Biographical Note
Emma Delano Pettengill, née Corcoran, was born February 23, 1922, in Lancaster, New York. She attended Hyannis State Teacher’s College in Barnstable, Massachusetts, where she met her future husband, Kenneth (“Ken”) Herman Pettengill. Four years younger than Emma, Ken was born January 20, 1926, in Milton, Massachusetts.
At the time that they met, Ken was on leave from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he had begun his studies at the age of 16. Just before he turned 18, on January 14, 1944, he enlisted in the United States Navy. The same year, Emma graduated from Hyannis State Teacher’s College with her bachelor’s degree. She and Ken began writing to each other shortly after he enlisted.
Ken spent most of 1944 training at Naval Station Treasure Island in San Francisco, California. Between 1944 and 1946, he was stationed at Naval Submarine Base New London, Connecticut, and aboard submarines including the USS Spikefish (SS 404) and the USS Runner (SS 476), as well as a submarine tender, the USS Howard Gilmore (AS 16), with campaigns mostly in the Pacific. He achieved the rank of Electronic Technician’s Mate, Third Class.
Meanwhile, Emma worked as a teacher in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and spent time with her family in Orleans, Massachusetts. In the spring of 1945, Emma enlisted in the United States Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). After completing training in the Bronx, New York, and Lakehurst, New Jersey, where she briefly had librarian duties, she was sent to Naval Air Station Norfolk, in Virginia, to serve as a meteorologist.
All the while, Emma and Ken continued to exchange letters and phone calls, visiting as frequently as they could. They decided to marry after they were both discharged from the Navy in 1946.
The Pettengills went on raise seven children, supported by Ken’s work as an engineer for Emery Industries and Hodag Chemical Company. They lived in Boston, Massachusetts; Cincinnati, Ohio; New Jersey; and Evanston, Illinois. Emma died in 1999; Ken, in 2003.
Their daughter, Claire Pettengill, donated Emma and Ken’s letters and other materials regarding their service in the Navy to the Veterans History Project. Their correspondence makes up the bulk of the Emma Delano Pettengill collection.