Lillie's Jasper: The 1930 Pilgrimage of a Gold Star Mother

Would it interest you to talk to a World War I doughboy and hear what his experience was like? Would you like to accompany his mother on a journey by steam locomotive across the U.S. or on an ocean liner to Europe in that era? Can you imagine this rural Idaho farm wife's amazement at an invitation from the U.S. government, to travel to France and visit the grave of her son. These two authentic personal narratives of Jasper and his mother Lillie are like a window back in time. Lillie's Jasper unfolds the story of a mother and son caught up in the conflict of the wider world. Jasper's letters described life as a shepherd. He wrote of being drafted and sent to Camp Lewis Washington for training and from there to New York's Camp Mills. Jasper's unit spent the last two months of 1917 freezing in tents, waiting for word to ship out. His insights into a soldier's life are peppered with his good-natured attitude and humor. Lillie's letters and her diaries chronicle the pilgrimage she made to France. She traveled as a guest of the U.S. government. An act of congress in 1929 made her eligible to travel (all expenses paid) to visit Jasper's grave just outside Paris. She was one of over 6,600 women who made the journey. Most of them could never have afforded the trip on their own. The scope of the story is widened by the inclusion of related information on World War I, the Gold Star Mother's organization, the U.S. Army's Office of the Quartermaster General along with insight into the social and political climate of the times.