THE LOVE STORY OF AMELIA AND NOE GONZALES AS TOLD BY RENE TORRES

Noe Gonzales

After Pearl Harbor many of our local boys did not hesitate to join the war effort, 27,000 in Cameron and Hidalgo Counties alone, according to Selective Service records and many more in Willacy and Starr Counties.

Noe Gonzales, one of those eager to serve, joined in 1942, but left with a heavy heart, having just discovered Amelia Torres, a beautiful sixteen year old who worked at the Dittmann Theater, and later, the Grande in Brownsville as a ticket taker.

Amelia Gonzales

Amelia, the oldest among 11 siblings, possessed a lovely singing voice that could be heard on the airways via KWWG radio in Brownsville, displayed a striking appearance in her theater uniform gaining the attention of many, but especially Noe, who, smitten by love at first sight, became a frequent visitor to the theater. 

The love affair that ensued took a pause when Noe had to report for active duty, but their affection continued through love letters in which Noe promised marriage upon his return from basic training. 

Noe and Amelia married during a furlough, and Noe, having secured his teenaged sweetheart, the love of his life, left to confront the ugly face of war.

Noe’s letters to his dearest Amelia alternated between fear and hope with their future made insecure by war. 

With anxious words they shared their longing for their eventual peaceful life as a married couple.

When the war ended and letters stopped, a foundation for closeness and intimacy had been established.

Now, the hints of romance that they shared before the war became real along with love that would continue to the end of their lives. 

Noe: Hometown hero…

Noe Gonzales was born in Port Isabel in 1919, the first baby delivered in the area by the late Dr. J.A. Hockaday, attending Port Isabel schools, graduating in 1938. 

Noe played on the Tarpon basketball team that captured the Rio Grande Valley Championship in 1937. 

In those days the team used to play on a hard dirt floor with no gym or classification system, so this championship was quite an accomplishment for the Tarpons.

Noe was also on the roster of PI’s first baseball team.

His greatest regret was not obtaining a college degree. 

He was instead self-educated, but an avid reader who closely followed the news. 

In 1942 he attended the Harlingen Army Gunnery School that practiced on pre-developed South Padre Island before the first bridge went up in 1952, training, not only as a gunner, but also as a radio operator. 

Eventually reaching the rank of Staff Sergeant in the Army Air Force's 327th Bombardment Squadron, Noe flew twenty-five missions on the B-17 Flying Fortress in the U.S. Army Air Corps before it became the U.S. Air Force.

Before Noe left England, he received several citations from General Doollittle, commander of the 1942 Tokyo raid to avenge the bombing of Pearl Harbor:

The distinguished Flying Cross on behalf of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal and Three Oak Leaf Clusters, all extraordinary achievements. 

Gonzales was the first man to return home from the war front. The community honored him with a barbecue and a street dance on February 27,1944.

Later, he served as a PIISD Board of Trustees in the 1960’s for several terms and was an avid supporter of the Tarpon sports programs, a lifetime resident of Port Isabel and a life member of Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church, always extending a helping hand to those in need.

To support himself and his family, Noe turned to a skill he'd learned at the age of 13 on his father's shrimp boat-making and repairing fishing nets. 

So skilled was Noe that many in Port Isabel came for advice as Noe worked on the nets with the radio blaring in the background with the news of the day.

His shop was neat and clean, well organized with every tool in its place and every stick well defined. He was considered a genius with the needle and twine, all hand work, no machines used just as his dad had taught him.

Noe made the difficult craft of net making look easy!