BELATED THANK-YOU
RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM
It was a long shot, but Ed Corl thought if he wrote to the local paper, he might be able to find the waitress who had shown him a special kindness when he was a Marine returning home from World War II 60 years ago. And what do you know -- a few lines in the paper turned up the missing waitress.
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Mahalo ... better late than never
It took Ed Corl 60 years, but he finally got the chance to say thank you to Betsy Tokuda, a kind waitress he met in 1946 when he made a brief stop here on his way home from Japan.
Ed was a 19-year-old Marine en route to Lebanon, Pa., when his vessel docked here. He went to a King Street restaurant in Chinatown. (He didn't know the name; it turned out to be the American Cafe. A bank sits on the spot now.) There he met a 19-year-old Tokuda, who also lived on King Street.
He believes Betsy conversed with him because he was young and didn't look like some of the older, battle-hardened, tough Marines he was with. At any rate, she mailed a card to Corl's parents, letting them know he was on the way home.
RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM
Ed Corl and Betsy Nakamoto meet at Liliha Bakery for the first time since 1946, when he was a young Marine and she was a waitress who offered to send word to Corl's parents that he was headed home. Corl showed Nakamoto the postcards, which he had saved for 60 years.
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Corl, 80, who still has the card, has moved here and was upset that he never thanked Betsy for that small kindness. So he wrote the Star-Bulletin for help. I told his story and printed his telephone number in my "Wood Craft" column on Feb. 28.
What were the chances he'd find a woman he'd last seen six decades ago? But that evening, Betsy -- now Nakamoto -- called him. And a few days later, on March 3, they met at Liliha Bakery. After 60 years he finally got to thank her.
Our photographer Richard Walker was there to capture the moment. Ed was talking to Richard outside the bakery when she drove up. "You must be Ed!" said Betsy, 79. "Betsy!" replied Ed. "We had a lotta giggles," Ed said. "She knows a lotta people at Liliha Bakery."
RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM
Betsy Nakamoto -- then Tokuda -- wrote to Ed Corl's parents in Lebanon, Pa., to tell them their son was all right.
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COURTESY ED CORL
Ed Corl as a young Marine.
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