As a U.S. Coast Guard seaman and gunner's mate in World War II, Jim Williams carried the photograph of a striking curly-haired redhead for more than two years.
It was with him in the South and North Pacific Ocean and in the Coral, China, Solomon and Java seas as he served first on a refueling ship and later on a submarine hunter.
"It's been machine – gunned, torpedoed, strafed from the air and fired at from shore," said Williams, now 92.
He arrived Monday in Portland on a trip from Springfield, Ill., with
He was seizing the opportunity for probably the last time in his life to right a wrong that has troubled him for 70 years.
Williams was 22 in 1943 and assigned with 12 others to Coast Guard Station Depoe Bay. When he and his fellow Coasties had time off, they often went to Portland, he said, "because that's where the girls were."
On one of his several trips to town, Williams was introduced to a young woman named Ruby Ruff. Although he's a little fuzzy on the spelling of her last name, he remembered that she lived in North Portland, east of Interstate Avenue and south of Ainsworth Street. The two went dancing at the Jantzen Beach Ballroom and had a great time.
Ruby Ruff, left, and US Coast Guard veteran Jim Williams circa 1943. Williams wanted a photograph of a girl that he could post near his bunk. But after taking Ruby's photograph from its frame during a visit to her Portland home, he missed the chance to return it. Monday, he returned to Portland--70 years later--to try and make things right.
"There was no romance involved, she was just a nice young lady," he said. "We were friends."
After the dance, Ruby invited Williams over to her house for tea or lemonade. He saw the photograph in the living room on an end table next to the davenport: It was Ruby, with her hair done up. She was wearing a brown dress. A perfect likeness.
That's when the impulse struck.
All his buddies at Station Depoe Bay had pictures of girls around their bunks and lockers. Williams didn't have one. So he did something he said he's never done before or since: He stole.
He took Ruby's photo out of the frame, tucked it up under his jumper and stashed the empty frame beneath the davenport's cushions.
He later had second thoughts and planned to return the photograph to her the next time he was in Portland. But the war intervened: He was transferred to St. Augustine, Fla., and then to the South Pacific.
When anyone asked about the photograph, he told the truth, he said.
Williams lost track of Ruby and didn't have her address. He glued the photograph into an album when he was discharged in 1946. It stayed there for 67 years, through his 41 years as a chemist and 11 years as a forensic scientist for the Illinois State Police.
He has outlived two wives and has two sons and a daughter.
"I don't think he ever told my mom about it," said Carol Hanrahan of Laguna Hills, Calif., who drove her dad here from Illinois.
But the memory nagged at Williams.
And so when the time came for a vacation, a 2,000 – mile trip from Chicago through British Columbia and down the West Coast through Oregon with his daughter, Williams knew it was time to at least try to return the photograph.
"I took the picture, and I shouldn't have," he said. "And I feel badly about it. I'm 92 years old and I'm not going to have many more chances to return that picture. I'd like to say to Ruby that I'm sorry I took her picture.
"It was a mistake. A big mistake. I hope that somebody here would like to have it returned to them."
Late Monday, Ruby Ruff, now Ruby Hazen, 92, got a call from her niece in Portland, who had seen Williams' story on OregonLive. Did she remember a member of the Coast Guard who took her to a dance in 1943? Did she remember the missing photo?
Ruff, who believe it or not lives on Memory Lane in Silver Lake, Wash., did remember.
"I think it's nice that he carried my picture with him for moral support throughout the war," she said. "He must be nice guy to come all that way to return my picture. I think it's pretty awesome."
Hazen said she did notice the photograph was missing, but never gave it much thought and never made a connection until Monday.
Hazen, who's been married to her husband Lynn Hazen, 94, for 67 years, raised a son and daughter. He spent 21 years in the military and then worked for Bonneville Power. They lived in Libya and Alaska -- before it was a state and after. They were married the year Williams got out of the Coast Guard.
"My picture traveled a lot of places with him during very trying times," Hazen said. She said Williams is very welcome to come and visit, or just mail her the picture.
"I hadn't thought about those days for a long time," she said.
Williams, who was on his way to the coast when he heard the news, said he was glad to hear that Ruby was doing well. Although there may not be a physical reunion between them, it will be an easy task to mail her the photograph. Just address it to Memory Lane.
-- Stuart Tomlinson