Pattons to reign as Grand Marshals of Chautauqua parade

Doyle and Darlene Patton have been selected as grand marshals of the 20th annual Chautauqua parade which will start rolling at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 17, rain or shine.

Doyle was born in St. Joseph. After graduating from Lafayette High School in 1949, he entered the Marine Corps and was assigned to boot camp at San Diego, Calif. Darlene was born in East Alton, Ill. By way of St. Petersburg and Colorado Springs, her family eventually moved to San Diego. That’s how the two came to be in the same port city in 1950.

Darlene literally fell for Doyle.

Doyle was on the beach sunbathing with some buddies. Darlene was with some other girls on the beach when she stumbled over a sand dune and fell on the 18-year-old Marine. “I thought he was the biggest smart aleck I’d ever met in my life,” said Darlene.

Doyle told his friends. “If she behaves, I’m going to marry her.” Getting married was definitely part of their future plans.

Doyle went to Korea in July. He and Darlene kept up a correspondence. Doyle returned from Korea and came into the port at San Diego specifically to see Darlene in March of 1951. He had orders for Charleston, S.C.

Now the young couple wanted to get married right away.

“We wore my mom and dad down,” says Darlene. She was 16 years old, still in school, and had to get permission to get married. Getting permission wasn’t easy. She wasn’t allowed to date servicemen. She didn’t know how to cook and her mother hadn’t wanted to teach her any of those domestic arts because she didn’t want Darlene to get married young, like she had.

Her brother told Doyle: “I hope you like French toast and tuna salad sandwiches.” Her folks didn’t even want to meet Doyle. Darlene wanted Doyle to come out for dinner, but her mom said no.

Darlene’s father was originally from the Cape Girardeau area, so Darlene told her, “But, mom, he’s from Missouri.”

Her mother said: “That’s no recommendation. So was Jesse James, Harry Truman and your father!”

Her folks gave in to their wishes and Doyle and Darlene were married in April of 1951 at the Fairmount Baptist Church in San Diego. They were married one week before Doyle left for Charleston. Darlene stayed in San Diego to finish high school. Both Doyle and Darlene have taken higher education courses through the years.

“Everyone thought it would never last,” laughs Darlene. “We were married 54 years in April.”

“Like typical military families, we had four boys, and they were all born in different places,” say the Pattons.

Michael was born in August of 1952 in San Diego. He retired from the army after 24 years as a warrant officer. He is now in Virginia. Steven was born at Camp LeJeune in Jacksonville, N.C, in 1957. He did a hitch in the Air Force. He now lives in Gallatin. Kelly was born in 1960 in the Republic of Phillippines where the family lived for three years. He served in the Marine Corps. He lives in San Diego on the water’s edge. Craig was born in 1963 in Key West, Fla. Craig had asthma and did not serve in the military. He lives in Independence

“It was a wonderful experience to live in so many different places,” says Darlene.

And it was a good cultural education for the children. By the time Michael was nine years old he began to really notice the difference in how people lived from just driving out of the base. Once, while they were visiting a place in the Phillippines where poor people lived in mud huts on stilts, Michael put into words what the whole family frequently felt: “We are so lucky to live in the United States.”

The Pattons lived in Maryland twice, in Camp Pendleton; North Carolina; and north Virginia, each for two years. Darlene and the children lived in Hawaii for two years while Doyle was in Vietnam. “The Marine Corps is like a family. You run into people all the time that you know from different bases.”

Doyle, a communications specialist, was in active duty in the Marine Corps for 21 years and was in the fleet reserve for nine years for a total of 30 years of service. He retired as a captain.

He was among the first Marines to go into Korea in 1950. He came back from Korea in March of 1951. He was among the first Marines to go into Vietnam, too. He went in January of 1966. He was there 13 months.

In Vietnam Doyle received the bronze star with V for Valor; in Korea he received the purple heart. Like so many veterans Doyle just doesn’t talk about war. Of Vietnam, Doyle says it was a “typical war” and of Korea he says “That was a typical war, too.”

The couple’s military life was spent in the years before satellite communications brought instant messages. “We had no e-mail or telephones to stay in touch,” says Darlene. One of her first contacts with Doyle when he was in Vietnam was through a ham radio operator. She got the call at four in the morning.

Darlene would box up Tang and ice tea to send to Doyle when he was in Vietnam because he couldn’t stand the purified water the marines were required to drink. She would send him camera film and squeeze cheese. “You’d be surprised how much you get in a little box.”

For Darlene, one of the most distressing things about being a military mom came while Doyle was still serving in Vietnam. Reporters began taking advantage of technology to transmit the news instantaneously. The constant and graphic coverage made Kelly, 5, literally sick.

“They talked about the dead and wounded and prisoners and he thought he’d never see his dad again,” says Darlene. Darlene got to where she wouldn’t turn the TV on until Kelly had gone to bed and if he walked in while it was on, to push the off button.

The Pattons love to travel and they have done a lot of it. They were in Europe while Mike was stationed in Germany. They visited Germany, France, England, Austria and Switzerland. They’ve been to Japan and Hong Kong, Canada, Aruba, Mexico, and Costa Rica. They took a trip to Alaska for their 50th anniversary.

They have been in 47 states. Last year they took a trip through the Panama Canal, starting from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and up to Los Angeles. “Doyle wrote a paper in high school about how the Panama Canal was built. He said if he ever got a chance he wanted to go.”

Darlene said she was glad they went when they did because it was shortly after they got home that Doyle found out he had cancer of the esophagus. By that time in their life Gallatin was home.

Doyle is an only child. His mother lived in St. Joseph. His father had a sister and brother-in-law that lived in Hamilton and he’d bought a farm south of Gallatin in 1968. After Doyle retired, he was on a plane to Missouri every three or four months to check on one or the other of his parents.

The family was together at the farm over the Christmas holiday in 1976. The kids thought their folks should move there. So Doyle and Darlene sold the bookkeeping and tax service they had in San Diego, and Doyle bought the farm from his father. They lived on the farm until 10 years ago when they moved into the town of Gallatin.

Doyle presently serves as east ward alderman for the city of Gallatin. He is a member and past president of both the Gallatin Rotary Club and the Gallatin Lions Club. He is past president of the Senior Center Board. He is past commander and past quarter master and a life member of the VFW; a member of American Legion; and a life member of the Military Officers Association of America.

Darlene is a member and past president of the Daviess County Business Women’s Association. She will be president next year and submits their news items to press and does their monthly newsletter. She is a member of the local VFW Auxiliary, Post 2172. She is secretary for the local post and treasurer for District #1. Darlene was a member of the military wives’ club. This club helped with scholarships for children to continue in school. Members also helped the newly married Marines’ wives become accustomed to military life. She has been an election judge for about 20 years.

“It doesn’t matter whether you live in the Philippines or San Diego, when you have kids, you’ve got all the same things to do.” When their children were small Doyle coached and Darlene kept score for Little League. Darlene was also a cub scout den mother. They were adult advisors for the teen club; and belonged to the PTA and Boosters.

After retirement, they have been active delivering meals on wheels for the senior citizens center. They attend the First Baptist Church in Gallatin and Darlene also coordinates its Meals on Wheels program.

Doyle and Darlene have 11 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren with one set of twins. They are scattered all over the country. Katie Patton, who is a senior this year at Gallatin R-5, is the only grandchild they have been around all of her life.

After living in Gallatin for 27 years, Doyle and Darlene say it has become home to them. They miss some of the activities of the city, but are more comfortable in a small town after living most of their military years on small bases.

“We were very surprised when we were asked to be this year’s grand marshals,” say Doyle and Darlene. “We both consider it a great honor.”