Rosaline Helen Battson

November 1922 – September 2020

Second Lt. Rosaline Nelson and her cadre of Army nurses walk into the Saipan officers’ club on August 1, 1945; they join a group of Navy officers already drinking at the bar.

As they enter the room, one of the officers eyes the tall, bespectacled, blonde Army nurse and tells his friends, “That’s the gal I’m going to marry.” He offers to buy her a drink, but Lt. Nelson scoffs, “You’re too young to drink, sailor.” Challenged, Art takes out his I.D., and Rosaline gazes in amazement: They were born on the exact same day in 1922, she in South Dakota, he in Louisiana.

It was love at first drink.

Art proposes the next day; he’s the first one to call her “Roz,” a name she loves and uses for life.

Atomic bombs explode over Japan a week after they meet; they celebrate V-J Day together, September 2. After a whirlwind romance amid the chaos of war, Roz & Art marry in Hawaii in 1946, soon after her (quite honorable) Army discharge.

Roz became the perfect Naval officer’s wife while Art rose to the rank of Captain, serving 30 years. She organized fellow officers’ wives, hosted cocktail parties and raised their three sons, often by herself as Art was away on sea duty for six to nine months at a time.

And as all career military families will attest, they were constantly on the move: Hawaii, San Francisco, Annapolis, Coronado and San Diego, Newport (RI), Washington DC, Sasebo (Japan) – San Diego and Coronado being their hub; finally, duty and retirement in San Diego. And it was Roz who did the bulk of the packing – while keeping a watchful eye on her three sons: Art III (’48, Hawaii); Rick (’51, Annapolis); and Brad (’57, Hawaii).

“While Dad was in Japan pondering the wisdom of buying me a set of drums,” recalls Rock n’ Roll fan, Art III, Mom told Dad, “They tell me it’s ‘sex, drugs OR rock n’ roll,’ so you better buy them quickly.’”

“Mom taught me to love baseball,” middle son Rick recalls. “She pitched, I hit and she ran after the ball as I ran the bases. Plus, she kept ALL of my baseball cards, through all of their moves.”

“When life was challenging, we could always count on Mom being there for us,” recalls her youngest son, Brad.

Her Swedish-born parents emigrated to the Midwest in the early 1900s, meeting on the ship to the States. They eventually bought land in eastern South Dakota (northwest of Mitchell) and successfully farmed several hundred acres. Their two children were born on the farm: Ted and younger sister, Rosaline.

Life was difficult on the farm during the Depression; they were poor, but she never felt poor because there was always food on the table. Rosaline celebrated when the new Sears Roebuck catalog arrived so they could use the softer pages for toilet paper in their outhouse. She actually did walk several miles to her one-room schoolhouse through snow drifts (but, apparently, not uphill both ways). She lived in a boarding school in nearby Woonsocket to attend high school.

Her escape from the farm was a year of college in Sioux Falls, then nurses’ training in Mitchell; upon graduation and residency in 1944, she and fellow nurses enlisted in the U.S. Army. Roz was commissioned an officer and, after volunteering for overseas duty, was deployed via hospital ship to the tiny but strategic Pacific island of Saipan.

In addition to her Navy husband, to whom she was lovingly married for 66 years, Roz loved to play golf and bridge; she excelled at both. She delivered Meals on Wheels and did numerous volunteer activities with her beloved Lutheran Church. She was a devoted Padres fan, organizing group trips to Yuma for spring training. During the long summer, she took care of their tiny cabin in the western Washington woods near Olympic National Park and Lake Cushman (1977-2008), often commenting that her husband may have retired, but her work was never done. She kept an immaculate house, cooked and entertained.

Roz recalled living in more than 20 rented homes before they settled into their first and only owned home in 1973 in the Bay Ho area of San Diego. It’s where Art died (in 2012), and she lived out the rest of her life.

She is survived by her three sons (and three daughters-in-law: Kathy, Tracy and Stacie), eight grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and her dear South Dakota niece and nephews.

Remembrances should be sent to your favorite charity that helps people less fortunate than you. It’s the way she lived her life.