Martha Ruth (Lady) Ferris
  

Christine Pollock wrote, I believe that my great-uncle’s wife, Martha Ruth (Lady) Ferris, (they divorced sometime in the late 40s/early 50s) worked at the center. In a typed memoir Martha says:

I finished my studies.  Had friend, did well, got my work featured in national magazines in the school ad and got a job working for Signal Corps in the old Paramount Studios in Long Island City.

I had good friends at work.  One man taught me insulting Yiddish, another taught me nice Yiddish.  The supervisor was a veteran and Italian, my favorite was a veteran and from NC who knew how to get gas coupons and gave me a ride to work in the last year or so.  One was a big Iowan who'd stayed in France after WWI but had to bring his French wife and daughter here at the outbreak of WWII.  One was a New York kid of German extraction, the secretary was a darling Green girl, one was a street-smart NY Jew and the #2 man was a darling Jew who taught me all about deli food for lunch.  We were very cliquey, superior to officers, were known on occasion to go far afield to a good restaurant and drink our lunch and have to be confined with a developing film sign on the darkroom for the afternoon ... or to hoist the sign and throw a party.  I found my farewell party picture last night with the captain in charge muscled in.  I don't recall a party and I don't recall him ever being invited.  EVER.

Celebrities teemed around the place ... A film crew graduated and shipped out every six weeks.  We did the ID photos, printed the officers’ personal film when they returned from overseas jaunts and Photostatted top-secret military stuff of all kinds.  Nothing from the Pacific, all Europe.  The lowest point came when we were pinned down at Salerno, we were working 2 nights a week over-time - all we could stand- and it was Christmas time.  We were the nerve center and at the Christmas party, kept to ourselves, didn't mingle at all, and made it quite evident that we were a cut above.  But it was terrible depressing to stat battle plans and troop locations that were mired down in the mud, forever it seemed.

I think it was Salerno.

Christine added, “Thanks for compiling the website.  My great-uncle's name was Dillon Ferris.  He was a photographer for Yank magazine and worked primarily in the Pacific theater, which is why Martha mentions nothing from the Pacific.  He tended to travel with the Barrett McGurn and/or Bob Greenhalgh.”

 

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