Faces of Bovina - Ruth Rabeler

Ruth Rabeler has the distinction of being one of three women to appear on Bovina's World War II honor roll. The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Alex Rabeler, Sr., she grew up in Nebraska and came to Bovina in 1939.  In September 1942, she enlisted while visiting in Nebraska, taking her basic training at Des Moines, Iowa.  She went to the Cooks and Bakers School, graduating as 2^nd Lieutenant on March 3, 1943.  She was stationed in several locations, including Ft. Oglethorpe, Georgia; Fort Lewis, Washington, and Camp Beale, California, where she took charge of the Officers Club.  She was then transferred to the Presidio in San Francisco to the 6^th Army Cook and Bakers as an instructor and head of the mess hall.  She was discharged in 1946 but went back into service in California.  In 1952 she was married to James Donohue at the Presidio and left the Army in 1953.  Ruth passed away in October 1974 in California and is buried in Fair Oaks, California.

She posed for this photograph by Bob Wyer on May 17, 1943. Courtesy Delaware County Historical Association

Cousins Paul and Ruth Rabeler in service sometime during the war.