Love Abroad
By Adair Olney
Louise Ablen Myers
September 7, 1921 - April 14, 2007
Lou trying on extravagant hats while in Paris. This photo, taken by Frank Capra, circled newspapers globally
Louise “Lou” Ablen was born on September 7, 1921 in Holdingford, Minnesota, a city in Stearns County, about an hour northwest of Minneapolis.[1] Lou inherited her father’s commitment to serving their country. Born in North Prairie, Minnesota, in 1896, Alois Ablen was a Private in the U.S Army during World War I.[2] Although Alois fought for the United States, his father (Lou’s grandfather) was born in Germany. Gerhard Herman Abeln immigrated to the United States to settle down and create a life in Minnesota with his wife, Susan Margaretha Aschenbrenner Abeln, Lou’s grandmother.[3] Alois Ablen passed away in 1978 and is buried in Fort Snelling National Cemetery.[4] Lou’s mother Bernadine was a Minnesota native who spent her entire life in the state until her death in 1986.[5]
The second-born of six children, Lou was determined and successful, even as a young adult. At the age of 18, upon her high school graduation, she was class valedictorian.[6] Louise continued a rigorous education at the University of Minnesota, where she studied pre-med for two years, paying the tuition herself.[7] Louise’s hard work and drive continued to pay off when the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, rewarded her with a scholarship to their institution.[8] She would have been one of the first students of the Mayo Clinic School of Physical Therapy, as the institution opened up for its first class in 1939.[9] She graduated two years later as a physical therapist and began a prosperous career.[10] As a woman living in the late 1930s to early 1940s, Louise overcame significant obstacles to earn a degree in medicine. Louise went on to practice physical therapy at McClosky General Hospital in Waco, Texas, a medical facility attached to Fort Hood, one of the largest military bases in the world.[11]
Bill and Lou in their respective uniforms after World War II
World War II broke out and Lou knew she could not be idle and watch her country move forward without her. She joined the army and was sworn in as a Second Lieutenant Army Nurse before she was shipped overseas to join the 95th General Hospital in England.[12] Lou’s unit at the 95th General Hospital was connected to the Third Army led by General George S. Patton.[13] The Third Army and Lou’s unit traveled south to France, where they fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Hitler’s last effort to delay the Allies began in mid-December with initially many American losses; but after tenacious fighting in sub-zero temperatures, the Allies managed to defeat the Germans and eventually began the conquer and liberation of Germany, including concentration camps. Winston Churchill called it “the greatest American battle of the war.”[14] Patton’s Third Army liberated the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camps.[15] These camps were both labor and death camps, with 99,000 dead by the time Patton and his army made it to southern Germany at the time of liberation.[16] While being an Army Nurse was difficult enough, Lou and the others in her unit had the important task of following Patton’s Third Army through northern France. General Patton headed a successful army that fought in the Second World War at a relentless pace — it could not have been an easy task for nurses like Lou to keep up.[17]
Worn down cavalry barracks served as Lou’s unit’s “hospital” in Bar-le-Duc, a city in Northeastern France.[18] It was inside these barracks that Lou met Bill, a fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force whose P-47 Thunderbolt plane had been shot down during the Battle of the Bulge.[19] Bill had a few injuries but it was the one on his right hand that led his flight surgeon to direct Bill to Lou’s hospital in Bar-le-Duc; she was first his physical therapist only to become his loving and dedicated wife for more than six decades.
Lou kept busy for the rest of the war, rehabilitating soldiers at the hospital in Bar-le-Duc until V-E Day, May 8th, 1945, when she was transferred to the 100th General Hospital in Bristol, England in order to prepare for a possible attack by the Japanese.[20] V-J Day sent Lou and the rest of her unit home to the United States where she was honorably discharged, and before long she made a solo trip out to Colorado where and Bill promised to meet after the war ended.[21] On November 22, 1945, the pair were married in their respective uniforms on Bill’s childhood home of Buffalo Creek, Colorado, where they would eventually retire.[22]
A charcoal painting of Lou by a French artist in Paris sometime after World War II
Lou and Bill started their family in Orlando, Florida, near Eglin Field, an Air Force Base where Bill was stationed at the time. Their first child, daughter Sally Myers Hingley, was born in 1946.[23] Three years later, their son, Peter “Mitchell” Myers arrived.[24] Lou kept the family running while Bill continued to serve his country abroad in the Korean and Vietnam wars as a fighter pilot in the Air Force.[25] Always the adventurer, she and Bill traveled abroad to Saudi Arabia after his retirement from the Air Force where Bill was working as a contractor for the Royal Saudi Air Force.[26] The pair spent ten years in the Middle East, where Lou traveled widely and took excursions, even on camels and elephants![27] Their family ranch in Buffalo Creek was always home, however, and they soon returned after many years abroad.[28]
Lou passed away on April 14, 2007 leaving behind her beloved husband Bill, daughters Sally and Terri, six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. One of Lou and Bill’s grandsons, Dan Hingley, has carried on the family’s legacy in the U.S. military, serving as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force just as his grandfather had done so many years before.[29] The U.S military, whether it be Army or Air Force, was truly hereditary in Lou’s family. Her father, her husband, her grandson, and herself all dedicated parts of, if not the entirety of, their lives to protecting our country. Lou can be remembered for not only her time in the military, but as a creative and fun-loving mother and wife. Other members of Bill’s Air Force units recall Lou as “the squadron mom” and “a doer.”[30] If you were a guest at one of Lou’s monthly dinner parties, you were served interesting ethnic food.[31] If you were her Peruvian horse, Lou made sure to match your tack to her riding clothes.[32] If you were one of her children, you wore clothes she created herself.[33]
Louise was buried with full military honors at Ft. Logan National Cemetery upon her death in 2007, a fitting service for such an accomplished and dedicated veteran.[34]
Footnotes ↓
[1] “Louise Ablen Myers,” daedalians.org, (accessed July 30, 2020), http://www.ghspaulding.com/FEB%202009%20NEWSLETTER.pdf.; “Holdingford, Minnesota,” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (accessed July 26, 2020), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holdingford,_Minnesota.
[2] Find a Grave, “Pvt Alois August Abeln, 1896-1978,” findagrave.com, (accessed August 13, 2020), https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/251734.
[3] Find a Grave, “Gerhard Herman Abeln,1845-1927,” findagrave.com, (accessed August 13, 2020), https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/143221118/gerhard-herman-abeln; Find a Grave, “Susan Margaretha Aschenbrenner Abeln, 1856-1948,” findagrave.com, (accessed August 13, 2020), https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/143220581/susan-margaretha-abeln.
[4] Find a Grave, “Pvt Alois August Abeln,1896-1978,” findagrave.com, (accessed August 13, 2020), https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/251734.
[5] Find a Grave, “Bernadine A Benolken Abeln, 1895-1986,” findagrave.com, (accessed August 13, 2020), https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/251735.
[6] “Louise Ablen Myers,” daedalians.org, (accessed July 30, 2020), http://www.ghspaulding.com/FEB%202009%20NEWSLETTER.pdf.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, (accessed August 13, 2020), https://www.mayoclinic.org/; “Louise Ablen Myers,” daedalians.org, (accessed July 30, 2020), http://www.ghspaulding.com/FEB%202009%NEWSLETTER.pdf.
[9] “Historical Profiles of Mayo,” Nelson, Clark W. 1995, Mayo Clinic, (accessed August 12, 2020), https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(12)60483-2/fulltext.
[10] Ibid.
[11] “History,” U.S Army Fort Hood, (accessed August 13, 2020), https://home.army.mil/hood/index.php/about/history.
[12] “Louise Ablen Myers,” daedalians.org, (accessed July 30, 2020), http://www.ghspaulding.com/FEB%202009%20NEWSLETTER.pdf.
[13] Ibid.
[14] “Battle of the Bulge,” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC, (accessed August 13, 2020), https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/battle-of-the-bulge.
[15] “Patton’s Third Army,” Living Historians, (accessed August 13, 2020), http://www.pattonthirdarmy.com/thirdarmy.shtml.
[16] “The Mauthausen Concentration Camp 1938–1945,” KZ-Gedenkstätte Mauthausen, (accessed August 13, 2020), https://www.mauthausen-memorial.org/en/History/The-Mauthausen-Concentration-Camp-1938-1945.
[17] “George S. Patton,” History.com, A&E Television Networks, November 9, 2009, (accessed August 13, 2020), https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/george-smith-patton.
[18] “Louise Ablen Myers,” daedalians.org, (accessed July 30, 2020), http://www.ghspaulding.com/FEB%202009%20NEWSLETTER.pdf.; “Bar-Le-Duc – A Town of Artistic, Architectural and Historic Interest,” La Meuse, (accessed August 13, 2020), https://www.meusetourism.com/en/sightseeing/essential-sightseeing/bar-le-duc-a-town-of-artistic-architectural-and-historic-interest.html.
[19] Ibid.
[20] “100th General Hospital Unit History,” WW2 US Medical Research Centre, (accessed August 13, 2020), https://www.med-dept.com/unit-histories/100th-general-hospital/.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Ibid.
[23] “Sally Myers Hingley,” Obituary, Oregon Live, 2018, (accessed August 13, 2020), https://obits.oregonlive.com/obituaries/oregon/obituary.aspx?n=sally-myers-hingley&pid=190787748.
[24] “Louise Ablen Myers,” daedalians.org, (accessed July 30, 2020), http://www.ghspaulding.com/FEB%202009%20NEWSLETTER.pdf.
[25] William Federico, “Bill E. Myers,” (accessed July 8, 2020), p47pilots.com/P47-Pilots.cfmc=incP47BiographyHome.cfm&vm=BIO&pilotid=413&p=Bill%2BE.%2BMyers.
[26] Aaron Rognstad, “Seasoned Veteran,” Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, (accessed August 2, 2020), https://www.dvidshub.net/news/44579/seasoned-veteran.
[27] “Louise Ablen Myers,” daedalians.org, (accessed July 30, 2020), http://www.ghspaulding.com/FEB%202009%20NEWSLETTER.pdf.
[28] Ibid.
[29] “Mile High Flight 8,” daedalians.org, (accessed July 8, 2020), https://apollo.daedalians.org/flights/29/last_flights.
[30] “Louise Ablen Myers,” daedalians.org, (accessed July 30, 2020), http://www.ghspaulding.com/FEB%202009%20NEWSLETTER.pdf.
[31] Ibid.
[32] Ibid.
[33] Ibid.
[34] Ibid.
More Stories
