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Gazette and Bulletin: May 26, 1943 – Mrs. Frank Fenno to Christen New Submarine in Philadelphia on Sunday

Mrs. Frank Fenno, wife of local naval hero, Commander Frank Fenno, is a living exception to the rule that women cannot keep a secret as she prepares to participate in a twin launching of a submarine at the Cramp Shipyards, Philadelphia, Sunday afternoon.

The excited “Navy wife” learned in March from Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, that she would sponsor the submarine “Devilfish,” but she kept this secret “practically” to herself until the announcement was officially made last night. Her qualified statement of keeping the secret is explained by the fact that “I did tell my mother and husband and a close friend or two.”

Asked if her husband would be a spectator, Mrs. Fenno said she had just received a letter from him which set his location “nowhere near where he could get back in time.” Her husband received the Navy Cross for removing valuable government documents from Corregidor and sinking a Japanese warship that tried to stop him. He later was cited by the Navy for sinking 31,000 tons of enemy shipping in the South Pacific.

Though she’s admittedly “scared to death” at the idea of breaking a bottle of champagne against the submarine, Mrs. Fenno revealed that she has purchased a completely new outfit for the occasion.

Mrs. Fenno said last night that she will leave Saturday for Philadelphia accompanied by her mother, Mrs. O.S. Marston, her sister, Mrs. Edward Lyon Jr. and Dr. and Mrs. Stuart Gibson.