CPT, US Army, Lorna Bennett Blossom McIntyre

Lorna Mae Bennett Blossom (McIntyre) enlisted in the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) in Lubbock on January 17^th, 1943, and was sent for training at Ft. Oglethorpe in Georgia. ^{1, 2, 3, 4}She was stationed in Des Moines, Iowa, in August 1943 and promoted from 2nd lieutenant to first lieutenant in March 1944. ^{5, 6} In 1946, as a captain, she worked in the Military Intelligence at the Pentagon in what would become the Defense Intelligence Agency. ⁷

Blossom McIntyre was born in Clarendon, Texas, to Helen Garnett Bennett and Phillip Claire Bennett. After high school, Bennett attended Texas Tech in Lubbock and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1941. ⁸ In the same year, she was honored as a member of Alpha Chi, a national honorary scholastic fraternity. ⁹ She also worked in the crop loan department at the Amarillo Courthouse and H.V. Robertson and Company in Amarillo. ¹⁰

On May 6^th, 1944, she married Rea Blossom and was living in Los Alamos by 1968. Following her husband’s death, she opened a bookstore in Los Alamos called Ojo de Dios in 1970. ¹¹ The New Mexico Sun wrote of the store’s opening day, “Everyone has their dream. Sometimes they come true. Lorna Blossom saw hers come true last week with the opening of Ojo de Dios, a bookstore all her own.” ¹¹ She had five children and later James McIntyre in 1974. ⁷ She was regularly active in Trinity in the Hill Episcopal Church in Los Alamos where she served as secretary for many years. ⁷