ALL POETRY COM : THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY by GEORGE SMITH PATTON
Just one stanza :
So as through a glass and darklyWesterners who were raised in Christianity are told that there is one chance for eternal life and it's this life. Millions of Westerners, including some who consider themselves to be Christian, have decided that reincarnation - many lives - makes more sense. Many religions in the past and present do believe in reincarnation and also Karma - the idea that you reap what you sow. Many people believe that when they bring special talents, skills, or an expertise into this life it's because of their past life accomplishments. It's not easy to reconcile a special talent for war with spirituality for me, but General George Smith Patton believed he himself was reincarnated as a military strategist ... a genius at war.
A scene from the well regarded 1970 film, Patton, in which Patton reveals he remembers a battlefield and a past life...
EVOLS LIBRARY MANOA HAWAII EDU : BEATRICE PATTON'S HAWAII by Nancy J. Morris
This sixteen page paper, part of a longer one, is in a pdf file. And according to it, yes, Beatrice Ayers Patton, General George Patton's wife, loved Hawaii and in the years they were stationed there, 1925-1928 and 1935-1937, she learned much about the culture.
The couple lived a life of luxury in Hawaii, on base during the week, in smart hotels on the weekends. The men played Polo. They sailed, They partied with celebrities'. However, something in Beatrice made her most interested in the native culture, the pre-missionary Pan-Polynesian society, Hearing the old stories of the goddess Pele, ghosts, and so on, she wrote them down and began a serious study of the history and religion of the ancients which she would later use when she wrote books and became a published author.
EXCERPT: (page 80) Beatrice's collection of tales grew. Apueo, the Hawaiian owl said to be a messenger of death, flew into a Queens's Hospital ward. None of the patients were on the critical list, but in the morning, seven of the eleven Hawaiian patients were found unexplainably dead. The black magic arts of the kahuna, according some credence be a plantation doctor acquaintance of the Patton's, especially seized Beatrice's imagination. The doctor told Beatrice that at least six of his patients had been prayed to death.....
(Beatrice began to write poetry, short stories, and a novel, interwoven with Hawaiian themes. Love without End was partially autobiographical.)
Beatrice was given a secret Hawaiian name and came to believe in the power of the Hawaiian gods. In her books she includes the art of black magic and a chant used by Hawaiian sorcerers to pray their enemies to death "MAY THE GREAT WORM GNAW YOUR VITALS AND MAY YOUR BONES ROT, JOINT BY LITTLE JOINT."
Was this the curse she may have used on Jean Gordon?
EXCERPT (page 85-86)
When Beatrice's niece, Jean Gordon, visited (Hawaii), Patton began a flirtation with the girl. Gordon was a recent Boston debutante, pretty, lively, and the best friend of Ruth Ellen, the Patton's daughter. Unwisely Beatrice did not accompany Patton and Jean on a horse buying trip to a neighbor island, and when the two returned, it was clear to Beatrice that the flirtation had become an affair. Beatrice forgave Patton, and the marriage survived.
JEAN GORDON
1915-1946
Jean Gordon was the daughter of Beatrice Ayers, Patton's half-sister - the sisters having different mothers. Family ties being what they were, Jean, whose father had died when she was only 8, spent vacations with Beatrice and George Patton and their family. The Patton's daughter Ruth Ellen, who was her same age, was a best friend. Jean was a bridesmaid in her wedding and that of her sister, so she was a close friend. General George Smith Patton was born in 1885 and thirty years older than Jean. You might think that maybe he was a father figure to her. A father - be it biological or step - and a father figure are not the same and that's important to know.
The question of whether or not Jean and the very high-profile General were involved is controversial as is for how long the relationship endured. Basically, the family said yes it happened, but some biographies about him by those who perhaps wished to keep him on his pedestal cast doubt, even say he was just bragging. It's my suspicion that the family would know more about his personal life than those outside the circle. Perhaps Jean Gordon's existence in the General's life was also kept secret because it's been said that the General claimed to have "had" her since she was seventeen, and so the relationship would have gone on and on and a seduction could possibly have happened when she was a bit under the age of consent. Years put in, it would no longer be "just a fling."
Although some sources say this relationship Patton had with a much younger woman happened when he was about fifty and only went on for a year, other sources point to the evidence that it was more serious, more enduring, and more threatening to his wife personally and his marriage in general, than anyone let on.
Why is that so?
As a famous and important man, Patton's biographies were probably written to focus on his military prowess and positive masculine qualities. The soldiers, citizens of the United States and our Allies, looked up to him and maybe if the truth came out that he wasn't also a perfect husband or that another woman was responsible for supporting him emotionally and psychologically during the war, it would have hurt that reputation.
Born in Boston, Jean was called a "socialite." The Patton's were rich. The Ayers - Patton's wife's family - were rich. Jean's mother's father was a rich industrialist. As such, Jean was a member of the Vincent Club and the Junior League, a volunteer organization comprised of elite women. She was expected to marry well and had many opportunities to meet men. They were upper class people who kept to their set. After all this man was considered one of the toughest military men in history and his accomplishments in war were outstanding for the United States and her European allies.
Jean was a Red Cross volunteer, a "donut girl", one of hundreds of patriotic young women who wanted to give support for the troops. Though Donut Girls served refreshments to troops, officially a Donut Girl is an American Red Cross Clubmobile Staff Assistant. *** .The Donut Girls were recruited by the Red Cross and were usually college graduates, single, and with the type of personality that could withstand hardship as well as the deal with men. In other words Jean was not silly, delicate, or overly sensitive.
Jean had accomplished much before she began to do this volunteer work. Besides an education, her training included what we used to call Powder Puff Mechanics - checking oil, filling the gas, and changing a flat tire. The Donut Girls were not fluff. Many who applied were rejected as not having the toughness to endure.
What is especially strange about this relationship is that Beatrice Patton, the General's wife, supposedly went to see Jean after his funeral, looked her in the eyes and pronounced a Hawaiian (Kahuna) curse that she learned while living in Hawaii. Very soon afterwards, Jean reportedly committed suicide in New York City, only 30 years old, and was found with photos of the General laying around her. The other story about her suicide was that she was indeed depressed over the end of an affair but it was some young officer who had jilted her and not the General.
The Patton's had long before World War II, been stationed in Hawaii, from 1925-1928 and then from 1935 - 1937. Beatrice loved Hawaii. But how did she learn a curse?
General George Patton was an American war hero, involved in World War I and credited with winning in the European theatre against the Nazi's in World War II. He was called "Old Blood and Guts" and he earned that accolade for his strategies and leadership but also the bloodshed it required to win. War is hell and many soldiers lost their lives fighting, not just the Americans, but Allies, and enemies.
There was the Holocaust being played out in Europe in which millions of innocent people - Jewish and not - people who were not soldiers signed on to fight in an army - were murdered. It had to be stopped.
Although I don't think there will be peace on earth in my lifetime, I'm partial to peace. I feel as if when there is a war, nobody really wins. Humanity doesn't win. The polluted and destroyed earth doesn't win. I hope for a continual de-escalation of conflict, more communication and understanding. What I'm getting to here is, I suppose I don't understand men like General George Patton though I suppose they have proven themselves to be necessary. I also know I'm lucky to have lived without war on my turf. I rely on our military to protect my nation. I wonder how George Patton kept going when many of us can be slayed by everyday stress - anxiety and depression. What contributed to his enduring ability to go on and on? What kind of private life, if any, did the busy General who was so often out of town in the business of the military, have? Was the presence of Jean Gordon in his life what made all the difference?
GENERAL GEORGE PATTON
Image from Wikimedia
Jean was only 30 when she committed suicide, reportedly by putting her head in the oven within weeks of being cursed by General Patton's wife. One report has two aunts of hers saying that when they claimed her body, they found a note that said something like "I will be with Uncle Georgie in heaven and have him all to myself before Beatrice arrives." That sounds like a rather childish statement for a 30-year-old of Jean's caliber, but maybe it's true. And I'm confused by reports of her suicide as a head in an oven and laying on a floor with photos all around you - two reports - seem rather incongruent.For all that he survived as a military man, George Patton died a couple weeks after having been paralyzed in an auto accident and it seems he knew it was his end. Two women lost a man they loved when he died. This month we'll explore a bit more about the Patton's, their time in Hawaii, Jean Gordon, World War II, and the Donut Girls and their world.
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References for this month's posts come from multiple sources, some of which will be linked to, or excerpted.
If interested in other World War II references here at Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot, in the archives you'll find topics such as the Mistresses of Holocaust Hero Schindler, Eva Braun the Mistress of Adolf Hitler, Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy, who lost her husband and brother in World War II, and Pamela Digby Churchill Harriman, who during the war was something of a tourist guide to Americans in England. Bring up their names by using the search feature embedded in this blog!
If you're interested in Hawaii, JANE LAHILAHI YOUNG KA'EO : MISTRESS OF KING KAMEHAMEHA III of HAWAII and BEARER OF HIS SONS was our subject June 2021
