Letter to the Editor: Mother lost citizenship when married non-citizen father

Thank you for printing the list of new U.S. citizens from March 24, 1938 in a recent "75 Years Ago" column.

The first name in the list was that of my mother, Emma Jean Napier. Although she was born at Reardan and had lived her entire life in the state of Washington, she lost her U.S. citizenship in 1922 whe she married my father, John (Jack) Napier. They knew he was still a citizen of Scotland, but did not know of the law still in force which nullified citizenship when a U.S. citizen married a non-citizen. The law was changed six months after their marriage!

My dad became a citizen by the same...