JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – When Lois Talburt and her sister lost their 19-year-old brother in World War II, they decided to channel their grief into action.
They signed up to be WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), a women-only reserve unit of the Navy established in 1942.
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The decision sent Lois’ life in a whole new direction.
Lois said it was her sister’s idea to join up after they worked repairing damaged bombers in Missouri. The duo signed their names at the top of the Statue of Liberty, and then said goodbye.
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While Lois was stationed at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, her sister was sent to the base in San Diego. She told her family they were separated because of what happened with the Sullivan brothers.
The five brothers -- George, Francis, Joseph, Madison, and Albert -- aged 20 to 27, all died when the light cruiser USS Juneau was sunk by a Japanese submarine in November 1942.
So Lois was sent to serve in Jacksonville without her family.
But she would soon make her own.
Lois told her family that when she arrived in Florida and checked in at NAS Jacksonville, a chief petty officer pointed to a man and said, “You report to him.”
Six weeks later she married that same man, Jimmy Day.
Lois Talburt Day told her family that she was always proud she had been a part of the Navy, and she continued her service as a military spouse for the next 28 years.
The Days were stationed at three local bases over the decades: NAS Jacksonville, Naval Station Mayport and Cecil Field.
Jimmy Day was one of the first group of Hurricane Hunters for the Navy before the job was taken over by NOAA.
Lois and Jimmy watched Jacksonville grow -- she remembered when Roosevelt Boulevard was a dirt road -- and made it home for good in 1959.
Lois worked at a fiberglass factory in town and was named the Queen of Fiberglass when she retired. The couple also owned a boat store on Blanding Boulevard.
After six decades of marriage, they are now buried together at Jacksonville National Cemetery.
A love story that never would have been, if not for the WAVES.
