CityView Magazine

all this ramping up for war, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced the creation of the USO to boost morale among our troops. And Fayetteville embraced the mission. "Everybody was involved in the same effort," recalled Zula's 82-year-old brother, Scott Mc- Fadyen. He was too young to join the ranks as the world became wrapped in war, but he whiled away many an hour, and turned many a page in Life Maga- zine, at the USO Club in Fayetteville. His father, James Scott McFadyen, was the city's mayor; his mother volunteered at the USO as a hostess. "I got to hang around guys that were just three or four years older," he said, referring to soldiers from Fort Bragg. "It was just a-happenin' in this small town. We'd find a GI walking the street and take him home for Sunday dinner." And there's one image etched in his mind like a soldier's name on a dog tag: "It's of see- ing the convoys roll through town, on their way out toward Wilmington, on their way out." On their way out to the Rhineland, to Normandy, to the Bulge, to the Bataan, to Guadalcanal. "They were waving and hollering to everybody, particularly when they'd see a girl." USO clubs sprang up in more than 3,000 communities across the country and on bases around the world, with a charge to become the G.I.'s "Home Away From Home" – its slogan of the day. ("Until Everyone Comes Home" is its modern modification). From 1941 to 1947, the USO presented more than 428,000 performances in its so-called Camp Shows. Bob Hope became legend- ary – indeed craſted his comic identity – with his stand-up routines for the troops. But across the home front, in store fronts and back buildings, entertainers were of- ten the guy or girl next door. Like a 16-year-old girl taking piano lessons. AN ENCORE FOR THE PIANO GIRL A year or so aſter Reggie Barton leſt Fayetteville, completing officer candi- date school and flight training, he got his first assignment: Fort Bragg. He would be putting war-bound soldiers through basic training. Maybe he'd get to see Zula again. BUSINESS LAW AND LITIGATION | CONTRACT LAW AND LITIGATION | MUNICIPAL LAW ADMINISTRATIVE LAW | CORPORATE FORMATION AND GOVERNANCE | COLLECTIONS REAL PROPERTY LAW AND LITIGATION | PERSONAL INJURY | WILLS AND ESTATE 400 Westwood Shopping Center, Suite 210 (Player Office Building) Fayetteville, NC 28314 | 910-426-5291 | www.lonnieplayerlaw.com CityViewNC.com | 55 "She was old enough for me to date her then," he said. Zula not only had a memorable first name, she had a respectable last name – "her daddy was mayor of Fayetteville!" Zula and Reggie began to spend a lot of time together, even courting each other from the very sofa on which I sat for my interview with them. "I dated her right fre- quently then." Aſter the war, he leſt the Army and decided to take the mayor's daughter as his bride. He proposed back in his home state of Alabama from the back seat of a car (another couple sat in the front). "I asked her if I couldn't give her a ring for Christmas." On October 11, 1947, they were married. Reggie Barton is now 89; Zula is 84. They raised two children together, chil- dren to whom boy-meets-girl-at-the- From 1941 to 1947, the USO presented more than 428,000 performances in its so-called Camp Shows. USO is more than a lyric. They have spent nearly 65 years happily-ever-af- tering together, a marriage as strong as the steel in Allentown. Billy Joel may have introduced me to the USO. But Reggie and Zula Barton showed me its heart, and leſt me with a love song. CV

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