A Secret Place in my Heart

About the Book

A Secret Place in My Heart is the biography of Dorothy “Dottie” Gill, a WAC during World War II, from the time she entered the armed forces through her discharge. Dottie also met and married her husband, Tex, while serving in France—15 days from meeting to marriage that lasted 51 years.

About the Author

Dorothy Cusprine Gill was born in Saranac, NY, a child of hard circumstances, which made for a troubled and precarious existence. At the tender age of eighteen months, she lost her mother. Her father, a ne'er-do-well with several failed marriages, reflective of his many shortcomings, sent her to live with a grandmother in Meriden, CT. In spite of her circumstances, or perhaps because of the challenges that they presented, Dottie called upon the rare combinations of courage, humor, audacity and an incredible sense of purpose to rise above her initial misfortunes. After graduating from high school, she worked in an army parts factory to aid the war effort. Later, she joined the WAC's. While serving broad, in paris, she met, fell in love and married her husband, "Tex" Gill, who was stationed in Paris with the US Army. The interval between their initial meeting to their marriage wa 15 days. The marriage lasted 51 years until Dottie's death in 1996. Her "Diary" tells of her her life as a WAC, but she was so much more. She was a wife, mother, a Girl Scout troop leader. She managed political campaigns, including Ella Grasso's, she wrote for the Windsor Locks Enterprise, was a public speaker with an incredible sense of humor but hers is a love story unlike any other. It is exciting, interesting, inspiring and real. Dottie Gill may have died, but her remembrances, along with a smile, will live forever in our mind's eye.