The Face in the Meringue

Millions of U.S. citizens have heard of her--at second hand. No one ever quite catches her name. She is a large-bosomed, pushing, middle-aged woman, a shade too richly dressed. She has popped up on a streetcar in Schenectady, N.Y., a cocktail bar in Detroit, a bus in Houston, a Manhattan shoestore. She always remarks, in a loud, smug voice, that the war is making her prosperous and she hopes it goes on & on. At this point, a patriotic woman bystander lets go with a well-aimed umbrella, handbag, or whatever is handy.

Fortnight ago, this far-famed World War II legend-with-a-happy-ending popped up again, with embellishments. From St. Joseph, Mo., the U.S. Army's Stars & Stripes picked up a news dispatch which solemnly described a scene in a bakery. This time, the overdressed woman said: "I hope the war lasts a while longer so we can pay off our mortgage." Said a patriotic woman bystander to the clerk: "Forget the cake. Give me a lemon-meringue pie and don't wrap it." Then she let fly.

Stars & Stripes' G.I. readers in Occupied Germany were entranced by the picture of the loudmouthed woman with a face full of meringue. Last week, 64 of them asked New York Herald Tribune Correspondent Lewis Gannett to find the St. Joseph pie-wielder, tell her to get on with her good work. They collected $7.50 to buy bigger and squashier lemon pies.

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