My Lacey Grandparents During World War II

I recently finished scanning some photos of my Lacey grandparents from the early years of their marriage. David Austin Lacey and Jeanette Mary Beck met in 1943 and were married on April 24, 1944 at Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside, California.

My grandfather was serving in the U.S. Navy when he met my grandmother. He had grown up in Alameda, in Northern California, but was sent to San Diego County after enlisting in the Navy in February 1942. David was assigned to the Naval Ammunition Depot, located on the east side of Camp Pendleton Marine Base, in Fallbrook. My grandmother also found herself in Fallbrook when, in 1943, her father, George Beck, bought an adobe house on eleven acres on Olive Hill Road. Jeanette took a clerical job on Camp Pendleton Marine Base, and that's where she met David.

This photo is labeled, in my grandmother's handwriting, "first photo together." It was taken in November 1943. I am guessing this is at the Beck home in Fallbrook.

This photo of my grandmother is labeled "on honeymoon with Tommie" and was taken in May 1943. I'm not sure where David and Jeanette honeymooned or who Tommie was, but it's a sweet photo.

Several of the photos of David and Jeanette during 1944 and 1945 are labeled "the projects," which was a reference to the military housing built for U.S. Navy workers on the east side of Camp Pendleton. They lived in this housing until 1955, when Jeanette's father sold them the adobe house on Olive Hill Road. Their first house on base appears rather modest in photos, but my father says that he remembers living in two-story officers' quarters before they moved off the base, so they must have upgraded at some point between 1944 and 1955. It is curious that David and Jeanette lived in officers' quarters, as my grandfather was never an officer. My father wonders if his parents may have been given better housing due to my grandmother's bout with polio and her resulting partial paralysis, which occurred in 1949.

Photos of my grandparents at their first home together in April 1944.

There are a number of photos of David and Jeanette from around this time, often posing with their dog, Candy. 

David and Jeanette took these photos at Mission San Luis Rey in August 1944. They had been married at the mission five months prior.

In early 1945, David received muster orders from the Navy and was assigned to the USS Wateree. In April 1945, one year after David and Jeanette were married, he shipped out for service in the South Pacific. These photos were taken at the adobe house in Fallbrook before his departure. Jeanette was seven months pregnant when he left.

David and Jeanette's first child was born in June 1945, while David was away serving on the USS Wateree. David returned from his service in September 1945, less than a month before the USS Wateree was sunk by Typhoon Louise in Okinawa, Japan. This photo of David and his daughter was taken in November 1945. They are labeled "Alameda," so David and Jeanette must have been visiting David's father, Thomas Lacey. He was living in the family home on Pearl Street in Alameda at that time. In November 1945, they also attended the wedding of David's brother Herbert Lacey, likely in nearby Fremont, California.

These photos of David were taken on that same visit to Alameda.

After World War II, my grandfather left the Navy but continued to work on Camp Pendleton Marine Base as a civilian. He was a warehouse foreman, a job he never particularly enjoyed. After the war, to keep former servicemen employed, the base hired multiple people for roles that could have been done by one person. My grandfather was essentially doing the same job as another person, and that person was a Marine. It made for a frustrating experience. David was an outgoing and fun-loving person, though, and my grandparents had a wide circle of good friends. My father recalls that most of them were commanders and ranking Navy officers. 

David and Jeanette, at right, with friends Shel and Jeanne in 1944

In 1955, David and Jeanette settled into the house on Olive Hill Road, where they raised their three children and lived the rest of their lives. These photos of their early years together are a treasure.