THE HAT SQUAD: TIGER, TYGER - REMEMBERING ARLENE MARTEL

There was a point there in August when Death was working overtime (and sadly given assistance by one of its collectibles.)  

• Robin Williams
• Lauren Bacall
• Ed Nelson
• Arlene Martel

Along with James Garner having passed away just a few weeks before near the end of July, the death of a legend like Bacall and the suicide of Williams overshadowed the passings of the other two.  As such, I'd like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to one of the many Toobworld characters played by Arlene Martel:

MARIE LOUISE MONET

But she is better known as "Tiger Lily", a legendary member of the French Resistance during World War II.

"Tiger Lily" was her code name, taken from the German Tiger tank.  It was the object of her first mission with the French Underground.

Marie Monet was born on November 9, 1921.  It is believed that she is college-educated, but otherwise not much is known of her pre-war background.  At least half a dozen times she came into contact with the "prisoners" of Stalag 13 while on her missions.  And she may have become romantically involved with Colonel Robert Hogan while hiding in the camp.  

The last time she was seen by Colonel Hogan (that we know of) was when she had been captured by the Gestapo and sentenced to execution.  Hogan and his men were able to get her away safely and sent her off to England.

The 'Hogan's Heroes' wiki has no speculation as to whether or not she survived the war, but I'd like to think that she did.  And in fact, she arrived in England with a little more than just the clothes on her back, something she had not bargained on.....

I think she was pregnant by Colonel Hogan.

Marie Monet knew she was not the maternal kind and that it would only be to the detriment of her unborn child if she even tried to raise it herself.  (For one thing, I believe the adrenaline allure of her chosen cause was too much to ignore.  Sooner or later she would return to the fight across the channel in her native land.  And should die for that cause, what traumatic effect would that leave on her daughter?)

While in England, she spoke to several anti-war groups and was debriefed by the OSS on what she knew from her past missions.  It was during this time, as she remained in the country for the birth of her baby, Marie became friends with an aristocratic couple, Mr. and Mrs. Rowan.  They took her in and gave her lodging at their estate, with the hopes that she would change her mind about going back to the front and re-joining the Resistance.  

But Marie was more determined than ever to get back in order to help bring down the Third Reich and the Rowans soon accepted that there would be no changing her mind.

She did, however, have one request of them: Marie hoped that the Rowans could find a good home for her baby so that she wouldn't be distracted by worries for the child as she carried out her missions.

The Rowans knew there was only one perfect solution - they would raise the baby themselves, never letting the child forget who her real mother was and what a hero she had been during the War.

And so, soon after giving birth to a baby girl, Marie Louise Monet, otherwise known as "Tiger Lily", slipped away in the night to return to France.  She left only one caveat for the Rowans - that the little girl was to be named Roberta, after her father Robert Hogan.

Perhaps the 'Hogan's Heroes' wiki was right.  Maybe her fate was never discovered; perhaps she did die during the war.  We never saw Colonel Hogan after the war ended either, unlike Colonel Klink.  It could be that he didn't survive the war either.  It's the sick and twisted romantic in me that would like to think they died together on one last mission......

At any rate, I don't think she ever got the chance to come back to Great Britain and see how her daughter had turned out.....

Roberta Rowan grew up to be a lovely young woman who was known by all her friends as Bobbi.  By 1962, Lady Bobbi Rowan had a daughter of her own, whom she named after the mother she only knew as this mythic figure - "Tyger" Hayes.

When she grew up, Tyger Hayes was determined to succeed in the business world in America.  After the death of her husband Chase Marshall in a racing car accident, Tyger attempted to join his family's firm of Kellico in order to carry on his legacy, but she was opposed by Chase's father, Hadden Marshall.  However, Chase's aunt, Hadden's sister Margaret, encouraged Tyger to make a go of a new line of perfumes despite the machinations of Hadden Marshall's other daughter-in-law, Ava.

As I said, I'd like to believe that Marie Monet survived World War II and one day, when she was much older, she had the chance to meet her granddaughter who was named in her honor.

BCnU!