Bio: Halle, Elsie (Meets Pen Pal - 1974)

Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Halle, Ayasse,

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 6/27/1974

Halle, Mrs. Arnold (Elsie) (Meets Pen Pal - 1974)

School Pen Pals for 40 years will meet for the first time on Friday

Pen pals for more than 40 years are looking forward to meeting for the first time Friday at O’Hare Field, Chicago.

Mrs. Arnold (Elsie) Halle of Rt. 3 Neillsville, former Clark County Superintendent of schools, and her husband are planning to meet Mr. and Mrs. Hugo Ayasse of Hamburg, Germany.

The acquaintance of the two women goes back to 1932 or 1933, when Mrs. Halle was a high school girl studying the German language. She recalled the other day that her teacher asked whether she would be interested in a pen pal to help her with fluency in the language.

The lady who is now Erna Ayasse became that person, and they carried on correspondence through the early years. During World War II, however, Mrs. Ayasse and her husband were living in an area of Germany which was occupied by the Russian armies. The letters ceased until 1945.

Mrs. Ayasse resumed the contact then, telling Mrs. Halle that she and her husband had escaped into the western zone. Her letter was reticent because, she wrote, she was uncertain how Mrs. Halle felt about the German people because the two countries had been at war.

Mrs. Halle hastened to reply that she held no animosity for the German people, or for her pen pal. Their relationship was renewed.

In one of her letters Mrs. Ayasse told her Clark County pen pal that they had escaped from the Russian-occupied zone of Germany without a thing, and were destitute. She wondered in the letter whether there was, anything at all that Mrs. Halle might be able to send them - even a shoe string.

For a time then the Halles sent boxes of materials and foods to the Ayasses, until they became reestablished in their new home.

In a letter a few years back, and in the flush of the moment, Mrs. Halle wrote that the Ayasses had been traveling all over Europe; “why can’t you come to America?”

That did it. The Ayasses made plans to visit America, and particularly Clark County. Four times, however, their flights were cancelled; but, at long last, it appears that the visit will really take place.

Now Mrs. Halle is apprehensive. She no longer speaks German as fluently s she did 40 years ago. Her husband, however, does, and that will relieve the situation to some extent, she feels.

But she also is apprehensive whether the Ayasses will “fit” in a rural farm home in America, and whether they will enjoy a four-week stay here. After all, Mr. Ayasse is not a farmer; rather, he has been connected with some branch of security work, according to Mrs. Halle’s belief. She expressed the apprehension in a letter to her pen pal, and told Mrs. Ayasse they probably would arrive here when this area is “in the middle of haying.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Mrs. Ayasse replied. “My husband loves gardening, so he’ll help you with the hay.”

“I think,” said a smiling Mrs. Halle, “There are going to be some surprises.”