VIVID MEMORIES
By April 15, Berthe Leroy was stunned, frightened, struggling with a life preserver in the midnight scramble to the lifeboats. It was not until she was saved from her boat and brought aboard the rescue ship H.M.S. Carpathia that she found Mrs. Douglas. On their arrival in New York they learned the body of Mr. Douglas had been brought to Halifax on the S. S. California. My dear right arm, Mrs. Douglas called her French companion who was with her on future travels until her death in 1945. In Mrs. Bourlards home are souvenir pictures of Mr Douglas, retired executive of the Quaker Oats company, and his wife, the former Mahala Dutton, and a gift of her Christmas edition of poems, This for Remembrance. It contains a poem poignantly titled Titanic.
MARRIAGE AND CITIZENSHIP
When Gaston Louis Bourlard left France in 1913 for America, he came to call on Melle Leroy as he brought messages from their mutual friends. Later, when Mrs. Douglas heard of the plans for their marriage, she added him to her staff, sending him to New York to train to be a butler. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bourlard became American citizens. She remembers her first day as a citizen in 1942 as it was on July 14, Bastille Day in her native country. Mr. and Mrs. Bourlard came to live in Santa Barbara about eight years ago when the retired butler became a tire maker. Since her husbands death last year, Mrs. Bourlard has thought she would like to visit France and then remain there. Perhaps she will be in her native country to celebrate her birthday on Aug. 10, a date she likes to remember as also the birth date of the great American, H. C. Hoover.
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