My Grandmother's Wedding Dress
By Megan-Marie K. Cahill
Spring, 1944: It was a time of Victory Gardens, Rosie the Riveter, War Bonds, and of course, rationing. During WWII the War Production Board regulated the production and distribution of everything from gasoline to medication to sewing machines. In March 1942, General Limitation Order L-85, regulating every aspect of clothing, was issued and implemented.
While widely supported, L-85 forced the fashion industry to make some major changes. Enter the slogan, “Make Do and Mend.” And that is exactly what my grandmother did when she got engaged in the spring of 1944.
My grandmother, Keith Fitchett, went to Mary Washington College for her freshman year and then came home and got a secretarial job at Langley Air Field (Hampton, VA) in the Procurement Office. Hampton, Virginia was a mecca for military service: Fort Monroe, Fort Eustice, Langley Field, Norfolk Naval Yard, etc. She worked for a Chief Master Sergeant in Procurement (supply). Every weekend there were lots of parties and dances at the different bases. It was at one of these parties that a mutual friend introduced her to David Ketelhut.
He was a smart, well-educated city boy--good dresser, good dancer and singer. He talked of travel and New York night spots; Keith was a small town southern girl and she was impressed. He had money to spend, had attended private schools, etc. and gave the impression of family money (albeit a false one). Three months after they met, they got married. That wasn't so unusual during war time when everyone worried about being shipped out at the drop of a hat.
One day, shortly after she got engaged, she was complaining to her boss about how hard it was to find any good fabric for her wedding dress. He asked her what kind of fabric she was looking for, and she said, "silk, taffeta, satin...anything!" He told her to sit put for a minute and disappeared into his office. When he reemerged he was carrying a parachute, with all of the ropes, straps and buckles attached. He had been entrusted with the destruction of all of Langley’s silk parachutes when the military switched to nylon. Well, he couldn't stand to destroy all that perfectly good silk so he rescued four of them and one would now become her wedding gown.
A thoughtful and beautiful gift, indeed, but how does one go about making a gown out of a parachute one might ask? Especially since my grandmother couldn’t sew worth a lick.
Lucky for her, her mother was a master seamstress. My great-grandmother, Lady Keith Sinclair, laid out the parachute to get a better look at it. She then cut the ropes and straps off and removed one panel from the chute. That panel became the bodice and the rest the skirt. It was, to quote my grandmother, “A perfect fit”. As a finishing touch, Lady Keith added an heirloom piece of lace to the neckline.
Clara Keith Fitchett married David R. Ketelhut on May 31, 1944 at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Hampton, VA. Their reception was held at the Fort Monroe Officer’s Club, also in Hampton.
My grandmother’s wedding dress and a copy of her wedding portrait reside in the Modern Hampton Gallery at the Hampton History Museum in Hampton, VA. In November of 2007 I had the great pleasure of visiting her dress and picking up the original, and only known copy, of her portrait while I was in Virginia for a conference.
Prior to this visit the last time I had seen the dress was well over fifteen years ago, when she let me try it on before she had it cleaned and restored. It was far lovelier than I remembered. The museum did a wonderful job with the display.
As I was leaving the museum, original portrait in tow, I stopped by the gift shop. Rarely, if ever, do I pass up a museum gift shop. While checking out, I chatted with the two volunteers behind the counter about the dress, why I had come to get to picture, etc, when one of them chimed in, “I heard that one of Keith’s granddaughters is supposed to wear that dress when she gets married”. “You’re looking at her”, I replied. They smiled and we exchanged pleasantries, they told me to say hello to my grandmother, and that I needed to bring her out to visit Hampton again soon.
Unfortunately, she was not able to make that trip in person. My grandmother passed away this summer after a valiant effort to regain her strength following back surgery. She did, however, come full circle. On July 19, 2008 we held a memorial service at St. John’s Episcopal Church; the same church where she was baptized, confirmed and married.
Her passing and that of my father only a few months before, have been reminders of the importance of family connections and family stories. With the passing of every generation we lose a part of our history and ourselves. My mother, my paternal uncle, and I are slowly piecing together bits and pieces of stories from both sides of the family and are learning a great deal about from whence we came.
And who knows, maybe someday I will wear that beautiful dress and I will know that she is right there with me on my wedding day.
A side note on the church: St. John’s is the oldest Anglican Parish in continuous existence in America. It also has a silver communion chalice and two patens that have been in continuous use for over three-hundred years- longer than any vessel in any other American church.
