HARD TO SAY GOODBYE
DALE AND EVA, DATING, 1941.
All Too Soon —DUKE ELLINGTON & CARL SIGMAN, 1940
Dale Eastburg has never forgotten the first time he saw his future wife, Eva. Neither has she. “I was in the front yard and Dale drove by on his motorcycle and nearly crashed, because he was gawking at me,” said Eva. “I almost hit a pole!” Dale confirmed. She was used to being gawked at—her family had just moved to the area and Eva was the only girl in a neighborhood filled with boys. It was 1939 and Dale, a high school senior, asked one of the boys in the neighborhood to introduce him the dark-haired beauty with the stunning smile. Soon they became inseparable.
Dale had three motorcycles. “The first one the fellas had to push him up the street to start!” said Eva. But when it came time to take his girl out, Dale borrowed a friend’s car.
Eva attended a different school, but not for long. Dale grinned. “I talked her into transferring to Rogers (his high school).” Reaching over and patting his hand, Eva said, “He gave me the attention I probably needed. I had three brothers, but I was the only girl.”
After graduation he enrolled at Gonzaga University. When his friends began receiving draft notices, Dale decided not to wait for his, and instead enlisted in the Army Air Corps.
“We knew we were going to get married,” Eva said. “But when the war came along, that hurried things up.” They no longer remember the details of the proposal, but Eva suspects Dale’s mom had something to do with it. “His folks never had a girl—just two boys. They thought I was the daughter they never had and they didn’t want to lose me.” Her folks liked Dale, as well. Eva smiled. “He was handsome and very shy.”
On May 5, 1942, the couple drove to a chapel in Idaho with both sets of parents and their minister and his wife. “We got married in a little white church—it’s still there,” Eva said. They didn’t have much time to settle into married life, as Dale left for Fresno, California for basic training in March of 1943. But he missed his bride. Eva said, “He got so lonely, he called me and said, ‘Quit your job and come to Fresno.’” So she left her job at Baxter hospital and traveled to California.
From there she followed him to Texas and then to New Mexico where he completed his training. As part of the 12th Air Service Group, Dale knew he’d soon be shipping out for overseas duty. The thought of saying goodbye to his bride overwhelmed him. So, he didn’t.
One morning Eva woke to an empty bed. She recalled, “We’d said our goodnights and went to sleep. He snuck out early the next morning while I slept.” Tears fell as she clutched the pillow, still warm from his head. She didn’t know when or if she’d see him again. Adding to the intensity of her sorrow was the fact that she was pregnant with their first child. More than two and a half years would pass before they saw each other again.
DALE EASTBURG, 1943.
Dale traveled to China. “I belonged to the Flying Tigers,” he said. “I worked on the airplanes during the day and was on a jeep with a machine gun at night.” At one point, Dale said, the Japanese had the American base surrounded on three sides. “They never closed the gap. But they bombed us continually.” He paused and shook his head. “It was not good. But we stopped the Japanese from coming. We bombed them every single day.”
Eva wrote to him regularly. She still remembers the number she penned on every envelope: “19113108,” she recites. But still, Dale said, “She really had no idea where I was.” Life back in the States wasn’t easy, either. Eva said, “Kids today don’t know what war is about. Everything was rationed—shoes, gas, sugar!”
DALE EASTBURG (FAR RIGHT) AND BUDDIES, CHINA 1944.
On February 18, 1944, she gave birth to a daughter, Diane. Though exhausted, she wrote to tell Dale. It took several months for him to get the news and when he did, there was still some confusion. He said, “Eva wrote a letter all about the baby. The baby this and the baby that! But she didn’t mention the sex of the baby!” More letters ensued, including one that contained a picture of Eva and Diane, his blue-eyed daughter with curly golden hair.
Finally, in December 1945 Eva got a telegram. “COMING HOME” was all it said. Dale had served three years, three months and three days, and all he wanted was to come home to his wife and meet his daughter.
The week before Christmas a taxi pulled up in front of the house. “I stood back and waited and let his parents greet him,” Eva said. “I’m a positive person, but his mother got sick with worry about him.” After hugging his parents, Dale met his 22-month-old daughter. When he recalled that first glimpse of her, a grin split his face. “I couldn’t believe it,” he said, shaking his head. “You can’t imagine.”
Dale took a job with the WP. Fuller Company as a commercial estimator, and Eva had her hands full with their growing family. In 1948, daughter Linda arrived followed by Craig in 1954 and Cheryl in 1964.
DALE (MIDDLE) AND BUDDIES, CHINA 1944.
Eva said her husband didn’t want her to work outside the home, but he did make one exception. “The only time I went to work was to earn money to buy a boat!” she said, laughing. They needed one—the family lived for many years on the shores of a local lake.
Dale retired in 1987, but long before, he and Eva started a tradition—Friday night dates. Each Friday when he arrived home from work she’d be ready to go. They often went to a favorite place with a lovely city view and enjoyed a cocktail while watching the sunset. Then they’d choose a restaurant for dinner. When they moved into town and away from the lake, they began another tradition—regular gym workouts. Dale, 92, and Eva, 90 are much loved members a local fitness facility. “We call them our family away from family,” said Eva. Three times a week they hit the gym to walk and do strength training. “It keeps us happy and contented,” she said.
EVA AND DALE, 1945.
EVA AND DIANE.
And every Friday Dale wakes up and says, “Honey, this is our day today—don’t forget our Friday engagement.”
“As if I would!” Eva said with a grin. The only thing that’s changed is now they go out to lunch instead of dinner.
Their close-knit family dotes on them. The Eastburgs have six grandsons and three great-granddaughters. And more than 70 years after they said “I do,” their mutual affection is still evident. Dale says their secret to marital bliss is simple. “We love each other and we work together.”
But the quiet man grew more eloquent as he gazed at his bride. “I appreciate everything about her,” he said. “She couldn’t be more perfect.” Eva smiled, “Sometimes he tells me, ‘Come here and sit down a minute.’ When I ask him why, he says, ‘Cause I just want to look at you.’”
DALE AND EVA EASTBURG, 2012.