Miss Ida Leona Erickson, a life long Marquette resident, graduated from St. Mary’s Hospital in Green Bay as a registered and practiced as a private duty nurse in Marquette before enlisting in the U.S. Army Nurse Corp on July 15th, 1918.  After one month at Camp Custer, Ida sailed for France on August 17th.

Erickson’s first assignment in France was at Base Hospital No.2 at Mesves Center and later transferred to the Base 10 hospital.  Eventually, Ida was transferred to yet another hospital, but she became the chief surgical nurse on January 30, 1919.  Her service in France was in the first line zones, where she endured many hardships.  She contracted pneumonia and was sent to Southern France to recover.  Miss Erickson returned to duty as soon as she recuperated.  However, her recovery wasn’t complete and on April 19, 1919 she was forced to give up her work. 

Returning stateside, she was sent to Fort Sheridan, IL and later to Denver to recover, but her illness persisted.  Ida returned to Marquette in July of 1920 and made her home with friend Mrs. Nellie M. Magnus.  Ida Erickson became a member of the Richard M. Jopling American Legion Post.

On February 22, 1922, Ida was admitted to a private sanatorium in Detroit for those with tuberculosis.  January 22, 1923, Ida died of heart complications caused by tuberculosis at the age of twenty-eight.

Ida Erickson was the only nurse from Marquette who served overseas.  Her body was accompanied by a military escort as far as Mackinaw City, compliments of the commandant at Fort Wayne, who detailed soldiers to serve as body guards.

Ida Leona Erickson was awarded military rites for her burial.  Three volleys were fired by men representing her American Legion Post, “Taps” was played by a Boy Scout bugler and a color guard of three ex-sailors paid homage to this brave woman.

Dorothy Martindale Jacobs was not only a wife and mother in Watersmeet Michigan here in the U.P., but she was also the inspiration for the character of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz stories.

When Dorothy was four years old she had a roguish smile, big brown eyes, and wore a blue ribbon in her hair while living in Grand Rapids.  One summer day, Dorothy and her mother, Mrs. Albert Stickley, went for a walk in Macatawa Park close to their summer cottage and spotted brightly colored flowers in the yard of the “Swan” cottage.  The four year old Dorothy entered the yard and started picking flowers for a bouquet.  Just before leaving the yard with her flowers, a voice from the tree tops said, “hello there.”  A startled Dorothy stared up at a tall, mustached man coming down a ladder from a tree platform.

After assuring Dorothy that the flowers were there to be picked and attract small guests to wander over and visit Frank L. Baum asked, “what’s your name?”  The little girl answered, ”Dorothy.” Then Baum said, “my little girl is named Dorothy too and from now on she is going to wear a blue ribbon in her hair just like yours.”  

Mrs. Jacobs told a reporter in 1939 during an interview that Mr. and Mrs. Baum loved children and their cottage was furnished to attract them. She then recalled how she loved rocking in a swan chair while listening to the adventures of Dorothy and her friends in Oz. Mrs. Jacobs also mentioned how she often asked to meet Baum’s Dorothy, but he would always distract her with more tales about Dorothy’s friends, Oz and other adventures.  When the little girl grew up, it was only then she realized that the Dorothy in Oz was a make-believe little girl.

Dorothy Jacobs was excited to see Judy Garland (changed her name from Francis Ethel Gumm), whose mother was Ethel Milne of Michigamme, play the wide eyed Dorothy, blue ribbon in her hair and all on screen in Grand Rapids, the city of her birth and close to where she met her friend Frank L. Baum.

So now when you watch the classic movie Wizard of Oz you can think of Dorothy Martindale Jacobs, a wife and mother from Watersmeet, friend of Frank L. Baum and the real Dorothy of Oz.