From Mobile to Morganton by way of Saigon

“Being tall and skinny has its advantages,” Donna Besch said. “That’s how I got started in modeling.”

Donna grew up near Mobile, Ala. Her father, a World War II veteran assigned to the post-war cleanup of Hiroshima, died from a brain tumor when she was 17.

The surgeon who treated her father refused payment. Donna’s mother divided the insurance money among the children.

Donna attended William Carey College in Hattiesburg, Miss., for two years, where the focus was on fine arts and the social graces, studying history and art history.

In 1961, the manager at Raphael’s, the unrivaled destination for exclusive fashions, furs, and accessories for women in Mobile, needed a model. “I got lucky,” Donna said. “I was tall and thin enough to wear the clothes. I had to learn fast, all the ins and outs, how to walk, the whole thing. You never know what you can do until you try.”

At Raphael’s, Donna modeled the latest Christian Dior Collection, which was heavily influenced by Jackie Kennedy’s Parisian slim-look style, at tea rooms, restaurants and hotels.

At one event, a customer bought the dress she was wearing. “I had to take it off in the bathroom and give it to her,” Donna said with a laugh. Then, leaning forward slightly, “When I had to wear the furs, I didn’t have anything on under them.”

In order to become more independent, Donna took a job at Biehl & Co., the dominant steamship agent in Mobile. While there, she bought her first car, a red, rear-engine Corvair.

Meanwhile, she was courted by Congressman Jack Edwards’ office and agreed to a blind interview. Two weeks later, she moved to Washington, D.C.

Beginning in 1967, Donna worked in Edwards’ office on Capitol Hill for three years. Among her duties were writing letters of condolence to the families of those reported killed or missing in action in Vietnam.

“You get your real education outside of the classroom,” she said. “That’s

when you find out who you are. I wrote hundreds of letters.”

In 1970, Donna attended a Presbyterian church Thanksgiving dinner near Mount Vernon, Va. “I thought he was the minister,” she said. “He opened the door, introduced me, gave the blessing and then sat down beside me.”

Three days later, Ed Besch picked up Donna in his green Pontiac convertible and took her to the Lutheran church on Capitol Hill, then to lunch at the Watergate Hotel. Ed was not a minister.

Instead, he was a former captain in the Marine Corps who received two Purple Heart medals for combat injuries in Vietnam that left him with a severe, permanent disability in his right arm.

Medically discharged in 1966, he became a top CIA military photo analyst.

Before taking her home, Ed asked about her plans for the future. “I’m moving to Mobile in a few months,” she said, “to fix up houses to sell.”

“No, you’re not,” he said. “You are going to marry me. And in May, we are going to Vietnam.”

Caught off guard, Donna told him to give her 24 hours, as she already had two boyfriends.

The next day, she called her mother. “You’ve been waiting a long time to try your wings,” she told her. “Go for it.”

They were married in Mobile not long afterwards. Soon after the wedding, Ed reported to the CIA office on the fifth floor of the American Embassy in Saigon. Donna waited in Hong Kong until it was safe to continue.

While there, she bought a woven bamboo handbag.

Ed’s specialty was analyzing aerial photos of troop and weapons movements and determining whether they were indicative of offensive or defensive positions. His assessments were used by the U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam Ellsworth Bunker and then-National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger in secret negotiations between North and South Vietnam.

When Donna arrived in Saigon, Ed instructed her to carry a gun in the bamboo bag whenever she was with him. “If we are captured,” he told her, “I have to shoot you first, then kill myself.”

“I became very familiar with that gun,” Donna said. “We both went to the police station to practice shooting. I was the entertainment when we had company. I field-stripped all the guns in the apartment and put them back together.”

In 1972, the Easter Offensive threatened to reduce Saigon to rubble. Shortly after the invasion was stopped, the American Women’s Association of Saigon (AWAS) held a gala spring fashion show fundraiser for the Vietnamese Refugee Fund, which helped restore a sense of normalcy amid the curfews and ever-present risks.

Donna is shown modeling a traditional Tibetan silk dress and a Montagnard poncho at the fundraiser on the August 1972 cover of “Max Factor Country,” a fashion news magazine that was distributed worldwide to U.S. military exchanges.

The AWAS members visited shelters for refugees. On the weekends, Donna volunteered at a halfway house for orphans. “As soon as I walked in the door,” she said, “I had 10 children clinging to my fingers.”

On the way back to the U.S., they stopped in Tehran. Ed noticed that they had “picked up a tail,” someone who was secretly following them. “Ed was well-known,” Donna said, “for his intelligence studies and reports.” They immediately grabbed their bags and got on the next flight to Istanbul.

Their daughters were born in Charlottesville, Va. Christina lives and works in Morganton while Catherine runs an animal rescue nonprofit in Vietnam.

Due to permanent hearing loss from Ménière’s disease 20 years ago, Donna wears a cochlear implant and also carries a “Roger” directional microphone in her pocket.

Donna came to Morganton after Ed died in 2020. “I wanted to get to know the people and their history, so I visited the History Museum of Burke County,” she said. “I love history, so I immediately volunteered to be a docent. I feel lost when I’m not at the museum because I enjoy people.”

In the preface to Ed Besch’s 2017 book, “U.S. Colored Troops Defeat Confederate Army Cavalry,” he wrote, “I especially wish to thank my beloved wife Donna Steadham Besch, whose assistance, encouragement, historical interests, and patience were blessings in themselves. I made no mistake when I proposed to her on our first date.”