No dents on this Denton

Pardon the headline wordplay, but at age 100 (with 101 approaching next month) the celebrated Sara [Katherine Pittard] Denton has lived a life with few dents along the way.

Old-timers in town have known her for many of her dynamic years, and younger residents who read this newspaper have recently been treated to printed glimpses of her amazing life.

There are many avenues in her history. I am honored in this column to zero in on her direct connection with World War II. For the most part, individuals of her generation were all involved in the war or the war effort. Denton was 17 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, solidifying our nation’s entrance into the world’s conflict. Denton’s connection to war began early. She heard stories about her father’s twin brother who’d been killed in World War I.

“My father only mentioned their early childhood experiences with the entire family, and early school experiences.” So she could only imagine her uncle having fought in World War I, but when World War II began, one of her own brothers was immediately drafted, bringing military life close to home. She explained that his being called up “was a serious concern for the whole family,” echoing what millions of other families were saying about their loved ones entering the military. But enter they did, proudly defending the United States against its enemies. Soon in her own way, Denton would join their ranks.

After high school she enrolled at the University of Southern Illinois.

“But before the year was up the Army took over the campus to train troops,” she explained. That indirectly served to draw her ever closer to her World War II future. “My mother read in the newspaper that a government recruiter was going to be on the campus recruiting girls for jobs with the U.S. Army Signal Corps in Washington. She thought it would be a great experience for me to sign up.”

And mom was so right. Kentucky-born Denton took a train to Louisville, transferred to a D.C. train, and arrived at the District’s Union Station. “It was filled with Army, Navy and Marines, and long lines of civilians heading toward a sign” directing them to Signal Corps registration. Then fate entered her life in a curious way. “The line was moving very slowly when suddenly an older lady came down the line and said she’d take me. It turned out that when she got to the head of the line, she had to pick a roommate due to the housing shortage.” The lady was 30 years old, and Denton was only 19, but “She was a Godsend because she was like a mother to me.”

Once registered, the pair were sent to Arlington, Virginia and when settled, they went to work for the Signal Corps in a converted girls school. Denton joined hundreds of girls at rows of tables in a former gymnasium and began training to learn how to break Japanese codes. She recalls it was extremely tedious and slow-going, After awhile the pair moved from their original boarding room to a nicer home behind the Statler Hotel “just a few blocks from the White House.” The owner worked for the State Department, and her home was located close to the White House. Denton’s room was on the second floor overlooking an alley behind the hotel.

“When President Roosevelt had to address an event in the hotel, they would bring him into the alley in his wheelchair and push him onto the service elevator so the public wouldn’t see that he was crippled. We’d open our bedroom window and yell “Hi, Mr. President!” and he’d wave and tip his hat!” In addition, Denton recalls taking walks and seeing Vice President Harry Truman on his morning strolls without security. “I’ve thought about the security around the president these days compared to what it was like when we’d hang out the window to call out to FDR!”

One thing that is certain about all wars, is that they all come to an end, and Denton’s role as a code girl was soon to be over.

“One afternoon in 1945 there were loud screams throughout” her workplace. “Everyone was shouting and yelling because we had just broken the Japanese code, and the Japanese were surrendering!” As the war was ending, some soldiers scheduled to be shipped overseas were placed on hold. The ex-code girl met one such individual, Ralph Lloyd Denton, and struck up conversations while they rode a daily bus. Soon they were dating and dancing and in 1949 they were married.

Space does not permit me to write more about how Denton’s life entwined with World War II, except to relay one of her more important quotes: “If it hadn’t been for the war, I never would have known and married my husband, who was not only the love of my life, but the father of my children. Every day until his death, and now after his death, I cherish the memories of the war that brought us together.” For some, the horrible war did have a silver lining.