PROFILE: Rae Wilson Sleight

Rae Wilson Sleight: Originator of renowned North Platte Canteen that served over six million military personnel

Copyright © 2005 by E. A. Kral

One of the most outstanding volunteer efforts in history was the canteen for servicemen and women at the Union Pacific railroad station in North Platte, Nebraska during World War II and seven months afterwards. From December 25, 1941 to April 1, 1946, more than six million--both enlisted and officers--were provided food, magazines, recreation, and a boost in morale on their way to the combat zone or home at war's end.

The impact of the l0-minute canteen stops has endured for decades, and its contribution to their morale has been documented by their letters of gratitude as well as national publicity and recognition.

Perhaps the most eloquent and insightful testimony to the canteen's value was a letter from a wounded serviceman who visited on a hospital train in September 1945. Excerpts from his letter published in the April 3, 1946 North Platte Telegraph follow.

"Upon stopping at North Platte, we were invaded by a swarm of angels--beautiful girls and charming women, all with a smile and cheery word--and food and drinks and candy bars and all the other things we needed. I guess you thought we were pretty hard or stupid--but it wasn't that. We were dumfounded.

To think that you people, to whom we all were strangers, would do all you did for us. I can tell you there weren't many dry eyes in those cars when we left, and do you know why? Because you people, such a small part of our country, had really brought home back to us. You showed us that this was the real America; this was what we had fought and worked for and wanted to come back to....

We know you call us 'your boys' but I wonder if you realize whom we saw in you? We saw our mothers, our wives, our sisters and daughters and sweethearts--but above all this, we saw--America."

National recognition of the canteen's contribution while in progress was the U.S. War Department' s Meritorious Wartime Service Award presented during a nationwide NBC radio network broadcast on December 19, 1943. And in August 1945 the Army Signal Corps included the canteen story in a documentary about Nebraska for viewing overseas.

Its enduring effects were recognized three decades later when Charles Kuralt's CBS television program Who's Who on January 25, 1977 featured the canteen. It generated more than 300 letters sent by former servicemen to North Platte residents.

Testimony in a Pennsylvanian's letter stated, in part: "I am 60 years old, but I can still remember as if it was yesterday--the whistle of the train, a half of a lifetime ago, we found a group of kind and generous people waiting for us....Your little group became a legend in the Pacific. I heard all about 'the happy stop in North Platte' on camps in Hawaii, Okinawa, Korea, and Japan."

In 1986, it became the subject of railroad historian James J. Reisdorff's booklet North Platte Canteen, which was reprinted several times afterwards.

And six decades later in 2002 came nationally-known journalist Bob Greene's book Once Upon A Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen. In 2004, the Nebraska Educational Television Network produced the one-hour documentary The Canteen Spirit shown on PBS. And the same year, the U.S. House of Representatives on September 22 and the U.S. Senate on September 27 approved a resolution recognizing the canteen for its contributions during World War II. Tom Osborne, U.S. Congressman from Nebraska and the resolution sponsor, presented on October 25 the official proclamation in North Platte.

The origins of the canteen clearly illustrate the appropriateness of 20th century Canadian historian Donald Creighton's observation that "history is the record of an encounter between character and circumstance."

After the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and the decision days later to confront Nazi Germany, which had engaged in armed aggression in Europe after 1938, the American people felt at great risk. Strong patriotism emerged immediately.

With the 1940 population of just over 132 million, America was to contribute 16 million armed forces personnel before war's end. Of that number, some 1.2 million died, were missing, or wounded.

On the homefront, trains were the major mode of transportation for equipment and troops. Civilians, including women, held jobs in various war industries. Everyone was subject to rationing of such items as tires, gasoline, meat, sugar, butter, and articles of clothing in order to provide adequate supplies for the military overseas.

In 1940, the population of North Platte was only 12,429. But it was located along the first western transcontinental railroad line, and was an important Union Pacific terminal for servicing steam locomotives and more. And its brick passenger station, built in 1918, had a large public lunchroom which, after being closed by 1940, had vacant space when World War II occurred.

Rae Wilson, a North Platte native and 25-year-old local pharmacy clerk, knew the passenger station was the site of an American Red Cross canteen during World War I.

Shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack, a rumor circulated that Company D of the Nebraska National Guard, whose commander was Rae's brother Denver Wilson, was scheduled to pass through the city on a troop train.

On December 17, 1941, some 500 residents with treats gathered at the train depot. Though the troops turned out to be from the Kansas National Guard instead, Rae was the first to present gifts to them, followed by everyone else. While returning home from the event with her mother, Rae learned that at the World War I canteen local women all folded bandages, so she formed the idea of giving food to soldiers.

The next day, Rae reported in her letter published in the North Platte Daily Bulletin that appreciation showed on the faces of 300 Kansas guardsmen the night before, and that "an officer told me it was the first time anyone had met their train and that North Platte had helped the boys keep up their spirits." And she urged support of "our sons and other mothers' sons 100 percent. Let's do something and do it in a hurry! We can help this way when we can't help any other way."

At a public meeting held four days later, Wilson was named chairperson of the group, with an executive committee formed to help create a permanent organization for the duration of the war. The first day of canteen operation was December 25th. Originally, workers prepared food at the nearby Cody Hotel and stored it in a maintenance shed near the railroad station.

Rae contacted North Platte native William M. Jeffers, who served as Union Pacific president from 1937 to 1946, and he consented to the use of the vacant lunchroom area in the passenger station--which by January 1, 1942 served military personnel after each troop train arrival. Jeffers later gained national recognition for his role as director of U.S. rubber production, and was featured on the cover of Time, July 30, 1945.

According to author Reisdorff, the Union Pacific provided the canteen with kitchen utensils, and its employees, including Rae's father, helped with custodial work.

During the early days of secrecy about troop movements, advance notice of train arrival was given by Union Pacific agents to canteen leaders who would then telephone other volunteers to appear at the depot by saying, "The coffee pot's on!" Conductors on troop trains would also notify servicemen about the North Platte 10-minute stop when they were miles away.

The canteen leaders requested donations of money, magazines, food items, and sometimes even blankets and razors. "It didn't matter what we'd ask for. People brought it in," recalled Wilson in a 1985 interview. "It started to build up, word got around and it just kept running and running." A local department store even donated slacks to each of the 15-20 volunteers who worked fulltime at the depot, "something that was pretty new for women to be wearing" at the time.

After March 1942, Rae Wilson became ill from the stress and responsibility of leading volunteers fulltime, and in a few weeks relocated for health reasons to Los Angeles, California. Her replacement as general chairperson for the duration of the canteen was Helen Martin Christ, whose husband Adam was a Union Pacific conductor.

For 51 months, the canteen operated in all weather conditions, and was never closed for one day during its existence. Every day from early morning until the last troop train at night, volunteer workers served a daily average of 3,000 to 5,000 military personnel. Toward the end of the war, almost 10,000 were served on some days, and more than 20 troop trains in one day.

Among the volunteer workers were farmers, ranchers, businessmen and housewives who took time from their own work to devote a monthly day-long session, making sandwiches, serving food, or doing what was necessary. Except for fruit and small bottles of milk and candy bars, all food was homemade. Up to 20 cakes were given each day to servicemen who stopped on their birthday.

Girls age 16 or older worked on the station platform during train time, and greeted servicemen on their way inside. They also distributed baskets of fruit, candies, and other items to those not wanting or unable to go inside. And they provided responses to questions about the canteen and Nebraska.

By Christmas of 1943, more than 55 towns had monthly work-dates, with Ogallala the first outside the city of North Platte to send volunteers, and many traveled by car or train provided by the Union Pacific from towns as much as 200 miles away. By war's end, almost 125 communities in the western half of Nebraska, the northeastern portion of Colorado, and the northwestern area of Kansas contributed a total of 55,000 volunteers at one time or another during the 51 months.

Canteen officers, assisted by an executive committee, met on a regular basis and operated in a business-like manner. Expenses were audited monthly. In 1943, monthly costs amounted to $1,000, but by July 1945 it was $5,000. Voluntary cash donations during its entire existence were about $137,000 (an amount estimated to be equal to $1.3 million in the year 2000). The value of donated food items equaled or exceeded the cash donations.

"Canteen workers were proud to note that not one cent in funding came from any city, state, or federal government source," reported author Reisdorff.

Pride was evident, too, by the existence of a 15-minute program from the canteen broadcast over local radio station KODY at 11 am from Monday to Saturday, beginning in February 1944 and ending in September 1945. Daisy Hinman, one of the canteen officers, published an article about its activities in the April-June 1944 issue of Nebraska History.

Rae Wilson returned from California for a visit in September 1945 and was present with Helen Christ for the official canteen closing on April 1, 1946. On August 14 of that same year, the city of North Platte held a canteen reunion for workers from the surrounding area--an estimated 20,000 attended. And both North Platte newspapers also published photos, history, and a list of some 125 towns that sent volunteers during canteen operations.

Rae married Frank H. Sleight, who spent most of his four years of war service in the European Theater of Operations. They lived in North Platte, where she raised her son Gary and her husband was employed with the Nebraska Game Commission. In 1955 they moved to Lincoln, then in 1964 to Ulysses in Butler County, where she and her husband operated the Little Diner Cafe for several years. She also contributed news items to the David City newspaper. Her husband died in 1970, and Rae returned to live in North Platte after 1982.

Meanwhile, Helen Christ died of cancer in 1956 after being ill for four years. Born in 1899 at Madrid, Perkins County, she was one of seven children of Louis and Marie Baccus Martin. After 1918, she and her husband lived in North Platte, and they raised a son and daughter. According to an obituary in the October 25, 1956 North Platte Telegraph, Helen was a member of the Catholic Church, other organizations, and was credited as canteen president during World War II. She was survived by her husband, two children, eight grandchildren, and six siblings. Interment was at North Platte Cemetery.

Rae Sleight, while living in Ulysses, was recognized as canteen founder in a series of reunions held in North Platte in the summer of 1967 as part of Nebraska's statehood centennial. May 28th of that year was designated as Rae Wilson Sleight Day, and she was subject of a lengthy Telegraph feature a day later. Years later, after Rae had returned to live in her hometown, she was honored by the City of North Platte with the Cody Scout Award on June 1, 1985.

Born in 1916 at North Platte, one of three children of George and Blanche Welliver Wilson, Rae graduated from North Platte High School in 1933, and was a member of the Messiah Lutheran Church. After her death on August 5, 1986 at age 70, interment was at North Platte Cemetery. She was survived by her son and two grandchildren.

A tribute to Rae was offered in an August 7, 1986 Telegraph editorial which concluded: "The reality of the seemingly impossible and idealistic concept that one woman was daring enough to propose and the commitment that hundreds of other canteen workers were willing to make, was--and still remains--something rare, indeed."

The legacy of the canteen, its originator and the volunteers from almost 125 communities has been kept alive locally through occasional reunions. And after the Union Pacific ended its passenger train service in 1971 and demolished the depot two years later, the company built a public mini-park with a historical marker at the canteen site.

Moreover, the Lincoln County Historical Museum, constructed in 1973, has housed photographs, various artifacts, and thousands of letters related to the canteen.

Major published sources include the North Platte newspapers of August 14, 1946 and James J. Reisdorff, North Platte Canteen (South Platte Press, 1986) and Bob Greene, Once Upon A Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen (William Morrow, 2002).

Also helpful are the NETV-produced documentary The Canteen Spirit shown on PBS in 2004 and Congressman Tom Osborne's report in the September 29, 2004 Crete News. Communities that contributed to the canteen are listed in the chart below.

For more information, consult "900 Famous Nebraskans" on the Internet at www.nsea.org or www.beatricene.com/gagecountymuseum or www.nebpress.com.

Community Contributors to North Platte Canteen 1941 to 1946
(Taken from August 14, 1946 North Platte Daily Bulletin)

Amherst, Colo.	Gandy	Northport
Anselmo	Gering	Oconto
Ansley	Gibbon	O'Fallons
Arcadia	Gothenburg	Ogallala
Arnold	Grainton	O'Neill
Arthur	Grand Island	Ord
Atkinson	Grant	Orleans
Bayard	Gurley	Oshkosh
Berwyn	Haxton, Colo.	Overton
Bignell	Hayes Center	Ovid, Colo.
Big Springs	Hershey	Paxton
Birdwood	Holbrook	Potter
Brady	Holdrege	Red Cloud
Brandon	Holyoke, Colo.	Ringgold
Bridgeport	Imperial	Roscoe
Broadwater	Ingham	Sarben
Broken Bow	Johnstown	Sargent
Brownlee	Julesburg, Colo.	Scottsbluff
Brule	Kearney	Sedgwick, Colo.
Bucktail	Keystone	Shelton
Buffalo Grove	Kimball	Sidney
Burwell	Lamar	Stapleton
Bushnell	Lemoyne	Stockville
Callaway	Lewellen	Sumner
Champion	Lexington	Sunol
Chappell	Lillian	Sutherland
Comstock	Lisco	Tallin Table
Cozad	Lodgepole	Taylor
Curtis	Lyman	Thedford
Dalton	Madrid	Thune
Dickens	Mason City	Trumball
Dix	Maxwell	Tryon
Dry Valley	Maywood	Valentine
Eddyville	Merna	Venango
Elm Creek	McGrew	Wallace
Elsie	Mitchell	Wauneta
Elwood	Moorefield	Weissert
Elyria	Morrill	Wellfleet
Eustis	Newman Grove	Westerville
Farnam	Nichols	Willow Island
Flats	North Loup
Franklin	North Platte

NSEA

Survey

PROFILE: Rae Wilson Sleight

Rae Wilson Sleight: Originator of renowned North Platte Canteen that served over six million military personnel