Sharing Mom's Story of Her Time in Washington D.C. During WWII
Kevin Bernhardt with one of his favorite pictures of his mom, Lois, on the slide in the background
Slide in background of James (Jimmy) Byrnes, U.S. Secretary of State under President Truman, signing the United Nations Charter in 1945. Lois is sitting behind Byrnes in the picture
Slide of Jimmy Byrnes, her former boss, giving away Lois in marriage to Kevin's dad, Bob Bernhardt
L-R: Optimist Member and Kevin's wife, Daneen Bernhardt, Kevin Bernhardt, and Optimist Part-President Terri Ellis
Optimist member, Dr. Kevin Bernhardt, is a Professor of Agribusiness at UW-Platteville and UW-Extension Farm Management Specialist. Dr. Bernhardt's teaching, Extension and scholarly interests include farm financial analysis and management, risk management, and commodity marketing. In addition to teaching UWP agricultural students, Kevin provides workshops and education presentation to a variety of Wisconsin and national audiences including farmers, lenders, women in agriculture, and others. He joined the UW-Platteville faculty in 1996. On October 30, 2026, he shared a special story with the Optimist Club, using his mother's script, about his mom, Lois Kevan Bernhardt, who went to Washington D.C. during World War II.
It started after Lois Kevan became the State of Iowa Typing Champion in 1937.
She got her first job in Des Moines working for an insurance company. Her mother encouraged her to take the civil service exam, even though she did not want to leave Iowa. After the 3rd cable from the War Department, she accepted the job and bought a one-way train ticket to Washington D.C. Part of the reason she was chosen for the job was that her background check indicated she was a reserved, quiet person while the other applicant was known to be chatty, a trait not desired by someone who would eventually be required to keep high-level government secrets.
Lois's first job in Washington was G-3 Division of War Department. While at that job, she took a course to learn dictation and steno-typing.
Her second job was Price Adjustment Board at the new and largest office building in the world at the time, The Pentagon.
Her third job was one of two secretaries for James (Jimmy) Byrnes at the Office of Economic Stabilization and War Mobilization in the White House. James Byrnes held many roles during his career. He was a member of the House of Representatives, Senator, Justice on the Supreme Court, and Governor of South Carolina. It was when President Roosevelt asked him to resign from the Supreme Court and become the Head of The Office of Economic Stabilization and War Mobilization at the White House that Lois got to know Jimmy. At that time, Byrnes was often called the "Assistant President."
During her four years working in D.C., Lois played a role in some of the world's biggest stories. She attended the Potsdam Conference in Berlin. At this time, the city was in complete ruins. There were no stores, no restaurants, people were depressed and living in misery without homes and food. The only vehicles were military vehicles. The American soldiers serving there had not seen an American girl for three years and they held resentment toward German girls. When they saw Lois taking pictures of them, they were standoffish. Lois yelled out in a clearly American voice "Anyone from Iowa?" They then became quite popular! She remembers one soldier showing her mom a picture of his twin girls that were 3 years old and he had not yet seen them.
As for the conference itself, Potsdam was plans for peace. Reparations were the first sticking point. U.S. wanted to get Germany on a peaceful path back to progress as quickly as possible while Russia wanted to take everything out and was shipping machinery and anything they could even before the talks were done. Byrnes took shorthand and gave it to Lois to type up. In one dictation, there was a circled part that read "Stalin asleep". This occurred during one of Churchill's speeches. When Byrnes would call the office and ask for the papers on China, this was a signal that there would be a photo opportunity and thus where a lot of Lois's pictures came from.
Lois was invited to Christmas parties. At one, she shook hands with President and Mrs. Roosevelt. She remembers giving a tour of the White House to three friends from Iowa and between the east and west wings, there was a swimming pool. It was there that they bumped into a dripping wet Mrs. Roosevelt who chatted with them for a few minutes and made quite an impression on her friends.
In an effort to promote the sale of war bonds to support the war, Pathe News shot a reel of the President receiving a bond from the youngest person in the White House, which happened to be Lois Kevan.
She was invited to the birthday party for the Shah of Iran at the Iranian Embassy. To keep her from having to ride street cars in formal attire, Mrs. Byrnes offered to take her in the chauffeured limousine, which also included the wife of the Secretary of Treasury, Mrs. Fred Vinson. Lois said she was "regally cared for." She also attended several Presidential Balls where she saw Rita Hayworth and Lucille Ball. People thought she was famous and would ask for her autograph.
In addition to her duties, Lois would carry non-significant looking files from Byrnes' office to the Oval Office, not knowing that some of the exchanges were for the Manhattan Project (the development of the atomic bomb).
Lois was under a lot of pressure to keep things secret and her family knows that there are secrets she took to her grave when she passed away twenty years ago. But they do know that she helped type the United Nations Charter and the surrender terms for ending WWII.
After spending four years in D.C. during the war, Lois moved back to Iowa where she married Bob Bernhardt, formerly a naval pilot, who also worked in secret training. Jimmy Byrnes, her former boss, agreed to give Lois away in marriage under the condition that Bob go back to college and finish his degree, which he did. They then started their family while farming in Southeast Minnesota and then Iowa when he got involved in extension work.
Thank you, Kevin, for sharing your mom's connections to history in Washington D.C. during WWII.
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