Mrs Douglas MacArthur's Obituary. Originally published in the New York Times.
MacARTHUR's Widow Stood Fast in WWII
Jean MacARTHUR, the widow
of Gen Douglas MacARTHUR, who remained at her husband's side through the
darkest days of World War II and was often introduced by him as "my
finest soldier," died
on Saturday in New York. She was 101.
In his later years, MacARTHUR confided that she was his "constant friend, sweetheart and devoted support."
Mrs. MacARTHUR, whom William MANCHESTER, the MacARTHUR biographer, described as "a poem of womanhood," married Gen. MacARTHUR in New York in 1937 when she was 36 and he was nearly 20 years older. They had met two years previously when he was a fellow passenger on the S.S. President HOOVER, enroute to the Philippines to assume his duties as military adviser to the government there.
Later he became the supreme allied commander in the Southwest Pacific, waged the campaign against Japan and accepted the surrender of Japanese forces in 1945.
After the Japanese invaded the Philippines, it was decided to move the government to Corregidor. Mrs MacARTHUR packed a few necessities and, as she was leaving the apartment, she passed a cabinet containing the decorations awarded to her husband. She made room for them in her suitcase by discarding some of her own clothes.
Later, when the military
situation on Corregidor rapidly deteriorated, the general informed her
President Manuel Quezon of the Philippines had offered her and their son,
Arthur, passage to Australia. "We have
drunk from the same cup; we three shall stay together," she replied.
SOUTH BAY DAILY BREEZE, Torrance, CA January 24, 2000
Thanks to Jim Faircloth
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