Maybelline turned sweet mother into a Pin Up Girl

Evelyn remarked to Pauline that she needed a little make-over.  She took her by the hand into the bedroom and closed the door.  Bill screamed at his mother to stop, "I like like the way she looks," he said, "She's only 15 for darn sakes." but his mother proceeded to the lock the door.

 Pauline emerged from Evelyn's silk covered bedroom, which held an enormous dressing table filled with Maybelline products and an enormous round mirror lit up like a Movie Star's dressing room.

Eyelyn had transformed her son's girlfriend from a simple little high school girl into a gorgeous woman with Judy Garland eyes and a Vavoom figure. Bill stood there gawking with his mouth open.  Pauline had morphed into a knock out, a pin up girl, as beautiful as any of his uncle's Maybelline models..... 

Read more about my parents, Bill and Pauline and my grandmother Evelyn in my book, The Maybelline Story, now on audible.

  Listen to a free sample on Amazon now.

Veterans Day!...Graphic combat story taken from my father, Bill Williams, memories of World War 11

Bill Williams with his uncle Tom Lyle Williams at the Villa Valentino

When Bill and a few other men were sent out into the jungle to find the Japs hiding in the hills, he was excited to finally be part of some action. The worst part about looking for Japanese snipers was that they really knew how to hide well in the tropical environment and could sneak up on a soldier from behind and kill him without being detecting.

Bill and his bride, Pauline Mac Donald Williams,  My parents

It wad a well known fact that a guy could get killed right next
to his buddy before anyone could do a thing. Bill had gotten used to firing at anything that moved, because back at camp, when on night duty, he was told to shoot at anything that caused the tin cans to rattle from the bobbed wire. He had machine gunned down a few dogs who snuck around at night looking for food and accidentally hit the tin cans. Maybe the men were taught to be trigger happy, and shoot first, ask questions later, rather then take chances and risk their own lives or the lives of their buddies.

Bill in the Philippians on Reconnaissance Mission

When Bill and the men got to the spot on the map where the
Lieutenant reported Jap's hiding, he thought he saw something cross his path and yelled "halt, who goes there." The sniper didn't answer, and then took off running. Bill yelled again, "halt" but when he he kept running he shot him and killed him. The men slowly approached the body, to make sure he was indeed dead, and not faking it. There had been many stories of how Japs lay waiting for a soldier
to approach a dead body, then are ambushed and shot to death. Bill yelled for the others to cover him while he checked the sniper who was just a kid himself.

The other soldiers stood about 15 feet while Bill grabbed some souvenirs off the dead body, it was a right of passage,
as a soldier, his first and only kill before the war ended. Bill
quickly stripped souvenirs off the Jap while the other men watched for snipers. The only good Jap is a dead Jap," one guy said as Bill cut the snipers pockets open, reached in, and was shocked to find them full of blood. He didn't let that stop him and pulled out some Jap money, pictures, cards, and some letters. He took an aluminum canteen with carvings of a Japanese garden on it, a Japanese flag,

binoculars, and a knife. One man said to check for gold teeth, but when he looked in his mouth, he decided it would take too long to pull them out. He grabbed a watch, a compass, and a bayonet, and finally reached for the Jap's belt, only to stick his hands into his warm guts. It was an eerie feeling, but he was so pumped up that he simply
got up, didn't look back and headed down the hill with the other men.

Bill with his mother, Evelyn Williams

The G.I. 's had been warned about live mines, and it was one of their biggest fears. Stepping on a live mine could blow a man's limbs off, decapitate him, rip his guts out, blind him, and finally kill him if he was lucky. Japanese mines were very hard to find when they were buried. The men made it back to camp in one piece, and Bill told his
commanding officer about the Jap he killed, and he told Bill that he'd done the right thing, because if he hadn't of killed him, they might all have been killed. His Captain told him that it takes blood and guts to be in the infantry, and that he was proud of him.


Read more about this and more in my memoir, The Maybelline Story,  Buy my book at www.sharriewilliamsauthor.com

Maybelline nearly collapsed when petroleum was rationed during World War ll.

The two most important items a Soldier waited for during WW11..... letters from home and a carton of cigarettes.

My dad carried this picture of my mother, the All American California Girl, in his wallet during the War.   

My dad's uncle, Tom Lyle Williams, helped the War effort by selling War Bonds using the Maybelline Logo.  "To the girl with a soldier overseas...How much do you really want him back."  

Here is a beautiful Maybelline ad during WW11, "Just as he dreamed her eyes would be."  When petroleum was rationed during the War, Maybelline was ordered to stop making their products.  Tom Lyle went to the Pentagon and told them that if women couldn't get their Maybelline, it would affect Moral.  With that, the petroleum vats remained full and Maybelline's products expanded around the world.

Bill and Pauline Williams on their Honeymoon,  in Big Bear California right  before he was shipped overseas in 1945.

My mother was a new bride when my dad shipped overseas. She moved in with her parents while he was gone and wrote to him every single day.  It was those kind of letters from their Sweethearts, that kept American Servicemen's moral up.  It was what they were fighting for. It was what they wanted to get home to.

When the war ended my dad returned home in 1946 and I  was born in 1947.  This was a typical story for most returning Soldiers and American middle class families and it was the beginning of the Baby Boom.

Maybelline set the stage for my family saga to play out on.  Read my book, The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It and meet the family who gave the world beautiful eyes.

Be sure to drop over to my Hilarious Saffron Rules Blog and see what life for me was like in 1964. http://saffronsrule.com/