Partner waited lifetime for last dance
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
They won the big jitterbug contest on that last carefree night before the bombs dropped, Dec. 7, 1941, and lives were forever changed. Now Pat Thompson and Jack Evans have returned to Hawai'i after six decades, catching up to one another again only by chance.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
Neither has forgotten the night they met, so briefly. Neither was having much luck landing a dance partner.
Pat Thompson and Jack Evans won a jitterbug contest on Dec. 6, 1941 — then lost each other for 60 years.
"I was asking every girl who looked available, but they all turned me down," Jack recalled. "I was so young, and I had no stripes on my sleeve."
From the stage, the band leader spotted Pat, the preteen spinning alone near the stage, and put out an announcement: Would someone be the partner of this young, talented dancer?
Bloch Arena at Pearl Harbor was so noisy that night, and Evans never heard the request. Instead he was approached by Ed Campbell, a chief petty officer and the father of young Pat. Like so many kids of her day, Pat, at 10 years old, already was a veteran of ballet and tap classes.
"We all had to make our own entertainment," she said. "We didn't have TV... and the music was so wonderful that if it had a beat you had to dance."
Pretty soon it became clear the two were a winning pair. Pat was so diminutive that Jack easily slid her beneath him on the floor and tossed her into the air in the kind of pyrotechnics jitterbug that dance judges demand.
And much to his satisfaction, all the girls who had turned him down were coming up and cheering him on, giving him tips.
Photos courtesy Ontai-Lagrage & Associates
Who knew that they'd win the contest, each receive a trophy, and then wonder about each other for 60 years? Neither remembered the other's name nor had a clue about where to begin searching.
Young Jack and Pat in 1941: He was a young sailor who couldn't find a dance partner; she was just a kid of 10 who wanted to jitterbug. They never forgot the trophies they took home that night.
When Pat found him, her long-lost partner had lived practically next door in suburban San Diego.
Certainly, neither expected that they would reunite this Thursday and commemorate that contest.
"I asked myself on a few occasions, 'If you were going to look for her, how would you begin?' " Jack said. "I concluded it was impossible."
Pat was beginning to conclude the same thing, but simply could not let go of the search.
"I knew I had to find him, dead or alive," she said. "I just had to know."
About 18 months ago, a story she had published in a Pearl Harbor survivors' newsletter got the attention of John Rutledge, a piano player on the USS California who remembered that sailor with the little girl. Rutledge also published a survivors' magazine, the Scuttlebutt, and a mention in the next edition made its way to Jack.
| Pearl Harbor 60th Anniversary Gala Banquet | |
| • | 6 to 10:30 p.m. Wednesday |
| • | Hilton Hawaiian Village |
| • | $150 per person |
| • | For information 422-2771, Ext. 10 |
| • | www.pearlharborevents.com |
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"The message said, 'I am that sailor you're looking for,' " Pat recalled. "I just screamed. When I could calm myself, I said, 'Please call me, please call me.' I didn't want to lose him again."
He did call, and the rest is history.
Now they're back in Honolulu. For a few spins around the floor, at least, it's going to be Pat and Jack, jitterbug champs again.
Those attending Thursday's 60th anniversary gala banquet will get to see them dance. As long as they don't expect too much.
"We won't be doing real jitterbug steps," Pat said with a laugh. "They'll just be amazed that we're still alive, and can still walk."
Correction: A National Park Service banquet will be from 6 to 10:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Hilton Hawaiian Village and will include 1940s music and a jitterbug dance contest. A previous version of this story had the wrong day for the event.
