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by Marilyn Tennissen

When it comes to entertaining the troops, the legendary Bob Hope has nothing on a group of young women from Beaumont. For 30 years the Melody Maids, under the direction of local music teacher Eloise Milam, sang their hearts out for thousands of American servicemen stationed around the world.

Milam started the program on July 4, 1942, in the midst of World War II and took more than 1,000 young women all over the world until 1972. Now their story has been brought to national attention with the release of a documentary film, The Melody Maids Movie: Morals, Manners and Music, by Kai Jai Conner and Doug Forrest.

Several former members and performers have connections with Â鶹ӳ»­Ó°Òô. One thing Distinguished Alumna Becky (Dickson) Mason ’71 remembers about her time in the Maids from 1965 to 1970 is how tiring it was for the teenage girls. “We sang at officer’s clubs, several shows a day back-to-back,” she said. “It was a lot of work, singing, smiling and being friendly. We were exhausted.”

Mason counted herself fortunate to go on a trip to the Far East. “I can just remember in Japan we were all in our costumes and high heels, constantly on our feet doing back-to-back shows. One day Eloise said it would be okay for us to wear our low heels and we thought we had died and gone to heaven!”

Even with the hectic pace, Mason said the young ladies not only had fun but also believed in the importance of what they were doing. “We were proud to have an opportunity for people from home to say thank you to our servicemen and bring them a taste of home,” she said.

Mason held one of the earliest screenings of the Melody Maids movie at her home in Beaumont. “I was very pleased with how it turned out,” she said. “I was amazed that someone was interested in our story. I’m so proud that it will be around forever!

“We knew we were making memories, but we didn’t know we were making history,” Mason said.

Distinguished Alumna Bette Stead, a 1957 Lamar graduate, recalled the early days from 1952 to 1959, when the group was performing locally and raising money themselves to travel to local Army bases.

“Finally, our group was discovered by the Department of Defense, and opportunities opened to make longer tours to isolated areas,” Stead said.

Toward the end of the Korean War, the young ladies visited a hospital in California where there were many badly wounded soldiers. “We were the first American girls they had seen since leaving the U.S. Many times we would hear, ‘She looks just like my girl back home in Indiana’ or ‘I’ve got a daughter with hair that color.’”

It was difficult, but Stead said Milam had taught them not to ask the patients what was wrong with them, but to talk about where they were from and relate to them. “We learned to keep walking, standing, smiling, singing or chatting pleasantly no matter how we felt,” she said.

Stead was part of what she called an “unusual tour” in 1954 to Greenland, Newfoundland, Baffin Island, Labrador and Iceland. “We tried to get to as many of the radar sites and weather stations as possible because these were really isolated spots,” Stead said. “One night we traveled up a fjord to sing at a weather station for 36 men and a collie.”

Carol Eddins, a Lamar friend and donor, was a Melody Maid from 1966 to 1971 and came to the group via her mother.

“My mom was in it,” Eddins said. “She was one of the original group in 1942 that started selling war bonds. She always talked about it and wanted her daughters to have the same experience.”

Eddins said the programs were fun but emphasized that the Melody Maids weren’t just a choir. “We were different from some of the other groups that just sang. We entertained them. And we spent time in the hospitals. It was hard to see; their sacrifice was obvious. But we learned not to be sad, but to have compassion.”

Eddins was one of the former Maids interviewed in the movie. “All of the narrators in the film were from different times in the Maids, but we all had similar stories, especially about Eloise and her leadership,” she said.

“She was small in stature but knew how to command attention,” Eddins said. “But I’m so happy that the film will keep her story going! It is bringing awareness of Melody Maids and the 1,500 girls across three decades who performed for 1 million service men.”

Constance (Rienstra) Joiner, who attended Lamar in 1955 and 1956, was also interviewed for the film about her time in the Melody Maids, 1950 to 1956. “My mom had been friends with Eloise since high school, and I had been going to the yearly concerts since I was a little girl,” she said.

Joiner was part of a tour of bases in the Caribbean.

“It was exhausting. It seemed like all we did was sing and travel. But it was such a unique time period. We went to Cuba before Castro, Haiti during the turmoil of Papa Doc. There was a dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica was still British,” she said.

Joiner recalled her time with the Melody Maids as being “good training for life,” and the skills she learned served her well in a career in public office in Colorado. “I learned how to talk to people, how to learn from them,” she said. “I’m eternally grateful.”

Joiner was also included in the film and said it was a fascinating experience to have the crew come to her house in Colorado.

Distinguished Alumna Patricia Adams ’70, a former Lamar regent and Melody Maid from 1953 to 1966, came to the singing group on the heels of her elder sister. “My sister was a Melody Maid, so I had to be too! We knew Eloise from church, and my sister and I and one of our neighborhood friends all joined,” she said.

Adams started as a Mini Maid at age 3, then rose to Junior Maid and finally full Melody Maid. She said she loved singing with a group, but not so much as a solo. “You had to be prepared because Eloise would sometimes suddenly call a girl up to sing a solo! ‘Be Ready’ was a real life lesson that Eloise taught us,” Adams said.

She also taught the girls to respect other cultures. “She said we should embrace the culture, try to understand why they do things the way they do,” Adams recalled.

Adams said she is happy to see Eloise recognized and celebrated. “The Melody Maids were the most requested entertainment for the Armed Forces, more than Bob Hope!”

Adams was one of the five former members interviewed for the movie. “It was amazing! A huge crew came to my home, and there was lighting set up and hours of filming,” she said.

Although the Melody Maids were an all-girl choir, being connected to them did more than give young ladies wonderful memories At least one young man was able to join in the adventures.

Jerry Conn, a member of the LU President’s Circle, grew up with Milam’s son, Bucky Milam. “Bucky was a musician, and I was a song and dance man. We had a little Vaudeville act,” Conn said.

Eloise asked the boys to join the show and accompany the Maids. From 1953 to 1955, Conn traveled to military bases in California and Hawaii.

Along with Bette Stead, Conn also has clear memories of the remarkable trip to Greenland. “We went to the Arctic Circle to the Northeast Air Command; it was absolutely the middle of nowhere,” he said.

One chilly night on a tugboat ride to an Air Force base, Conn said most of the group fell asleep deep in the hold of the ship, but he spent some time up on deck talking to a pretty girl. “It was my first case of ‘puppy love,’” he said.

It was a mountainous area, and Conn recalled that one day “clever Bucky” decided to jump off a hill and broke his leg. “He was on crutches the rest of the trip. But he kept on going. And that’s how Eloise was too, just keep on going. And she lived to be 100!”

Conn saw the Melody Maids movie and “loved it all.” And he’s still a song and dance man, lending his talents to retirement homes in the Austin area.

Cadence thanks Tyrrell Historical Library Digital Collections for access to its Melody Maids Collection.