4 A
❘
WEDNESDAY EDITION
❘ FEBRUARY 24, 2016
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
RYAN CRONK , EDITOR
❘ 541-902-3520 ❘
EDITOR @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
Opinion
E XTRAORDINARY P EOPLE
Maude Brunette
C ATHERINE J. R OURKE
For the Siuslaw News
_____________
Or the joy of taking a pot of tea in
the English countryside.”
Maude’s list of intriguing experi-
ences includes studying Nigerian art
at Dartmouth, attending six commu-
nity colleges, riding show horses
around the world and immersing in
art history for six months in
Florence, Italy. The enterprising
powerhouse has also run airports,
tended bar, designed her own cloth-
ing line and launched her own book-
keeping service.
“My mother gave me the self-con-
fidence that I could do anything, go
anywhere and be whatever I want-
ed,” she said. “I always believed in
keeping active and learning new
things. My education never stops.”
Her education was disrupted,
however, at age 16 when World War
II broke, dramatically changing the
lives of her family. That’s when
another kind of education began.
“As a young girl, I saw how war
brings people together and tears
them apart,” she said. “It exposes
human kindness in the face of
calamity.”
Maude remembers the first air
raids in the spring of 1940 as Britain
evacuated children to rural areas.
Her younger sister was sent to live
with a relative in Canada but her
ship was torpedoed. Devastated by
the loss, Maude remained the only
sibling at home as her brothers went
off to war.
L
Then she went to live with an aunt
near Wales so she “could sleep in a
bed instead of a chair.” At age 18,
she joined the Women’s Auxiliary
Air Force (WAAF).
“The Royal Air Force needed
young women with good math and
science skills to serve as radar oper-
ators and map the bombers. I said,
‘That’s me! This is what I can do.’”
Maude describes how it took
“thousands of people” to operate the
radar stations posi-
tioned every 25 miles
along the British
coast. Stationed as a
radar operator in
Devon and Cornwall
in southwest
England, she served
in the WAAF from
1941 to 1944
“My job consisted
of tracking radar
PHOTO BY CATHERINE ROURKE
lines, discerning the
number of planes and
Maude Brunette now (above) and in her Women’s Auxiliary
their direction, calcu-
Air Force uniform in 1941 at age 18 (left)
COURTESY PHOTO
lating their height
to Morocco, where Maude learned to
ering Florence on a road trip in
and distance,” she said. “We had
ride Arabian stallions while raising
1989.
hundreds of people tracking planes
her two children.
“The moment I arrived here I
within a 200-mile radius. We shared
“Riding became the family pas-
knew this was it,” she said.
a great sense of pride and a wonder-
time,” she said.
Maude purchased a historic home
ful camaraderie.”
The Brunettes lived in Dallas in
in Old Town and dropped anchor,
According to Maude, England sur-
the ’60s and Maude joined the spec-
creating a clothing line of tweed and
vived the Battle of Britain due to this
tators watching the Kennedy motor-
Scotch plaid capes, jackets and
strategic communications system.
cade in 1963.
shawls crafted from Pendleton wool.
“We knew where every plane was
“I saw JFK just two minutes
Maude’s sparkling eyes and
in the sky at any given time,” she
before he was shot,” she said. “I’ll
serene smile remain unchanged from
said. “But it meant working all kinds
never forget it.”
her WAAF portrait at age 18.
of shifts. We were always in a daze.”
Bill passed away suddenly while
“I’ve had a fabulous and fascinat-
It was during one of those shifts
they were stationed in Arizona in the
ing life,” she said. “But family is
that Maude met an American elec-
’70s. As a woman who never looked
what matters most. Stay active, do
tronic technician sent to her station.
back, Maude focused on her strength
what you love and appreciate life.”
She and Bill Brunette were married
instead of her grief. She ran a pri-
______________________
shortly after and went to his home in
vate airport in Tucson with 110
California when the war ended.
hangars and then worked as a live
Catherine J. Rourke is an award-
“Moving to Hollywood felt like
model at the Dartmouth art school.
winning writer, journalist and book
going to Mars,” she said. “It was a
“The hardest job of all in life is to
editor who teaches creative writing
reverse culture shock.”
remain perfectly still,” she said.
at the Florence Regional Arts
Bill’s career in the Department of
One other thing brought the
Alliance. She may be contacted at
Defense took the Brunettes all over
unstoppable Maude to a halt: discov-
CJReditor@gmail.com.
the globe, from Paris and Germany
ife’s exhilarating waltz began
nearly a century ago for
Maude Brunette. The spry
adventurer recalls twirling around
her parents’ ballroom dancing studio
at age 3 in Liverpool, England, dur-
ing the Roaring Twenties. That same
year she learned to knit, followed by
reading at age 4.
“TV didn’t exist, so we focused
on books, sports and crafts,” she
said. “Boys also learned to knit
because it enhances manual dexteri-
ty. Crafts engage your mind and
require skill.”
Maude fondly reminisces on those
earlier years “focused on family
instead of gadgetry.”
“Children didn’t have adult
headaches and complex toys like
they do today,” she said.
“Technology is a good thing but so
is making things with your own
hands. There’s nothing like the satis-
faction of knitting a sweater.”
By age 5, Maude had already
devoured “Gulliver’s Travels.” Now,
88 years later, the native Brit
remains a voracious reader with
travel tales of her own.
“Reading was and still is the joy
of my life,” she said. “But my real
idea of fun is
going to
“My mother gave me the self-confidence
Paris for
New Year’s,
that I could do anything, go anywhere
roaming
and be whatever I wanted.”
through book
—MAUDE BRUNETTE
shops on the
Left Bank or
riding Arabian stallions across the
“We spent the nights in an air raid
Moroccan desert. I also enjoy hop-
shelter sitting in a big armchair under
ping on local buses in San Miguel de
the stairs listening to the sirens,” she
Allende, Mexico; staying in youth
said. Maude tuned out the bombers fly-
hostels in Wiesbaden, Germany; and
ing in every 20 minutes by reading
touring Portugal on foot for a month.
“Gone with the Wind.”
LETTERS
Civics with a French accent
“Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof. ...”
This First Amendment guarantee of religious
freedom takes organized religion out of govern-
ment and government out of an individual’s
religious practice. Nevertheless, the primary
campaigns in Iowa and South Carolina suggest
that religious conservatives have a dispropor-
tionate control over the Republican process of
nominating the head of our government.
While they are only 25 percent of GOP-pri-
mary voters in New Hampshire, evangelicals
are estimated to be over 65 percent of the GOP-
primary voters in South Carolina and were over
60 percent in Iowa.
The Pew Research Center has found that
there is a growing public uneasiness with this
mixing of religion and politics. The number of
people saying there has been too much religious
talk by political leaders stands at an all-time
high since Pew began asking the question more
than a decade ago. Nearly 40 percent say there
has been too much expression of religious faith
and prayer from political leaders (30 percent
say there has been too little).
In France, laïcité, the notion of separation of
church and state, goes a step further than the
First Amendment. The French look to shut reli-
gion and its sway over French politics and pol-
icy entirely out of the public arena.
Laïcité arises out of a centuries-long domina-
tion of the Catholic Church that left post-revo-
lution French republicanism suspicious of any
expression of faith in the political or govern-
mental spheres. No matter how benign, such
speech is seen as potentially exclusionary to
people of one denomination or another and
inherently exclusionary to people of no faith.
As former Supreme Court Justice Harry
Blackmun noted, “A government cannot be
premised on the belief that all persons are creat-
ed equal when it asserts that God prefers some.”
Laïcité’s solution is to exclude religious lan-
guage from all such speech in the public sphere.
Laïcité says nothing about religious belief in the
L ETTERS
TO THE
private sphere. It does not attempt to define
common secular values. Rather, it would have
French citizenship defined without reference or
regard to ethnic, racial or cultural identities or
sectarian affiliations.
In America, rather than abstaining from reli-
gious speech as prescribed by laïcité, lacing pri-
mary campaigns with sectarian religious invoca-
tions has become de rigueur. Doing so serves to
narrow the eventual choices of the greater, non-
sectarian electorate not targeted by the candidates.
Of course, prohibiting religious language in the
public sphere would run smack up against the First
Amendment’s freedom of speech guarantee.
Nevertheless, James Madison, “Father of the
Constitution” and author of the First
Amendment, taught that “religion and govern-
ment will both exist in greater purity, the less
they are mixed together.”
E DITOR P OLICY
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Write to: Editor@TheSiuslawNews.com
Perhaps Madison believed that mixing religion
into campaigning would be equated in the public’s
mind with the profane divisiveness it could engen-
der. Then, politicians might be discouraged from
equating it with votes. A lesson and a hope those
aspiring to high office would serve us well to learn.
Arnold Buchman
Florence
Thanks for history lessons
I attended the free talk that Mike Allan gave
titled, “A Union Soldier’s Story.” Mike
explained the history of U.S. flags and Civil
War prisons. It was a very nice slideshow and
wonderful explanation of the conditions Civil
War prisoners had to live in.
Mike gave an interesting look into the Civil
War and even had a medal to share. He had lots
of tips to share on finding Civil War records. He
volunteers at the library to help others and is a
member of the Siuslaw Genealogy Society.
This was the second talk on Civil War —
January’s talk was given by JoAnn Garlington
and titled, “Prisoners of War — A Confederate
Soldier’s Story.” JoAnn was enthralling.
My thanks to both of these people.
Pat Rongey
Florence
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Pres. Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
TTY/TDD Comments: 202-456-6213
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Gov. Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
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Salem, OR 97301-4047
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Message Line 503-378-4582
www.oregon.gov/gov
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg
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202-224-5244
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FAX: 503-986-1080
Email:
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313 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753/FAX: 202-228-3997
541-465-6750
State Rep. Caddy McKeown
(Dist. 9)
900 Court St. NE
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1409
Email:
rep.caddymckeown@state.or.us
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (4th Dist.)
2134 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6416/ 800-944-9603
541-269-2609/ 541-465-6732
www.defazio.house.gov
State Sen. Arnie Roblan (Dist. 5)
900 Court St. NE - S-417
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1705
West Lane County Commissioner
Jay Bozievich
125 E. Eighth St.
Eugene, OR 97401
541-682-4203
FAX: 541-682-4616
Email:
Jay.Bozievich@co.lane.or.us