VERA MOORE
(ne: Anker)
Vera holding daughter Mary

Vera as a child

Vera Engvoldsen

was born in Langesund, Norway July 2, 1920 to Johanna (Weckhorst) and Ole Anker Engvoldsen. They immigrated to the US in 1923 and "Engvoldsen" was dropped in favor of Anker (so she became Vera Anker). The family settled in Washington State where Ole ran an oyster business.

She had an older sister, Evelyn (born Jan 1, 1918) and two younger brothers, Harry (born 28 Mar 1924) and Harold (born Nov. 14, 1928).

After she finished school, Vera married George Everett Moore II. She was working at Penney's (department store). George Moore was stationed in the Seattle area. They either met when George came into Penney's to buy a gift, or when Vera went to officer's club dances. Vera had made the list of women eligible to attend Officer's club dances (she was deemed to be 'of high character') and ended up doing so almost every night. These were formal affairs and Vera created new outfits by mixing and matching items in her trunks (this according to daughter, Janet).

Vera and George's daughter Janet was born in Seattle. George Moore II was in the Navy and they were later stationed in Vallejo, CA. When he was stationed on a ship in the pacific, Vera moved herself and Janet into a house in Bremerton, WA with her sister Evelyn (at that time Evy's husband, Bill, was deployed on a ship in the Atlantic.

Later the family moved to San Pedro, CA. From there they moved to Pennsylvania where daughter, Mary, was born. They lived in both Abington and Horsham, Pennsylvania. They lived in Washington DC, then moved to Seattle. Janet spent 3rd and 4th grade in Seattle where the family lived in quarters on a hill inside the grounds of a TB sanitorium (it had been a Naval hostpital during the war). Janet remembers the bus picking them up for school just outside the sanitorium grounds. Janet also remembers her mom (Vera) serving them jetoast (Norwegian cheese), among other things, for breakfast -- especially when they lived in the Seattle area and it was readily available.

The family moved to La Mesa, CA while George was deployed in conjunction with the Korean War. From there they went to Philadelphia, then to Coronado, CA, where Janet finished High School. Janet attended Stanford (where she acquired the nickname "Mandy"), but the rest of the family (now including younger sons George III and John) moved to Newport RI (roughly 1960-1961). They moved to northeast Philadelphia, then to Mechanicsburg (where Mary met her future husband, Jack Ramsey).

Vera died in early 1965 (of cancer). George Moore II was later transferred to the Pentagon.
George and Vera with unknown couple and Aunt Dagmar Anderson (ne: Weckhorst)

Charming Bride-Elect
A wedding the latter part of this month is being planned by lovely Miss Vera
Anker, above, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. O.E. Anker of Allyn, Wash., when she
will become the bride of Ensign G.E. Moore, II, U.S.N.., the son of Mr. and
Mrs. G.E. Moore, Sr., of Lebanon, New Hampshire. (Photo by Richard
Gray Robinson.)
MRS. G.E. MOORE II
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