Betty Gones at Romanos nightclub Reproduced courtesy Betty Gones
Betty was “going on 18” when she met John Gones, one of the first group of Americans to come to Australia in 1942. It was seventeen months before they decided to get married, which they did in August 1943.
Betty’s father was a hotel manager and she describes watching the Japanese Midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour from the rooftop of the hotel on Oxford Street. If she was unaware of the danger her parents, local air raid wardens, weren’t.
When John was discharged in 1945 Betty waited for a Liberty ship like so many Australian brides. She finally boarded the SS MONTEREY in 1946. When she arrived in San Francisco she still had a long trip ahead of her, travelling on a bride train to Kansas City where she met her husband and her new family.
In 1952 Betty & John moved back to Australia and settled in Canberra. Betty lives there today.