Nova Scotians are honouring a fascinating woman who went from New York chorus girl to war hero as they mark the province’s 4th annual Heritage Day.
Mona Parsons played a key role in the Second World War – even though she never donned a uniform.
Parsons, who was born in Middleton, N.S., in 1901 and grew up in Wolfville, was captured and imprisoned by the Nazis in Holland for assisting Allied airmen.
Before the war, she was pursuing an acting career in New York when she met Dutch millionaire Willem Leonhardt. They married in 1937 and moved to Holland.
On their second wedding anniversary, the Nazis invaded the country. Parsons and her husband became part of the resistance movement and helped hide Allied pilots who were downed in the fighting.
When someone gave them away, Parsons’ husband went into hiding, but she refused to do the same and was arrested.
Parsons was sent to the women’s prison in Vechta, Germany, where she spent four years. When the prison was bombed in 1945, Parsons and a young Dutch woman seized the opportunity to escape and made their way across Germany by pretending to be German. Parsons faked a speech impediment so that her accent wouldn’t give her away.
Parsons eventually made her way to a Canadian unit at the Dutch-German border, the Nova Scotia Highlanders.
After her husband died, Parsons moved back to Nova Scotia and married Maj.-Gen. Harry Foster. She died in Wolfville in 1976.
Nova Scotia Heritage Day, which is celebrated the third Monday in February, honours the people, places and events that have contributed to the province’s heritage. It is a provincial holiday.
