To the Editor:

I have known Beryl [Harrison] longer than anyone (she is my sister) and there are a few things people might like to know about her and that is why I wanted to leave a comment. [See the August 14, 2020 issue of The Newtown Bee, “A New Chapter For Longtime C.H. Booth Reference Librarian.”]

When she was pursuing her library science degree, she worked part-time at the Temple University Medical School Library in Philadelphia. On Sundays, doctors would come into the library and, sheepishly, ask Beryl if the latest copy of Playboy was available.

In those days, that particular magazine was rarely on public display and was kept under the desk. Beryl would reach under the desk and hand the magazine to the student and off he would go to “study anatomy.”

When she graduated, she worked at the University of Maryland’s college library.

When she married Jack and he was stationed in San Diego, she worked at the Chula Vista Public Library.

One day an old gent came in and needed help finding information, and Beryl, being Beryl, helped him find what he was looking for.

The next week the director of the Chula Vista Library received a letter from the old gent stating his profound gratitude for Beryl’s help. The old gent was Omar Bradley. (Only people of a certain age, I suppose, would know who Omar Bradley was.) [Omar Bradley was a senior US Army officer in WWII, the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and oversaw Korean War US policy. He died in 1981.]

After Jack left the Navy, they wound up in Cincinnati, where Beryl worked at the Cincinnati Public Library.

When they moved to Newtown, she volunteered at the Middle School (?) library before finally going to work at the C.H. Booth Library.

Thank you for your article on her well-deserved retirement.

They really did break the mold the day she was born.

Sincerely,

Ruth E. Matthews

27939 Panorama Hills Drive, Menifee, Calif. August 17, 2020