Valentines

Betty Bemis was introduced to Ed Robarts by a friend. He was stationed in England, a pilot with the Mighty Eighth Air Force and she was serving with the top-secret Project Ultra, stationed at Sugar Camp in Ohio, where she and over 300 other Navy Waves built the code-breaking Bombe machine.

One of her roommates in the cabin where eight of the women were billeted, Helen was dating Ed’s buddy and co-pilot. Helen said he didn’t get many letters, so Betty and a few others began to write to him. After a time, the other women dropped off, but Betty kept writing, for a full year. And Ed always answered.

By the fall of 1944, the air war in Europe was slowing and pilots were beginning to return to the states. One day in November, Betty got a phone call. It was Ed. “Hi Betty,” he said. “I’m home.”

While there were many reunions between young couples as World War II drew to an inevitable end, Betty’s meeting with Ed was a little different. Their planned meeting would be the first time she would see him in person.

Ed invited her to visit him and his family in Florida over the long Easter weekend in the spring of 1945. Betty quickly accepted and without hesitation boarded a military transport flight to Miami to finally meet Lieutenant Edward “Shorty” Robarts.
In an interview years later at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum, in Pooler, GA, she recalled, “We met April 1, 1945.” He had flowers for her too.

“Three days later he asked me to marry him and I said yes.”

That first impression was a lasting one for Betty. In an interview with WTOC TV she recalled, “He was so cute. He had the softest lips and the bluest eyes,” she said.

Their love story lasted for 64 years, through raising a family, moves, tragedy and success. They were among the first to support building the Eighth Air Force Museum in Pooler. Betty and Ed watched it come to life from the ground up, supported the project from start to finish and for years volunteered as staff at the museum itself.

One of the truly special things about this museum is its chapel, built on the museum’s grounds to look very much like a country chapel in England.

The Chapel of Fallen Angels was built in 2002, appealingly designed to resemble an English country chapel, funded by the donations of individual veterans and groups. Like all English chapels, it has an east-west orientation with the front door facing west and the altar centerpiece window facing east. The simplicity of the design is breathtaking and deeply affecting.

A plaque there reads: “Dedicated to those who have served in the Eighth Air Force for the cause of Freedom and Liberty. Realized through the vision of the Eighth Air Force Historical Society. Within this chapel lives the memory of those airmen of the Mighty Eighth Air Force who gave their lives for their country.”

There is a columbarium located outside the chapel. In 2009 Ed passed away and his ashes are interred here, in a place so dear to him and to Betty. She has visited often and said she felt close to him there.

Now she will join him, although they surely reunited already in heaven. Betty Robarts passed away on January 15, 2022. May her memory continue to be a blessing to all who were fortunate to know her.

Love never ends.