this telegram:
Emily and Ellsworth left New Orleans February 26, arriving in Ovid March 3, staying there for a week. The remainder of this narrative relates history of the Haynes family since February 1945. Both Emily and Ellsworth had considerable solo histories predating their wedding, however, and those histories may be read in |
