My journey through the annals of Life continues apace. The magazine that is. I’ve now reached August 1955, the month and year of my birth. What keeps it interesting I suppose is finding tidbits of long forgotten stories and then trying to discern what happened next. Okay, so I’m easily entertained. But let me share a sad tale from the August 15 issue.
Life did a short feature on a group of American airmen who were shot down over China during the Korean war and had been imprisoned as spies ever since. They were finally released after years of negotiations between two hostile governments . One of these was Airman 2/c Daniel Schmidt.
An unlucky flyer, but things could be always be worse. And then they were.
While sad sack Schmidt was enduring years of Chinese torture, his lovely redheaded bride Una, who was also the mother of the child Schmidt had never seen, had remarried to a local lumberjack by the name of Alford Fine. Schmidt was understandably distraught to learn this news upon his return to the U.S. and promptly filed for divorce.
Things then got rather messy as local news accounts of the time portrayed. Una moved out of Alford’s trailer home and desperately sought reconciliation with Schmidt. Schmidt, however, was not in a forgiving mood. Meanwhile, the local sheriff pursued an investigation into whether Una was guilty of bigamy. The Air Force insisted it had notified Una that her husband was still alive in China prior to her remarriage, but Una denied it. It appeared the woman with two husbands might soon wind up with none.
Finally, Schmidt’s mother intervened and arranged a meeting between the two star crossed lovers. And when Schmidt saw Una, he fell in love all over again.
The newly reunited family makes an appearance on the Art Linkletter show.
It was a tale worthy of Hollywood, except for the happy ending part. As this outstanding blog post recounts, Una and Schmidt divorced in 1960 and Daniel died in 1962 of a broken heart. Well, during open heart surgery anyway. He was 31.
Thirty-one and undergoing open-heart surgery? I’m going to guess this was due to complication from whatever torture he had experienced while a prisoner of the Chinese.
What a life, eh? Shorter than Jesus’.
Yeah, the news accounts seem to indicate he never fully recovered from his ordeal at the hands of the Chinese. And 31 is definitely not enough to make up for his lost time as a prisoner. As I grow older I’m increasingly aware that whatever time we are allotted here on earth never seems to be quite enough.