The Captain & the Sweeper

MANNERS & MORALS

Every comely stenographer on the Navy's Quonset Point Air Station near Providence had been acting a little skittish lately. The reason was the big, annual all-station ball for the base's 3,900 sailors and civilian personnel. This year, the big feature was the election of "Miss Quonset Point." The triumphant queen was to be crowned at the ball; the commandant would escort her in the grand march. Everyone who bought a ticket got a vote, and sales were brisk.

Last week, when the returns were in, the committee found that 1949's "Miss Quonset Point" was Mrs. Eva Clausen, who sweeps up in the huge Overhaul and Repair shop. Mrs. Clauson is 43, the wife of a disabled World War I veteran, mother of five children, and plain. But every worker in the 0. & R. shop knows Eva. She listens to their troubles, smiles at their jokes. Bluejackets and civilian workmen call her "Olive Oyl." And some 500 of them voted for her.

White-haired, stiff-necked Captain Donald F. Smith was amazed. The contest, he declared, had "degenerated into a farce." The committee meekly called it off. Explained a disgruntled committeeman: "The good captain didn't want to be seen walking down the aisle with a sweep woman on his arm." Mrs. Clauson sadly announced that she would not attend the ball at all. Promptly, some 800 other workers turned in their tickets. Said one: "If this contest is for the lieutenants' girl friends, then let the lieutenants go to the ball. I'm not."

The committee begged Mrs. Clauson to attend the ball as a "hostess" along with the 25 losing contestants. They pleaded that proceeds of the ball were to establish a civilian-worker welfare fund. They took her shopping, bought her a complete new outfit and a few hours in a beauty parlor. They arranged to pick her up in a 1949 Lincoln. Mrs. Clauson relented. All over the base, signs went up: "Our Queen Eva will be there tonight--how about you?"

The night of the ball, some 4,000 people came to Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet. Permanent-waved and smartly turned out, Mrs. Clauson was trembling when she took her place with the other hostesses to greet guests. Captain Smith arrived, and everybody watched to see what he would do. He breezed right by Mrs. Clauson without a word. Soon, she retired to the cloakroom, and talked with the hatcheck girls. After a while, she helped them check hats & coats.

The committee made a last-minute attempt to have Captain Smith change his mind. He refused. He also expressed a desire to "kick in the head" the Providence reporter who had written a story about Mrs. Clauson. When the grand march came, Captain Smith escorted his wife to lead the march. Nobody was crowned "Miss Quonset Point."

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