STORIES of AMERICAN CITIES
Red Cross Canteen Wedding Eloquently Pictured

Chicago - Married at 3 p.m. in the Red Cross canteen; Miss Luella Irene Powell, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Powell of Casey, Ia., to Sergt. Don T. Deal of Cedar Rapids. Let Elmer Douglas, the staff photographer, tell of the wedding which was celebrated at the lake front hut. Elmer was there. He took the pictures, he ate some of the wedding cake, and, did he kiss the bride? We pause for a reply.

"You see the bridegroom passed through Chicago some time ago on his way back to Iowa when he got out of the war," says Elmer. "The Red Cross girls gave him such a good time in the canteen that he thought he'd like to spend the happiest day of his life there. So he wrote and asked them if he couldn't come back and be married there and they said yes. Sergeant Deal is going to be a high school teacher at Fort Dodge, Ia.

"By cracky! it was the prettiest wedding I ever saw. So sweet and simple and everybody was so nice. they had all the frills, too, you can bet. The bride was dressed beautifully with white dress, a big bunch of flowers, and a veil, and everything. First, though, I must tell you how the Red Cross girls all lined up, a double row, for the couple to pass between. Maj. S.C. Stanton of the Red Cross gave the bride away and then he lent her his beautiful gold sword to cut the wedding cake with. One of the Red Cross ladies had baked it, and it was some cake. It's the first time they've ever had a wedding in a Red Cross canteen."

~ Woodville Republican, Woodville, Mississippi, July 12, 1919

~ transcribed and submitted by volunteer for http://iagenweb.org/iowaoldpress/