Series: Interviews

Allord, Lorraine, 1994 January 20, Middleton, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Lorraine (Connie) (Conley) Allord was the only child born to parents of Irish and German background on January 27, 1920 in Tomahawk, Wisconsin. She was graduated from Tomahawk High School and moved to Madison. She was married in 1941 to Lawrence Allord. One month after their marriage Ms. Allord and her husband both traveled to Milwaukee to enlist in the United States Marines. They then moved back to Tomahawk from Madison until they were called into the service. Ms. Allord was twenty-three years old when she was called in late November, 1943. She was sent to Camp LeJeune, North Carolina for boot camp. She was then sent to Cherry Point, North Carolina for extensive tests and interviews. At this time she applied for control tower school. She attended control tower school in Atlanta, Georgia for six weeks and received her civilian and military licenses as a control tower operator. She was then sent back to Cherry Point where she concluded her service. While at Cherry Point she became staff sergeant of one of the shifts in the control tower and received her Technical Sergeant stripes. When Ms. Allord was discharged from Cherry Point she moved back to Madison with her husband and went to MATC [Madison Area Technical College] under the GI Bill. She was studying commercial art until they moved to Middleton, Wisconsin where they both took aviation courses. They received their pilot's licenses in 1947. Their three children were born in 1947, 1950, and 1958. Ms. Allord was the first woman in Wisconsin to receive her pilot's license under the GI Bill. She has remained very active in the Veterans of Foreign Wars and other veterans' organizations and attends parades and conventions commemorating the war.
Scope and Content Note: Ms. Allord discusses her reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbor and her consequent enlistment in the marines along with her husband. She talks about her parents' reactions to her joining the marines. She then discusses boot camp at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina as a twenty-three-year-old married woman. Ms. Allord talks about being interviewed and tested at Cherry Point until she was sent to Atlanta, Georgia for control tower school. She talks about the six weeks of boot camp including the training and social conditions. She then discusses her return to Cherry Point and spending the holidays away from home. She also talks about being able to return home to be with her husband when he was on emergency leave. She then discusses the living conditions at boot camp in Cherry Point, Atlanta and her job as a control tower operator. Ms. Allord then talks about promotions she received and her work relationships with the men. She discusses the trips she took while on vacation and the privileges she experienced as a marine. She then talks about the rules of propriety and conduct expected of every marine and her views on how gays and lesbians were treated in the military. Ms. Allord describes how she found out about D-Day and recalls the celebrations on V-E Day and V-J Day. She then discusses her reaction to Franklin Roosevelt's death when she was in service and the bombing of Hiroshima. She talks about being discharged from Cherry Point, returning to Madison, and going to school for aviation under the GI Bill. She talks about her three children and her expectations she had after the war. She describes how the war has changed her life and recounts accidents and hurricanes she experienced at Cherry Point. She ends with discussing her involvement in veterans' and other war organizations and the role of women today in the military.

Angermeyer, Mary Jean, 1993 June 9, Oshkosh, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Mary Jean (Lindsey) Angermeyer was born on December 12, 1917, in Redwood Falls, Minnesota. She was the second born of four children in a family of Norwegian and English/Scottish/Irish background. After having graduated high school, she attended the University of Minnesota, receiving her degree in engineering in 1939. The daughter of a civil engineer, she was encouraged by her father to pursue a career in engineering. Her two brothers and her sister each became engineers. Following graduation, Ms. Angermeyer was employed by Kimberly-Clark in Neenah. In September of 1941 she married Howard Angermeyer and they continued to live in Neenah for the first years of their marriage. The couple had four daughters born in 1943, 1945, 1947, and 1950. Ms. Angermeyer worked at Kimberly-Clark until the birth of their first child. Her husband was drafted late in the war, after the birth of their first child. Ms. Angermeyer and her husband now make their home in Oshkosh.
Scope and Content Note: Ms. Angermeyer discusses her reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the start-up of the draft. She then talks about her decision to pursue a degree in engineering and the reaction of her classmates and professors to a woman in a man's field. She describes her work in a variety of departments at Kimberly Clark, and living in Neenah as a single woman prior to her marriage in 1941. She continues by describing her social activities with her roommates and talks about how she met her husband. She describes the hardships faced by a young married couple at the beginning of the war, including housing problems, war-time work in areas outside of Neenah, transportation difficulties, and finally her husband being drafted into the military near the end of the war. She discusses problems with shortages as well as the camaraderie among family and other women in the area. She concludes by talking about the celebrations during the announcements of V-E and V-J days and her reactions to the war.

Baehr, Elizabeth, 1993 April 27, Madison, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History

Elizabeth (O'Hara) Baehr was born on December 5, 1915, in Janesville, Wisconsin. The daughter of Irish immigrants, she had three sisters and one brother. She was brought up in a strongly Catholic household; her brother later became a priest. She was graduated from public high school in Janesville and then received her nursing degree from the School of Nursing in Janesville in 1939. She worked as a private duty nurse in the Janesville area for two years prior to moving to Madison to take a job at the University Hospital. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Ms. Baehr was anxious to become involved in the war effort. In June of 1943, she joined the U.S. Army Air Force and was stationed in Salt Lake City. After eleven months in Salt Lake City, she was sent overseas. She served as a surgical nurse with the 59th field hospital attached to General Patton's Third Army in France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Austria. Her division was one of the first sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp following the camp's liberation by the Allied forces.

Ms. Baehr returned home late in 1945, and on November 9, 1946, she married Dr. Louis T. Baehr. The couple had two daughters, born in 1947 and 1949. In 1952, Dr. Baehr died suddenly of a heart attack at his home. Following his death, Ms. Baehr returned to nursing, first with the University Hospital as a surgical nurse, and then as a social worker with the Bureau for Crippled Children. Ms. Baehr makes her home in Madison, Wisconsin.

Scope and Content Note: Ms. Baehr begins by describing her reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbor. She recalls her immediate thoughts about joining the army in an effort to be a part of the war. The sudden shortage of nurses at the University Hospital delayed her entrance into the military until June, 1943. She then describes how she first joined the army and then transferred to the air force. She also describes her movement from place to place prior to being sent overseas. She recalls the difficulties in dealing with the large numbers of wounded soldiers, which no amount of training had prepared her for, including the stress and long hours involved upon her arrival in France. She talks about the short leaves that they were allowed to take to Paris, and the wonderful sights in and around Paris.

Batikis, Annastasia, 1992 May 1, Racine, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Annastasia Batikis was born in Kaukauna, Wisconsin, on May 15, 1927. She was the third and last child in her family, following two older brothers. Her parents, who were Greek emigrants from Constantinople, spoke little English and created a home for their children that employed Greek customs. When Ms. Batikis was two, the family moved to Racine, Wisconsin, where she has lived since that time. When World War II began, Ms. Batikis was still a student at Park High School in Racine. Throughout her childhood, she was an active participant in sporting endeavors, playing both basketball and softball. As a softball player, she was one of few girls who was permitted to play on the boys' team. Though she was on schedule to graduate in spring of 1945, she postponed her graduation when she tried out for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, in which she was assigned to the Racine Belles. She played for one season in 1945. She completed high school and in 1948 she attended La Crosse State Teachers College, receiving her teaching certificate and a B.S. in 1952, and an M.S. in 1960. She taught in Manitowoc from 1952-54 and has been a teacher in the Racine public schools since 1954. She retired in 1985. She continues to live in Racine with her older brother, John.
Scope and Content Note: Ms. Batikis touches on many issues of importance to women during World War II. Most intriguing, naturally, is her discussion of her time in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. As someone who joined the league in 1945, she got into women's baseball at the peak of its popularity, prior to the return of male baseball players from the war. She discusses the training that the players had, both in terms of improving their baseball and the attempt to make them appear more attractive and feminine. For example, they were taught the proper way to walk and to sit. Because her mother had died at the beginning of the war, she was able to discuss what it was like to be expected to care for her father and brothers as the only remaining female in a traditional Greek household. She also describes in detail the neighborhood in which she was raised in Racine. It was ethnically diverse, and she speaks to the tolerance that existed among ethnic groups in her section of one of Wisconsin's most diverse areas. Other topics that she discusses include rationing; school; the role played by her strong evangelical beliefs in the way that she viewed the war; her correspondence with her brothers, who were both overseas in the army; the social life in Racine, including the USO; and her impressions of Racine during the war.

Baumann, Isabel, 1992 November 19, Sun Prairie, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Isabel (Almond) Baumann was born on July 28, 1906 in Rutland, Wisconsin, a small town in rural Dane County. She attended high school in nearby Stoughton, and completed a teacher's training course there in 1925. She met her first husband, Dan, while teaching in Sun Prairie, and they farmed together until his death in July, 1942. Ms. Baumann rented her husband's farm to a young couple in the fall of 1943. She and her adopted son, Duwayne, then moved to Madison, where Ms. Baumann began working for the Dairy Herd Improvement Program at the University of Wisconsin. In 1947, she married her second husband, August Baumann, and in 1950 the couple returned to the farm in Sun Prairie, where they lived until moving into town in 1982. Even while working outside her home, Ms. Baumann maintained a wide variety of volunteer activities, most notably the monthly informational radio program that she and four friends produced and acted in from 1937 to 1957. She has also been active in Wisconsin Extension Homemaker's Council, and in 4-H clubs. In 1981, the Wisconsin 4-H Council presented her with an award for outstanding service.
Scope and Content Note

Ms. Baumann began the interview with a brief overview of her wartime experience, including the death of her first husband, her move to Madison, her work with the Dairy Herd Improvement Program, and her volunteer activities with Dane County Rural Federation. She went on to describe in more detail the sorts of social programs she and her friends helped organize in Dane County, and the topics she covered on the monthly radio program produced for WIBA.

She continued by discussing the kinds of jobs she had held, both on the farm, teaching in rural schools, and working in Madison. She described her efforts to find child care in Madison, her duties at work, and financial decisions she made, e.g., buying a home and making do on ration coupons. She continued by describing the important role of organizations like Homemaker's Extension, the Rural Federation, and small, rural schools, in providing leadership opportunities and social events for small towns.

Ms. Baumann briefly outlined the process of adopting Duwayne and her close ties with the four other producers of the radio show. She closed by describing the strong audience response to shows about Easter and Christmas.

Blair, Emma, 1992 November 7, Lake Tomahawk, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Emma (Schroeder) Blair was born on April 14, 1914, in Wabeno, Wisconsin. Her father, born in Nebraska, and her mother, born in Germany, made Wabeno their home where they raised their three children: two daughters and one son. Ms. Blair attended local schools in Wabeno, and then received her nursing degree from the Milwaukee School of Nursing. In 1937, she married Jack Blair and the couple moved to Leona, Wisconsin, where Mr. Blair had a job in the lumber mill. He then moved to Toledo, Ohio, for a brief period, and Ms. Blair moved to Milwaukee to work. Later, Blair joined his wife in Milwaukee and worked for the Allen Bradley Company. The couple had three children born in 1937, 1942, and 1951. By the end of the war, the family had started what would be a series of moves, settling in Ladysmith for a few years. Her husband died in 1974, and her eldest daughter died in 1991. Ms. Blair now resides in Lake Tomahawk, Wisconsin.
Scope and Content Note: Ms. Blair begins by describing her memories of the announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and her feelings surrounding that time. She talks about her fears regarding the threat of her husband being drafted, and some of the first changes after the beginning of the war including gas rationing, and meat rationing. She describes the different jobs her husband had in the few years prior to the war, and then moving to Milwaukee and his working for Allen Bradley after answering an ad looking for basketball players. Ms. Blair describes her unsuccessful search for a job in Toledo prior to coming to Milwaukee where she got a job at Milwaukee Hospital, primarily as a private duty nurse. She then talks about the family's move to Medford and then Ladysmith late in the war. She then talks about how she handled child care for her young daughter when she worked as a nurse in Milwaukee, and describes some of her duties as a nurse. She discusses her level of interaction with the neighbors and friends, mostly in Milwaukee. She also talks about working nights at the hospital, and walking to work. She describes the housework she normally performed, and what her husband helped with around the house. She then talks about her feelings about the war. She then describes purchasing meat from a black market butcher when the family lived in Ladysmith. She concludes by talking about how the war affected her life, and the trips home to see both her family and her husband's family.

Boardman, Elizabeth, 1992 August 4, Middleton, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History

Elizabeth (Jelinek) Boardman was born on August 8, 1917, in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. She lived in several towns in Minnesota and in Fargo, North Dakota, while she was growing up, but she spent the majority of her formative years in Milwaukee, where she attended high school. Following her graduation, she attended the University of Wisconsin, from which she was graduated in June, 1940 with a bachelor's degree in landscape architecture. While at the university, she met Gene Boardman, an alumnus of Beloit College who was a graduate student in Asian studies at Harvard University, and who was working at the University of Wisconsin. They were married just following Mrs. Boardman's graduation in 1940. They then moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, so that Mr. Boardman could continue his graduate studies. He was recruited by the Marine Corps to serve as a language officer due to his facility in Japanese, and so the Boardmans moved to San Diego and then to Honolulu. Mr. Boardman was stationed at Pearl Harbor at the time of the Japanese attack in 1941, and Mrs. Boardman watched the bombing unfold from a mountain overlooking the base. At the time, she was eight months pregnant with their first child, who would be born in Honolulu in January, 1942. After a brief time back in San Diego, her husband was shipped out, and Mrs. Boardman returned to Milwaukee for the remainder of the war. Following the conclusion of the war, Mr. Boardman finished his work for his Ph.D. and received an appointment to the department of history at the University of Wisconsin.

Upon her return to Madison, Mrs. Boardman joined the local Quaker meeting. She had first become interested in the Society of Friends while she was in Cambridge, but after her experience with the war and her realization of her deeply felt pacifism, the Quaker faith, based in the Peace Testimony, seemed perfectly suited for her. She had been involved in antiwar activities on the Madison campus during her time as an undergraduate, but following the war, her peace activism increased greatly. During the Vietnam War, which she strongly opposed, she was a founding member of the Wisconsin Alliance party. In 1967, she was part of a delegation of Americans that travelled to North Vietnam in violation of United States government policy. She remains active in peace movements. After living in Groton, Massachusetts for a ten-year period from 1981 to 1991, Mrs. Boardman now lives in Middleton, Wisconsin.

Scope and Content Note: Mrs. Boardman discuses a very wide range of issues in this interview. Particularly interesting is her discussion of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which she witnessed from the top of a mountain overlooking the base. She also discusses what it was like to be a pacifist who had a husband in the armed forces, and was in that way firmly tied to the war effort. She speaks of her involvement in campus antiwar movements as early as 1935, when she was a freshman in college, and the religious motivations behind her opposition to the war. These religious feelings led her to become a Quaker, another part of her life that she discusses at length. She also speaks of the basic problems faced by a young woman who is left with a child after her husband has been sent abroad. She mentions the networks that were established among women and the unique opportunity that this was for many women, herself included. Other topics that she discusses include her feelings on the use of the atomic bomb; her attempt to deal with anti-Japanese sentiment; her feelings about Hawaii and San Diego as a woman who had not travelled significantly outside of Wisconsin; and her perspective on politics as a feminist from a background of poverty.

Bond, Rubie, 1992 March 19, Beloit, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Rubie (White) Bond was born in Pontotoc, Mississippi, on June 8, 1906. She continued to live in Mississippi until the First World War. At this time, Mrs. Bond's parents, seeking economic opportunities unavailable to blacks in the south, moved Mrs. Bond and her brother and sister to Beloit, Wisconsin. It was the first time that Bond and her parents, whose parents had been slaves, had left Mississippi. In Beloit, which had Wisconsin's largest population of black residents, Rubie prospered. She was graduated from Beloit High School in 1925 and attended Beloit College, which was notable for its willingness to accept black students. Married in 1928 to Frank Bond, she went about the business of being a wife to Bond and a mother to his three daughters from a previous marriage. Additionally, she had six children of her own, five of whom were born by the start of World War II. Mrs. Bond's life has, to some extent, been defined by her social conscience. Ever aware of the position of blacks in society in general and Beloit in particular, she has been an advocate for civil rights for the black residents of her town.
Scope and Content Note: During her interview, Mrs. Bond discussed many topics. All of these, however, were seen within the context of her racial conscience and her strong feelings of pacifism. After speaking of Pearl Harbor, Bond mentioned her ambivalent feelings about the war, based in the feeling that no war is just. She mentioned that she thought of the war less because she was a black woman and was preoccupied with racial issues rather than national defense. She told of her attempt to integrate the local Girl Scout troop for her daughters and then of her family's economic status during the course of the war, when her husband was working in the local steel plant. She then spoke of her religion and of the problems within the church community because she and her family were light-skinned rather than dark-skinned blacks. Among the other issues discussed in the interview are racial dynamics of Bond's Beloit neighborhood during the war, her attempt to get black teachers into the Beloit public school system, her perception of the role of the United States during the war, and her reaction to the way that the war proceeded. Particularly interesting are her comments, near the end of the interview, regarding human nature.

Bourcier, Frieda, 1992 May 12, Marshfield, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Freida (Mayer) Bourcier was born on a farm near Stevens Point, Wisconsin, on December 7, 1905. Her father, born in Germany, and her mother, born in Stevens Point to German parents, had five other children, two daughters and three brothers. The family lived on a farm in Portage County. Mrs. Bourcier's family believed deeply in education, and following her graduation from Stevens Point Emerson High School in 1923 she went on to nurses training at Saint Joseph's Hospital in Marshfield, Wisconsin, from which she was graduated in 1925. Both of Mrs. Bourcier's sisters also became nurses. Following graduation, Mrs. Bourcier stayed in Marshfield to work for the Marshfield Clinic, which was associated with Saint Joseph's. She chose to train to be an anesthetist, which at the time was a discipline practiced by nurses rather than by doctors. When she married in 1930, she stopped working at the clinic in order to stay home and care for her three stepdaughters. She also started a family of her own, having seven children during the next ten years. At the start of World War II, there was a desperate need for nurses at the clinic and hospital, and Mrs. Bourcier was persuaded to return to service. She worked at the hospital until her retirement in 1965. She continues to live in the same home in which she resided during World War II.
Scope and Content Note: Mrs. Bourcier discusses the many topics that were important to her as a wife, working woman, and mother during World War II. Additionally, she had a number of relatives who were fighting the war, and that made her feel very close to the action during the time of war. Because it was such a different time in terms of medical technology, Mrs. Bourcier's insights into the problems of nursing during the war are particularly interesting. Because the Marshfield clinic was and continues to be the most important medical facility in central Wisconsin, her discussion highlights the importance of the clinic and hospital in the community and the region. She balances that with the small-town perspective that living in Marshfield afforded. As a woman with seven children who was also employed, she has many insights on child-rearing and the methods that she used to raise her family at times when she was working six and seven days per week. Other topics that she discussed include: the role of her husband in the home and of men in general, rationing, the place of the Roman Catholic church in Marshfield and in her life, the problems of wartime correspondence, wartime shortages, and methods for dealing with rationing while still feeding seven children, and a particularly unique view on the role of history in defining the American past.

Boxill, Marjorie, 1994 April 13, Germantown, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Marjorie (Letteer) Boxill was born on June 16, 1921 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to a father of French and English heritage and mother of Czechoslovakian and Italian heritage. Raised in Milwaukee, she was graduated from Washington High School. After graduation, Ms. Boxill worked at Northwestern Mutual Life Company until 1942. She volunteered to join the SPARS (Semper Paratus - Always Ready), a division of the Coast Guard. She underwent basic training in March of 1943 at Hunter College in New York. Upon completion she received further training in military secretarial work at Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College in Stillwater, Oklahoma. She chose to be stationed first in Seattle, Washington then transferred to the WAVES (Women's Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service) in Hawaii in February of 1945. She remained there for eight months. After the war, she returned to Milwaukee and worked as a secretary at the Milwaukee Area Technical College until she decided to go overseas again. She took a civil service job in the U.S. Department of Defense and was sent to Panama where she stayed for three months. She transferred to Antigua in the British West Indies and worked there until the base was closed. She then transferred to Trinidad and worked there for an indefinite period of time. Ms. Boxill now resides in Germantown, Wisconsin.
Scope and Content Note: Ms. Boxill begins by discussing her reactions to the attack on Pearl Harbor. She describes her work at the Northwestern Mutual Life Company in Milwaukee. She then discusses her decision to enlist in the SPARS (Semper Paratus - Always Ready) and the reactions of her relatives. Ms. Boxill describes her period of basic training in New York. She goes on to describe being transferred to Stillwater, Oklahoma and the secretarial training she underwent, including how she spent her free time and the relations between men and women on the base. She discusses her transfer to Seattle, Washington, and describes her job, her social life, and her memories of military life. She talks about volunteering to go to Hawaii and the trip there. In describing her time in Hawaii, she detailed bother her work and her social life. Ms. Boxill talks about her reactions to V-J Day, V-E Day, and the dropping of the atomic bombs. Included is a description of the lack of war news available to her during her time in the service. She also talks about sightseeing around the Hawaiian islands after the war was over. She describes celebrating holidays away from home and, when visiting home, the rationing that was taking place. She talks about the living conditions and volunteering to process fruit for local companies in Seattle. Ms. Boxill discusses the censoring of her letters home and how the war had changed her life. She talks about returning to Milwaukee after the war and working as a secretary at the Milwaukee Area Technical College. She then describes going overseas again in the U.S. Air Force working for the Defense Department. She talks about first working in Panama in 1947, then transferring to Antigua in the British West Indies and lastly to Trinidad.

Bracker, Grace, 1992 August 5, Madison, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Grace (Peck) Bracker was born in Hazelton, Iowa, on August 2, 1911. Her father, a Presbyterian minister, was an immigrant from England, and her mother was the American-born child of German immigrants. After her childhood in a number of small towns in Iowa, she attended and was graduated from the University of Dubuque in 1931 with a degree in education and a teaching certificate. She taught in several towns in Iowa, teaching primarily literature, but also was on occasion forced to teach physical education. In 1939, she married Bernhard Bracker. At this time, she quit her job teaching English in Decorah, Iowa, and the Brackers moved to Madison, Wisconsin. In Madison, she worked as a part-time cook and housekeeper for her landlord. In 1942, when she was pregnant with her first child, the Brackers moved to Edgerton, Wisconsin, after Mr. Bracker received a job offer there. They would remain in Edgerton for the duration of the Second World War. After the war, the Brackers moved briefly to New Mexico before returning to Madison to settle permanently. Mrs. Bracker became a teacher in the Madison public school system and earned a master's degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It was also during this period in the mid-1960s that Mrs. Bracker's opposition to the Vietnam War piqued her interest in the Society of Friends, and she became a Quaker shortly thereafter. After her husband's death in 1965, Mrs. Bracker remained in Madison, where she continues to live.
Scope and Content Note: Mrs. Bracker speaks of many topics of interest during this interview. She is particularly insightful when discussing her feelings toward the war in Europe in relation to the war in the Pacific. She also has a great deal to say about the relations among women on the home front during the war, due to her involvement in what she calls a “baby club” in Edgerton, which she defined as serving the same purpose as a support group. She also discusses rationing and the importance of the victory garden, as well as the guilt that she felt when her garden proved to be so productive that food was inevitably wasted and she decided to plant her garden with flowers rather than food crops. As a woman whose husband did not go away to fight in the war, she is able to discuss the economic hardship faced by men who were underemployed on the home front, with wages frozen due to wartime exigency. Though she did not have any relatives fighting in the war, she did have a number of relatives still in England, so the war was very current to her in spite of her lack of relatives in uniform. A particularly poignant story is that of her uncle, who came from England to visit in 1939 and was unable to return until 1945. In spite of these hardships, she thinks of the war as mostly happy years for her family. She had a child during the war and one just following the war's conclusion, and these events were not tainted by their connection to the war.

Bredeson, Patricia, 1993 February 17, Monona, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History

Patricia (Giese) Bredeson was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on October 11, 1923. Though her grandparents were from Germany, her parents were also born in Milwaukee. She grew up in Milwaukee, attending schools there until moving to Madison during high school. Although she had had a strict Catholic school background in Milwaukee, she attended public schools in Madison. She was graduated from Madison East High School in 1943. During school, she had worked in the snack bar at the Oscar Mayer plant in Madison, It was here that she met Lou Bredeson. After a short courtship, they were married on October 26, 1943 on an army air force base in Rapid City, South Dakota, where her husband was training to become a B-17 bomber pilot. As soon as he could find a place for them to stay, Mrs. Bredeson joined her husband, and stayed with him until he was sent overseas. At this point, she returned to Madison and went back to work for the telephone company as an operator, a job that she had performed prior to her marriage.

When back in Madison living with her parents, she received word that her husband's plane had been lost in action and that he was missing. After several months of uncertainty, she received word that he was in a German prison camp, where he had been taken after bailing out of his crippled bomber. For the remainder of the war she continued to work for the telephone company, until her husband returned to the United States after having been liberated by Russian troops advancing through Germany in late spring 1945. Though she stopped working for a short period, when Mr. Bredeson went back to the University of Wisconsin-Madison on the G.I. Bill, she went back to work as a telephone operator. The Bredesons had two children after the war, both girls. They continue to live in Monona, Wisconsin.

Scope and Content Note: Mrs. Bredeson discusses a large number of subjects in the course of her interview. Most unique is her discussion of life as the wife of a prisoner of war, both during and after World War II. The POW experience changed her life immeasurably, and she discusses what it felt like to have a husband who was missing in addition to how difficult it has been to deal with his imprisonment in the years since his liberation. She has many interesting things to say about the mindset that is created by the prisoner of war experience, in addition to many poignant stories about the experience itself. Additionally, she has interesting observations on other aspects of life during the Second World War. She discusses the character of her east side Madison neighborhood, which she identifies as being far less friendly than in the present day. This would seem to counter popular myth about how accessible neighborhoods were in the past. She talks about her job and the role that she felt that she played in the war effort. She even discusses race and the place of black Americans during the war years. Additionally, she mentions: the role of the media in disseminating information about the war, the effect of rationing on her family and her community, the importance of the church in her life and in the lives of other churchgoers, and the effect that living though the war had on the later course of her life.

Caire, Mary, 1993 September 3, Madison, Wisconsin
Note: No tape recording for this interview. Transcript not available online.

Biography/History: Mary (Thomas) Caire was born in Gurden, Arkansas on October 18, 1915. She was raised in Arkansas and attended Gurden High School prior to moving to Madison, Wisconsin at the age of seventeen. She and several of her nine siblings moved north to join their mother, who had arrived in Wisconsin several years earlier. Though she arrived in Madison with the assumption that she would finish school, she had to find a job and did not complete her high school degree. She has been working toward her GED on and off since the mid-1970s. She worked primarily as a domestic in Madison, and in 1936, she was married to Edward Caire. They had four daughters. Following her marriage, she worked at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and at the university's film mending department. She also worked for a number of years for the department of motor vehicles. During the war, three of her brothers were in service, and though they all lived through the war, they were not unscarred. Mrs. Caire's husband died in 1984, and she continues to live in Madison, here she continues to be very active in the African Methodist-Episcopal church, as she has been since her arrival in the North.
Scope and Content Note: Mrs. Caire discusses a number of topics of interest in her interview. Most interesting is her discussion of what it was lake to be one of very few blacks living in Madison prior to the Second World War. Her stories of her great migration and trying to re-establish herself in Wisconsin are very intriguing. She also speaks at length of her involvement in the AME church in Madison, and the importance that it took for the entire black community as they were trying to make the transition to living in the north. Another topic that she discusses is the fate of her brothers who served in the war. They all seem to have had a great deal of difficulty re-adjusting to life after the war. Between physical sickness and mental illness, they found that their lives were immeasurably altered by their experience at war, and Mrs. Caire is affected deeply by their troubles. She discusses her interest in politics and specifically her love for Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In fact, she still keep a photo of Roosevelt in her apartment. Toward the end of the interview, she seems to lose focus at times and begins to get somewhat repetitive, particularly on the topic of the goodness of people. Other issues that she discusses are: the hardships that she and her family faced during the war, the level of prejudice that she encountered in Madison by comparison with the south, her attempts to continue her education, the jobs that she had since her arrival in Madison, and her faith in the United States as a nation and a world power.

Chapman, Reva, 1992 July 10, Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Note: Joint interview with Cecilia DeFoe.

Biography/History

Reva Chapman was born in 1916 on the Lac du Flambeau reservation, to full-blood Chippewa parents. Mrs. Chapman spent her childhood on the Lac du Flambeau reservation, where she learned to speak Chippewa from her mother and grandmother. She was raised in what she termed the “traditional” way, where she lived in a summer wigwam and wove bulrushes painted with berry dye. When she was eight she was sent to the Indian government boarding school in Lac du Flambeau. She was unprepared for the hostility to her Indian identity, but feels she was still able to maintain it and her language. She was raised in the traditional religion, often watching her grandfather take part in the shake wigwam ceremony when she was young. She was graduated from school in 1934 and soon after married and had a family. Today, Mrs. Chapman is busy raising her three granddaughters for her daughter. She also volunteers her time to teach the Chippewa language at the nearby community college, and works at the Negi Center, the senior citizen's center in Lac du Flambeau. She is a member of Nokomis, a social group made up of Lac du Flambeau elders who count as their primary objective the education of Chippewa youth in the traditional ways. Mrs. Chapman does most of these activities with Cecilia DeFoe, who she calls her “best friend, all my life.”

Cecilia DeFoe was born on January 27, 1916 on the Bad River reservation in Odanah, Wisconsin. Her father was a Bad River Chippewa while her mother was a Sioux St. Marie Chippewa. She moved to the Lac du Flambeau reservation when she was five and has lived there ever since. She was sent to the Lac du Flambeau Indian boarding school when she was eight and it was there that she became friends with Mrs. Chapman. She was graduated from school in 1934 and soon after married and raised a family. During the war Mrs. Defoe lived at Lac du Flambeau, while her brother went into the service. Today, Mrs. DeFoe is busy with her many volunteer activities, as well as maintaining a close extended family network. She often accompanies her young granddaughter when she competes at different pow-wows as a hoop dancer. Her granddaughter was the only hoop dancer picked from the Midwest to accompany a dance troupe on the Expo to Spain of 1993. She also volunteers her time to teach the Chippewa language at the nearby community college, and works at the Negi Center, the senior citizen's center in Lac du Flambeau. She is also a member of Nokomis, a social group made up of Lac du Flambeau elders who count as their primary objective the education of Chippewa youth in the traditional ways.

Scope and Content Note: The interview starts off with both of the women responding to where they were when they first heard about Pearl Harbor. They discuss their surprise that they felt at the bombing, and their sense of vulnerability. They then describe how the boys in the service started to immediately sign up; both women had close family members that enlisted. Mrs. DeFoe states that she did not like the fact that American Indians were fighting for America, because she felt it was “none of our business.” The women describe the sorts of foods that they ate during the war, mentioning how rationing affected their choice of menus. They describe the various foods they were able to cook, but also state that they were able to supplement their diet by hunting. The two women next discuss how their experiences at the Lac du Flambeau Indian Boarding School affected their lives. Mrs. DeFoe mentions in particular how she felt about the seemingly random assignment of religions to the Indian children, who had no say in the matter, sometimes switching their religion at the say of their superior. The women then go on to mention how this experience taught them to listen, and how their parents taught them respect for their elders. The women finish the interview by discussing their work at the community college and their efforts in activities that work to retain the Chippewa culture.

Chatterson, Bertha, 1993 January 7, Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Bertha (Miller) Chatterson was born on August 13, 1917. Her father was a school principal, and the family frequently moved in and around Grant County. Ms. Chatterson earned her teaching certificate at the age of seventeen, and began teaching in Eau Claire. In 1941, she married Cliff Chatterson. Mr. Chatterson was an executive with Uniroyal, and was soon transferred to Des Moines, where he oversaw the operations of an ordnance plant. Mrs. Chatterson spent the war volunteering with the USO and the Red Cross, and working a part-time job photographing the WAC soldiers who had basic training at Fort Des Moines. Immediately after the war, Mr. Chatterson was transferred back to Eau Claire, where Mrs. Chatterson began teaching again. After the next transfer--to New York City--Mrs. Chatterson stopped teaching permanently. The couple has lived in Springfield, Massachusetts, New York City, Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and have now retired to Eau Claire. The Chattersons have one son. Both the Chattersons have been active in local politics, and Mr. Chatterson is currently the Chair of the Eau Claire County board. Mrs. Chatterson remains an active member of community organizations, and an avid genealogist.
Scope and Content Note

Mrs. Chatterson began the interview by discussing the attack on Pearl Harbor and its immediate impact, including her anxiety, and the couple's transfer to Des Moines. She described her good fortune at finding a part-time job with photographers, and her many volunteer activities. Mrs. Chatterson related people's generally positive attitudes towards the WAC soldiers who trained at Fort Des Moines, and the enthusiasm of the soldiers themselves.

She explains that her work in Des Moines was particularly exciting for her because of the rigid social constraints she had experienced as a teacher in Wisconsin. She described her social activities in Des Moines, including her efforts to remain busy while her husband worked long hours at the plant, and the changes between pre- and post-war fashions. Mrs. Chatterson then reflects on the difficulty of moving and establishing social ties in new communities. She describes her growing involvement in local politics, and particularly her excitement at being part of the electoral process and at attending the 1976 Republican Convention. She closes by discussing her current work for good government, and particularly her feeling that most women did not know how to use government agencies and resources.

Christie, Eva, 1992 December 27, Madison, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Eva (Kalkofen) Christie was born on February 17, 1916, in Greenwood, Wisconsin. Her mother was born in this country, her father was born in Germany. Ms. Christie had five brothers, two of whom died at a very young age, and two sisters. She attended Eaton Center Elementary School and was graduated from Greenwood High School. She began her teacher's training in Neillsville, and received her degree in education from University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. On November 20, 1939 she married Eugene Christie, and the couple made their home in Neillsville. Ms. Christie has three sons born in 1940, 1941, and 1952. During World War II she worked part time at a general store in Neillsville. She also worked as a secretary in an office that decided whether farmers could exempt their farm hands from the draft based on farm size and other factors. She also served as a block chairman, organizing collections and blood drives. One of her brothers served aboard a submarine with the U.S. Navy during World War II. Two of her sons served in the military during the Vietnam war. She began teaching in 1955 and taught for twenty-three years. She was widowed in 1980. Ms. Christie is an active member of the Lutheran church in Neillsville.
Scope and Content Note: Ms. Christie begins by describing her reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbor. She talks about the local division of the National Guard shipping out, and the sadness of remembering those who didn't come back. She then talks about her husband's work and his exemption from the draft. She describes the community of Neillsville during the war, and the condensery which employed about three hundred people. During the war she served as block chairman, and she talks about those activities. She then describes how she felt regarding President Roosevelt's death. She talks about working in an office that decided whether or not a farmer could keep his help based on a farm plan which he filed with that office. She then describes her work at a general store, her duties, and how she dealt with child care.

Collins, Martha, 1993 June 29, Madison, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Martha (Strandlie) Collins was born on August 18, 1924, in Stoughton, Wisconsin. After spending her childhood in Stoughton, and graduating from Stoughton High School, she moved to Madison, Wisconsin at age eighteen. Mrs. Collins was one of thirteen children born to American and Norwegian parents. After moving to Madison, she worked at various jobs prior to making the decision to join the WACs. Two of her brothers had already entered the armed forces by the time that she became convinced that she should become a WAC. In the service, she was trained as a medic, and worked in several hospitals in the United States, including Army institutions in Walla Walla, Washington and Camp Campbell, Kentucky. During this time, she worked in both regular and psychiatric wards. After she was discharged as a Sergeant, she returned to Madison and was married in 1946. She had two children, in 1952 and 1955. She remains close friends with Milka Sarenac, another subject of the interview project who she met while in the WACs. Mrs. Collins continues to live in Madison.
Scope and Content Note: In this interview, Martha Collins discusses many topics of interest. Most notable is her discussion of her time in the WACs, and the decision process that led to her joining the armed forces. Her motivation and the questions that she wrestled with when contemplating joining are both discussed at length. She also speaks extensively about her time in service. She talks about what she was required to do and how she was trained to become a medic, in addition to the physical and mental trials that her work in Army hospitals entailed. She has several particularly interesting stories about particular patients that she relates in the course of her interview. She also discusses topics such as: her reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbor, her feelings on contemporary military issues, rationing and the difficultly of living in Madison, the atmosphere in Madison and the surrounding area during the first years of the war, and how she feels about her country and about the men and women who served with her and became a part of her life.

Cooper, Signe S., 1992 March 10, Madison, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Signe Skott Cooper was born in Clinton County, Iowa, on January 29, 1921. Her parents, who had also been born in Iowa, moved the family to McFarland, Wisconsin, in 1937, when Mrs. Cooper was a senior in high school. She was graduated the next year from Madison East High School and matriculated at the University of Wisconsin at Madison the following fall. While at the university, Mrs. Cooper studied nursing and was graduated from the nursing school in December, 1942. She had been a student nurse when the war began, and was one of the first in her class to sign up for the Army Nursing Corps as soon as she was eligible. She was stationed at Fort Belvoir in northern Virginia, just outside of the District of Columbia, from May, 1943, to August, 1944. After her time stateside, she was sent to the China-Burma-India theatre, where she worked in a hospital run by the University of Pennsylvania at the foot of the Ledo road, in the town of Ledo, India. She served most of the rest of the war at this hospital, although she was shipped to Burma for a period of just over a month at the end of the war. After she was mustered out of the army, she returned to Madison, settling in Middleton, Wisconsin. She became a professor of nursing at the university, and she continues to be associated with the nursing school in an emeritus capacity.
Scope and Content Note: Signe Cooper had a variety of remarkable experiences during the course of World War II. She discusses situations peculiar to nursing, in addition to those problems that any woman in the armed forces faced at this time. As an army nurse, she was witness to many of the horrors of war that those who stayed stateside would never encounter. As a nurse in Burma and India, she saw some of the worst casualties of the war, victims of some of the most vicious jungle fighting that the world had known up to that time. She discusses the problems of nursing under these conditions and also the problems encountered in simply trying to live and function in a normal manner. She also speaks of being a student at the University of Wisconsin during the first year of the war and what life was like in Madison at the time. She discusses how the school experience changed due to the onset of war, and how life in Madison changed at the time. Then she speaks of life at Fort Belvoir and comments on what it was like to be a northern working woman in the South in terms of her views on race and religion. As she saw more varied cultures, her world view changed dramatically. Though she was initially repulsed, she became more understanding and more tolerant of other peoples.

Davenport, Judy, 1992 June 8, Sparta, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History

Judy Geraldine (Schamens) Davenport was born on October 15, 1920, in Leon, Wisconsin. She was adopted by the Schamens at the age of one year and was the couple's only child. Ms. Davenport was raised in Leon, attending Leon Elementary School, and Sparta High School, and she attended one year at the College of Homemaking in La Crosse, Wisconsin. She identifies her ethnic background as American.

Ms. Davenport reports that she and her mother, Opal Schamens, were the first mother-daughter team in the country to join the WAACs. They joined in November, 1942, and were inducted in Milwaukee, at a separate time from the other recruits, to allow Ms. Davenport's father to attend. Ms. Davenport served for approximately ten months, until the WAACs were transferred into the Women's Army Corps (WACs). She completed her basic training in Des Moines, Iowa, and was later stationed in Georgia and Louisiana. Prior to and after her time in the service, Ms. Davenport worked at the PX at Camp McCoy (Sparta, Wisconsin) where her mother and father were also employed. Ms. Davenport met her husband, James Davenport, while employed at the PX and the couple was married on October 31, 1944, at the Congregational Church in Leon. Prior to joining the WAACs, Ms. Davenport was also active in the USO and attended Red Cross-sponsored dances in Sparta. Ms. Davenport's husband remained in the military, but for most of his military career she lived with or near her parents in Leon. The couple had four children, born in 1945, 1947, 1948, and 1952. Her husband died in 1986. Ms. Davenport continues to make her home in Sparta.

Scope and Content Note: Ms. Davenport begins the interview by describing the changes in her community after the attack on Pearl Harbor. She was working as a waitress in a local restaurant and comments on the large number of construction workers who arrived to work on Camp McCoy. She talks about how the entire family eventually started working at Camp McCoy and the soldiers that they met. Ms. Davenport describes meeting her husband while he was a soldier stationed at Camp McCoy and their wedding just two weeks before he was shipped overseas. She then describes joining the WAACs with her mother and being sent to Des Moines, Iowa, for six weeks of basic training. She describes basic training and the activities, including drilling and cooking school. She recalls specific incidents while she was a cook including lizards in the coffeepot in Louisiana and telling Eleanor Roosevelt that she couldn't have more potatoes in the food line. She also describes a typical army meal.

Davids, Dorothy, 1992 July 3, Gresham, Wisconsin
Use Restrictions: The Dorothy Davids interview may not be used for broadcast.
Biography/History

Dorothy Davids was born the third of six children in Big Lake, Wisconsin in 1923. She is a member of the Stockbridge-Munsee band of the Mohicans, an Iroquoian tribe with origins in New York state. Ms. Davids' father worked a variety of jobs, but was a farmer/laborer for much of his life. Her mother was a teacher at the local mission school. Due to her parents emphasis on the value of education Ms. Davids attended the State Teachers College at Stevens Point, where she was a sophomore when Pearl Harbor occurred. After graduating in 1946, she became a teacher. This was the profession she would be involved in until her retirement in 1983.

Ms. Davids is committed to Indian self-determination through assertion of political and cultural rights, and has been involved in political causes that affect American Indians, begun when she attended the American Indian Conference in Chicago in 1961.

Also committed to the preservation of her culture, she and her sister Bernice Miller (whose interview also appears in this series) were the founders of the Stockbridge-Munsee Historical Society located on the Stockbridge reservation in Wisconsin. Though retired from teaching and no longer involved with the Historical Society at the time of this interview, Ms. Davids still continues to be active on behalf of Native American issues such as Chippewa treaty rights, preservation of the earth's resources, and Stockbridge-Munsee business ventures. Ms. Davids never married and has no children.

Scope and Content Note

Ms. Davids gives a brief introduction to her family background, then talks of her parents' influence on her. She discusses her early education and her first experiences with discrimination. She also relates what it means to her to be part of a “civilized” tribe. Ms. Davids attended during the war and worked at war plants during the summer. She talks of her experiences in both school and industry. She characterizes herself as being “super-patriotic and loyal” at this time.

A struggle against discrimination and stereotypes have affected Ms. Davids all her life. She speaks of the embarrassment of not being served in taverns, and of enduring remarks about her race. Ms. Davids then discusses how the war gave women a sense of self-confidence. She also talks about changes in her political attitudes from World War II, to her activism in the 1960s.

Day, Gladys, 1993 March 19, Racine, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Gladys “Dolly” Day was born on September 21, 1918, in Racine, Wisconsin. Her mother was a Racine native and her father was born in England. The couple had six children, three daughters and three sons. Ms. Day attended local schools, and following high school, she began work for the Wisconsin Gas and Electric Company in Racine. After the United States entered the war, she joined the WAAC in 1942 and was part of the transition to the WAC. She was sent to code training school in Kansas City, and was sent Truax Field in Madison. She then was transferred to Shaw Field in Sumter, South Carolina, where she worked as a control tower operator. She remained in the military until 1945 when she returned to Racine. She then attended college on the G.I. Bill and received her degree in Sociology in 1950. After college, she worked for the U.S. Army Special Services overseas from 1950 to 1952. She later received a teaching certificate, and taught elementary school in Kenosha for twenty-six years. She resides in Racine with her friend of thirty years, Anna May Hutchison.
Scope and Content Note: Ms. Day begins by describing her memories of the attack on Pearl Harbor. She then talks about her decision to enlist in the military, as well as the reaction of her family. She describes her induction and the testing which determined what type of training she would receive. She recalls the code training in Kansas City, and how she was so homesick. She then talks about her job at Truax Field and later at Shaw Field as a control tower operator and the interaction with the pilots there. Ms. Day then talks about army life--the regulations, the food. She mentions going to school on the G.I. Bill following the war. Ms. Day talks again about her family's reaction her joining the service and about her mother who was in charge of the arrangements for the USO dances in Racine. She then talks about how she got involved with making plans after the war to travel to Europe as part of the army's Special Services.

Defoe, Cecilia, 1992 July 10, Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin
Note: Joint interview with Reva Chapman; see the Chapman entry above.

Dinsmore, Anne, 1992 October 16, Madison, Wisconsin
Note: No tape recording for this interview. Transcript not available online.

Biography/History: Anne (Aparatore) Dinsmore was born in Madison, Wisconsin, on April 5, 1916, one of six children born to an ethnically Italian family. Her parents were both native Sicilians who had immigrated to Madison as contract laborers for the railroad in 1906. They settled in an ethnically segregated neighborhood of Madison called Greenbush, which contained virtually all of Madison's Italian community as well as much of the city's black and Jewish populations. After working for the railroad, Mrs. Dinsmore's father founded a speakeasy that became a gathering place not only for the ethnic community but for students and professors at the University of Wisconsin, which was located only four blocks away. Mrs. Dinsmore's first real foray outside of her community occurred when she attended Madison West High School, located in a white, Protestant section of the city. Mrs. Dinsmore finished high school and was graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1938 with a degree in social work. She then got a job with the Girl Scouts of America in Omaha, Nebraska, and spent the next several years there. At the start of World War II, she decided to return to Madison to be with her family, which had sent one son to the war. While in Madison, she married in 1943 and had one son in 1944, after her husband went off to the war. After her first marriage ended in divorce, she moved away from Madison and became involved in liberal social issue groups, such as the War Resistors League. In 1965, she joined the Peace Corps, spending two years in South America. After she returned, she was married to her high school sweetheart, John Dinsmore, and lived for the next several years in the Middle East, primarily in Saudi Arabia. Since moving back to Madison, Mrs. Dinsmore has been active in trying to revive the memory of her old ethnic neighborhood, which was destroyed during the push for urban renewal in the 1960s.
Scope and Content Note: Mrs. Dinsmore discusses a variety of subjects pertaining to the issues of having a strong ethnic identity in Wisconsin before, during, and after World War II. In terms of the war, she discusses the role that she played in the community during the conflict. She talks about translating the news for men and women of her parents' generation who were unable to speak or read English. She saw her role as not only a translator but as a history teacher, a geography teacher, and as a general liaison between the outside world and her insulated Italian community. She also mentions the role played by Italian women in helping the Red Cross and other volunteer organizations with the war effort. Mrs. Dinsmore also spends a large portion of the interview discussing the general dynamic of her neighborhood and ethnicity. She explains how the war was one of the factors that helped to pull the neighborhood apart. She refers to the relative impact of education and other encroachments of the outside world into what had previously been a neighborhood that was totally isolated from the general community. She is able to see both positive and negative aspects in this change, most particularly in how the change affected the women and girls in the Greenbush neighborhood.

Doxtator, Prudence, 1992 July 1, Oneida, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Prudence “Prudy” (Bennett) Doxtator was born on October 15, 1915 in Oneida, Wisconsin. She had one older brother, Robert. Her father, the mail carrier for Oneida, was of German ancestry and was born in Pennsylvania. Her mother was Oneida. Her parents met in Wittenberg, PA, while her mother was attending and her father was working at the Wittenberg Indian Boarding School. Mrs. Doxtator's father died of a heart attack when she was twelve. Shortly after this she moved to Flandreau, S.D. and attended school there, while her brother went to the Haskell Indian school in Kansas. After graduating from Flandreau in 1933, she worked for a year as a nurses' aide, then returned to Oneida. In 1935 she married and had three children, two daughters and a son. In 1940 Prudy divorced her husband. Throughout World War II she divided her time working at the two grocery stores in Oneida, Morgan's Grocery and Schraeder's Grocery, and eventually worked at Schraeder's Grocery for 35 years. After the war, Prudy met Roman (Domie) Doxtator, who had served in the Army. They were married in 1946 and remained so until Mr. Doxtator's death in 1973. Today, Mrs. Doxtator volunteers twenty hours a week at the Oneida Community Library and is an active member of the Holy Apostle's Episcopal Church and the Oneida Singers.
Scope and Content Note

Mrs. Doxtator begins her interview by explaining how she felt when Pearl Harbor was announced. Coincidentally, it was also the anniversary of her father's death, and she explains the circumstances surrounding his death. She then talks about her life before Pearl Harbor, her early experiences with poverty, and her time spent at the Flandreau Indian Boarding School. Mrs. Doxtator maintains that her experience there was enjoyable. She remembers less discrimination then as opposed to today, making mention of the people she calls “anti-white” in Oneida.

Mrs. Doxtator then discusses her brother, who was U.S. commissioner of Indian Affairs during the Johnson presidency. She also describes working at a grocery store during the war, and how this affected her role as a mother. She states that she relied on her mother for child care and help in the daily housekeeping.

Mrs. Doxtator then discusses her experience at Flandreau again, and her financial situation is mentioned again when she explains that although she was offered a scholarship, she was unable to continue her schooling and realize her dream of becoming a nurse.

Mrs. Doxtator expresses her opinion on discrimination in the Oneida tribal administration, relating a few incidents. Mrs. Doxtator also explains what it was like to be a divorced woman during World War II, and describes the friendships she formed with other women. She also explains her parents inter-racial marriage, and says that although her father was accepted into the Oneida, her paternal grandparents never accepted their son's marriage or his family. Mrs. Doxtator ends her interview by explaining that she considers that the war gave her a good husband, and that without his help she wouldn't have adopted and raised her grandson.

Dresen, Ruth, 1993 February 22, Madison, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Ruth (Hamann) Dresen was born in Crookston, Minnesota. At the age of eight, she moved with her family to Madison, Wisconsin, where she has lived virtually uninterrupted ever since. Her parents, of German and Norwegian descent, had both been born in northern Wisconsin prior to moving to Minnesota, so the move to Madison with their two children meant a return to their home state. Mrs. Dresen was graduated from Madison West High School in 1935, and then took the first in a series of jobs which she would hold while attending classes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the evening. She worked as a secretary and a receptionist during this time. In 1943 she was married to David Dresen, a longtime resident of Madison with whom she had attended high school. Dresen was stationed at Fort Hood in Texas at this time, but was able to travel to Madison for the wedding. After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Dresen moved to Austin, Texas, where they remained until Mr. Dresen was sent to Europe. When he left Fort Hood, Mrs. Dresen returned to Madison. Mr. Dresen was declared missing in action in December, 1944. His status as a prisoner of war was not known until spring of 1945. After his release, he returned to Madison, where Mrs. Dresen had again been working as a receptionist. Mr. Dresen died in 1988. Mrs. Dresen continues to live in Madison, as she has since the war.
Scope and Content Note

Mrs. Dresen speaks of many topics regarding her life in Madison and Austin, Texas during the war years. Of most interest is her discussion of her reaction to her husband's time as missing in action and as a prisoner of war. Her conversation on this topic is particularly poignant, and includes the reading of a poem that she wrote about the time when she did not know whether he was dead or alive.

She is also able to discuss various changes in Madison which occurred during the war years. She speaks of volunteer work that she and other women took part in, as well as how the YWCA organized a number of functions to help support soldier who were stationed in the Madison area. She also discusses the work environment, and has a particularly interesting story about denying Frank Lloyd Wright an appointment with the ophthalmologist for whom she worked after her return from Austin. Additionally, she mentions rationing and other aspects of day to day life at this time. Finally, she speaks of the woman's community that was created by necessity curing the war.

Dufek, Ruby, 1992 May 14, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History

Ruby (Schulties) Dufek was born in southern Door County on November 14, 1915. She is one of seven children and, like both her parents, was raised in Door County. Her mother's ethnic background is French, her father's, German. Ms. Dufek completed grade school but left school in 1929 to help her family on the farm. In 1936 she married Matt Dufek, and in 1941 the couple left Sturgeon Bay to find work in Milwaukee. They remained in Milwaukee until the spring of 1943, when their first child was born. Until that time Ms. Dufek worked in a restaurant as a waitress and short-order cook on the night shift. Ms. Dufek's brother, Elton Schulties, served as a tail gunner with the Air Force and was shot down and killed over Bremen, Germany, in November of 1943.

After returning to Door County, Ms. Dufek and her husband bought a farm, where they lived until 1972. In 1972, Ms. Dufek also received her high school Graduate Equivalency Diploma (GED). She is the mother of four children, born in 1943, 1944, 1948, and 1953. She is a longtime member of the Lutheran church and serves as the church organist. The couple resides in Sturgeon Bay.

Scope and Content Note

Ms. Dufek recalls her feelings about the announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The young couple had just moved to Milwaukee at the time and she explains their reasons for moving to the city. She describes her work at the restaurant, the changes in personal safety, and working the night shift. She talks about her brother, who was killed in the Air Force, including corresponding with him, and the family's hopes and fears after he was reported missing. She recalls the family's interaction with the minister of their church, who was pro-German, and the problems surrounding his stand on the war. She continues by describing their living conditions in Milwaukee.

Ms. Dufek recounts the conditions on the farm that they then moved to in 1943, including their financial condition, animals on the farm, her husband's job at the shipyards, milking the cows, and getting help from her father with the hay. She talks about getting paid help on their own farm and other area farms, including the use of German prisoners of war and Jamaican migrant workers in the cherry orchards.

Ms. Dufek continues by describing her husband's wages in Milwaukee compared to what they could make on the farm and also talks about what their immediate area was like in Milwaukee. She talks about the segregation of whites and blacks and the changes in these areas over the past decades. She talks about the family's efforts to find a local Lutheran church that they felt comfortable in joining in Milwaukee and her later fears of traveling with an unbaptized infant back to Door County. After returning to Sturgeon Bay, she talks about how little rationing affected their family, with the exception of sugar for canning.

Ms. Dufek returns to her description of Milwaukee in recounting her fears of walking alone on the street and adopting a tough attitude to avoid attacks on the street. The couple also often visited an aunt and uncle who lived in Milwaukee. She describes what life was like after her first daughter was born, including visits from her sister from Sturgeon Bay, the cost of the hospital stay, and her husband's hospitalization in 1941 for a kidney stone.

She talks about how hard it was for the family after her brother Elton was reported missing in action. In addition, she describes how another brother was lost while fishing in Montana and was missing for several months before his body was discovered. She also talks about her brother's position as a staff sergeant in the Air Force among many men who had college degrees. She talks about how their fears that her husband might be drafted influenced their return to the farm in Sturgeon Bay because as a farmer he would be exempt from military duty. She also discusses her general attitudes about our involvement in the war itself. She ends the interview with a discussion of the tensions between the Catholics and the Lutherans of Sturgeon Bay, and how it affected her children's schooling.

Duff, Betty, 1994 February 2, Madison, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Betty Duff was born in Madison on December 31, 1919 to parents of German/French/English/Norwegian background. She attended Shorewood Elementary School and was graduated from West High School in Madison in 1937. She attended Madison Area Technical College and worked at the dime store on State Street. She joined the United States Marine Corps in November 1943 and was sent to Camp LeJeune, North Carolina for training. She transferred to Parris Island, South Carolina and was in charge of the women's post exchange throughout her service. She married at the end of 1944 and was discharged in April 1945 due to her first pregnancy. Ms. Duff's husband, Herman Olsen, also in the marines, was then sent to Hawaii where he served until his discharge. She attended the Madison Business College under the GI Bill while living with her family and four children. She continues to reside in Madison and remains active in veterans' organizations.
Scope and Content Note: Ms. Duff begins by discussing her reactions to the attack on Pearl Harbor. She talks about joining the marines shortly after the war broke out. She describes her work at the dime store on State Street and in the State Patrol before entering the marines. She then talks about the training and conditions at Camp LeJeune and being transferred to Parris Island. She describes her work there managing the women's post exchange. Ms. Duff then discusses the classes and training she went through while at Parris Island and the women in the marines. She describes the social life at the base and meeting her future husband. She talks about getting married, becoming pregnant, and her husband being transferred to Hawaii. She discusses keeping her pregnancy a secret until she was discharged from the marines a few months later. Ms. Duff describes the differences between life in the South as contrasted with Madison, friends made, and interactions with civilian women. She also discusses the differences between men and women's training at Camp LeJeune and about the role of women in the military. She describes information available about the war on the base and of the women replacing men who were going overseas. She describes Madison prior to and early on in the war including the pep rallies and social life. Ms. Duff talks about her parents renting out their property to wives and families of servicemen and coming back home to live after being discharged. She goes on to discuss her life after the war and enrolling in Madison Business College under the GI Bill. She describes her reactions to the dropping of the atomic bombs. She concludes by talking about how the war has changed her life and that of her family's.

Dwars, Vera, 1993 July 27, Baraboo, Wisconsin
Note: Joint interview with Gladys Marini; see the Marini entry below.

Epstein, Betty, 1993 January 4, Black River Falls, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Betty (Lee) Epstein was born in Paducah, Kentucky in 1912. Soon after, her family moved to Chicago, finally settling in Millston, Wisconsin, in 1931. She had planned to attend the University of Wisconsin at Madison, but her father's death and the family's need for income forced her to stay home. She made baby quilts for spending money. She married her husband, Lou, in 1936. With the outbreak of World War II, Lou enlisted as an officer, and Ms. Epstein followed him from camp to camp until he was sent overseas. She spent the remainder of the war with her mother in Paducah, returning to Millston when her husband was discharged in 1946. The Epsteins soon had two sons, and Ms. Epstein stayed home and cared for them while taking writing courses from the University of Wisconsin. She has written professionally since 1950, and remains active with the Wisconsin Regional Writers.
Scope and Content Note

We began by discussing the fact that Ms. Epstein's experience of the war was different from most women's, since she had not been a homemaker. When the tape began recording again, we were discussing ways that she, Lou, and their close friends Harold and Joyce celebrated Christmas in Camp Hood, Texas. We then discussed the lack of housing, and the importance of the USO in providing soldiers with social activities and information about the local community. Church was particularly important to the Epsteins in California, where they began attending both Catholic and Christian Science services. Ms. Epstein described the friendship they struck up with another family attending the Christian Science church, as well as with an Italian POW.

We then discussed the shortages of housing, food, and nylon during the war. Ms. Epstein described the dress styles, the music, the support she received from neighbors in Paducah, and the good work done by the Red Cross. Finally, she reflected on the success of her interfaith marriage (Lou was Jewish), on the opportunities the war gave to women, and the fun she and her friends had had during World War II.

Erbe, Elizabeth, 1992 May 27, Madison, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Elizabeth Erbe was born in Madison on September 11, 1915. Ms. Erbe is one of three children, having one brother and one sister. Her father, of German descent, and her mother, of Irish descent, were both born in Wisconsin. Ms. Erbe was raised in Madison, attending both Edgewood High School and Edgewood College. She holds a master's degree in social work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is a member of the Catholic church. Ms. Erbe worked at a variety of places during World War II, including the University Hospital, Badger Ordnance, Truax Field, and a lab in Boston, Massachusetts, for a brief period. She also taught high school science and biology for one year following the war before pursuing a career in social work.
Scope and Content Note

Ms. Erbe begins by recalling her reaction to the announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor. She mentions her concerns for her sister's husband, who was eventually sent overseas. She explains how co-workers at the University Hospital were talking about forming a unit of medical technicians to go overseas and help the war effort. Ms. Erbe explains that she felt the desire to be a part of that excitement and applied for a job at Badger Ordnance. She discusses security clearance to get the job, duties of the job, co-workers, hours, typical day, commuting to and from work. She describes an incident in which a doctor fails to provide adequate treatment for a patient, and Ms. Erbe and co-worker save the man's life. She describes how co-workers socialized at Badger Ordnance. Ms. Erbe then describes her jobs in Boston and later at Truax Field. She then talks about dating during this period. She describes her one-year position as a high school science teacher.

Ms. Erbe mentions knitting sweaters for servicemen while on the job at Truax Field. She also talks about the resistance from area residents to the building of Badger Ordnance due to the loss of prime farm land around the area. She describes a little of her postwar work and continues with brief comments about the end of World War II. She concludes by describing a little more about the people she worked with and also lived near.

Evans, Helen, 1992 November 7, Lake Tomahawk, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Helen (Means) Evans was born on August 16, 1905, in Merrill, Wisconsin. She is one of five children: three sisters and one brother. Her father was born in Maine and her mother was born in Norway. She lived in Edgar, Wisconsin, from the age of seven until she left to attend college. She attended Edgar grade school and high school and then received her bachelor's degree in education from Carroll College. In 1937, she married Floyd Evans. The couple had no children. Ms. Evans taught grade school, first in Milwaukee, and then following the war, she taught in Minocqua. She and her husband operated a resort in the Lake Tomahawk area during the summer months and the hunting season in the early fall. Ms. Evans was raised as a Presbyterian, but now attends the Methodist church. Her husband, Floyd died in 1966. Ms. Evans now makes her home in Lake Tomahawk.
Scope and Content Note: Ms. Evans begins by describing her activities around the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor. She talks about her concerns for a former student who was on one of the ships attacked. She then describes the changes the war brought on their resort in Lake Tomahawk and the adjustments she and her husband had to make, including rationing. Ms. Evans discusses the effects of the war on her students and on her teaching. She then talks more specifically about events that occurred at the summer resort in Lake Tomahawk with the arrival of guests including cooking and housekeeping workloads. She then recalls what it was like to live alone in Milwaukee during the school year. Following the war, Ms. Evans took a teaching position in Minocqua, and she describes this community in the postwar period.

Fergot, Loa, 1992 April 10, Oshkosh, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Loa (Hutchins) Fergot was born in Neenah, Wisconsin on February 28, 1924. Her family, which was of English, Irish and Scottish descent, included seven children, four girls and three boys. She stayed in Neenah through her childhood, graduating from Neenah High School in June of 1942. In December, 1941, she met Paul Fergot, when his family moved to Oshkosh. They began to date, fell in love, and were married eight months later, on September 5, 1942. By that time Paul had enlisted in the Army Air Corps, and was preparing to be shipped to Miami Beach for training. He continued to move around the country for the next two years, and it was this movement that helped shape Mrs. Fergot's life until Mr. Fergot was shipped overseas in August of 1944. Mrs. Fergot had taken a three month secretarial course in the summer of 1942, and she used these skills to gain employment in the various locales where her husband was based. These jobs included a six-month stint with the War Department in Morgantown, West Virginia. After her husband went overseas, Mrs. Fergot returned to Oshkosh, where she worked and attended the Wisconsin State Teachers College at Oshkosh. The nature of Mrs. Fergot's life as a cadet wife was changed when her husband was shot down over Italy in October, 1944. He was listed as missing in action until March, 1945, when Mrs. Fergot learned that he was a prisoner-of-war in Germany. The Fergots were reunited on June 24, 1945, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They went on to have two boys, one in 1946 and one in 1950, and they continue to live in Oshkosh and are active in veterans' and ex-POW groups.
Scope and Content Note: Mrs. Fergot discusses a number of important issues during the course of her interview. Most occur during her discussion of her varied experiences as she traveled around the nation as a cadet wife, moving every time that her husband was transferred. She discusses war shortages, and their impact on her wedding. Mrs. Fergot also mentions her feelings at being faced with discrimination against blacks and Jews in the south, and is very specific in the stories that she tells about these topics. She is also able to discuss the various workplaces that she was exposed to, and touches on the sexual harassment that she faced in some of her jobs. Most poignant is her discussion of the feelings that she had on hearing of her husband's plane being shot down, and then the time that she spent waiting, not knowing whether he was alive or dead. Other issues that Mrs. Fergot discusses include: social life in Oshkosh and on various bases, the celebrations on V-J day, the place of women following their husbands through the service, Marian Anderson's appearance in Appleton, Wisconsin, and the role of the church in her life.

Firmano, Jennie, 1993 July 28, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Jennie (Patti) Firmano was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on March 30, 1910. She lived there with her parents, who were immigrants from Sicily, and six siblings: four sisters and three brothers. She attended public highs schools in Milwaukee, and was graduated from Girl's Trade Tech. Following her graduation, she went to work as a hair stylist and beautician. Shortly thereafter, her father helped her to start her own Beauty shop in a building that he owned, and she became an employer rather than an employee. She was running her shop during the war and felt that her business was not affected adversely by the conflict with the exception of the fact that it was difficult for her to find women to help by doing the unskilled labor in the shop. The women who would have taken these jobs were able to get much better employment in wartime industry. For a time during the war, she employed her sister to wash hair and clean. She was not involved in any war support organizations. In 1945, Mrs. Firmano was married. Mrs. Firmano never had any children and continues to live in Milwaukee with her husband, a Sicilian immigrant.
Scope and Content Note: The most interesting topics that are addressed in the Firmano interview are ideas of women's work during wartime and the effects of the black market on the wartime economy. Because she had been working for a number of years prior to the war, Mrs. Firmano did not feel that the war altered the nature of her labor. She saw the war as something that was not particularly a part of her life, and only intruded to the extent that it was hard to get good help in her beauty shop. Even in her discussion of Pearl Harbor, she says that it was a shock, but it didn't change the fact that she had to go to work the next day. She had no close relatives in service, so there was no emotional attachment to the war effort either. She also speaks at length about the existence of the black market in her neighborhood. She says that it was always there if one wanted to buy some extra meat or other items from a local merchant. She mentions that she would go to the butcher and ask for a package for the cat and the man in the store would give her a wrapped package with whatever item he had in surplus. Though a Catholic, she also discusses how the church held little interest for her during the war. She was working all week, and Sunday was her day to relax and to wash and bleach her uniform. Other topics that she discusses are: what her social life was like during the war, her diet during the war, and how her family coped with shortages, economic conditions during the war, both for herself and her family, and her feelings on politics, both during and after the war.

Ghysels, Aline, 1992 April 7, Kenosha, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Aline (Gerneulen) Ghysels was born on March 17, 1906, in Belgium. She was one of seven children and had three brothers and three sisters. She was raised in Belgium and came to this country when she was 24 years old. She married Victor Ghysels, and together they owned and operated a sixty- or seventy-acre farm in Kenosha and raised onions, cabbage, and berries. Mrs. Ghysels had a son who was born in 1930 and he was killed in an accident as an adult. She also gave birth to a stillborn daughter. Mrs. Ghysels has been a Catholic all of her life. She continues to live on a portion of the property that composed their farm in Kenosha.
Scope and Content Note: Mrs. Ghysels begins the interview discussing farm labor and difficulties in obtaining help on the farm during the war. She talks about the types of crops raised, selling at the Chicago market as well as from their roadside stand. She talks about her experience with German POWs sent to work on the farm during the day. Her husband spoke some German and therefore was able to communicate more easily with the men than was Mrs. Ghysels. She discusses problems with shortages such as sugar and gasoline. Mrs. Ghysels tells about what she did with her free time, and her family's interaction with other Flemish families in the area. She talks about her problems with learning the language, and her son speaking only Flemish until he started school. She then talks very briefly about reactions to the end of the war and the contrast between World War I, when she was still in Europe, and World War II.

Gotzion, Evie, 1992 June 18, Madison, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Evelyn (Bailey) Gotzion was born in Waunakee, Wisconsin, on May 8, 1913. Her ethnic background is a blend of Norwegian, English, and Scots-Irish. Ms. Gotzion is the eldest of fourteen children, all born in Wisconsin. She attended Lowell and Emerson schools in Madison and later was graduated from vocational school. In 1931, she married Steven Gotzion, and they had three children, born in 1932, 1933, and 1940. After the birth of their second child, Ms. Gotzion began work at Oscar Mayer and Company, where her husband also worked. She was then told that the plant had a policy of employing only one member of a family, and she quit her job. In 1935, she began working for Rayovac, a manufacturer of batteries and lighting products, where she was employed for forty-three years. Ms. Gotzion was active in the union at Rayovac and served on the bargaining committee for over twenty years. She participated in many union activities during the war. Ms. Gotzion was widowed in 1975. She resides in Madison and remains active in union and labor activities throughout the year.
Scope and Content Note

Ms. Gotzion begins the interview by describing how quickly hours increased at Rayovac after the war began. She talks about having holiday dinners at the plant because the employees weren't allowed to have the day off. She notes the rapid expansion of Rayovac and opening of other plants to supply batteries for the war effort. Both she and her husband were employed, and Ms. Gotzion describes the various child-care arrangements for their three children. She talks about the family members who came to live at her house during different periods of the war. She then talks about the length of her average workday. During the war her husband worked in what was considered war work, and when he had the opportunity to join the fire department, the draft board denied him permission, indicating that if he left his job, he would be drafted. The couple shared the grocery shopping; Ms. Gotzion would begin shopping on her lunch break and her husband would finish and bring the groceries home.

Ms. Gotzion talks about her job at Rayovac, describing a system of cross-training she helped implement to prevent boredom. She discusses the actions of both management and the union as well as workers' attitudes about the union. She describes her workday apparel. She then talks about efforts to assist new women workers who had never worked in a factory before the war, including social events sponsored by the union to help workers get to know another. She talks about her husband's efforts regarding housework and child care. Ms. Gotzion also had a number of family members living nearby and she talks about the support they offered. She talks briefly about which foods were difficult to get during the war. She then talks about her free-time activities.

Ms. Gotzion continues by providing a description of the neighborhood that she lived in during the war, particularly in terms of safety and neighbor interactions. She talks about evening social activities with friends and seeing soldiers from Truax around the area. She describes the period when she first began working for Rayovac. Finally, she talks briefly about the closing of other Rayovac plants at the end of the war.

Gutkowski, Gene, 1992 March 26, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Eugenia “Gene” (Amrhein) Gutkowski was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on January 12, 1927. She was the middle child of eleven children, six girls and five boys. Her parents were both in Wisconsin, both the children of German immigrants. She attended Milwaukee grade and high schools, but left Mesmer High School at the age of sixteen after one of her brothers left for military service in order to help out the family financially. Her first job was as a cashier and switchboard operator at William Steinmeyer's grocery store, Milwaukee's first large supermarket. After that she worked at the Sealtest Dairy from 1949 until 1953 when she married Alfred Gutkowski. She then worked as a cashier at the Boston Store during the 1953-54 holiday season prior to the birth of her first child. Mrs. Gutkowski is the mother of three children, born between 1954 and 1960. She is a lifelong member of the Catholic church and resides in Milwaukee with her husband.
Scope and Content Note

Mrs. Gutkowski began the interview by describing her reactions to the announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor. She recounts changes in school, including the shortage of available boys as they all went into the military. She describes the experience of a cousin who was in Pearl Harbor at the time of the attack but escaped injury because he was attending mass at the time. She explains her brother's enlistment in the Navy despite his fear of the water. She describes the ethnic composition of her neighborhood and surrounding area and the interactions among various ethnic groups, including her dating experiences during the war period. She mentions her reaction to Carl Zeidler leaving for military service and his subsequent disappearance. Mrs. Gutkowski describes the difficulties of seeing the young boys from her school enter the military and the types of activities available to young school-aged women.

Mrs. Gutkowski recounts how, after leaving high school, she helped to support the family, as well as ways in which the large family managed economically. She mentions the family's mealtime discussions of the war, particularly difficult because some relatives were still living in Germany. She discusses her first job as a cashier in Steinmeyer's supermarket in Milwaukee and the “famous” clientele. She discusses the role of the church in providing social activities, as well as other war-time pastimes in Milwaukee.

Mrs. Gutkowski recounts the support systems available to the family during the war, including neighbors and the family doctor. She describes the changes in the men as they returned from the military at the end of the war, as well as the differences between World War II and more recent conflicts such as Korea, Vietnam, and the Middle East. She talks about her reactions to the atomic bomb and the effects of war on those around her.

Hanson, Florence, 1993 August 18, Madison, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Florence (Stellmacher) Hanson was born on August 25, 1900 near Waupun, Wisconsin. She was raised with four brothers and five sisters in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. Beginning in 1910 she and her deaf brother attended the School of the Deaf in Delavan, Wisconsin, where they remained until 1919. She returned to her family's home in Beaver Dam where she lived until marrying Arthur Hanson in 1924. The couple moved to Madison after being married in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They moved around quite a bit in Madison until buying a house in 1935. The couple were longtime employees of Rayovac in Madison after being hired in 1926. Ms. Hanson continues to reside at the same residence in Madison.
Scope and Content Note: Ms. Hanson begins by describing a trip to Milwaukee with her sister and finding out about the School of the Deaf in Delavan. She discusses attending the school with her brother for nine years and the health problems that resulted in her returning home to Beaver Dam before graduating. She describes her marriage and the couple's life in Madison. Ms. Hanson discusses her reactions to the attack on Pearl Harbor. She discusses the deaf community in Madison during the war and different activities she attended at the deaf clubs. She talks about working at Rayovac with her husband. She describes the changes in the working conditions after the union began in 1934. Ms. Hanson discusses the opportunity for more work at higher pay as a result of the war, and her pride to be part of the war effort. She describes the social life in the deaf community during the war, including the annual traveling picnics and the Silent Lutheran Church. She states that the war did not noticeably impact her life, nor did she follow the war closely. She compares communication between the deaf and the hearing at the time of the war with that of the present. Ms. Hanson describes how she met her husband at the school in Delavan, their wedding, and finding their house in Madison. She talks about her friends in the deaf community and the new Happy 55 Club for deaf senior citizens. Ms. Hanson finishes by describing how she taught herself to drive in 1926.

Hargraves, Priscilla, 1992 October 15, Milton, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Priscilla (Damrow) Hargraves was born in Janesville, Wisconsin on March 7, 1920. Her parents were of Scots-Irish and German ancestry. Ms. Hargraves attended local elementary and high schools, graduating in 1937. She worked as a mother's helper in Janesville for three years, and then spent a year at Milton College, a small liberal arts school near Janesville. She entered the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1941, graduating with a B.S. in Institutional Management in 1944. She then entered the Women's Army Corps, serving as a ground instructor for pilots at the Army Air Force Base at Reno, Nevada. She married her first husband in December of that year, having met him in Reno. She left the Corps in June of 1945, and gave birth to the couple's first son in January of 1946. The marriage ended in divorce, and in 1948, Ms. Hargraves returned to her family's home in Janesville. Since then, she has worked in a variety of positions, most extensively as a home economist with the Wisconsin Extension Homemakers Council, and as a professor at the School of Family and Consumer Research at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She married Vernon Hargraves in 1954. Ms. Hargraves remains active with WEHC, assisting at statewide meetings and with the compilation of The Impact of Her Spirit, an oral history anthology of WEHC members.
Scope and Content Note

We began the interview with Ms. Hargraves' recollections of rationing. She described campaigns for food conservation, the availability of food in rural communities, pooling rationing coupons with her housemates, and sending parcels to Great Britain. We then discussed her education, including the science classes she had been encouraged to take in high school, the financial support she received from her family, and her work as a lab and teaching assistant for physics classes.

Ms. Hargraves described her decision to enlist in the WACs, the ghostly atmosphere on campus as men were taken by the draft, and the efforts of women to maintain prewar standards of dress-- including drawing nylon seams on their legs. She related stories of the social life in campus, revolving around the USO and the activities sponsored by the Presbyterian Student Center. Ms. Hargraves discussed the tremendous support for the war among women at home, including gold star mothers, and campaigns to send knitting and food to the soldiers. She described her graduation from the university, including the sketch she received as a present from John Stuart Currie.

We moved on to her experience in the WACs, including basic training in Georgia, KP, and her glimpses of German POWs. After some advanced training, Ms. Hargraves was assigned as “link” instructor to pilot trainees in Reno, Nevada. She described her duties, including flying with trainees who were trying to flunk out of the program. She also described meeting her first husband; their hasty decision to marry before he was shipped out; the birth of their two sons soon after his return; and the couple's divorce. She recounted the sense of competence she got as an instructor at Reno, her displeasure at having to leave the position, the close ties among women who worked on the base, and WACs' resentment of civilian women who could date officers.

We concluded the interview by discussing the racial segregation Ms. Hargraves encountered in the South, as well as tensions between white Southerners and Northerners within the WACs. She explained the pleasure she gets from seeing people get along, and from feeling as if she is teaching them important skills. She credited her work in the WACs with introducing her to the world outside of marriage and childrearing. Finally, she reflected on the richness of her life, and the importance of doing for others.

Heinemann, Jane, 1993 April 16, Glendale, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History

Jane Heinemann was born on September 25, 1917 in Wausau, Wisconsin. Her parents, both Wisconsin natives of German descent, made their home in Merrill, Wisconsin, where Ms. Heinemann and her sister were raised. Ms. Heinemann attended local schools, through high school, in Merrill. She then attended Northwestern University where she received her bachelor's degree in Music Education in 1940. After receiving her degree, she taught elementary and secondary school music in Earlville, Illinois and Hammond, Indiana until 1942. Ms. Heinemann then joined the Red Cross in 1943, and was sent to Camp Chaffee, Arkansas. Because of her music background, she was assigned as a staff recreation worker, charged with entertaining the recovering GIs in the station hospital. She remained there for about one year before requesting overseas duty. She was then sent to the Western Pacific in 1945, first to Tinian, in the Mariana Islands, with one of five general hospitals to be set up for the invasion of Japan. However, the first A-bomb left Tinian one week later, and the war soon ended. As many troops had to stay until they had enough points to come home, she stayed on, and moved to club service, working on Guam and Saipan, with her overseas weapon--an accordion.

Ms. Heinemann returned in early 1946, but later that year the Red Cross called her back to William Beaumont General Hospital, in El Paso, Texas, where she worked with long-term battle casualties. A return to teaching was peripatetic--jobs in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Arizona, Maryland, and Iowa, doing a master's degree in summers. She then signed up with the U.S. Army's Special Services in their Club Services division and was sent to Germany. There she worked as a program director in Turenne Kaserne, Zweibrücken, Germany. There she organized a GI chorus while in Germany, from 1953 to 1954. Her father died in 1954 and Ms. Heinemann returned home to stay with her mother during the fall of that year. The following semester, Ms. Heinemann obtained a teaching position with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, teaching methods courses for music majors in elementary music. She remained at UW-M until her retirement in 1986. She now resides in the Milwaukee suburb of Glendale.

Scope and Content Note

Ms. Heinemann begins by recounting her experience as a teacher in rural Illinois at the beginning of the war. Her then boyfriend was listed at 1-A, and was drafted in the military within a month after the attack at Pearl Harbor. She continues by describing changes in the community including rationing and learning to knit for the GIs. She describes the changes in the type of music used in the schools--incorporating more American folk songs. She then talks about her early years of teaching and the students' reactions to the war.

Following a teaching assignment in Hammond, Indiana, Ms. Heinemann decided to join the Red Cross. She talks about her brief training in Washington, D.C. prior to being sent to Camp Chaffee near Fort Smith, Arkansas. At Camp Chaffee, she describes her quarters, her duties, her co-workers, the patients, and the Grey Ladies (volunteers). She also talks about her exposure to race relations in the South for the first time. She describes her job as a recreation worker, playing (and pushing) the piano through all the various wards at the camp. Ms. Heinemann describes the effect that her music had on some of the patients and the stories of seemingly miraculous recoveries as a result of their exposure to music. She also recalls playing music for the German prisoners of war who were being held at the camp.

Ms. Heinemann talks about her interaction with the GIs, and as well as some of the more remarkable incidents during her stay at Camp Chaffee. She then describes her decision to go overseas and her preparation for that transfer, including the gift of an accordion from her father. She recalls her work at St. Elizabeth's hospital prior to going to the Pacific. She talks about slowly learning to play the accordion, yet quickly enough to utilize it to entertain the patients. She then describes her trip across the country prior to being shipped to Tinian, as well as the voyage across the Pacific in a converted cruise ship, including a stop at Pearl Harbor, and the precautions taken aboard ship. She injured her leg during the landing at Tinian, and she talks about her hospitalization and recovery. She then describes the parties and picnics, and the make-shift decorations made by the GIs and the Red Cross workers. She also describes trading liquor for other goods and services overseas. She also mentions the arrival of the first M & M's on the island.

Tinian was used as the site for storing the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, and Ms. Heinemann talks about the rumors surrounding the arrival of the bombs. She talks about her feelings about the dropping of the bombs, as well as her reaction to the war in general. She then talks about her trip home from the Pacific, including a stop-over in Hawaii, running across a disabled ship, and playing bridge on board ship. After returning to the states, she went to El Paso, Texas, and she describes the differences among the patients at this hospital. She talks about the celebrities she met over the years in her service with the Red Cross including Harpo and Groucho Marx.

Ms. Heinemann then describes her experiences following the war, teaching in a variety of places, and finally signing up with the army's Special Services and being sent to Germany. She concludes by talking about her expectations regarding the post-war period, and the ways in which the war changed her life.

Hendersin, Dolores, 1992 June 2, La Crosse, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Dolores Hendersin was born in Sparta, Wisconsin, on October 28, 1919. She was raised in rural Wisconsin on a farm near Leon and Melvina. Her ethnic background is varied; her father was French and Danish, her mother was Scottish, English, Irish, and German. Ms. Hendersin has three brothers and one sister. She attended Leon Elementary School and was graduated from Sparta High School. She received a bachelor's degree in history from Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin. During 1942-43 she worked at a high school in Kendall, Wisconsin, teaching freshman English, citizenship, and geography. In 1943, Ms. Hendersin joined the WACs and was stationed at Luke Field in Arizona. While stationed at Luke Field, she married Alexander Zetts. The couple was then separated when Zetts was transferred to the South Pacific. They were divorced shortly after the end of the war. Near the end of the war she was sent to Europe and worked as a librarian for the occupation army. After the war, Ms. Hendersin returned to Wisconsin and worked as a teacher for a couple of years. She then returned to school to obtain a master's degree in library science. She is currently a retired librarian and lives in La Crosse.
Scope and Content Note

Ms. Hendersin begins by talking about hearing the reports of the attack on Pearl Harbor while she was a student at Northland College. She talks about the shortage of boys shortly after the U.S. involvement in the war. Next she describes her teaching position in Kendall, Wisconsin, and working as a waitress in Wisconsin Dells during the summer. She describes her living situation in Kendall, including room and board, meals, and her students' reactions to the war. She then discusses her reasons for going into the military service and her problems initially in being accepted for duty. She was finally accepted into the army and spent six-weeks basic training in Florida. She talks about the training, writing letters home, and her relatives in the military. She discusses her duties, daily activities, and co-workers at Luke Field in Arizona. She then discusses her marriage to another member of the army stationed at Luke Field. She also describes her free-time activities and what was against the rules. She then was sent to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia for teletype training.

After the teletype training, Ms. Hendersin was sent to England and she talks about her work experience as a teletype operator. She comments on seeing the Eighth Air Force fly overhead on occasion. She describes the food, in particular the breakfasts offered while in England. She was then flown to France, where they were to set up a school for the occupation army. The school was in an old building in St. Germaine, which she describes in detail. Ms. Hendersin was asked to be the librarian in the building and she talks about organizing the books. She also celebrated V-E day while in France before being transferred to Germany. She talks about going out to dance halls and other dances with friends. She describes setting up the new library and talks about its first patrons.

Ms. Hendersin talks about the dangers present in immediate post-war Germany. She describes walking past destroyed buildings, being followed by a German man, and being attacked by a group of teenagers. She tells about a friend who gave her a gun to carry for protection and eventually the army provided a jeep to take her to and from her work. She describes the trip home to the United States and problems that some of the women had on the rough seas. She explains how she returned to teaching following the war and her eventual divorce from her husband. She reminisces about all the opportunities for dancing during this period. She also talks about her thoughts on the bombing of Japan. She then describes an incident while she was stationed in France in which a group of WACs were sent to visit the injured soldiers in the hospital and how difficult that was for her. She completes the interview by talking about security measures and some of the duties she performed while in training as a WAC.

Howards, Annette, 1994 January 4, Madison, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Annette (Schubert) Howards was born on December 30, 1923 to Jewish parents in New York City, where she was raised. She moved with her family to Laurelton, Long Island, where she was graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School in 1941. After graduation, she took a job as an accountant. She left her accounting job to get a civil service job with the army as a typist. She worked at that job for a year and a half until she was twenty years old. In 1944, she joined the marines and was sent to Camp LeJeune, North Carolina, for basic training in May of 1944. Ms. Howards' basic training lasted six weeks, at the end of which she was sent to Camp Elliot in California. She commuted between Camp Elliot and North Island, where she worked in the tool room. Later, she moved to North Island when it became accessible to the women marines. She was transferred to Santa Anna, El Toro, in California where she served until her discharge in April of 1946. Shortly after being discharged from the marines, Ms. Howards married Bernie Howards on April 28, 1946, in New York. The couple moved to Bernie's hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ms. Howards was an accountant and a housekeeper while her husband was employed in a shoe store.
Scope and Content Note: Ms. Howards begins by discussing her reactions to the attack on Pearl Harbor and relating the first changes this news brought to her life. She describes the prejudice she encountered while applying for defense jobs and finding a civil service job with the army as a typist. She discusses her work there before becoming eligible to join the marines at age twenty. She talks about the procedures involved in joining the marines and the reactions of her parents towards her decision. Ms. Howards describes her basic training and military life at Camp LeJeune in North Carolina, highlighting her impressions of life as a Jewish woman in the marines. She discusses being transferred to Camp Elliot and working in the tool room at North Island. She discusses the relations between the men and the women and her feelings about replacing men who were being sent overseas. She talks about her transfer to Santa Anna and the social life there, including the dances and dating. She describes how she met her future husband, Bernie Howards, while stationed at Santa Anna. Ms. Howards describes the military reunions the couple have attended and about her life after being discharged from the marines. She discusses the different drill instructors she had while in service, the regulations of military life, and the military terminology to be learned. She discusses the discrimination she witnessed while stationed in North Carolina and her experiences with gays and lesbians in the military. She describes how the marines dealt with pregnancy and marriage at the base. She goes on to discuss the patriotism everybody felt at the time and how the war changed her life by making her become more independent. She compares the military now with how it was when she was in service, and gives her views on women in the military today. She describes her reaction towards the death of President Roosevelt and the V-J Day celebration in New York. She describes moving to Milwaukee with her husband and their life after the war. She finishes by discussing the expectations she had for her life after the war and how being Jewish influenced her feelings about the war.

Hutchison, Anna May, 1992 April 30, Racine, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Note: See also the Westerman/Hutchison interview described below (under “W”).

Biography/History: Anna May Hutchison was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 1, 1925. Her mother was from Mississippi, her father from Tennessee. Ms. Hutchison is of Scottish/Irish heritage and grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. She is one of five children, with two brothers and two sisters. She was graduated from Louisville Girls' High School in 1943. The following summer she was recruited for the All American Girls' Professional Baseball League while at a tournament in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She began playing with the league in 1944 as a catcher for the Racine Belles. “Hutch” later pitched for the Belles, playing professional baseball until 1950. During the off-seasons she worked for Hamilton Beach Appliances and Western Publishing, both in Racine. After playing baseball, Ms. Hutchison operated a dry cleaning business and taught golf at the YMCA. She moved to California where she lived for seven years before returning to Racine. Ms. Hutchison attended the Kenosha-Racine Teacher's College and the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, receiving her degree in education. She taught school for seventeen years and retired in 1987. Ms. Hutchison has made Racine her home and has lived with her friend Gladys “Dolly” Day for the past 30 years.
Scope and Content Note

Ms. Hutchison begins the interview by describing some of the first changes with the beginning of the war, including her brother's efforts to get into the service. She discusses the girls' sports program at her high school in Louisville, followed by her recruitment by the All American Girls' Professional Baseball League. She describes the league including getting her parents permission to play, pay and housing with the league, positions she played, the shift from professional softball to baseball, game attendance, attitudes of the fans, emphasis on players femininity, uniforms, socializing among the players, road trips, and rules regarding players' behavior.

Ms. Hutchison describes the variety of jobs held during the off-season while playing baseball. She also talks about her employment and education after leaving the league. She talks about her celebrity status during her off-season jobs as well as being recognized as a ballplayer right up to the present. She ends by talking about the end of World War II and the eventual decline of the league.

Johnson, Elizabeth N., 1993 June 23, Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Elizabeth Johnson was born on May 27, 1907, in Plainfield, Wisconsin. Ms. Johnson, the eldest of five children, is of Danish and Welsh ancestry. She attended Downer College prior to leaving for Washington, D.C. to conduct her nurses' training at Walter Reed Hospital in 1929. Following her training at Walter Reed, she spent one year with the Civilian Conservation Corps. After a brief period during which she worked at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Ms. Johnson returned to Washington and was inducted into the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in 1934. She worked at Walter Reed from 1934-1937, then was sent to the Philippines to head Sternburg Hospital in Manila. She served at a number of different posts around the United States, and headed a M.A.S.H. unit in Korea in 1951. Ms. Johnson retired from the army in 1956 and returned to her home in Plainfield, Wisconsin. She now makes her home in Wisconsin Rapids.
Scope and Content Note: Ms. Johnson begins the interview by describing her reactions to the attack on Pearl Harbor. She talks about her decision to leave for Washington, D.C. to conduct her nurses' training. She outlines her activities through the 1930s including working for the CCCs and a private Chicago hospital. Ms. Johnson then describes her duties following her induction into the army including her assignments in Washington and Manila. She also describes reaction of her family to her decision to join the army. She then discusses her stateside assignments including Illinois, Alabama, and North Carolina. She describes the treatment of a lesbian couple in the nurse corps. Ms. Johnson then talks about the social life and dating on the base. Finally, she talks about her feelings about war and the changes in the status of women in the military over the course of the twenty years she had served.

Johnson, Elizabeth S., 1992 June 25, Lancaster, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Elizabeth (Schreiner) Johnson was born on August 26, 1918, in Lancaster, Wisconsin. Her mother's background was Norwegian, while her father's was German. She was raised in Lancaster, Wisconsin. Ms. Johnson had one brother, David, who was killed during the last days of fighting during World War II in the Pacific. She attended elementary school and high school in Lancaster. She then attended Beloit College, where she received her degree in education in 1939. Following graduation, Ms. Johnson taught kindergarten for a year in Beloit. In 1940, she married Harold (Hal) Johnson. After living in Madison, Wisconsin, for a year while Hal completed his graduate degree, the couple moved to Terre Haute, Indiana. The couple had three children born in 1942, 1945, and 1947. Ms. Johnson is a member of the Congregational church. The family moved to St. Louis immediately following the war. After numerous moves around the country, the couple has retired to Lancaster.
Scope and Content Note

Ms. Johnson begins the interview by describing her family's reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbor. She then talks about the first changes; her brother enlisting in the military, and the beginning of rationing. She recalls sharing and exchanging coupons with friends, except for meat coupons, which were very scarce. She describes her feelings about her husband Hal's draft notice, and his efforts to obtain a deferment. She also talks about getting assistance from the grocer, and victory gardens. She expresses her belief that rationing was a political action as well as a necessity. She talks about social activities for women during the war, including mending, and war project knitting. The family also depended on bicycle transportation in an effort to save gas. Ms. Johnson talks about her reaction to Hal's request for deferment based on his position as a conscientious objector, as well as his brother's. She also talks about reactions from friends and neighbors.

Ms. Johnson describes her wedding in 1940, at home in Lancaster. She recalls her father's reaction to Hal's request for her hand in marriage, and her agreement to teach for a year after graduation before getting married. She then describes their apartment in Madison, prior to moving to Terre Haute. She describes the couple's social life in Madison, focused on Her brother David during football season. She talks about the group of wives from the Chemistry Department, and the social interaction with professors in the department.

Ms. Johnson describes the social networks that offered support while in Terre Haute, in particular a nurse who lived next door to the family. She talks about attending the Congregationalist church, which Hal attended with her, despite his membership with the Christadelphians. She then talks about her feelings surrounding her brother's enlistment in the military. She describes a family gathering prior to David being sent overseas in which the family celebrated all the forthcoming holidays at one time. Ms. Johnson also talks about the financial situation of her own family while in Terre Haute. She then returns to thoughts about her brother's death at the end of the war near the time of V-J Day. She also talks about corresponding with her brother during the war. She recalls the community response to her brother, as a football hero, as well as a hard-working and well-liked young man. She concludes by talking briefly about how her life was affected by the war.

Kaminski, Rose, 1992 March 9, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Rose (Gudynowski) Kaminski was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on October 28, 1918. She spent her first ten years in Kenosha and then moved to Milwaukee, where she has lived since 1928. Both of her parents were born in Poland, and she has one brother and three sisters. She was graduated from South Division High School in Milwaukee, and is a member of St. Florian Catholic Church. In 1937, she married John Kaminski. She is the mother of two daughters, one born before World War II, in 1941, and the second born after the war, in 1948. Her husband was drafted in early 1944, leaving her home alone with their small daughter. He graduated from boot camp in April, 1944, and was trained as a mine sweeper for the Navy. Prior to her husband leaving for the military, Mrs. Kaminski worked in the machine shop of the General Electric supercharger plant. In 1943, she began work as a crane operator for Rex Chain Belt Company for about six to eight months, during which time her husband entered the military. She began working for Harnischfeger in February, 1944, and remained there as a crane operator until March, 1946, when she was eventually released from her job to accommodate a returning veteran. After the birth of her second daughter, she returned to work in 1950 and was employed by the Harnischfeger Company until she retired in February, 1981, after 31 years with the company. She and her family lived on 38th Street in Milwaukee for most of those years, within walking distance of Harnischfeger. Mrs. Kaminski also served as a Girl Scout troop leader for 21 years. Her husband died in November, 1988.
Scope and Content Note

In the interview, Rose Kaminski talks about her early impressions of the U.S. involvement in World War II, including her husband being sent to Great Lakes Naval Training Center. She outlines her job experience at the supercharger plant and her first job as a crane operator at Rex Chain Belt Company. She also explains her child-care arrangements for her young daughter. Mrs. Kaminski then tells of her move to Harnischfeger, where she also worked as a crane operator. She talks about the difficulty of the job and the working conditions.

After her husband left for the service, Mrs. Kaminski tells about spending the weekends with her mother in Milwaukee, traveling by bus to get there. Rose was a member of the union at Harnischfeger, and she talks about her union activities and Harnischfeger's hiring practices. She also discusses shortages, rationing, obtaining leftover food from work, pooling rationing stamps, and the local grocer. She further tells of upbringing and mother's urging not to judge people by nationality, religion, or skin color.

Her husband was injured on a practice mission while still in the states. Mrs. Kaminski explains how she was notified, her trip by train to New York to see her injured husband, and the conditions in the hospital. She also tells about her celebrations on V-J Day, including a bar called “Dirty Helen's.” She continues by telling about her postwar experiences, including leaving her job, later returning to work, and working as a Girl Scout troop leader. She also talks about her independence as woman and having to perform tasks normally done by men, both in and out of the home.

Keating, Dorothy, 1992 July 18, Stockbridge-Munsee Indian Reservation, Wisconsin
Use Restrictions: Copyright in the Dorothy Keating interview is retained by her or her children until June 20, 2050.
Biography/History

Dorothy (Doxtator) Keating was born in Laona, Wisconsin, on June 22, 1924. Her parents were both full-blood Oneida Indians. She was the youngest of five children and the only girl. Her father, a lumberjack and bricklayer, died when she was four. Shortly after her father's death she was sent to the Bethany Indian School in Wittenberg, Wisconsin. Her childhood alternated between foster homes and government boarding schools, which included Wittenberg and Tomah in Wisconsin, and the Flandreau Indian School in South Dakota.

A junior in high school at the outbreak of the war, Dorothy finished the school year and then went to live with her mother in Milwaukee. Instead of returning to school, she got a job making circuit breakers in fuse boxes at Cutler-Hammer and then went to work at Allis-Chalmers. She worked as a coil winder there for three years and quit in 1944 when she joined the navy. She served as a pharmacist's mate for two and a half years, working in Maryland, Oklahoma, and New York.

She married Francis Pero, who was from the Bad River Chippewa reservation, in 1945. He was the brother of her high school fiancé, who was killed shortly after the war started. The couple settled in Milwaukee after the war, where they eventually had three children, two girls and a boy. Keating is the name of her third husband, Thomas, whom she married later. Mrs. Keating began working for the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe in 1980 and received her GED in 1982. She also received her associate degree in social work from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in 1985. She continued to work for the tribe until her retirement in 1990.

Scope and Content Note

Mrs. Keating begins the interview by discussing how she felt after the attack on Pearl Harbor was announced while she was a student at Flandreau Indian School. The news of the attack spurred Mrs. Keating, who described herself as “super-patriotic,” to quit school and join her mother in Milwaukee so she could work in to the war industry. She discusses her work at Cutler-Hammer and at Allis-Chalmers, including how she got her job and what her duties. She also discusses, working mothers, women's liberation, and sexual harassment.

She talks about her experiences in foster homes and government boarding schools, some of which were very cruel to her. Her foster parents and schoolteachers beat her for speaking her native language and forced her to acculturate. She has ambivalent feelings about this, noting that it affected her concept of her Indian identity.

Mrs. Keating also describes life in Milwaukee during the war, such as how rationing affected shopping and the black market for sugar. She also details her experiences as a housekeeper for a Jewish family.

When Mrs. Keating joined the navy, she left behind her mother, whose sons were already serving in the various branches of the military. She describes how her mother was initially reluctant to give permission for her to enlist but was won over by the official letter that announced her daughter's acceptance into the WAVES. Mrs. Keating then describes basic training and her experiences in the WAVES and relates some humorous stories about her experiences there. She describes herself as a “hell-raiser” during this time. She also says that she thinks that the military taught her discipline while maintaining important things like femininity. She also describes her social life, going to parties and dances and going “frogging.” Mrs. Keating was married during this time and describes her relationship with her husband and her wedding.

Mrs. Keating finishes her interview by talking about current Indian issues facing her today. She says that she disapproves of Indian relief and is wary of the tribe's participation in gambling enterprises. She ends by stressing all the positive things that the military gave her, teaching her to be a good citizen concerned with helping her people.

Kelk, Margaret, 1993 December 29, Madison, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History

Margaret Ebert Kelk was born on August 1, 1917, in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. She and her brother and two sisters were raised in Lake Tomahawk, Wisconsin, where her parents operated the Minne-Wawa Camp for Girls. This is currently the Camp American Legion. Ms. Kelk's ethnic background includes German, Scottish, and Norwegian. In 1935, she left for Madison to attend the University of Wisconsin. She was graduated from the university's School of Education in 1939. During her last two years of college, Ms. Kelk worked part-time for the Wisconsin State Journal. Following graduation, she stayed on at the Journal full-time in the classified advertising department. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, she took a secretarial position with the Badger Ordnance Plant under construction in Baraboo. After the completion of the plant, Ms. Kelk joined the American Red Cross Military Welfare Service in September, 1943.

As a Red Cross volunteer, Ms. Kelk was sent to Washington, D.C., for two weeks of training prior to being shipped to the Pacific theater. She was stationed in Noumea, New Caledonia; Guadalcanal; and Hawaii. Ms. Kelk's only brother, Mark Johnson Ebert, was killed overseas on April 4, 1944, in a bombing raid over the Bucharest, Romania rail yards. After the war, Ms. Kelk returned to Lake Tomahawk and stayed with her mother for one year. She then taught English and social studies at the junior high level at several Wisconsin schools from 1946 until her marriage to Harry Kelk in 1955. Since that time, she has owned and operated a summer campground trailer park in Lake Tomahawk. Her husband died in 1988. Ms. Kelk is also a charter member of the Northland Historical Society.

Scope and Content Note: Ms. Kelk began the interview by describing her reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbor. She then explains how she left her job at the Wisconsin State Journal to work at the construction site for the Badger Ordnance Plant in Baraboo. Following the completion of the plant, Ms. Kelk joined the American Red Cross. She describes her reasons for joining the Red Cross and explains the training process and the primary mission of the organization. She then describes her trip across the Pacific to her station in New Caledonia. Ms. Kelk explains the hierarchical structure of the Red Cross and its relationship to the military. Ms. Kelk talks about the relationship with the soldiers, and what the Red Cross expected the women to do for the soldiers. She stresses the importance of serving the enlisted men, not the officers in the unit. She continues with descriptions of more specific interactions with some of the enlisted men and their activities including games, barbecues, and just talking. She tells about a young Red Cross woman who became pregnant and had an abortion in the town of Noumea, New Caledonia. She also describes an incident in which she was reprimanded for organizing a picnic on the beach with an integrated unit of white and black soldiers. She talks about another incident with a male Red Cross director in which she was sexually assaulted.

Kobishop, Mae, 1992 November 6, Stevens Point, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Mae Kobishop was born in 1922 in Minnesota, and raised in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Ms. Kobishop graduated from Stevens Point High School, and worked as a checker in a local grocery store before joining the WAVES in 1943. She worked as a corpsman at the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland until being discharged in 1945, when she briefly returned to her job in the grocery. After a few months, Ms. Kobishop decided she missed working in a hospital, and began working as a nurse's aide at St. Michael's Hospital. She entered nursing school on the G.I. bill in 1947 and graduated from Eau Claire's Luther Hospital in 1950. The Navy recalled her for the Korean War, and she served most of the war on a hospital ship, the USS Repose, anchored off Inchon. She returned to the states and worked at various government posts, including Zeblocki Hospital, in Milwaukee. For several years in the mid-sixties, she worked as a registered nurse in the Alaska Native Health Service. Ms. Kobishop retired in 1980 and has since become very active in the Polish American Congress.
Scope and Content Note

After briefly describing the mood in Stevens Point after the bombing at Pearl Harbor, Ms. Kobishop described her duties as a grocery store checker, and the effect of rationing on the store and its customers. She then discussed social life in Stevens Point during the war, including concern about the troops, attending high school basketball games, and the ways people stayed in touch with friends and family members who were serving in the armed forces.

In 1943, Ms. Kobishop joined the WAVES, the women's division of the Navy. A good part of the interview was spent discussing her decision to join, her training in New York and then Massachusetts, and her duties as a corpsman in Annapolis. Ms. Kobishop described relations between the male doctors and corpsmen and female nurses, and among the other female corpsmen themselves. She also provided detailed accounts of contemporary medical procedures, including the many hours spent simply listening to patients.

Koplin, Emily, 1992 March 27, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Scope and Content Note: Ms. Koplin discussed many issues relevant to the experience of a single working woman in a large metropolitan center during the war. She mentions what it was like to be a woman in the workplace at the time, though she worked in what were traditionally female fields at the time. She discusses how women bonded during the war and what activities they engaged in during that time. She also speaks to the woman's role in the general economy and to the family economy in particular. Additionally, Ms. Koplin discusses such topics as the role of the Catholic church as a spiritual and social center for Milwaukee's female community; the ethnic neighborhoods of Milwaukee and the deep rivalries that existed among them, particularly those involving the German community; the role of movies and novels as escape from the tensions of war; the effects of the war on returning soldiers and early evidence of post-traumatic stress disorder; and most poignantly, the role that the war played in allowing her to grow as a woman and as a person.

Kruck, Irene, 1992 May 19, Manitowoc, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Irene (Cavanaugh) Kruck was born on a farm in Maple Grove, Wisconsin, in Manitowoc County, on October 19, 1902. Her parents, of Irish descent, had also been born in Maple Grove. Mrs. Kruck was just one of five daughters in a large family that also included six brothers. In 1917, when Mrs. Kruck had completed two years of high school at Saint Patrick's in Maple Grove, she was sent to Reedsville, where she lived through her completion of high school. She was graduated from Reedsville High School in 1919, and went on to earn her teaching certificate from Manitowoc Teachers College. She later attended summer sessions, required for continued certification, at Oshkosh State Teachers' College (Oshkosh Normal School) and at Milwaukee State Teachers' College. She was married to Ernest Kruck in 1932, and she gave birth to two sons prior to the outbreak of World War II. She had worked as a teacher from 1921-27, and as a part-time office worker from 1927 until her son was born in 1933, and she went back to work in 1943 at the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, in response to the desperate need for workers at the shipyards. She first worked in the employment office, then was transferred to the speed crane division. During her time at the shipyards, she always worked in a clerical capacity. Though she had planned to quit when the war came to an end, she ended up working for the Manitowoc Company for 40 years, retiring at age 79 in 1982. She continues to live in Manitowoc, in the same home that she lived in during the war.
Scope and Content Note: Mrs. Kruck discusses many topics during her interview. As a woman who had children prior to the war, and spent time as both a homemaker and as a clerical worker in industry, she is in a position to contrast the features of both of these situations. Prior to going to work for the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, Mrs. Kruck volunteered for several wartime agencies, and discusses the time that she spent registering soldiers from the Manitowoc area who were being drafted. She comment on the number of men from the Manitowoc area who were sent off to war. She is more detailed when discussing the procedures and daily responsibilities of her work at the shipyards. She is particularly thorough in her discussion of the security procedures at the shipyards to ensure that no enemy agents would be able to infiltrate these security areas. She discussed the security measures taken to keep specialized tools on the lot, rather than having the workers take them off-site. She also speaks of the place of women at the shipyards, though she only refers to women in clerical positions, rather than those who worked in industrial jobs. Other topics that she discusses include: the mood in Manitowoc at the time of war, and her reaction to the tremendous boom in the town, the importance of the submarine program to Manitowoc, the effect of rationing on her family and those in her neighborhood, and her reactions to having a brother in the Pacific theatre of war for nearly four years.

Lange, Mary K., 1993 January 6, Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Mary (Bullis) Lange was born in Eau Claire, a small city in western Wisconsin, in 1921. After attending local grade and high schools, she left home to attend nurse's training in Marshfield, Wisconsin. In 1944 she joined the Navy Nurse Corps, and soon after became a nurse on “Air Evacuation Units” in the South Pacific. Her assignment required caring for wounded soldiers while they were being transported from the battlefield to a hospital. She came back to the states in 1946, finishing her service in Philadelphia and then returning to Eau Claire. Ms. Lange became an industrial nurse, and worked briefly before marrying Vernon Lange in 1948. Mrs. Lange left nursing when she married, and has since traveled the country with her husband, in his career as an executive with National Presto Industries. The Langes have five children.
Scope and Content Note

We began by discussing Ms. Lange's education, first at St. Catharine's, a small girl's school in St. Paul, and then in Marshfield, for nurse's training. She explained her mother's displeasure at her leaving home, her decision to become a nurse, and then to join the Navy Nurse Corps. She went on to describe her duties as a nurse in the Great Lakes Naval Base, the decision she and a friend made to join air evacuation units, and the rigorous training involved.

She then discussed living on various Pacific islands, generally in Quonset huts and with only a few personal supplies, and in close proximity to Japanese soldiers who had not been captured. She explained the chain of command on the evacuation planes, the uniforms nurses wore, and the ways that planes were organized. She described some of the social activities on the island--including tennis, swimming on the island, writing letters, reading and dating, and her feeling that she was a private person, and had not had an active social life. She also discussed the psychological wounds soldiers often suffered from having been in battle.

We concluded by discussing the ways Eau Claire has changed over the years, and specifically the changes after World War II. She explained her pleasure when the American forces dropped the atomic bomb, and the wounds American soldiers suffered. She closed by describing the close friendships she has formed with a few of the women with whom she served, and the ways that seeing human suffering during the war has made her a better person.

Laube, Granada, 1992 November 23, Brodhead, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Granada (Dinse) Laube has lived her entire life in south eastern Rock County, specifically in and around the farming community of Brodhead. Born in 1917, she attended Brodhead High School, Whitewater State Teachers College, and finally earned her teaching certificate through the Green County Normal School. Ms. Laube only taught full-time for two years before getting married in 1939. The Laubes had five children, all sons, born between 1941 and 1958. Before and after the birth of her children, Ms. Laube helped her husband run their dairy farm. She was also very active in the local Methodist church, the local 4-H chapter, and was a founding member of the Adams County Homemaker's Extension--a group run by the University of Wisconsin designed to teach home economics skills to rural women. Within Homemaker's Extension, she has held offices on the local, district, and state levels. Ms. Laube now lives in the town of Brodhead in a house she designed herself. She remains an active member of United Methodist Women, in addition to tutoring illiterate adults.
Scope and Content Note

Ms. Laube began by describing the effect of new war regulations on farmers, particularly the paper work involved. She then described methods of coping with shortages and rationing, including pooling resources, making clothes, and substituting ingredients. During the war, Ms. Laube and her husband were living in an unfinished, unheated house with no running water on her father-in-law's property. Ms. Laube described how she managed the housework and child rearing, and the division of work between her and her husband.

While her husband was never drafted, several of their friends were, and Ms. Laube recalled following the war in the newspapers, and exchanging letters with friends and relatives who served. She also corresponded regularly with several refugee families, particularly in Czechoslovakia. In addition, Ms. Laube described the difficulties of getting adequate education for her sons in the rural school system, and the frustration of constantly dealing with bureaucracies, particularly in order to get ration coupons. She then discussed the various volunteer activities, including Homemaker's Extension, and the ways that World War II changed women's expectations and opportunities for working outside the home. Ms. Laube discussed the benefits of living in rural areas, particularly in terms of her family's interest in the outdoors. The interview concluded with a comparison between World War II and the Vietnam War.

Lechnir, Jean, 1992 April 28, Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Jean (Hahn) Lechnir was born in Prairie du Chien on July 16, 1917. She is the only child of parents of German background. Her father was born and raised in Prairie du Chien, and her mother was from Minnesota. She attended grade school and high school in Prairie du Chien and received a B.S. degree from La Crosse State University. She converted to Catholicism when she married Thomas Raymond (Ray) Lechnir in 1940. She has six children, born in 1941, 1942, 1944, 1946, 1951, and 1957. Ms. Lechnir had two small children and was pregnant with a third when her husband was drafted into military duty in 1944 and sent to Germany. He was discharged in 1945, following his tour of duty in Europe. Her husband died on September 13, 1981, and Ms. Lechnir continues to make her home in Prairie du Chien.
Scope and Content Note

Ms. Lechnir begins the interview describing how she felt during the announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor. She talks about attitudes regarding the war, not only her own but also those of her father, husband, and other men and women in the community. She also talks about efforts to defend and protect the area from attack. She discusses her anger and frustration when her husband was drafted despite the fact that they had two children and were expecting a third child in a few months. The Lechnirs were married in 1940, and Ms. Lechnir describes her wedding and honeymoon. She talks about her husband wanting to be in the navy rather than the army, but he had no choice in the draft. She continues by describing their living situation and their financial status when they were first married. She discusses how things changed after her husband was drafted, including raising vegetables in a victory garden, buying groceries on credit, and coping with rationing. Ms. Lechnir tells a story of trying to kill the pigeons her husband had raised in order to feed her children. She also describes more typical wartime meals.

Ms. Lechnir talks about the Christmas after her husband had gone into the service, when he and two friends made their way from New York to Wisconsin on a three-day pass. She also talks about the differences between the Red Cross and the Salvation Army and their treatment of the soldiers. She describes what she and her husband did for entertainment and how that changed after he left for the military. She talks about corresponding with her husband and then hearing from him that he had been injured. She then describes her husband's reactions to noises and the fighting between the children after his return.

Ms. Lechnir recounts the fears of area people regarding espionage and attack, especially from the Japanese. She discusses job opportunities for both men and women in Prairie du Chien and outside the area. She also talks about the support of friends during the war period and how many of the ties formed during World War II have created lasting friendships among the women. She talks about communal spirit when women gathered to roll bandages. She also talks about her feelings about being left at home with three small children to care for, especially when her husband was in the midst of the fighting. She talks about the economic effects of the war on Prairie du Chien. And finally, she tells about her husband's trip back home to the United States and his steadfast refusal to travel following his tour of duty in Europe.

Loufek, Julia, 1993 July 1, Madison, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Julia Loufek was born on June 5, 1921 in Davenport, Iowa. She was raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, until age five when her family moved to Minneapolis. Ms. Loufek, of Bohemian background, has two brothers and one sister. She attended Stevens College for two years and completed her education at the University of Iowa. After the beginning of World War II she joined the Signal Corps in Washington, D.C. In 1944, she became part of the last class in the Women's Army Service Pilots (WASP) training program. On April 20, 1946, Ms. Loufek married Kenneth Kimport, and they moved to Madison in 1950. The couple had five children born in 1948, 1949, 1951, 1958, and 1960. Ms. Loufek and her husband were divorced in 1979. She continues to reside in Madison.
Scope and Content Note: Ms. Loufek begins by describing her reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbor. She then describes her first experiences in learning to fly and her interest in joining the WASPs. She then describes her WASP training, living conditions, social activities, and the interactions between the trainees. She concludes the interview with her own personal reactions to the war.

Lousier, Gladys, 1992 May 19, Two Rivers, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Gladys (Schaden) Lousier was born in Chase, Wisconsin on September 18, 1920. She lived on a farm in Chase until she was eight years old, when her parents moved her family, which included four boys and four girls, to Two Rivers, Wisconsin. Though Mrs. Lousier's mother was Norwegian and her father was German, they were bound together by their strong belief in Catholicism, which they imparted to their children. Mrs. Lousier was graduated from Two Rivers Washington High School in 1938 where she had established a solid base for herself in the skills necessary to gain employment as a stenographer or secretary. She went to work for the Hamilton Corporation in Two Rivers in 1939, and worked there as a secretary throughout the war years. At the same time, she was very active in the Two Rivers community. Apart from being a member of the local chorale and the Catholic Youth Organization, she was also a member of a group called the Civic Understudies, which functioned in a similar manner to a junior Chamber of Commerce, with a focus on civics and government rather than business. Members of the Civic Understudies, during the war, began to write a newsletter, which was later called the Sojourner. The purpose of the newsletter was to provide news of Two Rivers and of other soldiers for residents of Two Rivers who were away at the war. At its peak, there were nearly 1,200 copies of the Sojourner sent out to servicemen around the world every month. The first issue was published in April, 1942, and the final issue was mailed in December, 1945, after the war was over. Following the war, Mrs. Lousier was married, and had five children. She continues to live in Two Rivers.
Scope and Content Note: In her interview, Mrs. Lousier speaks primarily of her time working on the Sojourner, and quotes extensively from the copies of the newsletter that she kept close at hand during the entire interview. She speaks of the role that the Sojourner played both for the people who were working on the paper in Two Rivers, and for the soldiers who looked forward to its arrival every month. She discusses the process that went into the production of the Sojourner each month, from the compilation of letters to the assembling of features and the printing and editorial procedure. In the second half of the interview, Mrs. Lousier discusses more items of general interest to a female resident of Two Rivers during World War II. She speaks of the way that Two Rivers changed at the time, and some of the comments that she has to make about race are particularly interesting, as it was during the war that Two Rivers saw its first black residents. Other topics discussed by Mrs. Lousier include: an interesting discourse on the manner in which the war changed women's role, both in Two Rivers and across the nation, the role of the Catholic Church in Two Rivers, her work at Hamilton's manufacturing, which was involved in wartime industry, her active social life, both before and during the war, and the ancillary role that Two Rivers was often forced to take to Manitowoc.

Mann, Christine, 1992 July 31, Wyeville, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Christine (Little Bear) Mann was born on July 9, 1920 to a family with two brothers and one sister in Mauston, Wisconsin. Both her parents were Winnebago (Ho-Chunk). When she was still very young she moved to Portage. She attended the Wisconsin Dells High School and the Tomah Indian Boarding School. During World War II she lived in Wisconsin Dells, where she worked as a tour guide and a clerk in a souvenir shop. Her husband, Ralph, entered the war in 1943, though the two were only dating at that time. In 1944 she worked for Badger Ordnance, a munitions plant outside of Baraboo, Wisconsin. After the war she and Ralph Mann married and eventually had 5 children, and eight grandchildren. Mrs. Mann has worked on and off between raising her children, although she is retired now. She and her husband belong to the Medicine Lodge, a traditional Winnebago medicine society.
Scope and Content Note

Mrs. Mann begins the interview by discussing her feelings to the announcement of Pearl Harbor. She first describes the school she was at when the announcement took place. She did not go to kindergarten until she was nine years old, and only spoke Winnebago (Ho-Chunk). She describes how she adapted to the new situation at the Indian boarding school and how she came into contact with other American Indian cultures.

She then talks about her parents and the way they raised her and her brothers and sisters. She describes the way they tried to raise her in the traditional Winnebago way, as she tried to do with her children. She states that she believes that it is a good thing that people today are trying to go back and reclaim their culture.

Mrs. Mann also describes traditional food that they ate during the war, and believes that they did not suffer any hardships due to rationing. She then goes on to describe her jobs during the war, at the souvenir shop in Wisconsin Dells. She mentions an incident where the owner, a non-Indian, asked her to dress up like an Indian and be a guide for the tourists. She states that she and another Winnebago would purposely talk Winnebago because the tourists would not be able to understand them.

Mrs. Mann briefly describes her job at Badger Ordnance. She also describes some of the things that have changed about Winnebago culture since she was a little girl. She talks about her attempts to remain traditional, and her involvement in the Medicine Lodge. She ends her interview by explaining why she could never have married anyone that was not Winnebago, and why she disapproves of her children marrying anyone that is not Winnebago, and certainly disapproves of her children marrying whites.

Marini, Gladys, 1993 July 27, Baraboo, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Note: Joint interview with Vera Dwars.

Biography/History

Gladys (Gomon) Marini was born on August 14, 1923, in Baraboo, Wisconsin. A lifelong resident of the area, she is one of seven children. Her parents, also born in Sauk County, are of French and German ancestry. Ms. Marini attended St. Joseph's Catholic Elementary School and was graduated from Baraboo High School. She attended Miss Brown's Business College in Milwaukee for one year. In 1942 she married Frank Gomon. Shortly thereafter, she began work for the newly formed Badger Ordnance plant, working in the personnel office. The couple had five children born in 1943, 1945, 1947, 1950, and 1953. Ms. Marini is also a member of the Catholic church. She and her husband now make their home just outside of Baraboo in Rock Springs.

Vera (Gomon) Dwars, sister of Gladys Marini, was born on September 21, 1920, in Sauk County. Ms. Dwars is also a lifelong resident of the area. She attended St. Joseph's Catholic Elementary School and was graduated from Baraboo High School. Following graduation she worked for the Sauk County Highway Department and in 1942 was employed by Mason and Hangar, the forerunner of the Badger Ordnance plant. In 1953 she married Ralph Dwars. She was widowed in 1979. She continued to work for Badger Ordnance until her retirement in 1977. Ms. Dwars continues to reside in Baraboo.

Scope and Content Note: Gladys Marini and Vera Dwars were interviewed together at their request. Ms. Marini and Ms. Dwars each begin by describing their reactions to the attack on Pearl Harbor. The sisters then discuss their work with Badger Ordnance, primarily in the personnel office during the early days of the plant's development. Ms. Marini describes about being newly married and starting a family during the war years, including issues concerning child care when she returned to work, food and oil shortages, and victory gardens. Both women talk about housing shortages in the area due to the large influx of workers in the ordnance plant. They discuss their brother who served in the military during the early 1950s. They also discuss issues of safety and security at the plant, types of workers hired, and average salaries.

Marston, Louise, 1994 January 18, Madison, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Louise Marston was born September 14, 1909 in Appleton, Wisconsin, where she was raised. She attended the Milwaukee Downer School from 1927 to 1929. She then transferred to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and was graduated in 1931 with a degree in journalism. Ms. Marston began her career as the Society Editor at the Wisconsin State Journal on January 4, 1934. Her work at the Journal included a column entitled “From the Notebook.” She volunteered at the USO every Sunday during the war where she checked coats. Ms. Marston married her love from her college days, J. William Conklin, on October 11, 1986 after a year of courtship. The couple was married for 20 months before Mr. Conklin died of a heart attack in 1988.
Scope and Content Note: Ms. Marston begins by discussing her reactions to the attack on Pearl Harbor. She explains the effect of rationing on her life, especially food and women's clothing. She describes the military activity at Truax Field. Ms. Marston discusses her wartime volunteer work with the USO, and the large amount of volunteering that occurred in Madison to help in the war effort. She describes the Memorial Union and USO as popular places for the GIs from Truax Field and students from the university to spend their free time. She talks about the entertainment that was provided at these places and her impressions of the USO. Ms. Marston discusses the change in wedding formalities that accompanied the onset of the war. She describes the disruption of dating for her cohort caused by the draft, and the conditions facing single women in Madison. She discusses Madison as a militarized town during the war with different groups like the naval ROTC [Reserve Officer's Training Corps] and WAVES [Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service] being stationed at Truax Field. She discusses how the war and unionization of the Wisconsin State Journal, at which she worked, gave women more power and independence in the workplace. She describes the different volunteering activities that people participated in, including Traveler's Aid, the Red Cross, and the Salvation Army, and the wide range of people involved. Ms. Marston relates how Madison's social life was at its lowest point during the war because of the heavy emphasis on volunteering and the absence of men. She also discusses the role of men in Madison who were rejected for service. She describes how the war affected the lives of the older GIs who left behind careers and young children to serve in the war. Ms. Marston discusses how social events still continued despite the war in order to create balance in people's lives. She describes how journalism changed since the war. She describes her one true love from her days as a student at the University of Wisconsin and their postponed marriage when she was 77 years old. She discusses how the war changed her life by making her more independent. She concluded by describing the permanent change in women's roles in the workplace.

McArthur, Jacqueline, 1994 January 15, Madison, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Jacqueline McArthur was born on February 24, 1926 in Ashland, Wisconsin. She was one of two children in a family of Scottish/English and French/Irish/German background. She was raised in Ashland where she lived until she was recruited to work in the defense plants in Milwaukee, Wisconsin during World War II. She left Ashland when she was sixteen years old and worked at the Supercharger plant while attending a technical school until September 1943. She returned to Ashland and worked as a telephone operator until her marriage in September, 1944. Her husband, Chester Zembrycki, then served the Navy and was stationed at Bremerton in Seattle, Washington. They lived in Seattle for three months until her husband was sent to Japan. She moved to Gary, Indiana and worked in a defense plant. In March, 1945, she moved back to Ashland after receiving word that her husband was soon to be discharged. The couple had three children born in 1947, 1951, and 1954. Ms. McArthur is employed by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.
Scope and Content Note: Ms. McArthur begins by discussing her reactions to the attack on Pearl Harbor. She then describes being recruited to work in the defense plants in Milwaukee during the war. She talks about the training, housing, and social activities of herself and the other women who worked at the defense plants. She then talks about moving out to Seattle to be with her husband who was in the Navy. She describes her move to Gary, Indiana and her work at a defense plant. She talks about her work relationships with the men and the working conditions she experienced as one of the few women at the plant. She describes the reactions to V-E Day and V-J Day. She also talks about her married life after the war living in Ashland including the shortage of housing, appliances, and other necessities. She ends by describing the resentment against Germans after World War II.

McKinstry, Virginia, 1994 January 26, McFarland, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Virginia L. (Kastner) McKinstry was born on July 10, 1922 in Lancaster, Wisconsin. Her father was born in Austria and her mother was born in Lancaster and is of German/Irish/Welsh background. She was raised in Lancaster along with her younger brother and was graduated from Lancaster High School. After graduating she went to Rockford, Illinois and worked in a welding shop. Ms. McKinstry then moved with her family to Platteville, Wisconsin. She then went to work at a powdered egg plant in Platteville, and later she taught welding at the Platteville State Teacher's College teaching to graduating high school boys. Her family then moved to Madison, Wisconsin in 1942 where after working in a restaurant as a waitress she enlisted in the marines. She went to boot camp at Hunter College in New York City. She was then sent to Aviation Machinist Mates [AMM] school in Millington, Tennessee for welding and was quickly transferred to a similar school in Normal, Oklahoma. She was graduated in December of 1943. She was then stationed at the Galeta air base near Santa Barbara, California until V-E Day. She met and married Howard McKinstry in 1945 while at the air base. She was discharged from the marines after V-J Day but stayed on at the base with her husband until he was transferred to Camp LeJeune, North Carolina. She then moved back to Madison and lived with her parents. The couple had the first of five children in 1946 and the rest followed in 1948, 1952, 1956, and 1959. They moved to San Diego, California in 1946 and lived there for a year and a half until Mr. McKinstry put in his discharge from the marines and they moved back to Madison.
Scope and Content Note

Ms. McKinstry begins by talking about her reactions to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the changes she first noticed as a result. She discusses her job at a powdered egg plant in Platteville, Wisconsin and her position as a welding teacher at the Platteville State Teacher's College. She describes her decision to join the marines and having to wait for women to be allowed to enlist. She talks about the tests she took in Chicago when she was called to report for duty. Ms. McKinstry describes her trip to Hunter College in New York City where she reported for boot camp. She discusses the training and classes they took at boot camp and the feelings of the marine men toward the women. She describes the regimental review they received at the end of boot camp attended by Eleanor Roosevelt and Madam Chiang Kai-shek. She talks about being sent to Aviation Machinist Mates [AMM] school in Millington, Tennessee for welding. She discusses the quick transfer of the recently arrived women at the AMM school to Normal, Oklahoma, because of the arrival of a company of black sailors to the school. She describes the relations between the men marines and the women marines at the school. She talks about being graduated from AMM school in December of 1943 and her trip home for Christmas. Ms. McKinstry describes her transfer to the Galeta air base near Santa Barbara, California. She describes her first impressions of California and life at the base. She discusses teaching the men about welding and about their planes. She then talks about working at the Post Exchange and the bond drives on payday. She describes her life at the base, including leave time in Hollywood. She discusses the racial and sexual discrimination that she came into contact with on and off the base. She then describes how she met her husband, Howard McKinstry, who had just returned from overseas, and how they got married. She goes on to describe the celebration of V-J Day, and the immediate discharging of the enlistees. She talks about staying at the base with her husband while pregnant with their first child.

Ms. McKinstry then describes her return to Madison while her husband was sent to Quantico and about their subsequent move to San Diego, California. She talks about their return to Madison as a result of her husband voluntarily discharging from the marines. She describes her family life in Madison and her children. She then discusses the close contact she and her husband kept with friends they made while marines. She talks about gays and lesbians in the military and the special treatment she received from the men at the base. She describes how the progress of the war was closely monitored by everybody to keep track of the different squadrons that had come to the base. She also describes the visits to the base of Tyrone Power, Pappy Boynton, and Veronica Lake. She discusses her reaction towards the death of President Roosevelt. She describes the reactions of her family to her marriage and the different lifestyle that marine life afforded. She describes her visit to the marine boot camp in Savannah, Georgia in 1988 and the differences between this camp and the ones at Hunter College and Santa Barbara in the 1940s. She discusses how the war changed her life and her expectations for her life after the war. She talks about the ration stamps that were used after the war and of the shortages in products. She ends with discussing what being a marine has meant to her.

Meiselwitz, Ella, 1992 October 9, Kiel, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Ella (Bonitz) Meiselwitz was born in January, 1918 in Mellen, a small town in northern Wisconsin. She attended local grade and high schools, leaving home to attend business college in Wausau. She began working as a secretary in the Ashland school system, and in December, 1941, married Rolf Meiselwitz, a business teacher in the high school. Five months after their wedding Rolf was drafted into the Air Transport Command, and served as a staff sergeant in Nigeria until 1945. Almost as soon as her husband was drafted, Ella began working as the secretary for District 7 Draft Appeals Court and continued working there until her husband returned in January of 1945. She also nursed her ill mother, and remained very active in her Lutheran church. After Mr. Meiselwitz' return, Mrs. Meiselwitz followed him as he finished his duty, first in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and then at Romulus Air Force Base in Michigan. After his discharge in October of 1946, the couple settled in Kiel, Wisconsin, near Fond du Lac. Mr. Meiselwitz continued working as a business teacher until his retirement in 1975, and Ms. Meiselwitz worked as a secretary in the same school. They had three children. Ms. Meiselwitz works part-time, and remains an active church member.
Scope and Content Note

We began by discussing the immediate impact of the declaration of war, which for Mrs. Meiselwitz meant adjusting her plans to move into a larger apartment with her soon-to-be husband. She explained how she was selected to be a secretary for the Draft Appeal Board, the shortage of labor power during the war, and her duties as chief clerk of the board. She noted how difficult it was for men to avoid being classified as 1A, and, consequently, how many women began filling jobs previously held by men.

With her husband gone, Mrs. Meiselwitz was very lonely, and yet she explained that she was careful to avoid places where other men might proposition her, or where someone who knew her husband might see her interacting with other men. Nonetheless, she described her active social activities with female friends-- seeing movies, going out for dinner, and learning to shop. She also maintained an active correspondence with her husband, writing letters in shorthand so they would not be censored. She described her anxiety during most of the war, which she followed very closely, and the effect of her anxiety on her health. Mrs. Meiselwitz then discussed her brother's death, her mother's illness, and the family's concern about not having tires for the car in case their mother needed to be transported to a hospital.

Mrs. Meiselwitz vividly described the difficulty of travel during the war and the public support for the war effort. She mentioned the noticeable increase in women's presence in the workplace and in church activities, as men were no longer able to fill slots they traditionally had filled. She reiterated the loneliness and anxiety of being separated from friends and family during the war, the support she received from both her faith and her many new friends, and the development of her own anti-war sentiments. She concluded by describing how competent she felt at handling the responsibility of her new job, the permanent changes in women's participation in the workforce, and the sympathy she has for veterans.

Middleman, Julie, 1992 September 24, Sparta, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Julie Middleman was born in 1910 and has lived her entire life in Sparta, Wisconsin, a small town in Southwestern Wisconsin. She attended Sparta High School, graduating in 1927. After attending business college in La Crosse, she began working at the Sparta Clinic, where she continued as an office clerk until suffering a nervous and physical breakdown in 1945. While she was officially called a clerk, Ms. Middleman frequently performed basic medical procedures, and was responsible for running an ever-growing office. After she left, Ms. Middleman began collecting information about Sparta's early history, and has now produced two books--one on the school system, and another on the medical services available in Sparta. In addition, she has compiled an extensive family history, going back to the 1300s, and as an outgrowth of this, maintains an extensive correspondence with friends and family all over the world.
Scope and Content Note: Ms. Middleman first discussed the immediate effects of the war, including rationing, the increased number of patients at the doctor's office (a result of troops sent to nearby Fort McCoy). Her sister was especially active in the USO, and a result, Ms. Middleman's family entertained visiting soldiers--they struck especially strong friendships with a division from Hawaii. Ms. Middleman discussed social activities in the town, people's reactions to the Hawaiian soldiers, and the working conditions at the clinic. In particular, Ms. Middleman described her duties, the relations among office staff, particularly with doctors, and the changes in Sparta during and after the war.

Miley, Marjorie, 1992 May 18, Manitowoc, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Marge Miley was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin on September 22, 1925. When Ms. Miley was very young, her family, which included her and her younger sister, moved up the coast of Lake Michigan to Manitowoc, her mother's hometown. She has been in Manitowoc ever since. Like many of the residents of Manitowoc, she is of German and Irish heritage, but as a Presbyterian, she breaks with the religious preference of the majority of the town. She was graduated from Manitowoc Lincoln High School in 1943, and then attended classes for two months at the University of Wisconsin extension at Manitowoc, before dropping out to take a job as a proofreader at the Manitowoc Herald Times. In her 45 years at the Herald Times, which became the Herald Times Reporter after merging with the Two Rivers Reporter, she advanced all the way to managing editor of the newspaper, the first and only woman to serve in that post. As a newspaper worker at the time, she was able to closely monitor the boom that occurred in Manitowoc during World War II. Manitowoc was the center of a shipbuilding industry that included the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, which was at the forefront of the United States Navy's submarine program, and the Berger Boat Company, which manufactured landing vehicles. Mirro Aluminum was also located in Manitowoc and involved in considerable wartime industry. This created a large influx of people to Manitowoc, and changed the nature of this pretty, lakeside town.
Scope and Content Note: Ms. Miley discusses many topics in her interview that are pertinent to those studying Wisconsin, World War II, and the history of women in the workplace. She was uniquely situated to observe the growth in Manitowoc during the war, and discusses the influx of workers and soldiers to the Manitowoc area during the war. She was also involved in various wartime activities. While she was still in high school, she volunteered to work with the Office of Price Administration in the distribution of ration stamp packages. While she was in high school, she was also working as a ticket-taker at the Strand Theatre in Manitowoc, a job that she continued to hold throughout the war years. Naturally, she has a great number of observations to make about the newspaper business at that time and since. She can trace the evolution of the process that went into producing a newspaper under the stress of war. As the primary source of news, the Manitowoc Herald Times had a place of importance in the community that it has never regained, and Ms. Miley is very eloquent in her discussion of this. She also mentions the role of unions in the news business at the time. In addition, she discusses many of the topics that were more typical to the experience of a young woman in Manitowoc at the time: what she and her friends would do to create a social life in the absence of men to date, how the war changed her life, the ethnic and national makeup of her neighborhood and her peer group, and her reaction to some of the major events in the war. She also has a number of fascinating things to say about the submarine program in Manitowoc, specifically.

Miller, Bernice, 1992 July 17, Stockbridge-Munsee Reservation, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History

Bernice (Davids) Miller Pigeon was born on September 1, 1918, in Big Lake, a small settlement outside Gresham, Wisconsin. She was the eldest of nine children, six girls and three boys. She lived with her grandparents in Red Springs while attending the local mission school for her first years of education, then later attended Gresham High School for two years. In 1934 she married Arvid Miller, a Stockbridge-Munsee Indian like herself. They eventually had ten children and remained married until his death in 1968. Later, Mrs. Miller married Oscar Pigeon, a Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) Indian.

During the war Mrs. Miller moved to Sturgeon Bay with her husband and four children in search of work. She found employment working the third shift in the Larson-Smith shipyards. She was employed as a welder, or as she put it, “a heater and shrinker.” She also worked seasonally in the cherry orchards and canning factories in Sturgeon Bay. At this time Mrs. Miller's husband was tribal chairman for the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe, so they traveled back to the reservation about every other weekend for tribal council meetings.

Mrs. Miller, whose home had become an informal tribal archives during the period her husband was tribal chairman for twenty-six years, along with her sister, Dorothy Davids (whose interview also appears in this series), founded the Stockbridge-Munsee Historical Society and Library in the 1970s. Mrs. Miller still works on a part-time basis at the Historical Society.

Scope and Content Note

Mrs. Miller begins the interview by discussing the circumstances surrounding her family's move to Sturgeon Bay to work in the war industry. She describes her job as a “heater and shrinker” and her training. She also describes what it was like living in Sturgeon Bay and the difficulties in running a household while working the graveyard shift. She mentions that the families who lived in her apartment building and neighborhood tried to help out one another as much as possible. She also talks about what it was like to commute back to the reservation nearly every weekend so that her husband could fulfill his duties as tribal chairman.

Mrs. Miller mentions experiences she had that display some of the men's attitudes about women working in the shipyards. She also mentions rationing, describes the council meetings that went on in her home (where her job was to “make coffee and keep the kids quiet”), and the stigma she felt at the “no Indians allowed” signs that were displayed in many taverns and restaurants.

Mrs. Miller also talks about the loss of Stockbridge-Munsee culture and language, the years of Indian political awareness, and the establishment of the tribal historical society and library.

Miller, Elaine, 1993 January 29, Madison, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History

Elaine (Kohler) Miller was born in Portage, Wisconsin, on April 1, 1922. Ms. Miller's ethnic background includes English, French-Canadian, Swiss, Dutch, and German. Her family, which included her parents (both Wisconsin natives) and an older brother, later moved to Chicago. Her brother remained in Chicago when the family then moved to Baraboo, Wisconsin, and later to Green Bay during Ms. Miller's teen years. Ms. Miller was graduated from Green Bay High School and attended one year of vocational school in Green Bay. She then moved to California for a brief period in 1941, during which time her parents moved to Madison. Ms. Miller joined them there on December 7, 1941.

In April, 1942, she met Jack Miller, an army pilot transferring from the Canadian Air Force to the U. S. Army. He proposed that evening and the couple married on June 1, 1942. Ms. Miller accompanied her husband to various posts across the United States until he was sent overseas in April, 1943. She then returned to Madison and lived with her parents during his time overseas. Following her husband's discharge from military service in 1945, the couple lived in Chicago for a short while before settling in Madison. The Millers have four children, born in 1945, 1949, 1957, and 1959. Ms. Miller converted to the Moravian church at the time of her marriage and has remained a member. The couple recently celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary and have lived in their west side home since 1952.

Scope and Content Note

Ms. Miller begins the interview by describing her reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbor on the day she moved back to Madison. She talks about having lived in California for a couple of months before returning to live with her parents. She describes her job at the University Extension in Madison. She then describes her first date with her soon-to-be husband and his proposal of marriage. Ms. Miller outlines the wedding plans, where it was held, who attended, as well as her father's reaction. Following the wedding the couple stayed one night in a hotel and then embarked on what Ms. Miller describes as an extended honeymoon while her husband trained for active duty in Texas, Florida, Washington, and North Dakota. She talks about what it was like to live in a hotel near the military base with other servicemen's wives, describing their activities, how often they saw their husbands, and the friendships that developed among this particular group of women. She then describes the point at which her husband was shipped overseas to active duty in Europe and her faith that he would return safely.

Ms. Miller describes her activities in Madison during her husband's tour of duty in Europe, including shopping, caring for her husband's sister, taking in sewing work, corresponding with her husband, and corresponding with the other wives. Ms. Miller was afflicted with a skin disease, and she describes the efforts of the Red Cross to bring her husband back to the United States. She then describes her neighborhood in Madison and her family life. Following her husband's return from Europe, Ms. Miller again travelled to join him. She describes the three-week R and R provided by the army. After that the couple moved around to Texas, Ohio, and finally Langley Field in Virginia. She talks about having to wait for the movers to arrive on V-E Day. Ms. Miller describes the birth of their first child in 1945, prior to her husband's discharge from the army. She then talks about their financial condition during the war. The couple eventually bought a car, and she talks about other forms of transportation used during the period.

Ms. Miller describes a women's group affiliated with the Moravian church that she belonged to during the war, including their activities as well as social and emotional support. She talks about her friendships with other women during the war, and the longevity of those friendships. She talks about the recurring difficulties the war has caused in her life. Finally, she talks about the couple's living situations after returning to live in Madison in the immediate postwar period.

Minkoff, Evelyn, 1993 January 25, Madison, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Evelyn (Weinstein) Minkoff was born in Madison, Wisconsin on November 23, 1925. Her parents both emigrated from Russia in the years prior to the First World War, when immigration rates from the Jewish Pale of Settlement were at their highest. Her father first immigrated to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and then moved to Madison when the job opportunities in Wisconsin's capital city seemed more promising than his original destination. Mrs. Minkoff has lived in Madison all her life. She was graduated from Madison West High School, and then attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison. On October 20, 1946, she married Ben Minkoff. She would have four children, three girls and one boy. Her husband died in 1985. Mrs. Minkoff has always been very active in the Jewish community of Madison. Presently, she is serving as the President of the Madison Jewish Federation, which oversees a cross-section of Madison's conservative and reform Jewish congregations within Madison's growing Jewish community.
Scope and Content Note

Mrs. Minkoff begins her brief interview by discussing her reactions to the attack on Pearl Harbor from her perspective as a student at the University of Wisconsin. She immediately defines the war in terms of how it affected her as a Jew living in Wisconsin. She discusses her disillusionment with the way that Franklin Roosevelt ran the war in respect to his acknowledgement of the Holocaust. She also speaks of the role of the Jewish USO in Madison at the time, which existed for the benefit of the number of Jewish soldiers who were stationed at Truax field. She discusses the measures that Jews in Madison took both during and after the war in reaction to the cataclysmic events in Europe. As someone who was active in the Jewish community both in town and at the university, she is able to offer unique insights on the state of the Jewish community in Madison during the war years.

She also discusses other aspects of the war, though she is hard-pressed to separate any events from her perspective as a Jew. When discussing rationing, she mentions the problems involved in obtaining kosher meats. She speaks of what it was like to be in school at the time, in addition to how she and other women at the university dealt with the relative absence of men in Madison at the time. She describes her social life, which was also strictly grounded in Madison's Jewish community. Finally, she discusses how the war changed her life, and how it made her life experience fundamentally different than that of her grandchildren. The war, she feels made her more easily satisfied with less in life, in addition to creating the basis for her later involvement in social activism.

Morrissy, Alice, 1993 October 22, Elkhorn, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Alice (Pease) Morrissy was born in 1913 in Evansville, a small town in southern Wisconsin. She attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison, working as a model in local clothing stores, and as a legal secretary after her graduation. In 1939 she married Philip Morrissy, a practicing lawyer, and moved to his home in Elkhorn, where she continues to live. Her husband urged her to become a lawyer and, with his tutoring, she passed the state bar exam in June, 1942. She took over her husband's law practice when he joined the Army Air Force later that year. During the war, Alice also served as the county chair for Block Plans, a position which involved overseeing the civil defense and air raid drills of all towns in Walworth County. In addition, Alice was active in the Elkhorn Literary Club, the American Association of University Women, the local Episcopalian church, and the Red Cross. Alice continued to practice law during the war, and while raising a son (born in 1950) and a daughter (born in 1954). At nearly eighty, Alice remains an active lawyer, and has become a member of the County Board.
Scope and Content Note

Ms. Morrissy begins the interview by discussing the impact rationing had, particularly on people's ability to operate and buy cars, and the arrangements people made, such as car pools and victory gardens, to support the war effort. Ms. Morrissy then explains her decision to pursue a law degree, the support she received from her husband and various employers, and the stress of taking the bar exam right before her husband's enlistment.

Ms. Morrissy then describes the activities some of her friends and neighbors undertook for the war effort, including her brother's enlistment and death in a training accident, and the death of a neighbor's son. Her husband was never sent overseas, and Ms. Morrissy discusses her travels to visit him at various bases, anxiety about his possibly being sent overseas, and the disorganization of the various programs in which he trained.

Ms. Morrissy also relates the many volunteer activities in which she partook--including organizing block plans and civil defense drills, collecting furs which would be used to line servicemen's jackets, and sending packages and letters. She then describes air raid drills she organized in Elkhorn, the sorts of cases brought into her law office, the social activities that went on in Elkhorn, and the shock of the deaths of soldiers. Ms. Morrissy closes with memories of the end of the war, including VJ-Day, her husband's return, the camaraderie among women during the war, and the attempts the Women's Army Corps made to recruit her.

Mosher, Dorothy, 1993 June 29, Pewaukee, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Dorothy (Dottie) (Hines) Mosher was born on April 21, 1921, in Chicago. She was the eldest of four children in a family of German background. She attended junior college in 1939 and 1940. In 1941, she enrolled in George Williams University in Chicago, studying to be a social worker. In the fall of 1942 she and five other friends bought a small plane and learned how to fly. In 1943, Ms. Mosher and two of these friends set out for Washington, D.C. to enlist in the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). She began her training in 1944 at Avenger Field near Sweetwater, Texas. She was graduated in August, 1944, as a member of Class 44-6 of the WASP. She served with the WASP until they were disbanded in December, 1944. In 1948, she married Foster (Mo) Van Mosher [her B-26 instructor]. The couple had three daughters born in 1951, 1953 and 1959. Shortly after they were married, the couple moved to Pewaukee, Wisconsin, where they continue to make their home.
Scope and Content Note: Ms. Mosher begins by detailing the steps leading to her interest in flying and subsequent enlistment in the WASP. She describes purchasing a plane, learning to fly, waiting for a recruiter, travelling to Washington to enlist, and meeting Ms. Jacqueline Cochran, Director of the WASP. She talks about her parents' reaction to her decision. She describes her trip to Sweetwater, Texas, to report for duty in January, 1944 including the accommodations and the reaction of other female fliers. She then describes the types of training--both ground school and flight training--including the types of airplanes flown, examinations, and test flights. She also describes interactions between trainees, instructors, and other male pilots from a nearby bases. She talks about the reactions to fatal accidents at Avenger Field. She continues by describing military inspections, the excitement of graduation, and ultimately post-graduation assignments. She talks about meeting and dating her husband-to-be, her reactions to the demobilization of the WASP, and her post-WASP employment.

Murphy, Ernestine, 1992 July 24, Stockbridge-Munsee Reservation, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Ernestine (Quinney) Murphy was born in 1921 in a small town called Morgan Citing outside the Stockbridge-Munsee Indian reservation, the fifth of six children. Her parents were both Stockbridge-Munsee. She was graduated from Flandreau Indian High School in South Dakota in 1942. She then went to Milwaukee, working as a waitress and in the Pabst Brewery. In 1943 she enlisted with the Marines, serving until 1945. She had her basic training in North Carolina, and served as NCO in charge of barracks in Oklahoma, and in confidential files in Washington, D.C. She married Virgil Murphy, who was also from the Stockbridge-Munsee Indian reservation, on a furlough in early 1945. After the war, they returned to Wisconsin, living in Shawano until Mr. Murphy decided to re-enlist. While her husband served in the military, Mrs. Murphy stayed in Shawano. They eventually had two children. Mrs. Murphy works for the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe as a Senior Companion, while her husband is retired.
Scope and Content Note

Mrs. Murphy starts off the interview by describing her feelings when she first heard that Pearl Harbor had occurred. She was a student at Flandreau Indian Boarding School. She describes her experiences that she had at there, and details how the school was changed after the announcement of the war. She explains the expectations that she had for America and for American Indians.

After she graduated in 1942, she went to Milwaukee to find work. She describes her experiences that she had working as a waitress and in the Pabst Brewery. She goes into detail describing the feelings she had working at the brewery, her first impressions, her fear she wouldn't be able to handle it, and her co-workers. She then talks about her decision to join the Marines, and her trip to the recruitment office. She also describes her dating experiences while in Milwaukee.

She goes on to talk about her experiences at boot camp, and her experiences there. She relates an incident where she was yelled at by a male Sergeant in front of everybody. She also talks about what it was like being an American Indian woman in the Marines. She describes her duties after basic training, when she was NCO in charge of barracks in Oklahoma and working in confidential files in Washington, D.C. She states that she wishes that the Marines would have taught her some skills, since they “didn't teach [her] anything” she didn't already know. She also describes an incident that illustrates the resentment of the civilian women to women in uniform, where two Marine women were beaten up by women whose husbands were in the military.

She describes her duties in confidential files in Washington, D.C. and tells what it was like to work with both military and civilian women. She relates a story about a co-worker who was constantly asking questions about being an American Indian, questions that Mrs. Murphy said she answered with lies, to fool the woman.

She also relates an incident where her friend in the Marines called her a derogatory Indian name, almost causing a fight. She then describes how she felt at seeing the treatment of the blacks on Washington, D.C. and Virginia buses. She states that she never felt like a minority in her uniform.

Mrs. Murphy ends her interview by describing her wedding and the early part of her marriage. She talks about how hard it was for her and her husband to find jobs around home, and how they barely missed going to Milwaukee in search of a job. She talks about her feelings about the loss of Indian culture, and about how she feels that some Indians are hurting themselves by “wearing their feather on their shoulder.”

Nix, Hazel, 1993 November 6, Stevens Point, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Hazel (Sievwright) Nix was born in Stevens Point, Wisconsin in November of 1922. She attended Jacobs High School, in Stevens Point, graduating in 1941. She then went to Wausau to attend St. Mary's School of Nursing, from which she graduated in 1944. In April of 1945, Ms. Nix joined the Army Nurse Corps. After training at Ft. McCoy, she received advanced training in Mississippi, and moved in March of 1946 to Ashville, North Carolina. In Ashville, Ms. Nix met Asbury Nix, who was a recovering Japanese POW at the hospital. After a six month courtship, they were married in August of that year. Mr. Nix has made the Army his career, and the Nixes have lived in California, Washington state, New Jersey, and Austria. They have retired to Mrs. Nix's family's home in Stevens Point. They have eight children.
Scope and Content Note

Ms. Nix began the interview by discussing her duties and schedule as a nursing student. She was particularly excited about her work on the obstetrics ward, and particularly challenged by her hearing loss. She joined the Army Nurses' Corps as a way out of her job in Portage, and spent several minutes describing basic training at Camp McCoy, her duties in the hospital there, and the regional differences she noticed when she was transferred to Mississippi and North Carolina.

Ms. Nix had especially good times exploring wartime New Orleans, and later Ashville, North Carolina. She describes the unwanted attention she received from men who thought that a woman in uniform was promiscuous. She goes on to discuss meeting her husband, the reaction of her family to their marriage, and his decision to stay in the Army. Finally, she described the re-adjustment of veterans to civilian life, her experiences in postwar Austria, and changes in medical techniques.

Olson, Alice, 1992 March 24, McFarland, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Alice (Lewis) Olson was born on February 4, 1914 in McFarland, Wisconsin. Her parents were both born in Wisconsin and are of Norwegian heritage. Ms. Olson has no siblings. She attended grade school in McFarland, was graduated from East High School in Madison, and attended one year at the University of Wisconsin. In 1935, she was married and the couple had two daughters, the first born in 1938, and the second in 1947. The family lived in Stoughton at the beginning of World War II and later returned to McFarland for the remainder of the war. Her husband died in 1989. Ms. Olson resides in McFarland and is a lifelong Lutheran and active in the McFarland Lutheran Church.
Scope and Content Note

Mrs. Olson began the interview by recounting her reaction to Pearl Harbor and some of the first changes following the beginning of the war. She discusses shortages that affected family life, such as butter, shoes, tires, and gasoline and ways in which her family was able to deal with or work around the shortages. She tells about her husband cutting ice out of the lake for the refrigerator and about “brownouts” intended to conserve U.S. energy. Mrs. Olson talks about the interactions among the women of the area, including getting together to knit for the war effort and farm jobs taken over by the women. She describes collecting paper and scrap for the Red Cross and the role of the Lutheran Church in the community.

Mrs. Olson continues by describing reactions to the atomic bomb and the end of the war. She further tells about her thoughts about the war in general. Free-time activities among the women are described, including sewing and watching local baseball games. She mentions the lack of a local doctor in McFarland during the war. In addition, she describes doing the laundry with a wringer washing machine. She talks about celebrations after V-E Day and V-J Day as compared with other community gathering events, such as funerals and weddings. She then describes some of the difficulties of a cold Wisconsin winter during the period. Finally, she talks about ways in which women were able to get material for sewing projects during the war.

Pascale, Marge, 1992 August 24, Bayfield, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History

Marge (Newagon) Pascale was born on August 23, 1921, the ninth of eleven children on the Red Cliff reservation. Of the four girls and seven boys, three died in infancy. Her parents were both Chippewa, her mother enrolled in the Red Cliff band and her father in the Fond du Lac band of Minnesota. She attended the Red Cliff Indian Elementary School and the Bayfield High School. After completing the tenth grade, she left home to work as a nurse's aide at the Indian Field Hospital in Hayward, Wisconsin.

After the outbreak of World War II she went to Milwaukee on the advice of a friend, who mentioned that families were looking to hire Indian girls to help out with the household and their children. After a brief stay with one family, she went to work at the Ambrosia Chocolate Factory. She worked there for two years, then quit in 1943 when she joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Corps (WAAC). She received her basic training at Daytona Beach, Florida, and then was stationed at various times in the states of Washington, Arizona, Colorado, and New Jersey. She worked in the photo lab, checked parachutes for defects, and worked as a nurse's aide. While working in a hospital in Atlantic City, New Jersey, she met Joe Pascale, a fellow employee. They married in 1945 and eventually had three children. At the end of the war Mrs. Pascale reenlisted, serving until 1947. Her husband then enlisted in the National Guard and worked as a mechanic in New Jersey. When Mr. Pascale retired, they returned to the Red Cliff reservation, where they live today.

Scope and Content Note

Mrs. Pascale starts off her interview by explaining her family background and her upbringing on the Red Cliff reservation. She discusses what it means to her to be an American Indian and mentions some issues important to her today. She then talks about her experiences as a nurse's aide in Hayward, including what her duties were and her social life. After working in Hayward for three years, she moved to Milwaukee to live with a family and care for their children. She relates how this job ended when she was fired for staying out all night. She also describes her social life at this time, when she was very busy dating the sailors on leave in Milwaukee.

Mrs. Pascale then describes her work at the Ambrosia Chocolate Factory, where she was employed after her dismissal. Mrs. Pascale then explains the reasons for her decision to join the WAACs. She describes basic training and her first assignment, where she worked in a photo lab in Washington state. She relates some of her experiences, including late night “gab sessions” with the other women, where she first learned about lesbians. She also describes an incident in which she was the victim of a practical joke played on her by some of her male co-workers.

Mrs. Pascale then talks about her experiences in the hospitals and examining parachutes. She mentions that she refused to work around the civilian women in the hospitals, preferring to work with the men, whom she saw as less demanding.

Mrs. Pascale ends the interview by relating her first meeting with her husband and by describing their wedding, which took place while both were in the military. She finishes by talking about her children, and the values she tried to instill in them.

Pechacek, Marian, 1993 January 5, Prescott, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Marian (Marek) Pechacek was born on September 16, 1927 of Bohemian ancestry. She grew up on a farm in Pierce County, in northwestern Wisconsin. She attended Prescott High School until 1944 and spent her senior year at River Falls High School. She graduated in 1945, and returned home to assist her parents with farm work. In 1947, she married Marvin Pechacek and joined him on his farm. The Pechaceks have six sons and two daughters, and continue to run a small farm near Prescott.
Scope and Content Note: We began the interview by discussing the immediate effects of the war, including the shock of the attack at Pearl Harbor, and the impact of the draft on the student body at Prescott High School. Ms. Pechacek described the hardships associated with rationing, particularly the shortage of sugar and shoes. Ms. Pechacek discussed work on her family's farm in vivid detail, focusing particularly on her duties to her parents, the difficult manual labor, and her inability to take an office job because of the shortage of farm laborers. She also described the long-term effects of rationing, particularly on her postwar wedding. During her year in River Falls, Ms. Pechacek worked in the kitchen of a hotel, and she explained her duties and long hours. She also compared young people who grew up in towns to those who grew up on farms. She gave examples of the subject matter taught in Prescott and River Falls, and the social life in both places. We concluded by discussing the difficulty veterans faced in readjusting to civilian life.

Petrovich, Dorothy, 1993 March 26, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History

Dorothy (Stovich) Petrovich was born in Milwaukee on May 25, 1909. Her parents had immigrated to Wisconsin only two years earlier. They were both from what was then considered Austria-Hungary. Though her parents were from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, they were both ethnic Serbs, and moved to Milwaukee in part because of the strong Serbian community which was being established there. The entire family was active in the community and in the Serbian Orthodox church, which became the defining factor in the life of Mrs. Petrovich and her two brothers and two sisters.

Following her completion of eighth grade, Mrs. Petrovich attended business college, where she learned secretarial skills which would serve her well in later years when she entered the work force. She was married on October 18, 1925. She and her husband had three sons, the first born in 1927. Because of the age of her oldest son, she was particularly concerned as the war continued for a long period of time, as he became eligible to serve. Though she had not worked prior to the war while she was raising her children, when the war began, she took a succession of jobs in the hope that they would help her family economy. First she worked for a firm which manufactured parachute jump suits, then she worked for Allis-Chalmers as a secretary in the shop office. After the war, she continued to work in the manufacturing sector until her retirement. During the war she also participated in several volunteer organizations in conjunction with the Serbian community, and with the Serbian Sisters, which was a community women's organization. She continues to live in Milwaukee.

Scope and Content Note: Mrs. Petrovich speaks of many topics concerning the life of a working woman with draft-age sons during the course of the Second World War. Of primary interest are the way in which her Serbian heritage colors the manner in which she views the war and the wartime period. She is also able to comment on what it was like to go back to work in a variety of jobs during the course of World War II. As someone who worked in both an industrial and secretarial capacity, she is able to discuss topics such as unionization from more than one perspective. Because she was a very religious woman in a church which was not in the American mainstream, she is able to speak on the role that the Serbian Orthodox church played in the war effort. More importantly, she discusses the role played by Serbian women in supporting the cause of the war, both in terms of the American effort, and on behalf of their relatives in the nation which was to become Yugoslavia. Among the other topics which she discusses are: rationing and its impact on her family, the war's effect on her family's economic situation, and what life was like for a working woman with three teenaged sons living in the city.

Pinard, Mary Joan, 1992 April 27, Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Mary Joan (Hammel) Pinard was born on February 11, 1924, in Lafayette, Indiana. She has one younger brother. Her ethnic background is a mix of German, Welsh, Scottish, and Czech. Her parents separated when Ms. Pinard was young, and her mother moved back to Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, with the two children in 1932. Her mother remarried when Ms. Pinard was a senior in high school. Ms. Pinard was graduated from Prairie du Chien high school in June 1941. She then worked at her stepfather's grocery store until she began working for the county clerk's office. During the war she also volunteered her time performing clerical duties for the area scrap-metal drive. She had both a brother and father in the military service during World War II. In 1948, she married Paul A. Pinard, and the couple have two children, a daughter born in 1949 and a son born in 1955. From 1962 to 1970, Ms. Pinard worked as a school library clerk. In addition she was a census leader for Crawford County during the 1970 U.S. Census. She was employed as the church secretary for the Lutheran church from 1970 until 1981. Ms. Pinard resides with her husband in Prairie du Chien.
Scope and Content Note

Ms. Pinard begins the interview with a description of friends' reactions to the announcement of the bombing on Pearl Harbor. She talks about how the war slowly affected this small town, beginning with the draft and its impact on dating. She talks about some of her acquaintances hurrying to get married before the soldier was shipped overseas, often requiring a waiver of the normal waiting period. She also talks about a friend who followed her new husband to a military camp in the South and the stories of women who had never been away from Prairie du Chien before.

Ms. Pinard describes problems with shortages of shoes and nylons and talks about women painting their legs in the absence of nylon stockings. She also talks about local high school boys taking an early graduation to join the military. Her own brother then left college to join the navy and she describes the family's reaction to his decision to join. She recounts her experiences working at the family's grocery store and describes the truck farm operated by her grandparents. She lived with these grandparents during the war and talks about their typical meals and problems with shortages of sugar for baking.

The grocery store in which Ms. Pinard worked operated largely on credit purchases. She also describes fund-raising efforts aimed at helping some pay their bill at the grocery store. She talks about older women knitting a variety of items for servicemen. She also talks about her job at the county clerk's office. She describes some of the problems faced by her married friends whose husbands were in the military. She mentions that her father's letters from the front were far more interesting than her friends' letters from overseas. Ms. Pinard followed the war closely and talks about how she would discuss the war in detail at work and how her friends would ask her about locations of their husbands or boyfriends. She recounts the capture of a Japanese POW, who escaped from Fort McCoy and was found in their area. She talks about the differences between V-E and V-J days. She also discusses the many ways people dealt with the shortage of cigarettes during the war. Finally, she talks about the problems faced both by the returning men and the women who had grown used to their greater independence.

Poupart, Dorothy, 1992 July 10, Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History

Dorothy (Bluejacket) Poupart was born on February 2, 1910 in Mirama, Oklahoma. Her mother and father were members of the Eastern Shawnee tribe. She was the third of four children, having two brothers and one sister. When she was nine her father was disabled in a farming accident and was unable to work. Shortly after this Dorothy, her sister, and one brother were taken to the Haskell Institute, a BIA-run school in Kansas. Dorothy entered the teacher's normal school program offered at Haskell and earned her teaching certificate in 1928. Faced with a choice of jobs in either Puerto Rico, Arizona, or Wisconsin, she chose Wisconsin and came to the Lac du Flambeau tribal school in May, 1929.

Shortly after her arrival to the school, Dorothy met Ben Poupart, a painter/laborer from Lac du Flambeau. They were married in 1930 and eventually had eight children. Mrs. Poupart taught at the Lac du Flambeau tribal school until 1921, when she quit after her first child was born. She worked at home raising her children until 1965, when she became involved with the tribal school and its efforts to receive federal aid under the Johnson-O'Malley Act. Retired in 1974, Mrs. Poupart today divides her time between her numerous grandchildren and Nokomis, a social group made up of Lac du Flambeau Chippewa elders whose primary objective is the education of Chippewa youth of the traditional ways.

Scope and Content Note

Mrs. Poupart begins her interview by discussing her reactions to Pearl Harbor. Her younger brother, enlisted at the time in the Navy was shot down and killed in Austria in 1943 and she briefly explains how her family was notified. She then discusses her background, recounting her education at Haskell and how she came to Lac du Flambeau. She describes meeting her husband and their marriage, and their separation for periods of time during the war when he worked at the Baraboo Munitions Plant.

Mrs. Poupart then describes what Lac du Flambeau was like during the war, and her involvement with a church-sponsored women's group that met weekly to make things for the soldiers and for the local children. She makes note of the fact that she often sold her ration stamps to the non-Indian people who owned cabins around Lac du Flambeau. She mentions the relationships between the local non-Indian townspeople and the Indians, making mention of the storekeeper in particular.

Mrs. Poupart ends the interview by discussing her involvement with Indian education and her efforts at a cultural revitalization. She also expresses her regret that she never went back to teaching or obtained her college degree.

Rabideaux, Lucille, 1992 July 11, Ashland, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History

Lucille (LeBeau) Rabideaux was born in Dewey County, South Dakota, near the Cheyenne River reservation on December 22, 1914. Her parents were a mixture of Lakota and French. Her mother had three children, two girls and one boy, by a first marriage. After her first husband died, Mrs. Rabideaux's mother married Lucille's father and had five more children, four girls and a boy. She and her brother and three sisters attended Cheyenne River Indian School in Cheyenne, South Dakota. Mrs. Rabideaux also attended and was graduated from the Flandreau Indian Vocational High School. She then attended Sioux City Methodist Hospital Nurses School, graduating in 1938.

After her graduation Mrs. Rabideaux went to work for the Indian Service, arriving at Hayward, Wisconsin in 1939. While working at the Indian Hospital there she met Francis Martin ("Chick") Rabideaux, a Red Cliff Chippewa from Bayfield, Wisconsin, who worked as a driver for the hospital. They were married in 1941 at Camp Robinson in Little Rock, Arkansas. Shortly after, Mr. Rabideaux was drafted into the Army. In June of 1943, Mrs. Rabideaux enlisted with the 44th General Hospital Unit based from Madison, Wisconsin. She was quickly shipped overseas and served in Australia, New Guinea, and the Philippines.

After the war Mrs. Rabideaux and her husband returned to Wisconsin and briefly worked for the Indian Service in Hayward. Because they were unable to find a place to live, Mr. Rabideaux reenlisted with the army, serving until his death in Thailand in 1968. Mrs. Rabideaux worked in various hospitals as a nurse until her retirement in 1980. She returned to Ashland after her husband's death. Mrs. Rabideaux has four children and eight grandchildren.

Scope and Content Note

Mrs. Rabideaux starts off her interview by explaining her education and her training as a nurse. She describes the various types of duties and experiences she had. She then details the events that led to her employment in Hayward, Wisconsin, where she met her husband. She talks about their social life while dating and their subsequent marriage after she enlisted.

Mrs. Rabideaux describes why she enlisted in the army and what happened after she did so. She and her husband hoped that she would be stationed in the European theater, where her husband was. She describes basic training in California and relates a story of her experience of being locked in the psychiatric ward while administering medicine. She describes some of the soldiers who she encountered briefly while working here and in the venereal disease ward and the problems she had in dealing with some of the patients.

Mrs. Rabideaux then describes her feelings upon learning that she would be stationed in the Pacific theater, and the trip that she took to Australia. She recounts her feelings getting used to the new living conditions overseas and also the contact with other cultures. She comments that Australia was very primitive and describes the living and working conditions that came about because of that. Mrs. Rabideaux also describes the status of American Indians and blacks in the military.

Mrs. Rabideaux finishes her interview by briefly describing her life after World War II and her views towards nursing, the place it held in her life, and the profession's future.

Rankin, Frances, 1992 May 18, Manitowoc, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Frances (Brewer) Rankin was born on January 26, 1905 in East Lansing, Michigan. Her father was an administrator at Michigan State University at the time. He eventually took a position as athletic director at the University of Missouri in Columbia, and that is where Mrs. Rankin attended high school. She then went east to Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland for one year, then transferred and finished college at the University of Missouri, graduating in 1926. She married Gilbert Rankin in 1930, and lived in several places before settling in Manitowoc. Her husband was a mechanical engineer and was the Assistant Chief Engineer on the submarine program at the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, now called simply The Manitowoc Company. There were 28 submarines built at Manitowoc during World War II, and this industry became the focal point of a boom period in Manitowoc during the war. Mrs. Rankin occupied herself during the war with her two sons, who were born in 1932 and 1936, respectively. She was very active in volunteer organizations, including the USO, the Office of Price Administration, and the Motor Corps, which trained women to do simple mechanical work on automobiles. After the war, she was active in a War Brides club, helping war brides to prepare for their citizenship tests. Currently, Mrs. Rankin lives alone in a large home on a private lake just outside of Manitowoc, and continues to participate in civic activities.
Scope and Content Note: During the interview, Mrs. Rankin speaks to the issues that were of importance to her during the war. These issues are somewhat different than many of the other subjects in this study, due to Mrs. Rankin's wealth and status in Manitowoc society. She discusses the difficulty in getting women to help her with her children, and to serve as live-in maids. She also speaks of the shortages and rationing not only in terms of how they affected the way that her family ate regularly, but in terms of how difficult it became to entertain the submarine captains and their families when they were in town. As the wife of a chief submarine engineer, this was one of her responsibilities. Some of the topics that she discusses are the same as those touched on by other women. She had two brothers in the service, and she addresses her difficulty in keeping in touch with them. Other topics that she discusses include: trading rationing coupons between friends, monitoring local shopkeepers to be certain that they were abiding by rationing laws, her responsibilities in the women's Motor Corps, the change in Manitowoc due to the war boom, her feelings toward Germans and the steps that she took after the war to alleviate these feelings.

Reneau, Frances, 1992 March 19, Beloit, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Frances (Brown) Reneau was born in Corydon, Illinois, on November 16, 1914. When she was six, she and her family, which consisted of her parents and nine children, four boys and five girls, moved to Aurora, Illinois, where Mrs. Reneau would spend her formative years. After progressing through the Aurora public school system and graduating from Aurora High School, Reneau was married to Jesse B. Reneau in 1938, at which point she first moved to Beloit, where her husband was a Ford mechanic. After settling in Beloit, she began working as a seamstress, first working part-time for a local dress shop, and later working for herself, sewing dresses for clients at home. Her business continued after her first child, a son, was born in 1944. She later had a daughter. Her son went on to be a war hero in Vietnam and is today the most decorated Vietnam veteran in Rock County. Mrs. Reneau was active in the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s and remains active in volunteer organizations in the Beloit area.
Scope and Content Note: During the interview, Mrs. Reneau discusses what it was like for her to be a black mother and businesswoman in Beloit at the time of World War II. She addresses issues of black/white and interethnic relations as they applied to her daily life in southern Wisconsin in the early 1940s. As a woman whose husband remained in the United States working during the war she offers her insights into her family's ability to continue functioning normally. She discusses the progression of black women into the economy both during and after the war and the effect of the war on the black community in general. She also discusses such topics as the role of the Methodist church in the black community; her ability to follow the war, and monitor the conditions of two of her brothers who were fighting in Europe, her role in the Red Cross and the USO, and the effect of shortages and rationing on her family and her community.

Rice, Hazel Briggs, 1992 May 28, Madison, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Hazel (Farkasch) Briggs Rice was born in Toronto, Canada, on February 5, 1896. She was raised primarily in New England, and the family spent a year in England when Ms. Rice was in her teens. Her mother was German and her father's background was Czech. After moving to Madison, Ms. Rice worked as a secretary for John R. Commons at the University of Wisconsin from 1922 to 1928. On July 31, 1925, she married Alfred Briggs, a graduate student studying with Commons. They had two children, Peter, born in 1924, and Heidi, born in 1932. Alfred Briggs died in 1936 and Ms. Rice lived alone with the two children. During World War II, Ms. Rice was employed as a secretary at Truax Field in the X-ray department of the medical services. Years later, in November, 1969, she married William Rice with whom she now resides. Ms. Rice lives in Madison in the home she had built in 1941, just prior to the U.S. involvement in the war. Ms. Rice died in 1994.
Scope and Content Note

Ms. Rice began the interview by telling the story of Seoishi, a Japanese Baptist minister who was hired as a housekeeper for the family in an effort to protect him from being sent to the Japanese internment camps. However, Seoishi was not a housekeeper, and problems arose among the members of the household, particularly with Ms. Rice's son, Peter. Seoishi then became ill and had to be hospitalized with pneumonia and never returned to the household. After Seoishi, Ms. Rice took in a young G.I. and his wife from Truax Field. The wife was to help look after Ms. Rice's daughter and help with meals and cleaning. This arrangement worked only a little better. Ms. Rice talks about the parties she gave for many of the young soldiers stationed at Truax during this time--her part for the war effort. Ms. Rice explains that, before the end of the war, the stress of the job and the household became too much and she left to spend time in Cape Cod with her friend Elizabeth Brandeis (daughter of Louis Brandeis, and wife of Paul Raushenbush).

Ms. Rice talks about building her house and hiring a deaf woman to work as a housekeeper prior to hiring Seoishi. She then talks a little about her job at Truax and transportation to and from work. She then tells about working for the National Refugee Agency with Jewish Refugees for a year prior to building the house in Madison. She was fluent in German and assisted with the intake procedures among Jewish refugees from Germany. She discusses a little about her financial situation during the war and her wages at Truax. She concludes by describing the neighborhood and its residents during the war.

Richgels, Elaine, 1992 March 31, Madison, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Elaine Richgels was born on August 29, 1922, on a farm near Highland, Wisconsin. She was one of six children, with two sisters and three brothers. Both of her parents were born in Wisconsin. Her father's ethnic background was primarily German with some Polish, and her maternal grandmother was born in Germany. She was raised as a Catholic and remains a member of the Catholic church. Ms. Richgels was raised in Highland and was graduated from high school in 1939. During the summer between her junior and senior years of high school, she came to Madison to take a job babysitting for a family. She returned the summer after graduation and then lived with another family in the fall when she started vocational school. Ms. Richgels began working for Fannie May Candies on State Street in 1941. She left to take a position with CUNA Mutual in 1944 and remained with the company until her retirement in 1987.
Scope and Content Note

Ms. Richgels began the interview by talking about when her twin brothers entered the military service. She talks about wanting to join the military service herself, and about her decision that she could do as much at home. She tells of spending long evenings writing letters to her brothers, as well as people she barely knew, in support of the war. Ms. Richgels describes her job at the candy shop in Madison's downtown area. She made infrequent trips home to Highland, Wisconsin, and talks about life on the farm and the labor shortages faced by her parents. She also describes food shortages, including sugar and meat, as well as other shortages such as gasoline and shoes. Ms. Richgels also explains that she worked two jobs during much of this period because the pay was so low at her job at the candy store. In addition, she discusses problems with cigarette shortages during the war.

Ms. Richgels talks about typical meals in Madison and how she was affected by shortages and rationing. She then talks about the USO dances and dances at the Eagle's club and describes the men she would meet at these dances. She also describes a wedding of serviceman she had just met in which she served as the witness. She continues by describing an experience regarding her twin brothers, who were stationed in Europe. She talks briefly about the differences between World War II and Vietnam and the activities offered by the church during the war.

Ms. Richgels then talks about the problems and risks involved in dating the servicemen in the area. She describes an attempted sexual assault that she suffered during the period and how it was handled by the authorities. She then recalls the difficult period when, after her brothers had joined the services, her sister was killed in an automobile accident. She finishes by relating some of her general reactions to the war itself.

Richtsmier, Mary, 1993 September 15, Madison, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Mary (Mullaney) Richtsmier was born to parents of Irish/English background on February 11, 1918 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. One of seven children, she was raised in Milwaukee. She was graduated St. Roberts High school and received her bachelor's degree in 1940 from Clark College. She received a graduate degree from Marquette University. She then married Tony Richtsmier in 1942 and moved to Iowa where he finished his last year in Medical School. They moved to Madison where Dr. Richtsmier interned at the University of Wisconsin medical school. The couple had their first child in 1943 and five more after the war. Ms. Richtsmier's husband was drafted when his internship was completed and the couple moved to Walla Walla, Washington where he was sent for three months. When her husband was transferred to Paris, Texas Ms. Richtsmier moved back to Milwaukee for six weeks and later joined him for a few months. He was then sent overseas and was company commander of the collection company of the First Army. Dr. Richtsmier later worked in the Third Auxiliary Surgical Company. While her husband was overseas, Ms. Richtsmier lived with her family and raised their first child. She was involved in the Junior League and volunteered at the Children's Hospital. When her husband returned from the war, the couple moved back to Madison where they still reside.
Scope and Content Note: Ms. Richtsmier discusses her reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbor and of the heavy recruiting of men on college campuses. She talks about receiving a graduate degree from Marquette in 1940, getting married and moving to Iowa with her husband. She then describes how they moved to Madison and had their first child close to when Dr. Richtsmier was called into service. Ms. Richtsmier discusses the couple's move to Walla Walla, Washington and the living conditions. She also talks about moving to Paris, Texas with her husband and the friendliness of the people they knew. She describes the social life and her volunteer work in Milwaukee while her husband was overseas. Ms. Richtsmier also discusses the friends they lost to the war and her brother receiving two Bronze Stars. She explained her husband's duties in the army and the concentration camps in Germany. She discusses her visit to Normandy years later and her reactions to the war. She describes the army's treatment of enlisted men's families and about the neighborhood and its people in Milwaukee. She describes how the war influenced grocery shopping, meals and people's social lives. Ms. Richtsmier also discusses the reactions to Germans in her community and the Africa Corps. She discusses her volunteer work and family life and then about the men returning home from the war. She talks about moving to Madison for her husband's internship and about those good times. She then describes the celebrations on V-E Day and V-J Day and the reactions to the death of Roosevelt. She also discusses her reactions to the dropping of the atomic bomb and about a friend that was involved in its making. Ms. Richtsmier discusses the increase in women's independence as a result of the war and how the war changed her life. She ends by discussing the expectations she had after the war and how friendships and marriage grew stronger as a result of the war.

Romaine, Katherine, 1994 April 10, Kenosha, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Katherine (Klucarich) Romaine was born on March 19, 1916 in Keewatin, Minnesota. She was one of five children born in a family of Croatian background. At the age of four, Ms. Romaine's family moved to Ashland, Wisconsin where she was raised. She attended Ashland High School and was graduated in 1933. Ms. Romaine then went on to graduate from the St. Joseph School of Nursing in June 1941. She worked in St. Francis Hospital in Superior, Wisconsin for six months until she moved to the Downey Veteran's Administration (VA) Hospital in north Chicago where she applied to go into the service overseas. She was sent to Camp McCoy for training in August of 1943. She then worked at the station hospital at Camp Grant, Illinois from September, 1943, until her departure for the 101st General Hospital in Taunton, England in June of 1944. She worked there for ten months as a second lieutenant in the amputation wards and later in the orthopedic wards. In February, 1945, she was promoted to a first lieutenant. Ms. Romaine was then loaned out to various French hospitals while waiting for a Berlin hospital to be set-up for use. While stationed in Berlin she also worked as interpreter for displaced Croatians in a nearby hospital. She returned to the states in December, 1945. Following the war, Ms. Romaine moved to Santa Barbara, California for about two years and worked in a Veterans Administration Hospital. She then returned to Ashland, Wisconsin and married Thomas Romaine in 1948. The couple had four children, born in 1948, 1951, 1952, and 1959. Ms. Romaine continues to be an active volunteer for the developmentally disabled and formed the Association for Retarded Citizens in Kenosha.
Scope and Content Note: Ms. Romaine first talks about being graduated from the St. Joseph School of Nursing in June 1941. She describes her first job at the St. Francis Hospital in Superior, Wisconsin where she worked for six months, during which time she heard of the attack on Pearl Harbor. She talks of entering the service as a nurse on August 26, 1943 and being sent to training at Camp McCoy. She then describes being transferred to Camp Grant, Illinois, a station camp, which was her last stop before going overseas to Taunton, England. Ms. Romaine describes her work in the amputation wards and the use of penicillin and other drugs just coming into widespread use. She talks of being transferred to the orthopedic wards and taking General Omar Bradley on a tour. She also describes the visits of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope and other social aspects of her stay in England. She then describes being loaned out to various French hospitals until her move to Berlin. She worked in the men's medical and surgical wards and gave Marlene Dietrich a tour. She talks of the comfortable living conditions the nurses had in Germany and her interactions with the German people. She also describes her work as the interpreter for the displaced Croatian people at a nearby hospital. She talks about the discrimination she had faced as a result of knowing the Croatian language as a child. She goes on to describe the celebrations of V-E Day in Berlin and how nurses were seen as heroes. She also describes the lack of social activity in the bombed out areas of Berlin and of bicycles being the only mode of transportation. She then talks about her reactions to the dropping of the atomic bombs. She describes her family as a military one and talks about what she learned from the war. She discusses her move to Santa Barbara, California after the war. She ended by talking about her volunteer work for the developmentally disabled that she has continued throughout the years and about her illnesses she experienced while stationed in England.

Romano, Ann, 1993 July 28, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Ann (Maniscalco) Romano was born in Milwaukee on February 2, 1929. Ms. Romano's father was born in Sicily, her mother was born in Milwaukee. Ms. Romano is the eldest of thirteen children. She was raised in Milwaukee in the old Third Ward and attended Andrew Jackson Elementary and was graduated from Lincoln High School in January, 1946. During World War II she attended high school and worked after school at the Sperry Candy Company packaging shipments to GIs overseas. On September 27, 1947 she married Nickolas Joseph Romano. The couple had two sons born in 1950 and 1955. She is a lifelong Catholic and is very active in Milwaukee's Italian community.
Scope and Content Note: Ann Romano speaks of many topics of interest during the course of her interview. She discusses at length the changes that occurred in her family with the onset of the war. Specifically, because there was so much more employment, her mother left the home to get a job and Mrs. Romano was left in charge of performing many task in the home. So for Mrs. Romano, the war added a great deal of responsibility to her life as a student. She also mentions that because of this availability of work, her family was better off economically during the war than they had been at any time previous. The war struck her personally, and she discusses her emotions on hearing that her uncle had been killed training to become an Army pilot. She talks of the grief that her whole family felt on hearing the news and later at the funeral. She also talked about what the Italian community in Milwaukee was like at that time and how the sense of community was broken up as families began to move away from the third ward. This occurred in concert with her discussion of the emotions of the Italian community to having their home country as one of the axis powers in the war. Other topics that she discusses include: the problems that she faced due to wartime shortages, how she felt on the occasion of Roosevelt's death, her feelings at the new of the atomic bomb, how she felt about war in both Europe and the Pacific, and how the war changed her life and the life of her family.

Sanders, Luida, 1992 April 10, Oshkosh, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Luida Sanders was born in Rhinelander, Wisconsin on April 21, 1917. She was raised in a series of resort towns in northern Wisconsin, including Lake Tomahawk and Wittenberg, as well as West De Pere, and Styles Junction. Of French Canadian and Dutch background, she had three siblings, one brother, one sister and a half-brother. After graduating from Wittenberg High School in 1934, Ms. Sanders worked for part of one year in Racine and two years at the court house in Shawano to save enough money to continue her education. She went on to receive a two-year rural teaching certificate from the state teachers college at Stevens Point, Wisconsin in 1939. Ms. Sanders then spent four years as a rural school teacher, first in Town of Poland, Brown County, and then in Town of Wittenberg, Shawano County. She taught all her students in a single classroom, from first through eighth grade. As soon as she would get out of her teaching contract, in 1943, she joined the WAAC, and was later part of the first incarnation of the WAC's. She completed her service at four different locations, Fort Devins, Massachusetts, Fort McClellan, Alabama, Tuscaloosa Northington General Hospital in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Augusta General Hospital in Augusta, Georgia. She was discharged from service in 1946, and went on to use the G.I. bill to receive her B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her Masters of Public Health from the University of California-Berkeley, in addition to an M.A. in public administration from UW-Madison. In the years since the war, she has lived in Oshkosh, and pursued a career in public health fields.
Scope and Content Note: In her interview, Ms. Sanders discusses the peculiar problems and advantages of being a woman in the armed forces during World War II. She also offers insight into being a rural schoolteacher in Wisconsin in the late 1930's and early 1940's. She also had the experience of working in a war supply factory in Chicago, and is able to refer to the unique situation that was created when women went to work in wartime industry. The topics that she discusses include: the social life of a WAC at various army facilities, her responsibilities as a WAC, the role of the church in base life, the various people that she met during her time in the service, the place of Japanese-American troops at Fort McClellan, race relations during her time stationed in Alabama, and the way that the war changed the way that women dressed. Her interview serves as an excellent example of how the war radically changed the lives of individual women in the United States.

Sarenac, Milka, 1993 June 15, Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Milka (Obradovich) Sarenac was born on December 6, 1922 in (New) Butler, Wisconsin. When she was still very young her parents moved the family, which consisted of four girls and one boy, form Butler to Milwaukee, where Ms. Sarenac grew up. Her parents, who were both Serbian and were born in the former Yugoslavia, married in the United States following their arrival in Wisconsin. Ms. Sarenac went to public schools in Milwaukee and was graduated from South Division High School in June of 1941. Following her graduation, she remained in Milwaukee and was married on September 19, 1943 to a man she had known from the Serbian community in Milwaukee. He was an enlistee in the air corps, and was killed on September 9, 1944 on his twenty-third mission in the European theater. After she was widowed, Ms. Sarenac felt that she had to complete what her husband had begun and she decided to enlist in the WACs, what she referred to as the Blue Angels. She was sent to several bases and was trained to work in Army medical installations. She was first stationed and trained at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, where she first met Martha Collins, another subject of the interview project. She then went to the Army hospital at Walla Walla, Washington. She also served in Chattanooga, Tennessee and San Francisco. After she was discharged, she returned to Milwaukee and had several jobs, most prominently as a flight attendant for American Airlines in the early 1950s. She also remarried and had two sons in that decade. Ms. Sarenac lives just outside Milwaukee, in Wauwatosa.
Scope and Content Note: There are many items of interest covered in the interview with Milka Sarenac. She discusses at length what it was like to be a young war widow in Milwaukee, and how difficult it was to try to continue to fit in among her friends. She also speaks about her many experiences after she enlisted in the WACs and was assigned to various hospitals around the country. As a woman who had never left Wisconsin prior to enlisting, she has a number of interesting things to say not only about life in the service, but on her reactions to other parts of the country as well. She notices many points of continuity and discontinuity about the various places that she was stationed. She also is able to speak knowledgeably about life in Milwaukee during the war. She remained in the city until 1944, so most of her time during the war was spent there. She discusses rationing and the economic impact of the war upon her family and her immediate neighborhood. She also discusses ethnic issues that existed in Milwaukee and were of interest to her as a women living in an area of mixed ethnicity, but having a strong sense of her own Serbian heritage. Other topics that she discusses include: her reaction at the onset of the war, the role of religion and her ethnicity in the way that she lived and the way that she viewed the international conflict, and the impact that the war had on her and on the way the roles of women have changed in the decades since the war ended.

Schiesser, Elda, 1993 April 5, New Glarus, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History

Elda (Strehm) Schiesser was born in Green County, Wisconsin on February 3, 1918. She and her brother grew up on a dairy farm in Green County with her father, who was born in Switzerland, and her mother, who was born to Swiss parents in New Glarus, Wisconsin. She was graduated from New Glarus High School, and attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison for two years until she left the University because she could no longer afford to attend school. In 1938, she was married to Frank Schiesser, who shared her Swiss heritage. At this point, they began to take over the day-to-day operation of her parent's dairy farm, eventually farming hogs in addition to dairy cows. Linda, the couple's only child, was born in 1944.

Mrs. Schiesser has always been very active in Swiss-oriented activities and Green County, and in civic organizations in general. She participated in the Wilhelm Tell Pageant from 1941 until recently, when she ceded her responsibilities to others. She has also been a member of the Board of Trustees of the New Glarus Historical Society. Additionally, she occupies herself practicing the Swiss art of paper-cutting, and both displays and sells her art work. Her home is decorated with her cuttings, in addition to a number of pieces of antique furniture that she and her husband have restored. She and her husband moved from their farm into the town of New Glarus in the early 1970s, after selling the farm. Mrs. Schiesser and her husband continue to live in New Glarus.

Scope and Content Note

Mrs. Schiesser discusses many topics of interest, including how her Swiss heritage shaped the way that she lived before, during and after the war years. Her heritage seemed to manifest itself most noticeably in her ability to conserve and to be, as she puts it, extremely "thrifty." She explains how farmers during the Depression and the Second World War were in many ways at the vanguard of the modern recycling movement. They would try to find new uses for everything that they came across, from grain bags to coffee cans. She also expresses a feeling towards war that might be characterized as typically Swiss, as she is against war on principle and feels that the United States would be well-served to keep out of other nations' affairs.

Additionally, Mrs. Schiesser discusses what it was like to try to run a farm during the war. This was a time, she reveals, during which it was actually quite lucrative to be a farmer. Her family was able to use the excess profits of the war years to pay off the mortgage on their land. She also speaks of how the war impacted on rural communities like New Glarus, and the role that the community and the church played in attempting to make the war years easier both for those who went away to the war, and those who were left behind. She also discusses her attempts to keep in contact with her husband's siblings, several of whom joined the service; her attempts to follow the war in the newspapers, the difficulty in running the Wilhelm Tell pageant during the war, and the problems of raising a child on a farm during the war.

Schiff, Eleanor, 1993 March 26, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Eleanor (Shiff) Schiff was born on June 3, 1914 in Lorain, Ohio, one of three sisters born to Jewish immigrant parents. Mrs. Schiff's parents, born in Odessa and Vilna, had immigrated to the United States during the major wave of “new immigration” in the first decade of the twentieth century. Mrs. Schiff attended the Ohio State University, and was graduated from that institution in 1938. Following her graduation, she was married to Philip Schiff (no prior relation), whom she met at the University. Following Mr. Schiff's career prospects the couple moved to Clarksburg, West Virginia, shortly after they were married. They were still in Clarksburg, and had just become parents of a baby boy, when the attack on Pearl Harbor began the United States' involvement in the Second World War. Shortly thereafter, they moved to the Shorewood section of Milwaukee, where Mrs. Schiff continues to reside. She was active in many organizations, including the Shorewood Women's Club and the Milwaukee Easter Seals foundation. She served for a time as President of the Atwater PTA and was president of the Sisterhood at her Temple. Following her husband's death in 1963, she opened a travel agency in Shorewood. Although she has since sold her interest in the business, it continues to operate under the name of Schiff Travel. Mrs. Schiff remains active in education and synagogue related activities.
Scope and Content Note: Mrs. Schiff begins her interview by discussing her reaction to the beginning of the war. As a young wife living in Clarksburg, West Virginia, she is able to recount her feelings of fear that her husband might be called into the service. Shortly after the start of the war, her family, which now included a young son, moved to Shorewood, Wisconsin, and the remainder of her interview directly addresses her time in Wisconsin during the war. Mrs. Schiff brings a Jewish perspective to the interview, most particularly as she discusses the need for Allied intervention in the face of Nazi aggression. As a woman who was and remains active in the Jewish community, her sense of the enormity of the Holocaust is acute, and her horror at the German atrocities comes across clearly in the interview. It is this Jewish perspective that makes this interview unique. Mrs. Schiff also addresses many other topics. She speaks of the effect of rationing, and the way that it changed her life in the home during the war. She discusses her abbreviated forays into the worlds of gardening and canning, as she attempted to do a woman's part for the war effort. She also mentions the difficulty that she had in first moving to Milwaukee, as it was not easy for her and her husband to become accustomed to the city. Finally, she speaks of her reactions to many of the important events of the war, from Pearl Harbor to the death of Franklin Roosevelt, to her feelings after V-J day.

Schlaefer, Lora, 1992 July 22, Madison, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History

Lora (Woolsey) Schlaefer was born on October 17, 1919, on the interurban highway between Chicago and Rockford, Illinois. Of Swedish descent, but several generations removed from the immigrant experience, Mrs. Schlaefer was raised in Rockford along with one sister. After she was graduated from Rockford High School, she attended Blackburn College and later Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, from which she was graduated in the spring of 1942. She then moved to Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, where she met Orville Schlaefer, whom she married following the conclusion of the Second World War. After a year in Wisconsin Rapids, she went back to Iowa State to pursue a master's degree but did not complete the program. Her next job was in Kansas City, Kansas, where she worked for the National Dairy Council. After the conclusion of the war, she moved back to Wisconsin Rapids, where she remained until moving to Madison in 1951. She raised three children in Madison, where she continues to live.

While attending Iowa State, Mrs. Schlaefer grew interested in the Society of Friends (Quakers), and she became an affirmed Friend prior to her graduation from the university. She remains active in the Madison Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends.

Scope and Content Note: Mrs. Schlaefer lived in several different locations during the course of World War II, and that enables her to see how the war was viewed from a university town, a small Wisconsin town, and a major Great Plains metropolis. She also has a particularly interesting perspective on the hostilities because of her then newfound activity in the Society of Friends. Because pacifism is one of the most important facets of Quaker belief, Mrs. Schlaefer found herself having decidedly mixed feelings about American involvement in the world war. Although she felt fundamentally that war was wrong, she saw the need to be involved and particularly felt the need for an Allied victory. Nonetheless, she was torn, as were many followers of so-called peace religions. Her Quaker beliefs and Quaker activism in the war play an important part in her interview. Particularly interesting is her discussion of Friends' agitation for civil rights for blacks in Kansas City. The actions taken were similar to what the entire nation would witness in the ensuing decades. Other subjects that Mrs. Schlaefer discusses include nutrition and the business of women's work, rationing and the effect that it had on her life in general and upon her life as a nutritionist, and her experiences in attempting to communicate with the man who would later become her husband, who was stationed in the Philippines. Particularly notable among several interesting stories is her account of the events of V-E day in Kansas City.

Schlosser, Geraldine, 1992 June 8, Tomah, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Geraldine (Sowle) Schlosser was born in Tomah, Wisconsin, on April 27, 1921. She is the daughter of tenth-generation Americans, originally immigrants from the British Isles. Ms. Schlosser was raised in Tomah and lived there until she began college. She first attended Milwaukee State Teachers College and then later transferred to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In early 1943, she joined the Women's Army Corps. After basic training she served as a radio technician in Midland, Texas. She served until November, 1945, at which time she returned to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to pursue a graduate degree in anthropology. At the university she met her husband, James Schlosser, and the couple married in 1947. The Schlossers moved to Milwaukee, where they raised their four children. Ms. Schlosser later returned to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to obtain her master's degree in library science in 1968. The Schlossers returned to Tomah after their retirement in 1982.
Scope and Content Note

Ms. Schlosser begins the interview by describing the changes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the months following the attack on Pearl Harbor. She mentions seeing her major professor in a navy uniform in a train station in Washington, D.C., after she herself had enlisted. She talks about her decision to join the military and her parents' reactions to that decision. She then describes basic training and traveling to different parts of the country. She also talks about the rules and regulations of the military. She describes the men's response to the arrival of the WACs at Midland, Texas. Ms. Schlosser describes her free-time activities as well as her work duties as a radio mechanic at the base. She discusses issues of security, pay, and military clothing. She describes drills and the required physical training. The base in Midland also had a unit of negro WACs, and Ms. Schlosser talks about the segregation of this unit.

Ms. Schlosser recalls her reaction to President Franklin Roosevelt's death in 1945. She talks about trips taken, while on furlough, to various places. She briefly discusses V-E and V-J days and talks about her thoughts on the atomic bomb dropped on Japan. She talks about the difference between World War II and later wars. She also talks about WACs and pregnancy during the war. She talks about how the war changed her life, especially concerning her first date with her husband. He had served in the coast guard as a radio technician, and so they talked about radios all through their first date. Finally, she talks about a Red Cross home nursing course that she took similar to a course her mother taught in Tomah, when she was still in Madison.

Schurch, Frieda, 1993 March 19, Kenosha, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Frieda Schurch was born in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, on October 1, 1919. The daughter of Swiss immigrants, she was raised on the family's farm in Barneveld, Wisconsin. Ms. Schurch is the youngest of five children--two brothers and two sisters. She was graduated from Barneveld High School in 1937, and later attended the University of Wisconsin, 1938-39, until her mother became ill. She returned home to help care for her mother until her mother's death in September of 1940. Ms. Schurch remained on the farm, serving as housekeeper for the large farm until she joined the WAACs in January, 1943. She remained in the service during the transition to the WAC and was discharged in December, 1945. She served the majority of her time in the service in Des Moines, Iowa, Denton, Texas, and Tampa, Florida. Her sister, Martha Schurch, served with the Red Cross during the war [also interviewed for the Women during World War II Oral History Project.] Following the war, Ms. Schurch returned to school and received her degree in early childhood development from the University of Wisconsin in 1950. She then taught kindergarten in Wisconsin Rapids for one year and Waukegan, Illinois, for one year before moving to Kenosha, Wisconsin. She taught kindergarten in Kenosha from the fall of 1952 until her retirement in 1984. She has been active in the American Association of University Women as well as the Democratic Party. She has volunteered for several campaigns including recent presidential campaign. She resides in Kenosha where she has lived since the early 1950s.
Scope and Content Note

Ms. Schurch begins by describing her memories about the attack on Pearl Harbor. She talks about her life on the farm, leaving to attend the university, returning home when her mother became ill, and staying on as housekeeper for the farm after her mother's death. She then discusses how she signed up for the WAACs, her family's reaction to her decision, and her trip to Milwaukee to be sworn in as a WAC. She talks about her father's disappointment with her decision to join the military. She explains that her sisters could not come and live on the farm-- one volunteered with the Red Cross and the other married a doctor. She describes her initial training with the WAACs, including her bout with chicken pox which separated her from her first unit. She describes the women's uniforms and problems with sizes, availability, etc. She also describes the terrible living conditions at Drew Field in Tampa, Florida, and the problems with the mosquito infested quarters. She describes the process of being transferred from the WAAC to the WAC. Ms. Schurch describes the treatment the WAC received from the men on the base, particularly the commanding officers. She also talks about the images of the WACs contrasted with the reality of the situation.

Ms. Schurch describes the social side of military life, including nights out as “civilians.” She tells about leaves to Havana that were granted to the military men and later to the women. She then talks about her job as a filing clerk and more specifically what she was responsible for, including pilots' reports and accident reports through base operations. She describes what it was like when the pilots came in that had been overseas and saw their wives and children for the first time in two to three years. She also talks about sexual behavior among the women and rumors regarding women's sexual behavior. She then talks about the African American troops on their base, including a particular incident involving a travelling troop of African American soldiers who performed a skit about venereal disease.

Ms. Schurch talks about her first flight into Madison and the thrill of seeing the farmlands from the air. She then talks about her very first flight in an airplane, an illegal flight, from Drew Field to Sarasota, and her difficulties getting back to the base. She describes the reaction of her Swiss relatives when her sister, Martha, a Red Cross volunteer was able to visit them during a leave. They had expected one of their brothers to possibly come to visit, but did not expect a woman in uniform to arrive. She describes her knowledge of the progress of the war, and her reaction to FDR's death. She talks about the end of the war, and the celebrations mixed with the sadness of losing someone in the war. She also “hitchhiked” an airplane ride to Washington, D.C. at the time of V-J Day.

Ms. Schurch talks about her expectations following the war, in terms of employment and military service. She also recounts being called back to active duty during the Korean War, and obtaining her deferment. She then talks about serving on the Veterans' Board under Governor Lucey, as well as her activities with the WAC veterans, and the American Legion.

Schurch, Martha, 1993 June 1, Madison, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History

Martha Schurch was born on June 20, 1915, in Barneveld, Wisconsin. Raised in Barneveld, her family included two brothers and two sisters. Her sister, Frieda Schurch served in the WACs during World War II (see Frieda Schurch interview). Ms. Schurch's parents were both born in Switzerland. She attended Jones Valley Fairview Elementary School, Barneveld High School, and received her bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of Wisconsin in 1938. She then received a certificate in Social Work from the University of Minnesota in 1939. Ms. Schurch worked as a social worker in Grant county from 1939 through December of 1942 and in Green county from January, 1943 through May, 1943. She then joined the Red Cross, and spent a year in Abilene, Texas, before being sent to an army hospital base in France. She remained in France from January through December of 1945.

After returning home from France, Ms. Schurch worked for a veterans' hospital for a year and then attended Columbia University in New York where she received a master's degree in social work in January, 1950. She returned to Wisconsin and worked as a social worker for the state until her retirement. Ms. Schurch resides in Madison, Wisconsin.

Scope and Content Note: Ms. Schurch begins the interview by describing her reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the first changes following the beginning of the war. She notes that she had unlimited gas usage because of her job as a county social worker. She describes her work for the county, the types of cases, and her feelings about the job. She then talks about joining the Red Cross, her reasons for joining the Red Cross, training, duties, and her first assignment. She discusses problems of racial intolerance at the base in Texas. She then describes her transfer, first to Washington, D.C., and then on to Europe, including her first accommodations overseas, and the hospital post to which she was assigned. Ms. Schurch became ill while overseas, and she describes her treatment in the American hospital in France. She then talks about her work with the soldiers hospitalized while overseas. She also describes her travels to other parts of France and socializing with other servicemen. She concludes by talking about her family's response to her joining the Red Cross, and how the war affected her life.

Sekey, Vivian, 1992 May 14, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Vivian (Tronson) Sekey was born on May 10, 1916, in Forestville, Wisconsin, in Door County. Her mother's ethnic background is Bohemian, and her father is of Norwegian heritage. Ms. Sekey was one of three children and was raised in Door County. Following graduation from high school, she attended Oshkosh State College and received her degree in education. She began work as an elementary teacher in southern Door County. In 1942 she married Jesse Sekey, who was employed in the shipyards in Sturgeon Bay. Ms. Sekey has one son, born in 1943. She had stopped teaching following her marriage but returned as a substitute teacher after her son was born because of the shortage of teachers in the Sturgeon Bay area. The shipyards created such an influx of new people to the area that the schools operated two shifts of classes, requiring twice the number of teachers. Following the war, Ms. Sekey taught kindergarten for 26 years. She was raised as a Lutheran but converted to the Moravian church after her marriage. Ms. Sekey is a widow and remains active in the church.
Scope and Content Note

Ms. Sekey begins by describing her reactions to the announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor. She talks about changing her marriage plans and resigning her teaching position following her marriage. She tells about a typical date during the early 1940s and her parents' reaction to her husband-to-be. She then explains her living situation while teaching in southern, rural Door County. Next Ms. Sekey describes her wedding and honeymoon and the friendships she and her husband developed with other couples as well as her friendships with other women and their social activities. She describes her typical day after her son was born in 1943.

Ms. Sekey discusses how she returned to teaching during the war, how she arranged for child care, what her students were like, and how the war affected her teaching style. She talks about her family's financial situation during the war and how shortages influenced what they bought and where they shopped. She tells about the changes in Sturgeon Bay caused by the large increase in population because of the wartime jobs in the shipyards, particularly regarding the shortage in housing. She describes her own neighborhood during the war, including the number of children and types of people in the neighborhood. She talks about her brother-in-law, Tom Sekey, and his activities in the armed forces, including his job and their correspondence. She describes her reactions to the end of the war and the effect that the war had on her life. She also talks about the differences between World War II and the Vietnam War, in which her son served.

Siekert, Vera, 1992 September 18, Sparta, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Vera (Ziegler) Siekert was born in June of 1924 on a farm outside of Sparta, Monroe County. Her mother was widowed and left with ten children while Ms. Siekert was still very young, so much of her childhood was spent performing housework and babysitting for her mother and for siblings who lived nearby. Ms. Siekert attended Sparta's high school, graduating in 1942. She spent the next few years working for her mother or older siblings, and joined the Air WACs in 1944. She served out most of her twenty-three month term as a clerk typist at Truax Field in Madison (later called Dane County Airport). Ms. Siekert was responsible for typing up the base's news bulletin. When she left, she received a “Commendation Ribbon” (and later a medal) for her “conscientious and arduous work”. In 1946 she returned to Sparta, working briefly at the Wisconsin Child Care Center as a clerk. She re-enlisted in 1948, very soon after meeting Harold Siekert. Ms. Siekert served as a recruiter for the WACs in La Crosse for six months. When the Army attempted to downsize in the postwar era, Ms. Siekert was transferred to Omaha, where she served another six months as a typist. She left at the end of the year to marry Harold. The Siekerts have four children, born in 1951, 1952, 1955 and 1959. They have been farmers for their entire marriage, although Mr. Siekert also worked on the railroads and Ms. Siekert worked for the Sparta Community Day Care Center from 1969 to 1978 and as a clerk at Ft. McCoy from 1979 to 1986. Both are now retired, although they continue to work a relatively small piece of land, growing most of their own fruits and vegetables and maintaining an extensive flower garden.
Scope and Content Note

Ms. Siekert begins by discussing the immediate effects of the war, including rationing, the induction of her brothers, and a new emphasis on paying attention to the news. She then discusses her own activities in Sparta. These encompassed her plans once she graduated high school, helping on the farm, and ways that various family members helped each other.

Ms. Siekert then describes her life in the Air WACs--the variety of people she met, the new social life she had, and the sort of work she did at Truax Field. She describes seeing an African American for the first time on her way to basic training in Georgia, and the things she was taught during basic training.

After her return to Sparta, Ms. Siekert encountered problems finding a job, and she discusses the resourcefulness of individuals in the face of an influx of veterans and a decreased number of jobs at nearby Ft. McCoy. She also describes the ways that neighbors joined forces to perform certain kinds of farm work. Finally, Ms. Siekert discusses her childhood and adolescence in Sparta, especially her ability to sew her own clothes and preserve food, picking strawberries and pickles for extra money.

Skowronski, Jane, 1992 March 18, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Jane (Nowakowski) Skowronski was born on January 1, 1923, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and has lived there all of her life. Ms. Skowronski was one of eight children, four girls and four boys. Both of her parents were born in Poland, and Ms. Skowronski speaks fluent Polish. Ms. Skowronski graduated from high school in 1941, and went to work for Lindemann and Hoverson, a Milwaukee appliance manufacturer. She also began taking a business course in the evenings. She worked at Lindemann and Hoverson for eight years as a stockroom clerk, and was a member of the union. During the war, Ms. Skowronski attended the USO dances held in Milwaukee. She also had three brothers in military service during World War II. She married in 1946 and divorced in 1963. The couple had no children. Following her employment with Lindemann and Hoverson, Ms. Skowronski did not work for about a year and then, in 1950, took a clerical position with Consolidated Freightways, and remained in that job for 14 years.
Scope and Content Note: In the interview, Ms. Skowronski begins by discussing her employment at Lindemann and Hoverson from 1941 to 1949. She mentions the presence of the union, and the attitudes of her co-workers. She then talks about her dating experiences during the war, attending the USO dances, and the shortage of nylon stockings. Ms. Skowronski then describes her 1946 wedding to a former serviceman. She tells about experiences such as food and gas rationing, family economics, the interaction of people within the neighborhood, and the role of the church. She further discusses how she used her free-time, including: knitting argyle socks for her brothers in the service, baking and sending cookies overseas, and writing letters to her brothers. She tells the story of her brother's struggle, following the war, between going into business with a Chinese-American army friend, and going to law school. She concludes with her reminiscences about V-J day, and her impressions of the war as a whole.

Sorgi, Mary, 1993 June 11, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Mary (Machi) Sorgi was born on March 5, 1911 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She was one of Seven children born to her parents, who were immigrants from Sicily. In Milwaukee, her family lived in the large Italian neighborhood which was generally identified simply as the Third Ward, just south of Milwaukee's downtown area. The area was broken up, in part, to clear space for the growing interstate highway system. Mrs. Sorgi attended public schools in the area, and she was graduated in 1930 from Lincoln High School. Following school she had several jobs, and she was married in 1936. Her husband was a policeman and they had one daughter, Laurina, in 1938. Following the birth of her daughter, Mrs. Sorgi experienced bouts with depression and nervous breakdown and, in response, she decided to find employment. She went to work for Gimbels department store in Milwaukee, starting as a seasonal employee, and rising to become a head buyer, not only for the Milwaukee store, but for many of the Gimbels stores around the Midwest and the country. At the time of the war, she was already working as a buyer and had to take frequent trips to New York on business during the course of the war. After the war, she continued to work for Gimbels as a buyer until she retired in the early 1970s. Today, she runs the gift shop at the Italian Community Center in Milwaukee, which is located in the third ward neighborhood in which she was brought up. She lives in Bayside, Wisconsin.
Scope and Content Note: Mrs. Sorgi speak of many issues of interest in regard to wartime life in Milwaukee. What is most interesting about her interview is that on some level, her life was not wholly disrupted, and she reflects on the war as something that affected her work more than as an even which shook the world. Her memory of Pearl Harbor surround the fact that when she heard the news she was in the middle of a buying trip and was, in fact, meeting with a supplier on the Sunday in question. She talks about how it was often difficult to get a decent hotel room in New York during the war when she would have to go there on buying trips. She also discusses the change in what she would buy for the store, which reflected what items were in demand during the war years, or which items they knew that they could sell. The only member of her family who was in the war was her brother-in-law, and that did not seem to impact her in the way that a closer relative at war might have. She also speaks at length about the Italian community in Milwaukee, both at the time of the war, and how it has changed in the fifty years since the conclusion of the war. As someone who was, and is, very involved in the neighborhood, she is in an ideal position to comment on the evolution that has taken place amongst Italians in Milwaukee. Other topics that she discusses include: the effects of rationing and the black market on her community and her family, the limited role of the church in her life at the time of the war, and the legacy of the war in her life and the lives of those around her.

Spohn, Charlotte, 1993 April 20, Madison, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Charlotte (Irgens) Spohn was born in Brainerd, Minnesota, on May 31, 1922. Of Norwegian and Swedish heritage, Ms. Spohn has one brother and one sister. The family moved from Minnesota to Lancaster, Wisconsin, in 1930. There, she attended Lancaster high school and went on to the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She received her degree in labor economics in 1944, and took a job with IBM. After a training period in Endicott, New York, she was sent to their office in Rockford, Illinois, where she worked as a systems servicewoman. While in college, she met James Spohn, who was drafted into the U.S. Army shortly after the couple began dating. During the war, he served both in the States and in in Europe. He was discharged following the end of the war, and the couple was married in August of 1946, and made their home in Madison. After their marriage, Ms. Spohn began work for the University, organizing the first punch card system for registration. The couple has three children, born in 1951, 1952, and 1955. Ms. Spohn and her husband reside in Madison.
Scope and Content Note

Ms. Spohn begins the interview by describing her activities at the time the attack on Pearl Harbor was announced. She recounts the changes that occurred on the university campus after the beginning of the war. She talks about dating her then husband-to-be, and his being drafted into the service. She describes her volunteer work with a University Red Cross unit-- knitting, and serving coffee and doughnuts to workers at Gisholt Machine. She describes her husband's army training, and how often the couple was able to see one another. She also describes a summer job she held in Lancaster, Wisconsin, while still in college, at a canning factory, loading and unloading boxcars. She then describes her job with IBM following her graduation from college. She also talks about her living in Rockford, Illinois. She received her initial training with IBM in Endicott, New York, and describes a trip to New York City to see her fiancé during that time. She also shares her thoughts on waiting until Jim came home from the service to get married.

Ms. Spohn recalls her feelings after seeing a newspaper report announcing the death of David Schreiner from her home town of Lancaster. She talks about other friends who were captured, such as Mark Hoskins, also of Lancaster. She talks about her correspondence with her future husband, as well as her parent's reaction to their plans to be married. She talks more about the social life on campus after so many of the men had been drafted, and how that affected her social life. She describes her graduation in 1944 from the University of Wisconsin. She then talks about following the war in the newspaper, and her feelings about Jim going into battle in Europe, and her fears for his safety. She then recalls her feelings about President Roosevelt's death, and about the atomic bombs dropped on Japan. She talks about celebrating V-J Day in Rockford, Illinois, and what that meant in terms of her own future, and how she felt when she heard that Jim was being shipped home. Finally, she talks about the ways in which the war has changed her life.

Stone, Veda, 1993 January 7, Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Veda (Wright) Stone was born in Richland County on August 14, 1906. She received a teaching certificate in 1923 and spent several years teaching in rural schools, finally settling near Eau Claire. In 1928, she married William Stone. The couple had one daughter, Sandra, born in July, 1932. Mr. Stone passed away soon after his daughter's birth. Throughout the 1930s, Ms. Stone continued to teach grade school in Eau Claire. She also began attending Eau Claire State Teacher's College, earning her bachelor's degree in 1943. She taught in Madison briefly, finally returning to Eau Claire in late 1944, where she began working as the women's personnel officer at Western Electric. Western Electric left Eau Claire in 1946, and Ms. Stone returned to Madison for a master's degree in Education. Since earning her degree in 1956, Ms. Stone has worked for the State of Wisconsin, often as an advocate for educational programs on Native American reservations. Because of her devotion, she has become something of a folk hero among Native Americans and advocates. She is now retired, and lives close to the university in Eau Claire.
Scope and Content Note

We began the interview discussing the immediate impact of the war, particularly rationing, and the seemingly universal support for the war effort. Ms. Stone then explained her decision to leave her teaching job in Madison and return to Eau Claire. She described the efforts of Western Electric to provide for their workers' emotional well-being, a relatively new idea. Ms. Stone's position as a personnel worker was key to their efforts, and she described her efforts to accommodate the women under her supervision.

After briefly discussing social life in Madison, Ms. Stone recounted her attempts to advocate for women at the Western Electric plant, insuring that they received promotions and raises when appropriate. She described relations between men and women at the plant and a typical day in her and her daughter's lives. She moved on to an account of teaching and living in Madison. She concluded by discussing women's pride in the range of their work during the war, the effect of the war on her own career path, and the labor disputes that led to Western Electric's departure.

Strehlow, Rita, 1992 March 20, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Rita (Hamburger) Strehlow was born on November 13, 1916 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Because her mother was unmarried, she was sent to the home of her grandparents, and was raised by them. Though she did not become well acquainted with her siblings until later in life, she had three brothers and one sister. The brothers, who were born after her mother was married, were raised by their paternal grandparents after Mrs. Strehlow's mother died. Mrs. Strehlow's sister was raised in orphan facilities in Illinois. Married in 1934 at age 18, Mrs. Strehlow moved with her new husband to his hometown of Cudahy, Wisconsin. He was employed there by Allis Chalmers, and was able to receive a draft deferral because of the necessary nature of his work in the foundry. By the start of the war, the Strehlows had three girls, and Mrs. Strehlow stayed home to care for them. She was employed briefly by Allis Chalmers following the conclusion of the war. She had three more children in the early 1950's. Since she left Cudahy after the war, Mrs. Strehlow has lived on the south side of Milwaukee.
Scope and Content Note: During her interview, Mrs. Strehlow concentrated on the problems of being a young mother, with three children by the time of the war. As a family whose income put them towards the bottom of the working class, Mrs. Strehlow emphasizes that life was at times as difficult during the war as it had been for her during the depression. Her husband was stuck, due to war necessity, in a low paying job, that also damaged his heath, as Mrs. Strehlow graphically illustrates. She is also able to offer insight into the feelings that she had as a woman with brothers who were away fighting the war. Other topics that she discusses include: housing shortages during and after the war, the status of the Catholic Church in urban, ethnic areas, child care, recreation during the war in the city, and her opinions on the way that the war was fought and the political ramifications of the war.

Szedziewski, Alvina, 1992 March 18, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Alvina (Mogilka) Szedziewski was born on June 9, 1925, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and has lived there all of her life. Her parents, of Polish descent, were born in Wisconsin. When Mrs. Szedziewski was nine years old, her mother died, and her father moved the small family in with her grandmother. When Mrs. Szedziewski began high school, the family moved out on their own, and she was responsible for the cooking, cleaning, laundry, and shopping for herself and her father and older brother. She attended a Catholic grade school, St. Josaphat, and Division High School in Milwaukee. She is a lifelong Catholic. Mrs. Szedziewski was graduated from high school in 1943 and secured a job with an insurance company. She married in 1949 and continued at the insurance company until the first of her three children was born in 1951. During World War II, she was also involved in activities with the Red Cross and the USO.
Scope and Content Note

Mrs. Szedziewski describes the effect of the U.S. involvement in World War II on high school students, including dating, the shortage of men, and dances held for servicemen training at Great Lakes Naval Training. She discusses public transportation while dating, proper dating attire, and difficulties in balancing home responsibilities with her social life. She discusses what shopping and home responsibilities were like for a young high school girl. She describes a local store that supplied her and her friends with nylons on a sporadic basis.

Mrs. Szedziewski discusses her neighborhood and the ethnicity of the residents. She describes the importance of the church in her predominantly Polish neighborhood. She further discusses her volunteer activities with the Red Cross while still a high school student. She describes her first job--her duties, size of the office, and her co-workers. She corresponded with a few cousins who were in military service and tells of listening to the war news on the radio. In describing her high school years, she tells of the favorite local gathering place, her involvement in the Catholic Symphony Orchestra. She shares her personal thoughts on the war itself, and the process of the draft. She describes other high school students' reactions to the war and school-related activities.

Mrs. Szedziewski also discusses the support systems available to her as young girl faced with family responsibilities. She tells of learning to cook from neighbors and her frustration at the lack of assistance from nearby relatives.

Torres, Alice, 1992 June 22, Oneida, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History

Alice (Denny) Torres was born the youngest of five children on February 13, 1927 in Seymour, Wisconsin. She was the only girl with five brothers. Her father, a farmer, died when she was six, leaving her mother and brothers in charge of the farm. Mrs. Torres' mother and brothers took odd jobs to help out in addition to running the farm, but during the Depression they were unsuccessful at their attempt to maintain the farm. As a result, they moved to Oneida in 1937.

Mrs. Torres was graduated from the Oneida Mission School after completing the eighth grade, then attended one year at West De Pere High School before dropping out of school. Shortly thereafter, she met Manuel Francis Torres, a migrant worker from Mexico who came to Wisconsin in search of work. She married him in 1942, and remained married until his death in 1990. They had thirteen children, eight girls and five boys between the years 1943-1969. Mrs. Torres worked in the home, raising her children, and in an assortment of outside jobs, ranging from in a factory to a department store. Mr. Torres was a landscaper/gardener until his retirement in 1973.

In 1988, Mrs. Torres began working for the Oneida tribe, first as a foster grandmother, and then as a teacher's aide. She then became an elder's helper, the job she holds today. She has been involved in the Oneida Episcopal Church in Oneida Singers, a group that sings traditional songs at funerals, wakes, and other church services.

Scope and Content Note

Mrs. Torres first discusses her reactions to the war and her brother Herman's involvement in it. She remembers feelings of anger and confusion at the war. She also state that the war robbed her of some of her childhood. Mrs. Torres then describes the activities that went on in Oneida during the war, in particular the dances and church socials. It was at one of these functions that she met Manuel Torres, and she relates the story.

Mrs. Torres then talks about her experiences raising an infant and working while her husband was away in search of work. She considers the best experience from this time was meeting people from other American Indian cultures.

She expresses regret at the fact that she dropped out of school and explains that this forced her to take her education into her own hands. She then comments on the loss of Oneida culture, and what this means to her life, past and present. She also states that racism is more prevalent today.

She then describes everyday life during the war, such as shopping, rationing, etc. She also portrays herself as an inexperienced, sometimes frightened mother, and recounts some of her experiences. She then relates the excitement of when her brother came home from the war.

Mrs. Torres then closes her interview by describing how World War II affected her life.

Truckey, Rose, 1992 May 13, Racine, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Rose Truckey was born on December 29, 1924, in Racine, Wisconsin. She was one of three children born to parents who had immigrated to Wisconsin directly from Armenia. Mrs. Truckey's original name, Nazalie, was more traditionally Armenian than Rose, but her name was changed by an overzealous grade school teacher who could not spell or pronounce Nazalie. Her name has remained Rose ever since. Following grade school, she went on to St. Catherine's High School, a private Catholic school in Racine. Although she and her family were Armenian Orthodox, her mother admired the discipline of Catholic schools and wanted her daughter to have that experience. During World War II, Mrs. Truckey got a job at J. I. Case company in Racine, working on the production line that manufactured the doors that were fitted over airplane bomb bays. At the time, she worked as a riveter, which made her, in essence, the authentic “Rosie the Riveter.” While working at Case, she met her husband, who was on medical leave from the Army. They were married in June, 1944, and moved briefly to Rockford, Illinois, but she moved back to Racine when her husband was shipped back overseas. She had two children, one during the war and one just after the war was over. Following the war, she got a job in a Racine bank, and advanced as far as vice-president prior to her recent retirement. She continues to live in Racine and is the reigning Ms. Senior Wisconsin. She has also served on Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson's Committee on Aging.
Scope and Content Note: Rose Truckey discusses innumerable items of interest during her interview. She had many experiences during the war that make her story both unique and characteristic of women's experience at the time. She has a great deal to say about her job at J. I. Case, where she was a riveter. She is able to speak to her workplace experience in terms of her responsibilities, her relationships with other workers, the company's use of patriotism as a motivating tool, and her pride in helping America's wartime struggle. She also courted and was married during the war. This enables her to speak volumes on the social life of a young woman in Racine at this time. She mentions the things that she would do with her female as well as her male friends and how she and her friends would try to meet men. She also discusses the problems, both emotional and logistical, of trying to get married during the war. Later, she speaks of the experience of having a child during World War II. In another vein, she relates how her life was unique as a woman with strong Armenian heritage. There was a small but close Armenian community in Racine at the time, and Mrs. Truckey's interview is rich with her description of her cultural background. Other topics that she discusses include her feelings on the war in general, and her opinions on the declining state of patriotism in our country, the role of the Armenian Orthodox Church and later the Catholic Church, in her life, the economic ramifications of her work during and after the war, her place in the vanguard of working women, and her feelings on the role of the war in advancing the place of women in American society.

Veltri, Lucy, 1992 April 7, Racine, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Lucy Veltri was born in Racine, Wisconsin, on December 13, 1927. Her parents were both born in Italy, as was her older sister. Her father came to this country in about 1920. Ms. Veltri's mother and her then 11-month-old daughter followed about one year later. Ms. Veltri attended Washington Elementary School and was graduated from Horlick High School. During the war she worked summers as a telephone salesperson with her sister. She was active in the Teenage Catholic Club and the Catholic USO Club in Racine. Her sister's husband served in the military during World War II. Ms. Veltri was married in 1949 and had two children, a son and a daughter. Years later, after her children were raised, she attended Racine-Kenosha Teachers' College and received an associate's degree. She also attended Carthage College and received her bachelor's degree in education from Dominican College in Racine. She is a member of the Catholic church and is currently president of the Racine Area Retired Educators.
Scope and Content Note

Ms. Veltri begins the interview with a description of the announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Ms. Veltri was a high school student during World War II and notes that the shortage of boys was one of the first changes that she noticed at the beginning of the war. She talks about war bonds and war stamps that were sold at school and how her mother dealt with the problems of shortages, particularly food and nylons. She continues with a discussion of her parents' attitudes about dating. She was also active in the Catholic USO and recounts her experiences with the servicemen who came into town from the Great Lakes Naval Training Station. She also recalls her summer employment in telephone sales, selling everything from “vanilla to venetian blind cleaner.”

Ms. Veltri discusses the family's financial situation and her parents' attitudes and beliefs regarding education. She talks about typical meals, the family's garden, and problems with the shortage of sugar. Ms. Veltri describes the ethnic composition of her neighborhood and the interaction among ethnic groups, in particular her parents' interactions with others in the neighborhood. She also describes how her parents arrived in this country and the circumstances surrounding their move from Italy. Finally, she talks about the amount of patriotism people felt during this period and people's support for one another.

Verzich, Mildred, 1993 July 21, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Mildred (Vitas) Verzich was born in Chicago, Illinois on July 16, 1914. She was raised in Butler, Wisconsin, and attended school there until she was fifteen years old. When she was fifteen, her family of eleven moved to Milwaukee, and she never went back to school. Her parents, who were both ethnic Serbians born in the former Yugoslavia raised their nine children to be strict followers of the Serbian Orthodox church, and the church was a central part of all facets of the life of the Vitas family. From the time that she was old enough to get a job, Mrs. Verzich was occupied with a variety of industrial jobs in the Milwaukee area. She worked in a dress factory, and also worked for Allen Bradley and for General Electric. During the war, she worked both with parachutes and bomb bay doors. She also worked as a volunteer in the church and for the Red Cross, sending packages to Europe and rolling bandages for use in the war. Three of her siblings were in military service during World War II; two brothers and one sister. After the war, she was married in 1947, and widowed in 1956. She and her husband did not have any children. She continues to live in Milwaukee and is active in the Serbian Orthodox church.
Scope and Content Note: Mrs. Verzich speaks of many topics of interest during the course of her interview. Of most relevance to the war and the wartime period are her discussions of the service records of her siblings, and of her attempts to remain in touch with them. She tells a story of the attempted recruitment of her sister into the diplomatic corps because of her ability to speak Serbian. She also tells stories that her brothers wrote to her during the war or told her after they returned home. Mrs. Verzich also tells of the work that she did during the course of the war, and how she felt about the tasks that she undertook, and the varying nature of her different jobs. She also speaks extensively on her feelings towards war and World War Two in particular, specifically how the war affected her and her community as a Serbian. She mentions her family in the old country, and the feeling in the community in the period prior to the United States' entry into the war, when the former Yugoslavia was already involved in the European war. She discusses her feelings for her parent's homeland and the impact that travelling to Yugoslavia has had on her, in addition to mentioning the impact of the current war among former Yugoslav states. Among the other topics that she discusses are: the impact of Pearl Harbor on her and her family, the importance of the Serbian Orthodox church to her and her family before, during and after the war, her reaction to the death of Franklin Roosevelt, and her opinions of the nature of people in general.

Washinawatok, Gwen, 1992 July 17, Keshena, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Gwendolyn (Dodge) Washinawatok was born on August 13, 1923 in Keshena, Wisconsin. Her father and mother were both Menominee and white. She was the eldest of 6 children. Her mother died when she was eleven, and her father remarried later and had five more children. She attended and was graduated from Keshena High School in 1941. After her graduation she enrolled in the National Youth Administration Nurse's Training in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After the war was announced, the NYA was ended in the spring of 1942. She then went to Chicago to work in a defense plant as a clerical worker. At the end of 1942 she decided to join the Navy, and formally enlisted in January 1943. She did her basic training at Hunter College in New York, was sent to Ohio for training in communications, and was finally sent to Imperial Beach in San Diego, where she served until the war ended. She worked in Naval Intelligence where she intercepted Japanese messages in International Code. After her discharge, she entered a nurse's training program in Wausau, Wisconsin, where she earned her certificate in nursing. She married her husband in 1951, and they eventually had two daughters. She has worked as a nurse in California and Wisconsin, and retired in 1983.
Scope and Content Note

Mrs. Washinawatok begins her interview by describing her experiences in the National Youth Administration Nurse's Training Program. She details where she lived and the duties she had while working at a hospital while studying. This is where she was when she first heard the announcement of Pearl Harbor, and she describes her reactions to it. She talks about how it didn't really seem real to her at first, and how she was more concerned with the fact that the war meant that the NYA program would be ending.

She then talks about her decision to go to Chicago to live with her aunt and uncle after she left Milwaukee. While there, she decided to get a job at the Werner factory in Chicago, where she worked in an office doing clerical work. She talks about how she liked who she was working with but not the job itself, and that this probably influenced her to join the military. She describes the recruiter's office, and explains that her decision to join the Navy was because that was what her father had been in, and she felt that if she had been his oldest son, there would have been no question but that she join.

She describes basic training, and relates some incidents that occurred while everyone was getting used to it. She mentions her training in the International Code after she decided to go into Communications in the Navy. She talks about why she decided to go into Communications and not into the Pharmacy in the Navy. She talks about her experiences in California and describes the things that they used to do for entertainment there. She also describes the shifts that she worked while intercepting Japanese messages for the Navy.

She mentions that she encountered very little racism in the military, except for one women who was from the Northern part of Wisconsin. She believes that non-Indians who grew up around Indian reservation are more likely to discriminate than others. She talks about what the Catholic church taught her as she was growing up, and how this led to her disenchantment with the Catholic Church. She mentions that although there was one nun who encouraged her to go on to school, the rest weren't helpful.

Mrs. Washinawatok ends the interview by describing her awareness of the discrimination that Indians face, and how she became aware of the losses that they suffered only when she became older. She talks about her feelings about culture loss and the present attempts to reclaim it, and how her father raised her.

Weingrod, Dorothy, 1992 August 3, Mequon, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Dorothy (Tuchman) Weingrod was born in Milwaukee on November 28, 1921. Mrs. Weingrod's parents were immigrants, having both come to Milwaukee from shtetls in the Polish region of the Jewish pale of settlement, in Eastern Europe. They decided to settle in Milwaukee in order to remove themselves from the constraints of their orthodox Jewish relatives in New York City. Mrs. Weingrod's father was less interested in religion than he was in socialism, and he became a prominent Socialist Zionist in Milwaukee, where his social sphere included such notables as Golda Meir, who would become prime minister of Israel. Mrs. Weingrod grew up in a neighborhood in Milwaukee that was not primarily Jewish, attending Division High School. After she was graduated from Division, she attended Milwaukee State Teachers College, from which she was graduated in 1942. Following her graduation, she worked for several months in Milwaukee before taking the civil service exam and getting a job with army intelligence in Washington, D.C. She worked at the Pentagon in a professional capacity for two years, until the conclusion of the war. Following the war, she married Murray Weingrod, a distant relative who had been in the service, stationed in Africa. Her husband passed away in 1990. The Weingrods had two children, both of whom attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and were active in the antiwar movement during the Vietnam conflict. Mrs. Weingrod lives in Mequon, Wisconsin.
Scope and Content Note: Mrs. Weingrod speaks of many subjects during the course of her interview and is particularly interesting when she is discussing subjects that were affected by her Judaism. She manages to discuss nearly every facet of her life--from the neighborhood in which she grew up, to her life as a student at Milwaukee State Teachers College, to her time in Washington D.C.- -as viewed through the lens of her experience as a Jew. Her Jewishness certainly gave her a unique perspective on many of the happenings of the war, most particularly those involving the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany. She is also able to show how networks of Jews around the country existed and were able to make her life easier when she made what could have been a traumatic move from Milwaukee to Washington. The other unique perspective that Mrs. Weingrod brings to the interview is her identification as a socialist. Although her socialism was not doctrinaire, she did identify with the socialists, who were very powerful in Milwaukee at the time. She is able to discuss how her socialism and related Zionism, changed the way that she viewed the war in particular and life in Wisconsin in general. Other topics that she discusses include life as a student during the war, life as an employee of army intelligence during the war, difficulties in communicating with friends sent abroad, and worries for those who were drafted or enlisted.

Wentland, Helen, 1994 April 6, Madison, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Helen (Hoard) Wentland was born on April 5, 1921 to parents of Irish/English background in Waupun, Wisconsin. She attended Cattaraugus Country School and graduated from Waupun High School in 1938. At the beginning of World War II she joined the Civil Air Patrol in Waupun. She soon moved to Washington D.C. with a friend and one of four sisters to work in the U.S. Department of Labor. She worked in the publications unit and lived in Arlington Farms. Ms. Wentland later moved into an apartment in southeast Washington, and also volunteered at the Stage Door Canteen. In 1944, she moved with a sister to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and worked in a lithograph company until she moved back to Waupun. She married Donald Wentland in 1948 and the couple had one daughter born in 1950. She currently resides with her husband in Madison, Wisconsin.
Scope and Content Note: Ms. Wentland begins by describing her reactions to the attack on Pearl Harbor as well as the town of Waupun's role in the war. She discusses joining the Civil Air Patrol at the beginning of the war, and the church services for men just recruited and for friends lost to the war. She describes the effects of rationing on the community and on her father's meat packing plant where she worked. She then talks about being recruited to work in the Department of Labor in Washington D.C. along with her sister and a friend. Ms. Wentland describes living in temporary housing in Arlington Farms and her work in the publications unit dealing with the varitype machine she mostly worked on. She then discusses moving into an apartment in southeast Washington and the effects of the food rationing there. She talks about the total change in everything in Washington D.C. due to the war and describes the temporary wartime jobs. She also describes the transportation she used, the neighborhood she lived in, and the living conditions in her apartment. Ms. Wentland discusses segregation at the workplace, in her apartment, and in restaurants. She talks about her social life and dating while in Washington, and seeing Eleanor Roosevelt at the Easter service in Arlington. She then describes volunteering at the Stage Door Canteen and the training involved to deal with the war veterans. She talks about her brother-in-law's death overseas and the feeling of total commitment to the war pervasive in Washington. Ms. Wentland discusses the death of President Roosevelt, and hearing speeches by Frances Perkins at the Department of Labor in reaction to the death of Franklin Roosevelt and to V-E Day. She also describes seeing President Truman in a parade to the White House and witnessing the procession to Hyde Park for Roosevelt's burial. She goes on to describe her feelings of homesickness at the holidays, and the train rides back and forth from Waupun. She talks again of her brother-in-law's death and joining her widowed sister in Milwaukee. She describes living in Milwaukee and celebrating V-J Day there. Ms. Wentland talks about her reactions to the dropping of the atomic bombs. She describes volunteering at the Walter Reed Hospital and her interaction with the war veterans. She discusses how the war changed her life and of the historical monuments and happenings in Washington D.C. She talks about her work at a lithograph company in Milwaukee and her expectations after the war that led her to move back to Waupun. She ends by discussing the impact Eleanor Roosevelt and Katherine Linroot had on her and about women's roles in politics.

Wenzel, Ruth, 1992 May 12, Marshfield, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Ruth Wenzel was born on September 21, 1915, into a family that would eventually include six children, three boys and three girls. Her mother was born in Marshfield in 1893 and continues to live there, and her father, a sausage-maker, was born in Germany. Like many of the residents of Marshfield, Ms. Wenzel's German-Catholic background was fundamental in establishing her character. She attended schools affiliated with her parish church and was graduated from McKinley High School in Marshfield, now called Marshfield Senior High. After graduation, she spent a year at home with her mother, helping to take care of her younger siblings, and then got a job in the stenographic corps at the Marshfield Clinic. After beginning as a clerk, she advanced to become a supervisor in the secretarial department at the clinic. She started work on May 9, 1934, and continues to volunteer at the clinic to this day. She lives with her mother in the same home in Marshfield in which she grew up.
Scope and Content Note: In her interview, Ms. Wenzel discussed many issues relating to being a single working woman in a small town in Wisconsin. She is also able to address many issues relating directly to World War II, because she had two brothers and several other relatives who were in the service, as well as several friends who were in the WACs and the WAVES. Particularly interesting about her work was that she was hired in 1934 by a woman who was the manager of the clinic at the time. It did not seem surprising to her that a woman ran the clinic, and she stated that the only men at the clinic were generally doctors, with all other positions of responsibility filled by women. She also discusses the clinic's central position in Marshfield in general. Other topics that she discussed included her social life in Marshfield in the absence of her male peer group; her active participation in sports, such as basketball, softball, and most particularly bowling; her brothers in the armed forces; a trip that she took to visit her brother at the Air Corps base in Enid, Oklahoma; the very important place of the Catholic Church in her life, before, during, and after the war; and her family's reaction to wartime shortages and rationing.

Westerman, Joyce Hill, 1992 April 14, Kenosha, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Note: See also the Westerman/Hutchison interview described below.

Biography/History: Joyce Hill Westerman was born on December 29, 1925, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the middle child of seven children, three brothers and three sisters. Her parents were both born in Wisconsin, and Ms. Westerman has a mixed ethnic background of Danish, Swedish, and German. She was raised on a farm in Kenosha and was graduated from Kenosha High School. She worked for American Motors in Kenosha before joining the All American Girls' Professional Baseball League in 1944. Ms. Westerman was a catcher with five different teams in the league: Grand Rapids Chicks, 1945; South Bend Blue Sox, 1946, 1951-52; Peoria Red Wings, 1947, 1950; and Racine Belles, 1948-49. She remained with the League until 1952, working a wide variety of jobs during the off-season. She married Ray Westerman in 1950, and following her retirement from the league, she returned to work at American Motors until the birth of her first child in 1955. Her second daughter was born in 1957. Ms. Westerman remained at home, and active in community sports, until 1964 when she started with the U. S. Postal Service. She worked part-time until 1980, working full-time in Kenosha, retiring in 1986. She has also coached softball at Carthage College and area leagues. She and her husband Ray continue to reside in Kenosha.
Scope and Content Note

Ms. Westerman begins the interview by describing her remembrances of the announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor. She describes what life was like on the farm during this period, what sort of work went on, labor shortages, rationing. She tells about killing turkeys on her uncle's farm at Thanksgiving time. She then describes getting her first job at American Motors, including wages, and union activity.

Ms. Westerman tells of her softball activities leading up to her association with the All American Girls' Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). She describes her first tryout and spring training in places such as Florida, Mississippi, and Cuba. She then discusses the players' experiences on and off the road during the season, including travel, rules, pay, and the uniforms. She explains about rules governing the players conduct during the season, especially on road trips, and the role of the chaperone. She talks about being able to build her own house with her husband, while working a variety of jobs in the off season. She further describes the age and race of the players, problems with injuries, and hecklers. She also describes the emphasis on feminine behavior in the league. And she recounts her feelings about the first reunion of the league in 1982.

Ms. Westerman describes dating during the end of the war and immediate postwar period. She also corresponded with her brother who was in the service during this period. She further tells of her reactions to the atomic bomb, and her impressions of the war, and its effect on German members of the community. She describes German POWs working in Kenosha during the war. And finally, she ends with a description of the last year of her affiliation with the AAGPBL.

Westerman, Joyce Hill/Hutchison, Anna May, 1992 October 2, Kenosha, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Scope and Content Note

This interview served as a follow-up to original interviews conducted with both Ms. Westerman and Ms. Hutchison earlier in 1992. Following the release of the movie, A League of Their Own, based on the women of the AAGPBL, we scheduled a second interview to record their reactions to the film. The first portion of the interview includes Ms. Westerman and Ms. Hutchison talking together. These two women have been friends for almost fifty years and the conversation between them was relaxed and punctuated with an occasional teasing comment. Ms. Hutchison then had to leave and we completed the interview with Ms. Westerman and her husband Ray Westerman. The couple dated during the early years of Ms. Westerman's ballplaying career and were married in 1950. Ms. Westerman continued playing with the league for two years after her marriage.

Ms. Westerman and Ms. Hutchison begin the interview by providing their initial reactions to the film. They both were generally pleased, particularly with the way in which their ballplaying was portrayed. Both women were also pleased with the inclusion of portions of the three-inning ball game played by actual AAGPBL players that provided the background during the credits of the film. They talk about the interaction among the women in the league. They then discuss the number of married and single women in the league and the effect marital status had on their ballplaying. They also talk about those women who were married and who played while pregnant. They discuss the backgrounds of many of the women from the league--where they all came from, how they were recruited. Next they describe spring training, including where training was held, early promotional games, assignment to teams, and number of players on the teams.

Ms. Westerman talks about being traded to different team and the difficulties of breaking into a new group of teammates. She played on four different teams during her career. Both women talk about the ways in which players were placed on teams and the inability of the players to question those decisions. They also discuss the effects of injuries, contract negotiations, pay ranges, differences in salaries among different players, and players cut from the league. Ms. Westerman talks about one manager's emphasis on knowing the rules of the game, and both women talk about other league managers. They continue with a discussion of how the actresses in the film learned to play baseball and the problems they encountered. They also talk about events in the film such as the publicity stunts, charm school, and emphasis on looks. They discuss their interaction with the heads of the league. They also talk about the representation of the chaperone in the film, which they felt was very funny but very inaccurate.

The final portion of the interview includes Ms. Westerman and her husband, Ray. They begin by talking about how much Mr. Westerman was able to visit Ms. Westerman while she was playing ball, especially during road trips. Mr. Westerman talks about his experience of being a fan in the stands watching his wife play baseball, while others either cheered or booed. They also talked about other married ballplayers and how the league attempted to accommodate their spouses in terms of jobs. Ms. Westerman talks about her family's support while she played ball. She also discusses the change in the size of the ball and adjustments in the rules over the years. She also mentions the size of the crowds in various locations. She discusses the difficulties in getting quality ballplayers after the pitching changed to overhand in the later years of the league. She completes the interview by listing all the team names and the cities in which she played during her eight years with the league.

Wilke, Juanita, 1994 January 21, Madison, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History

Juanita (Goold) Wilke was born in Baraboo, Wisconsin in August 20, 1908. She was raised with her younger brother in Baraboo by parents of French and English backgrounds. She was graduated from Baraboo High School and moved with her family to Madison, Wisconsin. She was graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1930 with a degree in history. She taught school in Grant County before moving back to Madison to work in the Wisconsin State Unemployment Compensation office in 1937. During the early years of the war, Ms. Wilke volunteered to attend dances at Truax Field. In March of 1943, she volunteered to join the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAACS). She traveled to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for her physical, and then was sent first to Oglethorpe, Georgia, for boot camp. She attended Officer Candidates (OC) School in Des Moines, Iowa for about seven weeks, and was graduated on May 23, 1943. The army sent her to a WAAC camp in Rockford, Illinois where she received training from the officer who was in charge. She returned to Des Moines for Intermediate Officer's School and then was sent back to Fort Oglethorpe. From Fort Oglethorpe, she was sent first to Florida, then to New Jersey, then Scotland, before arriving in Oxford to attend cryptographic school (Oxford Radio School) for a month. At this time, she was at the rank of second lieutenant in the Allied Expeditionary Air Force. After cryptographic school, she was sent to London where she worked at the underground command headquarters and lived in the Park Lane Hotel. She also worked for the Dutch Minister of Agriculture to England at the British headquarters in Stanmore.

In September of 1944, Ms. Wilke was sent to northern France just outside of Mont St. Michel. She was stationed in the gardens of Versailles. She was then sent to Heidelberg and was stationed there until V-E Day when she was transferred to Reims. She worked for General Herbert Thatcher until November of 1945. Ms. Wilke returned to Madison and her job at the Unemployment Compensation office. She met her husband, Gerald Wilke, shortly after returning home. She retired from her job in 1975 and the couple has remained active in local sports and other activities.

Scope and Content Note

Ms. Wilke begins by discussing her reactions to the attack on Pearl Harbor. She describes her work at the Unemployment Compensation Office and the changes that occurred there as a result of the war. She talks about teaching in Grant County before working in Madison. She describes the job requirements at the Unemployment Compensation Office. Ms. Wilke goes on to discuss the dances at Truax Field at the beginning of the war. She describes her reasons for enlisting in the WAACS (Women's Auxiliary Army Corps). She talks about her mother's reaction to her decision. She describes her physical in Milwaukee and receiving her first orders to report to Fort Oglethorpe for basic training. She describes the living conditions in what was previously a men's camp. She then describes being sent to OC (Officer Candidates) School in Des Moines and the training she received there. She discusses her stay at a WAAC camp in Rockford and returning to Des Moines for Intermediate Officer School. She talks about becoming suspicious about what she was being trained for. Ms. Wilke then talks about being sent back to Oglethorpe. She discusses being sent to Florida and learning how to swim in the ocean and having to fill out a will and send many of her belongings home. She then describes being sent to New Jersey and having one night in New York City before being sent overseas.

Ms. Wilke describes her trip overseas on the Queen Mary, and then her journey to Oxford via Scotland. She discusses attending cryptographic school (Oxford Radio School) as a second lieutenant and how this felt. She then talks about working at an underground command headquarters in London. She describes the air raids and the working conditions she experienced while living in London. She also describes working for the Dutch Minister of Agriculture in England at the British headquarters in Stanmore, and the bombing raids there. She describes their free time in London. She talks about the relations between the Americans, Canadians, and English servicemen and women. Ms. Wilke describes her job, and celebrating Christmas away from home. She talks about the living conditions in London during the war, and her impressions of the English. She goes on to discuss being sent to northern France after D-Day and being stationed just outside Mont St. Michel in the gardens of Versailles. She discusses being sent to Heidelberg and the conditions she witnessed in the conquered city. She describes being sent to Reims after V-E Day to work for General Herbert Thatcher. Ms. Wilke describes Heidelberg and the closeness of the Germans.

Ms. Wilke describes her free time spent in Wiesbaden and at the Chambourg Castle, outside of Frankfurt. She talks about not being able to follow the progress of the war and being unaware of the concentration camps until after the war. She describes her husband's service in North Africa during the war. She talks about meeting him when she returned to work at the Unemployment Compensation office after the war, and why they got married. She describes her reactions towards to death of President Roosevelt and the V-E Day celebrations. She talks about her reaction to the dropping of the atomic bombs and the reputation of the WACS during the war. She discusses how proud she was to make the rank of captain at the end of the war and how attitudes changed towards her as a result of her enlistment. She describes the difficulty of finding places to live after she got married and about the social life in Madison. She ends by discussing her feelings about her time in Europe during the war.

Williams, Helen, 1993 April 30, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Helen Williams was born on January 28, 1906, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her ethnic heritage is a combination of English, French, and German, some of her ancestors arriving in this country during the 1600s. Ms. Williams is an only child, and her father died when she was four years old. She attended local Milwaukee elementary and secondary schools and then was graduated from Marquette University with a degree in journalism in 1931. After the beginning of World War II, Ms. Williams enrolled in a special training program for occupational therapists at Downer College in Milwaukee in an effort to fill the wartime shortage. She was first stationed at Percy Jones hospital in Battle Creek, Michigan, a then thousand bed hospital, primarily amputees. She was transferred a number of times to various other locations, but was often transferred back to Percy Jones. After the end of the war, Ms. Williams was transferred to a VA hospital in Waukesha, Wisconsin. After two years at the VA hospital, she returned to probation and parole work in Wisconsin for a period, and then returned to occupational therapy, working in a dozen cities across the country. Ms. Williams has been active as a freelance journalist for many years, and continues to make Milwaukee her home.
Scope and Content Note: Ms. Williams begins by recounting her memories of the attack on Pearl Harbor. She then describes the probation and parole work that she was involved in at the beginning of the war. She then recounts her training at Milwaukee Downer College in occupational therapy in order to become an Occupational Therapist (OT) with the army. She describes her reaction following her arrival at Percy Jones hospital in Battle Creek, Michigan, as well as her daily duties, living conditions, military regulations, types of patients, inspections, military status, dating and socializing, and trips home. She also describes a hospital in Illinois which was shoddily put together, thus hampering working conditions. She further describes her duties as an OT, particularly working with the amputees at Percy Jones. She also talks about her interaction with psychiatric patients who had “broken” in battle, and about how their experiences affected her. She also comments on the reaction of the Red Cross workers to the arrival of professional occupational therapists at Percy Jones and other rehabilitation hospitals. Ms. Williams describes her free-time activities during the war, and concludes with her thoughts about how the war changed her life.

Wilson, Nellie, 1993 September 7, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Nellie (Sweet) Wilson was born on November 28, 1916, in Luskin, Texas. She was raised in Texas and Nevada by her father after the death of her mother in 1919. In 1928, she and her father moved to Milwaukee. The pair moved to Milwaukee at a time when the city's African American population was quite small and Ms. Wilson was often the only African American child in her classes at Harlan Avenue Elementary. She was graduated from Lincoln High School in Milwaukee. She married in 1936 and was separated from her husband shortly before World War II. She has two daughters born in 1937 and 1939. She began working for A.O. Smith on February 15, 1943 and continued working at the plant until the end of the war. Following the war, Ms. Wilson worked as a cocktail waitress for nearly one year before being called back to work at A.O. Smith. She remained at A.O. Smith until her retirement. Ms. Wilson has been active member of the union and involved in a number of community organizations. She continues to reside in Milwaukee.
Scope and Content Note: Ms. Wilson begins by describing her reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbor. She continues by describing job hunting in the black community during the early years of the war. She then describes applying at, and working for, A.O. Smith. She talks about her financial situation as a single mother with two children, including child care arrangements. She also describes her leisure and social activities during the period. She talks about the end of the war and the difficulties faced during the phasing out of the defense industries--both personally and in the community. She talks about her immediate postwar job as a cocktail waitress, and her eventual recall at A.O. Smith. She also discusses differences between the black community during the 1940s and currently.

Yaffe, Louise, 1993 June 2, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Note: No tape recording for this interview. Transcript not available online.

Biography/History

Louise (Ogens) Yaffe was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on October 15, 1916. She and her only brother, Monte were born to a Jewish family of eastern European descent. Though both her parents were born in the United States, all of her grandparents were immigrants from the pale of settlement in eastern Europe, a region which alternated between Russian and Polish control. In 1928-29, when Mrs. Yaffe was twelve, her family moved several times. First, they moved to Chicago for six months, after which they returned to Philadelphia. Later in 1929, they made a permanent move to Milwaukee, where, after living in a downtown hotel, they settled in the Milwaukee suburb of Shorewood. After she was graduated from Shorewood high school at age sixteen, she spent a year attending University of Wisconsin extension courses in Milwaukee, at which point she transferred with sophomore standing to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She was graduated from the University of Michigan in 1937, returned to Milwaukee, and a year later was married to Norman Abrahams, an attorney. The Abrahams had three children between 1942 and 1946.

In addition to keeping house and raising her children, during the war Mrs. Yaffe helped monitor real estate owned by her husband, including a bar in south Milwaukee, and helped him prepare tax returns. Her brother, who had enlisted after Pearl Harbor, went missing in action when his bomber crashed over Greece, and was missing for three-and-a-half months before he was rescued and returned to his base in Italy. She was also involved in significant volunteer work during the war, both through the USO and through her synagogue. Shortly after the birth of her last child, her husband became sick and would eventually die of the cumulative effects of his illness, leaving Mrs. Yaffe a widow in her early thirties. In 1974, she married Frank Yaffe. The Yaffes continue to live in Shorewood.

Scope and Content Note: Mrs. Yaffe discusses many topics during her interview. Most unique is the perspective she brings to the events of the war as a Jewish woman. She speaks of her feelings about the revelation of the Holocaust, and how the events in Europe at that time dramatically changed the course of her life, making her more aware of the world around her. She also speaks at length about the state of the Jewish community in Milwaukee before, during and after the war. She also speaks of ways that the war affected her that were not specific to Jewish women. She discusses the distress felt by her family when her brother went missing in 1944, and the great relief they felt when he returned home following his rescue. At the same time, she mentions her grief at the death of two of her husband's nephews in combat. She mentions the difficulties that she had in raising her children, two of whom were born during the course of the war. Perhaps most interesting is her discussion of how fervent was her desire that her husband not have to serve in the war. As a young wife, she had no illusions about her husband going off and becoming a hero; she preferred to have him safe at home. Other topics discussed include the volunteer work that she did, her struggles with rationing, life in Milwaukee, and her attempts to keep in touch with her brother in the service.

Zeidler, Agnes, 1992 March 12, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Agnes (Hutchins) Zeidler was born April 29, 1919, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her parents were born in Caveneau, Lithuania, which at that time was controlled by the Russians. Mrs. Zeidler was one of five children, two older and two younger. A lifelong member of the Lutheran church, she attended a Lutheran grade school and later was graduated from the Girls Trades and Technical High School in Milwaukee. She became active in the Socialist Party activities, where she met Frank Zeidler, whom she married in 1939. In 1940, the Zeidlers' first child was born, on the same day that Mrs. Zeidler's mother was killed in an accident. The Zeidlers had six children, born in: 1940, 1941, 1942, 1944, 1945, and 1947. While Mrs. Zeidler was quite busy with small children during the war years, she occasionally went with her mother-in-law to roll bandages for the Red Cross. The Zeidlers have lived in Milwaukee since the beginning of their marriage, with the exception of a six-month period in which Mrs. Zeidler and the children lived in Watertown, Wisconsin, when they were unable to find adequate housing in Milwaukee. During the war period, her husband served as secretary for the Socialist Party in Milwaukee. He was ineligible for the draft due to a heart condition and was employed by the Milwaukee Railroad in the engineering section. Frank Zeidler would later serve as Milwaukee's mayor from 1948 to 1960. Mrs. Zeidler has remained active in the Socialist party and the Peace and Justice Committee with her Lutheran church.
Scope and Content Note: Mrs. Zeidler began the interview by discussing the events in her household when the attack on Pearl Harbor was announced. Mrs. Zeidler had a young daughter with a stomach problem at this time, which consumed much of her energy. Her husband, Frank, was not called into the military, and she discusses their problems in finding housing. She explains how they came to rent the house in Watertown early in the war period and how they were able to eventually return to Milwaukee. Mrs. Zeidler discusses how rationing affected her family and the challenges of clothes-shopping for a husband and small children. She also talks about her child-care options during this time and the diverse ethnic backgrounds in their neighborhoods in Milwaukee. She discusses her volunteer activities with the Red Cross, as well as the activities sponsored by the Lutheran church. She then mentions her involvement with the Socialist Party youth organizations, including the Socialist band and the Socialist chorus. Mrs. Zeidler explains her father's attitude toward the Socialist Party and how that changed some after meeting Frank Zeidler and discusses her father's emigration to the United States. She also mentions anti-German attitudes in Milwaukee. She talks about her correspondence with her brothers while they were overseas in military service and tells a touching story about the hardships faced by a sister-in-law while her husband was overseas. Mrs. Zeidler concludes with her personal thoughts and reflections about the war itself and the bombing of Hiroshima.

Zmuda, Dorothy, 1992 June 16, Stevens Point, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Dorothy (Roshak) Zmuda was born on February 1, 1923, in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Ms. Zmuda comes from a large family with five sisters and four brothers. Her father's background was Polish and her mother's background was German and Polish. Her mother spoke German, Polish, and English. Ms. Zmuda was raised in Stevens Point and was graduated from high school in 1942. She then moved to Milwaukee, initially staying with an older brother who lived there, and took a job with Badger Meter for about two months. She took night-school classes in fashion design and then began working at Allis-Chalmers as a layout artist in their advertising department. Ms. Zmuda was also active in USO-sponsored dances and events in Milwaukee. In 1945 she returned to Stevens Point with her fiancé and they were married on September 14, 1946. Ms. Zmuda worked as a secretary and later as a clerk in Stevens Point until the birth of the first of their five children in 1948. She has worked as an artist for the past twenty years, and continues to reside in Stevens Point. Ms. Zmuda is a lifelong member of the Catholic church.
Scope and Content Note

Ms. Zmuda begins the interview by telling about her remembrances of the attack on Pearl Harbor. She talks about the reactions of some her high school friends and about her own aspirations for the future and how the war affected her opportunities. She then describes her first job in Milwaukee at Badger Meter, including the work, working conditions, and male co-workers. Ms. Zmuda explains how she obtained her next job in the advertising department at Allis-Chalmers. She then talks about working at Allis-Chalmers, including her job description, company basketball teams, co-workers, length of the workday, and rate of pay. She describes the rented room she shared with a roommate. She then talks about dating during this period and the interactions with men in the service, especially those scheduled to be shipped overseas. She also talks about “Dear John” and “Dear Jane” letters, information about birth control, and abortion. She describes her experience of trying to join the Waves.

Ms. Zmuda describes shopping in Milwaukee including dealing with shortages. She talks about typical meals and the places that she would frequent. The USO dances and parties are described including parties held at private homes, large dances, and boat trips through the South Shore Yacht club. She also talks about seeing German POWs in Milwaukee being taken off to work. She describes how she and her friend participated in a blood drive, including the problems she had because she was under 21 years of age. She then talks about the fact that the sermons in the Catholic church were in English and discusses how the Polish immigrants tried to learn the language very quickly. She also talks about pro-German sentiment in the work environment at Allis-Chalmers.

Ms. Zmuda talks about her neighborhood in Milwaukee and how she felt about living in the city. She describes how, after President Roosevelt died, she was unable to get anything to eat during the three-day mourning period when all the restaurants were closed. She talks about the end of the war, including the atomic bomb, V-J Day, and the celebrations in Milwaukee. She describes how crowded the highways were on Sunday evenings coming back to Milwaukee after a trip home for the weekend, as well as the crowded conditions of the buses in and out of the city. She talks about her move back to Stevens Point and the differences between her life and Milwaukee and the move back home. While still living in Milwaukee, Ms. Zmuda had the opportunity to meet Louis Armstrong, and she describes that meeting. She also talks about the wage differential between men and women at Allis-Chalmers and the problems she had buying an expensive coat on layaway because she was a woman. She finishes with a few other stories including that of a shy young soldier who she dated and that of the reaction of another young man, just returned from serving in the South Pacific, to her associations with the young Chinese engineers from Allis-Chalmers.