Julia Child - TV chef, cookbook author and spy?

By Marilyn Turk

What do you know about Julia Child? Did you ever watch any of her cooking shows?

Maybe you watched the movie “Julia & Julia” like I did. I have to admit I didn’t follow her shows and knew little about her. But recently, while researching women spies in World War II, I came across her name and wanted to learn more.

Julia McWilliams was born in 1912, the oldest of three children. Her family was wealthy and had a cook who prepared their meals, so Julia didn’t learn how to cook until much later. Julia attended boarding school, then graduated from Smith College with a history degree. She played tennis, golf and basketball while attending school.

When the United States entered World War II, Julia, like most other Americans, wanted to do her patriotic duty. But at 6’2,” she was too tall to join the Women’s Army Corp (WACS) or the Navy’s counterpart, the WAVES. Those rejections led her to join the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA in Washington, DC. Child worked as a research assistant in the Secret Intelligence Division, reporting directly to the head of OSS, General William J. Donovan.

Julia then transferred to the OSS Emergency Sea Rescue Equipment Section and in 1944, took an overseas post in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. Her responsibilities included “registering, cataloging and channeling a great volume of highly classified communications for the OSS’s secret stations in Asia. One of Julia’s experiences with the Sea Rescue Section was to help develop a “shark repellent.” As she stated in her book, Sisterhood of Spies, “I must say we had lots of fun. We designed rescue kits and other agent paraphernalia. I understand the shark repellent we developed is being used today for downed space equipment – strapped around it so the sharks won’t attack when it lands in the ocean.”

Paul and Julia Child

She was then transferred to China where she served as the chief of the OSS Registry. It was in China where Julia met Paul Child, an OSS officer, whom she eventually married. When the couple moved to Paris, Julia was exposed to fine French cuisine, and in an effort to learn to cook for her husband’s gourmet taste, Julia took lessons at Le Cordon Bleu.

Her first cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, was published in 1961 after nine years of research, rewrites and rejections, something many writers can identify with.

Paul and Julia

Julia Child is credited with many firsts - bringing French food to American cuisine, being the first woman to host her own television cooking show, and being the first woman inducted into the Culinary Institute of America Hall of Fame.

Julia’s kitchen which her husband designed with custom-built high counters in their Massachusetts home is now in the Smithsonian’s Natural Museum of American History.

What foods do you think Julia introduced to America?

BOOK GIVEAWAY AND SPIES IN HOOP SKIRTS (PART 2)

ANNE GREENE here. Last 14^th day of the month I told you about women spies during the Civil War. This month, I’ll mention a few of the more well-known women covert agents. If you missed last month’s blog, please check out the achieves.

ELIZABETH VAN LEW was an important spy for the Union. Elizabeth Van Lew and her mother visited Union soldiers held at Richmond’s brutal Libby Prison. Besides bringing them food, clothing and medicine, Elizabeth smuggled out letters. She and her mother obtained confederate information from guards and prisoners. These two women gathered valuable intelligence about Confederate strategy from prisoners and guards, and sent the communiqués via coded messages, invisible ink, and hollowed out eggs and vegetables.

Not Elizabeth Van Lew, but similar to what she would have looked like 

Raised in a wealthy slave-holding family in Richmond, Virginia, Elizabeth developed strong abolitionist sympathies as a young adult, particularly after attending a Quaker school in Philadelphia. After her father’s death in 1843, Elizabeth convinced her brother to free their slaves, many of whom stayed on as paid servants.

Late in 1863, Union General Benjamin Butler recruited Elizabeth as a spy. She became head of an espionage network based in Richmond. With the help of her servants—including Mary Bowser, an important spy in her own right, Elizabeth sent coded messages to Union officers. She convinced new members to join her covert ring, including a high-ranking official at Libby Prison. When Richmond fell to Union forces in April 1865, Elizabeth flew the Stars and Stripes above her home.

By war’s end, Elizabeth had become a pariah in her community, but earned General Ulysses S. Grant’s respect. Elizabeth spent her final days in poverty, having used her family’s entire wealth on espionage. The family of a Union officer she assisted during the war-grandson of Paul Revere-provided for her until her death in 1900.

MARY ELIZABETH BOWSER, born as Mary Elizabeth Richards, sometime around 1839, was a slave of John Van Lew of Virginia. When the younger Elizabeth Van Lew began working as a Union spy, Mary assisted Elizabeth in her intelligence gathering.

Mary Elizabeth Bowser

Mary, freed by Elizabeth Van Lew, used the name Ellen Bond and worked as a servant to Varina Davis, President Davis’s wife, in the Confederate White House. During Mary’s time there, she used her photographic memory to gather intelligence by reading military documents left out on desks or tables and eavesdropping on conversations.

Throughout most of the war Mary overheard many conversations between the President and his officers and generals. She eavesdropped on Davis and his colleagues while serving dinner.

Mary, one of the few black women who could read and write, read many letters left in the house and memorized them. She relayed this information to Elizabeth Van Lew at night near her farm. She also worked with Thomas McNiven, a Richmond baker. McNiven received the intelligence information at the bakery and dispersed the data during deliveries to the white house. President Davis knew information leaked from the house, but he never suspected his servant Ellen Bond. Other people suspected her, however, so she decided to flee. She made a final effort for the North by attempting to burn down the Confederate White House.

Little information exists of what became of Mary after the war. Like other spies, federal officials destroyed information about Mary’s spy activities to protect her identity.

In 1995, the US Army Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame inducted Mary Elizabeth Bowser as one of the highest placed and most productive espionage agents of the Civil War.

SARAH EMMA EDMONDS was born on a farm in New Brunswick, Canada in 1841. When her father tried to marry her off to a neighbor at age 16, she ran away from home, changed her name to Emma Edmonds and got a job as a salesgirl in a millinery shop. When her father discovered her, she fled again, cut her hair, spent her savings on men’s clothing, and was hired for a job selling bibles and religious books. She began her life as Frank Flint Thompson.

A month after the outbreak of the Civil War, Emma signed up as a male field nurse in the Second Volunteers of the United States Army under her alias Franklin Flint Thompson. She continued her hospital work for many months until March of 1862, when she was reassigned as a mail carrier for her regiment. Only a few months later, after one of General McClellan’s spies was caught and executed by the Confederate army, Emma volunteered for the open position.

Her first spy mission involved darkening her skin with silver nitrate to pose as a slave named Cuff in a nearby Confederate military camp. While there she worked in the kitchen where she eavesdropped on conversations. She left a few days later when she was assigned as a Confederate picket and returned to tell McClellan the information she gathered on the Confederate’s local troop size, available weapons, and location of numerous Quaker Guns (logs painted to look like cannons) that the Confederates planned to use in Yorktown.

A few months later she infiltrated the Confederate army again, this time as a female Irish peddler named Bridget O’Shea. She returned with valuable military information as well as a beautiful horse and a wound on her arm where the horse bit her while she retrieved medical supplies from the saddlebags.

After her regiment transferred to Virginia in 1862, Emma again went undercover as an African-American laundry woman in a Confederate camp. Her position allowed her to steal valuable papers from officers’ jackets which she brought back to her regiment.

In the spring of 1863, Emma developed malaria. Unable to admit herself to a military hospital out of fear of being discovered, Emma decided to leave her unit and seek medical attention in a private hospital.

After recovering and leaving the hospital in Cairo, Illinois, Emma saw an army bulletin in the local post office listing Private Frank Thompson as a deserter. Unable to return to her previous duties, Emma spent the rest of the war working as a female nurse at hospitals in war torn regions like Virginia and West Virginia.

After the war, upset about being branded a deserter and irritated that she wasn’t eligible for a pension due to her gender, Emma petitioned the War Department for a full review of her case. Various stories of women who had served in combat were starting to emerge but none of them had yet been awarded a pension. Emma’s Army comrades supported her quest to get a pension and spoke very highly of her. Some of her comrades stated that there had been rumors all along that Emma was a girl. On July 5 of 1884, a Special Act of Congress granted Emma a veteran’s pension of $12 a month. Since her case generated a lot of publicity, Emma became a celebrity.

Emma passed away on September 5, 1898 and was buried in a local cemetery. In 1901, she was re-buried with military honors at Washington Cemetery in Houston.

Many other ladies spied for the Union but their stories are lost in the mists of time. Perhaps you know of one or more and would like to share their name or names in a comment. I would love to hear from you.

I hope you will visit with me next month. I’ll tell you about some interesting Confederate lady spies.

Which of the three Union spies in hoop skirts do you think took the most risks? Leave a comment for a chance to win an autographed copy of Angel With Steel Wings.

ANGEL WITH STEEL WINGS is a World War II romance where Steel Magnolias meet Band of Brothers. While test flying planes, Mandy McCabe escapes her

dead-end life in Hangman’s Hollow, Tennessee as a Woman Air Service Pilot, WASP. Major Harvey Applegate lost his wife to the WASP program, and he determines to protect the remaining ladies by sending them packing back to the home front. Will their new love survive the test? One love. Two goals. Someone has to give.

ANNE GREENE delights in writing about alpha heroes who aren’t afraid to fall on their knees in prayer, and about gutsy heroines. Her Women of Courage series spotlights heroic women of World War II, first book Angel With Steel Wings. Read her private investigating series, Handcuffed In Texas, first book Red Is For Rookie. Enjoy her other award-winning books.  Anne hopes her stories transport the reader to awesome new worlds and touch hearts to seek a deeper spiritual relationship with the Lord Jesus. Learn more of Anne at AnneGreeneAuthor.com. Buy Anne’s books on http://www.Amazon.com.

AMERICAN SPY, VIRGINIA HALL, plus BOOK GIVE-AWAY

ANNE GREENE here. I’m giving a copy of the first book in my WW11 series, Women of Courage, ANGEL WITH STEEL WINGS, to one person who leaves a comment answering the question at the end of this blog.

And today I’m delving into the life of America’s foremost lady spy, Virginia Hall.

Virginia Hall was born on April 6, 1906 in Baltimore, Maryland. She came from a privileged family and attended colleges at Barnard, Radcliffe, the Sorbonne in France, and Konsularakademie in Vienna. She had a gift for learning languages and took a job as a clerk at the U.S. Embassy in Turkey, hoping to eventually become a diplomat.

But in 1933, Virginia lost part of her leg in a hunting accident and used a wooden prosthesis. As an amputee, she could no longer work in the foreign service, so she drove an ambulance for the French Army. When the Vichy government took over they sent her to England. She volunteered for England’s newly founded spy ring, the SOE. They returned her to Vichy-controlled France where she worked with the Resistance until the Nazi takeover. She escaped to Spain through the mountains, on foot with an artificial leg!

During the next several years she worked with the underground Resistance by providing maps to Allied forces for drop zones. She found safe houses, trained French Resistance forces, and reported enemy movements. Smart Virginia avoided the Gestapo that penetrated many of the resistance networks.

America’s newly formed Office of Strategic Services (OSS) recruited her, and sent her back into France.

The Germans named her one of their most wanted spies. The Nazi secret police distributed wanted posters throughout Vichy France, calling her an unknown woman with a limp. So, Virginia taught herself to walk without a limp and used disguises to escape their attempts to capture her.

After the war, Virginia said in an interview, "In 1943 I joined General Donovan's Office of Strategic Services for more adventures with the French Resistance. I became proficient in Morse code and radio operation, which made me invaluable. During the day, I appeared to be a milkmaid. However, at night I directed the Resistance Forces under me in acts of sabotage and guerilla warfare. I relayed important information from haylofts via my radio to London. I always kept ahead of the Gestapo, whose leaders knew of me and wanted me captured. I never gave them the opportunity. At the war's end, my country rewarded my efforts with the Distinguished Service Cross in 1945, the only female civilian in the war to receive this nation's highest military honor after the Medal of Honor!"  

Virginia helped pave the way for women in America's intelligence network. Virginia worked for the OSS through its transition to the CIA. She retired to a farm in Barnesville, Maryland, in 1966, where she lived until her death in 1982.

She is known as World War II's most heroic female spy. 

QUESTION: Do you admire the women who served at the risk of their lives for our country as much as I do? And/or Do you know any of these heroic women? 

ANNE GREENE delights in writing about alpha heroes who aren’t afraid to fall on their knees in prayer and about gutsy heroines. She writes both historical and suspense novels. She and her hero husband, Army Special Forces Colonel Larry Greene, have visited twenty-five countries.  A visit to Scotland resulted in her award-winning Scottish historical romances, Masquerade Marriage and Marriage By Arrangement. A Texas Christmas Mystery also won awards. Her Women of Courage Series spotlights heroic women of World War II. The first book, Angel With Steel Wings, is available on Amazon. The second series, Handcuffed In Texas with the first book, Holly Garden, PI, Red Is For Rookie, now available on Amazon. Anne makes her home in McKinney, Texas. Anne’s highest hope is that her stories transport the reader to an awesome new world and touch hearts to seek a deeper spiritual relationship with the Lord Jesus. To learn more of Anne, visit her at http://www.AnneGreeneAuthor.com.  She writes a novel teaching class on her blog www.anneswritingupdates.blogspot.com

 

Anne loves to hear from her readers. Buy Anne Greene books at http://www.amazon.com.

LADY SPIES DURING WORLD WAR II

By Anne Green

Japan’s surprise aerial assault on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, highlighted America’s spy gathering weakness. President Franklin Roosevelt, a longtime advocate of clandestine work, ordered the creation of this country’s first true intelligence service in June 1942, the OSS.

The Allies turned to two spy organizations for intelligence activities. These were the British SOE, or Special Operations Executive, and the American OSS, or Office of Strategic Services. In addition to traditional spies, these organizations employed many ordinary men and women to covertly spy on strategic locations and activities while leading apparently normal lives.

Headed by Major General William J. Donovan, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) staged thousands of covert and guerrilla activities. The sprawling organization also researched and drafted reports concerning a wide spectrum of political, social, cultural, and economic issues affecting the conduct of the war. 

Women played major roles in OSS missions. Of the thirteen thousand employees who served, forty-five hundred were women. One-third fulfilled overseas assignments.

The OSS placed spys in  Germany and Japan and every enemy-occupied country in Europe and in the Pacific, aiding resistance groups and monitoring enemy activity.

The woman considered America’s greatest female spy, Virginia Hall of Baltimore, Maryland, flew into occupied France as an undercover OSS operative. A spy. 

This American heroine came from a privileged family, Hall attended fine schools and colleges and wanted a career as a diplomat. But in 1932 she lost part of her leg in a hunting accident and had to use a wooden prosthesis. She resigned from the State Department in 1939 and lived in Paris when the war started. She worked on an ambulance corps until the Vichy government took control. Then she travelled to England and volunteered for the newly founded British SOE.

After training she returned to Vichy-controlled France, where she supported the Resistance until the total Nazi takeover.

She escaped on foot through the mountains to Spain, difficult with an artificial leg. She worked for the SOE there until 1944 when she joined the American OSS and asked to return to France. In France she helped the underground resistance and provided maps to Allied forces for drop zones. She found safe houses and provided intelligence activities. She assisted in training three battalions of French Resistance forces and continuously reported on enemy movements.

The Germans recognized her activities and made her their most wanted spy calling her the "woman with a limp". Hall used many aliases including "Agent Heckler," "Marie Monin," "Germaine," "Diane," and "Camille." She taught herself to walk without a limp and wore disguises to foil Nazi attempts to capture her. Her success in evading capture was as remarkable as the prodigious work she accomplished.

In 1943 the British awarded her the Member of the Order of the British Empire. Still active as a spy in 1945, Gen. William Donovan awarded her the Distinguished Service Cross for her covert work in France and Spain. No other civilian woman in WWII earned such an award.

Hall worked for the OSS until she retired to a farm in Barnesville, MD.

Eventually, the OSS became the current CIA or Central Intelligence Agency, America's official spy agency.

Many other women served America during World War II. Woman like Barbara Lauwers, Amy Elizabeth Thorpe, Nancy Wake, Josephine Baker, Mary Louise Prather, film star Hedy Lamarr, and America’s beloved cook, Julia Child. Next month on the 14^th I will tell a few of these spies’ fascinating stories. So please return and visit.

I’m basing my next Women of Courage book, working title SPIES LIKE HER, on these real-life American heroines.  

Leave a comment below and let me know if you are acquainted with any woman or man currently employed by the CIA. I met one such young lady in college.

Also, I’d love to know what part of spy work appeals to you, or on the other hand, what part of spy work would you find most difficult to perform? I’ll share with you my answers as well.

ANNE GREENE delights in writing about alpha heroes who aren’t afraid to fall on their knees in prayer, and about gutsy heroines. She writes both historical and suspense novels. She and her hero husband, Army Special Forces Colonel Larry Greene, have visited twenty-five countries.  A visit to Scotland resulted in her award-winning Scottish historicals, Masquerade Marriage and Marriage By Arrangement. Moody Press published her first book, Trail of Tears, an American historical. A Texas Christmas Mystery also won awards. Elk Lake Publishing contracted two series. Her Women of Courage Series spotlights heroic women of World War II. The first book, Angel With Steel Wings, releases May 2015. The second series, Holly Garden, PI, has the first book, Holly Garden, PI, Red Is For Rookie, releasing May 2015. Anne makes her home in McKinney, Texas. She hopes that her stories transport readers to an awesome new worlds and touch hearts to seek a deeper spiritual relationship with the Lord Jesus. To learn more of Anne, visit her at http://www.AnneGreeneAuthor.com.  She writes a novel teaching class on her blog www.anneswritingupdates.blogspot.com