BURLINGTON — “Mom Kaye” is about to go bombs away.

        Jacqueline “Jackie” Kaye is assembling about 2,000 Easter gifts in her Burlington home for her “adopted” sons and daughters in the U.S. Navy, a tradition dating back almost 20 years.

        Mrs. Kaye, 69, and her late husband, Norman — known throughout the Navy as “Mom and Pop Kaye” — began adopting sailors in 1984 at their home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., as a way to provide a home away from home for some of the young people who temporarily dropped anchor at the Navy base there.

        Their work became legend in the Navy, earning them honors from four U.S. presidents. Starting with the officers and crew of the USS Boston nuclear submarine, the Kayes eventually sent gifts at various times of the year to crews of 19 submarines and a missile cruiser.

        “We just became known as Mom and Pop to all our adopted Navy children,” Mrs. Kaye, who grew up in College Hill, said as she looked over the hundreds of mementos and gifts that fill three rooms of her home.

        Fourteen of those Navy “children” grew up to be admirals.

        One of the most prized mementos is a small metal model of the USS Boston on a wooden stand, presented to the Kayes by the Boston crew and made from a piece of the submarine before it was decommissioned and scrapped.

        “We moved to Fort Lauderdale (from Maine) in 1972 and Norman became a member of the Navy League,” Mrs. Kaye said. “During Fleet Week (when many Navy ships come to port) in 1984, the Boston came in but we learned that no one had volunteered to take care of her crew while she was in port. We took the officers to dinner, and then asked if we could adopt the entire crew. We took care of the Boston crews for 16 years.”

        The Kayes took the adoption seriously, bringing the crews into their home on the Intracoastal Waterway and letting them eat, sleep and swim there until the sailors' time in port was up.

        The Kayes also began a tradition of gathering small gifts for the crews during the holidays and mailing them around the world.

        “The gifts always catch up to the boats,” Mrs. Kaye said. “When they stop at some faraway port, the mail is waiting for them. We have always managed to get the gifts to the kids.”

        They aren't big gifts, just little things like some candy in a plastic Easter egg, and maybe one of the little plastic angels that glow in the dark and are considered good luck when hung above a sailor's bunk on a submarine.

        Mr. Kaye, who operated his own business in airport development for many years, died a year ago. “We were married 34 years,” Mrs. Kaye recalled. “It was such a trauma to lose Pop. I'm still not over it.”

        At a special memorial service in Groton, Conn., one of the major submarine ports in the United States and the home of the Navy's submarine school, 14 admirals — all officers adopted years ago by the Kayes — stood at attention as “Pop” Kaye's ashes were carried to the USS Sea Wolf and taken to sea for a sailor's burial.

Allen asks for details on priests
Image campaign, lawsuit aim to turn back boycott
Police review panel suspends operations
Summer job forecast is sunny for teens
PULFER: Gamesmanship
RADEL: Find yourself
Some Good News
Board bans principal from school
Jury room leaks sound, Butler officials told
Ohio's aviation coin unveiled
Schools: Giving old buildings new life
Arrest made in rape of girl, 11
Deaths of 6 students hit BGSU campus
Convention center deal fine-tuned
Franklin woman indicted in theft
Indictment challenged in cemetery-fund trial
Olympic bid group returns $37.5K to Ohio
Service goes beyond food
Witness says he gave Traficant money for boat
Callahan revises gambling proposal
Floods strike eastern Kentucky
Navy's 'Mom Kaye' keeps tradition of shipping gifts
UK begins Parkinson's treatment
Tristate A.M. Report