Reconstructing what happened to my mother on the campus of West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia in April 1946 seems best done in segments. These various elements converge together into a bigger narrative.

At the end of this piece I will reference the narrative composed by my mother’s siblings used on an admission form to the Weston State Hospital on April 5, 1946. I don’t know how her brother, Robert, arrived at this information but I imagine it represented some type of “collective synopsis” of the views of the entire sibling group (and may have included my grandfather, too).

As I try to unravel the truth of what happened, I find myself trying to take a more neutral, generous view of the retroactive situation. Clearly, when my mother was older she was mentally ill and had unusual pursuits and belief systems. But I must wonder about the motives and intentions (based on her diary notations) of the Linger family toward her.

I must wonder just how different my mother’s behavior was from other young women of that time, or how much it departed from the behavior of her other family members. And then of course, to understand my mother and her behavior at that time, we must understand the possible reasons my mother held different dreams and goals from other siblings, and simultaneously, how she held many of the same dreams and goals as other siblings. In fact, perhaps my mother had even bigger dreams than they had–and because they were already on their own life courses (several already having college degrees)–the retroactive telling of my mother’s young life is complicated.

In the hospital admission (I will put these records at the very end of this piece), there are two separate mentions that my mother sent a lengthy telegram costing $5 to Walter Winchell. So, I wondered…who is Walter Winchell?

Walter Winchell biography and timeline

Walter Winchell papers1920-1967

“Walter Winchell was not only the forefather of gossip columnists, but he also dished the dirt with such style and wit that even the libel attorneys couldn’t touch him. He did so by making up his own words and by delivering his scoops at an average of 197 words per minute! Here are just a few terms from the American vernacular created by Winchell.”
– 15 Terms Popularized by Walter Winchell

Being a person who loves words and word play–and unique words that aptly articulate–I can imagine how this quality and innovativeness that characterized Walter Winchell would have appealed to someone like my mother. In fact, my mother had taken a trip to NYC during high school to visit the 1939 World’s Fair, where she won first or second place in a typing contest. (I want to research this more).

My mother may have seen things while in NYC at that young age that ignited dreams and ambitions in her that were foreign to her siblings, contributing to the potential for them to consider her “peculiar.” I can well-believe she had a mind for wordplay.

Here are some of the words/phrases Walter Winchell was known for, with their meanings in the link above:

1. Scram
2. G-Man
3. Pushover
4. Uh-Huh; Pashing It; Garboing It; Trouser Crease Eraser
5. Cupiding; Making Whoopee
6. Middle Aisle It; Altar It; Sealed; Handcuffed
7. Blessed Event; Infanticipate; Get Storked
8. Reno-vated; Tell It to a Judge; Curdled
9. Keptive
10. Orange Juice Gulch
11. A New York Heartbeat
12. Giggle Water
13. Flicker
14. Swaticooties; Pink Stinkos; Chicagorillas
15. Ratzis

For those interested, here are two previous pieces I wrote, as related segments to telling my mother’s story of that time:

MY MOTHER’S CODED DIARY MESSAGE MADE THE TRANSLATOR BREAK OUT IN A SMILE WHEN SHE FIGURED IT OUT!

WHEN PECULIAR PEOPLE DECIDE THAT YOU ARE ACTING PECULIAR!

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This seems a good place to pause and invite readers here to watch this interesting overview/video that answers that question

The next logical questions would be:

1. Was it unusual for Mr. Winchell to receive fan mail and telegrams of various sorts in those days?

2. How many words might a “lengthy telegram” be that cost $5 in 1946.

Awhile back a friend was helping me “sleuth” this out and provided the following results!

My friend wrote:
“Quick Google search had 1 Canadian dollar equaling 0.73 US dollar. This is current exchange rate, not the 1946 rate.

Inflation for Canada takes 0.37 to 5.95 in today’s currency. Inflation for US makes the $5 telegram cost $75.94 in today’s currency.

1. All calculations will be done using modern rates so: 10 words for 5.95 would make it about 0.60 per word.
2. Cost per word in the US is about 0.82 per word.
3. Dividing total cost by word cost, the telegram your mother sent Walter Winchell would have been about 93 words.”

According to Wikipedia’s Telegram style, “The average length of a telegram in the 1900s in the US was 11.93 words; more than half of the messages were 10 words or fewer.”

In this article How Long is the “The Long Telegram?” we learn the following:

“In Cold War history, many cite George Kennan’s “Long Telegram” as its epistolary beginning. Composed while serving as chargé d’affaires in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in February 1946, he wrote the telegram to explain to his State Department colleagues why the Soviets–who had been our ally against the Nazis during the recently won Second World War–would not cooperate with the United States in the post-war world. It was circulated widely in Washington policy circles and ultimately led to Kennan’s recognition as one of the “wise men” of foreign policy during the Truman administration.”

My mother was a very intelligent woman and in later years exhibited odd behaviors of thinking she had “solved” national crimes by reading old, lurid tabloids like True Detective and then contacting local authorities–even the FBI–with her insights. A neighbor who was a state trooper during the 1970’s once told me that “Down at RECOM they called her ‘Agent 99′” or something to that effect. In the 70’s my mother was also a big fan of The National Enquirer and other such gossip tabloids that in part can be traced back to the influences of Walter Winchell.

We must pause just a moment to contemplate how much my mother’s behavior at that time departed from “normal.” The fact that in that day, just as in today, a number of people follow different sources of information and various publications and shows–regardless of how we deem them to be in terms of legitimacy–makes me want to be more generous in my retroactive view that she was doing something worthy of what her siblings did to her that April 1946.

Awhile back I made an attempt to sleuth out and see if there might be any archives of telegrams Mr. Winchell received (I would have hit the jackpot of my mother’s telegram/content existed somewhere on microfilm!) but of course, I made little headway in that. I also attempted to find out if it was typical for young women who might be in a type of “fan love” with Mr. Winchell to send him telegrams.

Again, didn’t get far on that!

I did learn that Mr. Winchell also starred in movies before he rose up into his radio show. I watched an old clip from black-and-white movie with him in it and indeed, he was portrayed as an attractive love figure. How many young women in the 1980’s to 1990’s might have sent some type of message via email or otherwise to someone like Brad Pitt?

Here is a clip from a movie Mr. Winchell starred in, for those trivia-interested!

The interesting thing I noticed about Mr. Winchell’s appearance comes from my “artist’s eye” for portraiture/facial features. In the photo clip below, the side view of Mr. Winchell in some ways reminds me of a look that my father had. Whether there is any connection or not in whether my mother was attracted to my father in part based on this, I will never know.

My mother’s diaries from that time period are filled with references to many young men–at one point she even makes a long list of her “boyfriends.” Was this typical and normal? Were these really boyfriends or just various single men she had her eye one? I don’t know!

But, I suppose if I thought about my own high school and college years, I could make a long list as well of a number of males I was attracted to or had various interactions with ranging from actual “dates” (or simply “hanging out” in some way on campus) to one college fella I liked who played guitar in our campus group. I remember asking him/paying him for guitar lessons in his dorm room (he was teaching others) not just because I wanted to learn more guitar but because I thought he was cute and all kinds of interesting/attractive in his personality! (ha ha…I didn’t take but a few lessons…)

In trying to retroactively get into my mother’s head, so-to-speak, I must remind myself that this was WWII. My mother’s “boyfriend” list includes service men she met at USO Dances. There were slews of young women at that time who took advantage of these social events to meet soldiers on leave stateside. My mother apparently corresponded with some of them–including my father, whom she met at a movie theatre in Hagerstown, MD while he was on such leave.

My mother told the story as follows (paraphrased):

“I saw Rodney across in the movie theatre. He was all clean-shaven in his uniform, and handsome. After the movie, I caught him on the street corner to ask directions about which bus to take back home. (I’m not sure where she was living/going). I pretended to be confused, and then Rodney said he would drive me back, that he was going that way.”

From letters I have, I conclude that my father must have taken her to their home, too, and interacted with her. My mother was writing letters after that not only with my father, Rodney, but with his sister, Ruth. The letters appear to be of a normal nature–back in that time, people kept in touch and spoke of life and news through letters just as much as people use social media and emails today.

As for her “boyfriend” list (below) she indicates she met some of these at dances in Paris, TN. So as I piece together information from the hospital admission narrative, the “Catholic man” (Victor Vance, whom my mother spoke of often after my father’s death and actually was in touch with…I have cards he sent her from that time period and indications he sent her flowers, too. I don’t know how she reached him–I believe he also was a widower–nor if he really still felt something for her or just wanted to make her feel special from afar. We will never really know.

The TVA–where my mother was working full-time and trying/planning/wanting to go back to college, later ending up at West Virginia University–is located in Knoxville, TN. I do recall a story my mother told about living there; she encountered a grizzly bear somewhat near a vehicle she was in, or she/they ran back to a vehicle. It appears Paris, TN is about 4.5 hours from Knoxville. I suppose young people in those days carpooled to USO dances, possibly, and I recall seeing various entries about riding with others.

Paris, TN to Buckhannon, WV is almost 9 hours, and Knoxille, TN to Buckhannon is almost six hours. For those following this narrative, this seems something to hold in mind.

In conclusion to this segment, my main point is that although perhaps there was some valid concern about the sum total of the things written on the hospital narrative that this one element involving a telegram to Walter Winchell is needing individual focus…and in my next segment that is closely related to this piece…I will examine my mother’s interest in the “Catholic” man.

The title will be, “What Happens in the Linger Family When You Are In Love With A Catholic Man.”

And with that, here are some fun YouTube re-enactments of USO Dances, followed by the trailer for a 1998 film called Winchell, which I watched awhile back and found very interesting!

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Footnotes (Weston Hospital Records, with some highlighting in red–these statements will be the basis of a few other in-depth segments in this series. I hope that those reading will hold these thoughts but know that I think there is more to the story than this seems to be, through various diary entries. Many reading may understand “gaslighting” and that is a possibility I want to raise–whether or not her siblings may have gaslighted her in various ways beginning with her move to Knoxville. My mother indicates in her diary that Robert showed up there in 1945 and she makes retroactive notations that they were meddling in her affairs to “bring her back north.” Why? Why would they want her back north? And, was my grandfather actually in “good health” at this time? He was eventually moved to Frederick, MD to be cared for by Ora and Mabel, as I understand things. More to come…)

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(Above) It appears from other notations below that my mother was signed out of this hospital (and why?) for one single day and then re-admitted. There is a signature by her brother, Robert, as well as her father, my grandfather John Curry Linger. I have speculatory questions about this that I plan to address in another segment which will be titled “A Sunken Upper Lip, Sunday-Best and a 1946 Chevrolet”.

External Appearance:
The patient is a well developed and under nourished 22 year old woman with brown hair, brown eyes, and athletic type of physique. Normal station and gait.

Head:
Head is normal in size and shape. Symmetrical with no deformities and no excesses. North growth of hair.

Eyes:
Ocular muscles symmetrically good. No ________. No ________. Pupils normal in size and shape, reacting well to light and accommodation. Vision normal.

Ears:
Normal in size and shape. No obstruction of canal and no discharge.

Nose:
____ clear. No congestion of mucous membrane, and no bony obstruction or discharge.

Mouth and Throat:
Teeth in fair condition with few missing. _____ clear. Tonsils not infected. Tongue not coated and protrudes in mid line. No slurring or other major speech defect.

_____:
No enlargement of thyroid or any other _____, and no ______ enlargement.

_____:
Normal in size and shape, symmetrical and __________________…..

(last parts very hard to read)

Reason for Admission:
Margaret Ruth Linger was admitted to the Weston State Hospital on April 5, 1946 as a voluntary patient from Upshur County because she was excited.

History:
there is no history of nervous or mental diseases in the patient’s family. Her father, John C., is a 69 year old farmer in good health. Her mother, Mary Effie Carter, died of heart trouble. Six brothers and three sisters are well physically.

She was born in Upshur County, West Virginia on October 21, 1923. Birth and early development are said to be normal. She was considered a normal but nervous child. She completed one year in College and has made good adjustment. Temperamentally, she was known to be a serious minded and suspicious person. She has worked for the T.V.A. And was steadily promoted during the past three years.

She has not habitually used liquor or drugs.

She is single.

Present Illness:
During the past two years the patient often acted in a peculiar manner. She became grandiosed in her ideas and spent excessive amounts of money in clothing. She started to feel important in the office and gradually became over talkative. In March 1946, she seemed more excited and sent Walter Winchell a long telegram which cost her $5.00. She was also in love at one time with a Catholic man, working in the same office. Recently she became to thinking the the F.B.I. men were after her.

Examination:
Physical examination shows that she is a small developed and under nourished 22 year old woman with brown hair and brown eyes and athletic type of physique. There are no abnormal findings in her respiratory, digestive and circulatory systems. B.P. 120/80.

Neurological examination shows entirely normal findings including symmetrical facios with no ptosis, regular, equal and normally reacting pupils. Tongue in midline with no tremor, normal sensory and deep tendon reflexes, normal cromasteric and abdominal reflexes. No ankle Clonus, Babinski, or Rombery signs.

Abstract of history:
April 10, 1946
Psychiactric examination shows that she has been extremely excited emotionally but her memory and sensorium are good. Very little information could be obtained from her, however, she is too irritable and too uncooperative in answering questions. She has spent days at a time shouting, screaming, and destroying anything within her reach, but she was not really assaultive. She kept talking about the F.B.I.men seemed to be spying on her and that some newspapers were preparing stories about her. It could not be ascertained if she is grandiosed or if she really has delusions of persecution, but she has consequently denied hallucinations. She also shows some tendency to misidentify persons. Judgment and insight are both defective. Picture is pre-dominantly one of extreme manic excitement.

Diagnosis offered:
Manic Depressive Psychosis / Manic Excitement

Prognosis:
Poor as it is a possibility of physical exhaustion.

Treatments Suggested:
Sedative, Hydrotherapy, and Shock Therapy

(From other form filled out)

Tell us everything about the patient’s nervousness before he came to the hospital:

She was over ambitious – worked too long hrs in school and in T.V.A. Office. Did more than she was supposed to in T.V.A. At University last March she sent Walter Winchell long telegram cost $5.00. She was in love with Catholic T.V.A. Man who was begging her to get married. His name was Victor about whom she talked continually until recently. Now she seems to forget all these things.

Margaret has done dozen small peculiar things in past yr or two which shows she has gradually become mentally unbalanced.

(Above) Hydrotherapy at the old Weston Hospital
Patients were submerged/restrained in tubs of ice cold water in hopes of “calming them down”

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For Further Reading:
The Art of Abandonment (Trans-Alleghany Lunatic Asylum)

“What are the horrors of electroshock therapy?

Serious complications are rare, and memory disturbances are the most problematic side effect. Typically, these memory problems fade with time—although there have been cases where they’ve persisted and had a substantial negative effect on patients’ lives.” – THE DISTURBING STORY OF THE FIRST USE OF ELECTROCONVULSIVE THERAPY