The First Wedding Held At Camp Maxey-Paris News

Lt. Joseph Craton Bates of the 405th Infantry Regiment, 102d Infantry Division hadn't snagged a local but he and his bride, nee Katherine Margaret Edgeworth, set the trend.  The tsunami of weddings to hit Paris, Lamar County and surrounding Texas counties as well as Hugo, Choctaw County, and surrounding Oklahoma counties began with this one.  

The opening of Camp Maxey was a raid on the single female population of the area by the thousands of soldiers that came to be stationed there.  Add into this mix the hundreds, maybe thousands, of girlfriends that came to Paris to visit their sweethearts and wound up getting hitched like the Bates.  

The invasion to capture the locals was so successful after the activation by the 102d Infantry Division in 1942 that one almost has to feel sorry for the thousands of 99^th Infantry Division and the estimated 70,000 IARTC soldiers that followed.  It had to be tougher to find female companionship.  But it appears those succeeding waves of soldiers took full advantage of the remaining available population of single women to find marital bliss.  

Add into this mix the hundreds, maybe thousands, of girlfriends that came to Paris to visit their boyfriends and wound up getting hitched like the Bates.  The demographics were perfect for the soldiers.  Most of them were under the age of 25.  Most of the young Paris men had been shipped out to other parts of the country and were, by all probability, courting the population at their assignments as hard those young soldiers did in Paris.

Camp Maxey had six chapels and there are reports that these chapels were 100% booked several times a day.  The USO in Paris would help the young women coming from afar in making arrangements for the weddings.  Every local church opened their doors and aisles to keep the wartime brides happy.

I’m sure the local conditions propagated many a “Dear John” letter to some Paris bloke that was taking care of Uncle Sam’s business.  After all, for the women this was one big party.  With the encouragement of the Camp Maxey commanding officers, the local population organized the eligible young women into a group known as the Maxey Command.  Their official function was to provide support for the young soldiers as dance partners, dates to local social functions, and to boost a soldier’s morale.  Several times a month the young Paris women, under the watchful eye of chaperons, would hop buses in Paris and head out to the camp for an evening of dancing or movies.  Or they would go to of the local USOs located in Paris and Hugo where dances were hosted weekly.

The young ladies and their families were encouraged to invite soldiers they met to dinner, or join them at church, or just get together for a picnic. 

The end result the was the youth of Paris being spread from sea to shining sea and raising their families in lands afar.  I marvel today that my Google searches turn up so many obituaries from other states that report the deceased female to been from Paris, Texas and she met her husband at Camp Maxey.  There are endless chapters to a book to be written on this topic.