Eileen M. Pottebaum

is honored with a Brick from Carol Hassen, Angela Pottebaum, Cynthia Maska, Diana Roberts

Eileen M. Pottebaum is our Mother and our Heroine! Eileen was born in Ipswich, England and was a young woman as World War II broke out. Her whole life was overshadowed by the War, especially after her brother was killed. It is hard for us to understand how a young person, like our Mom, could have any kind of hopeful outlook if this was all around them.

Mom met and fell in love with our dad, Clete Pottebaum, a young officer in the US Air Force. They were married and Mom gave birth to Carol a year later in England when Dad was in Germany. As a young war bride, Mom and Dad spent less than 100 days together in their first two years of marriage.

Mom moved away from everything she had ever known with her firstborn, and on a ship with a thousand other women and their screaming babies, came to the United States, halfway around the earth, into the unknown. . . she had to be brave! That is our Mom.

For the next 55 years of marriage, five more children, a full 30-year military life career with her Air Force Officer, many moves away from old friends to new, and she never know where she would end up next! Mom always told us, "Be brave," even though she and our Dad protected us from many things. We lived in all parts of the United States. We lived in Okinawa during the Vietnam War.

"Be brave," she said as our lives changed again, this time to move to the heart of the USA - Wichita, Kansas. Here Dad completed his career in the Air Force, and they selected Wichita as their retirement home. Five of her six children attended WSU. Mom assisted each of us in any way she could. She was very involved in the Beta Chi Chapter of Gamma Phi Beta Mother's Club when Diana, her daughter, was active, especially when Diana was president of the chapter. Mom continued to support her husband when he was business manager for the WSU Board of Trustees in the mid-1970s. And then Eileen Pottebaum was brave again. . . she went to college herself!

Mom and Dad have been active as members of the St. Paul Newman Center Church on the campus of WSU for over 25 years. Their daughter Cynthia was married there.

Eileen Margaret Pottebaum is very brave - even fearless. She has shown her family how to meet new people all over the world and how to be brave at every new move life has to give.

Eileen Pottebaum is our heroine. Thank you.

Submitted by Carol Ann Hassen, Angela Margaret Pottebaum, Diana Louise Roberts and Cynthia Marie Maska.