>> This is James Newberry,
and I'm here with Leona Foringer at
Sturgis Library at Kennesaw State University on Monday,
December 5th, 2016, a rainy day.
And Mrs. Foringer,
do you agree to this interview?
>> Yes, I do.
>> Thank you very much. So we'll start at the beginning.
Could you please state your full name?
>> Leona Foringer,
and my middle name,
everybody calls me Lee.
>> And what was your maiden name?
>> Currin.
>> Okay.
>> And of course, it'd be Leona C. Foringer,
but I never used to the C,
it's such a long name, Leona Foringer.
>> So what is your birthday?
>> June 1st, 1919.
>> And where were you born?
>> In Hopkins County,
Texas in the country.
>> What is Hopkins County close to?
>> Cumby, Texas.
That's a little place in the road,
and that's where I went to school and graduated.
And that's between Dallas and Sulphur Springs.
Texas or Texicana is between the two.
>> And what were your parents' names?
>> Clarence my dad,
and Velma, my mother.
>> Did you have siblings?
>> Yes, I did. I had two brothers and three sisters.
>> So a pretty big family?
>> Yes, five of us children.
>> Well, what did your parents do for a living?
>> Well, my dad was a farmer,
and we raised cattle and cotton mostly.
[LAUGHTER] Just a real farmer. [LAUGHTER]
>> What sort of work did you do on the farm?
>> I did everything like haul cotton,
pick cotton, and
everything that went to help my dad out.
All of us children did that as long as we were at home.
And then he sent me to college
and I went a couple of years
and then taught a couple of years. [LAUGHTER]
>> Well, how successful of a farmer was he?
>> Pretty good. We had a good living.
But not way,
way from being rich,
we just made a good living. [LAUGHTER]
>> Was your family affected by the depression?
>> Yeah. My dad
didn't have much cotton that year to sell,
we had to depend on our crops for money.
>> So I guess what you ate came out of the garden?
>> Oh, yes. We just had
everything to eat and more. [LAUGHTER]
>> So tell me about your childhood. Do you have memories?
>> Well, I had a wonderful mother and dad
and I just had a very happy childhood.
And my brother that was two years younger than I,
he had to go to war when he was 21 and he was killed.
And so he and I were very close,
and we just did everything together.
>> And did your family go to church?
>> Well, occasionally,
because my mother was a Baptist,
my dad was a Presbyterian.
[LAUGHTER] And I'm a Methodist.
[LAUGHTER] But anyway, we didn't live close to a church.
And occasionally,
we would visit our relatives
and we'd go to church with them.
So no special one.
>> Who were your friends?
>> Who was my?
>> What sort of kids did you hang out with?
Was it at school? Was it in the community?
>> I walked about three miles
and then rode the bus to school.
And it was about I guess six miles from where I live.
The school was, but I rode the bus about three miles
in weather like this
and worse with icicles hanging on me. [LAUGHTER]
>> So can you describe your childhood home,
the house where you grew up?
>> Well, it was just a nice country home and we had
I guess four bedrooms and a very comfortable home,
nothing fancy, but just very comfortable.
I used to see a lot of the country homes.
And usually we lived in
different places and usually
they were off of the main road,
but I had a wonderful childhood, happy.
>> Did you do much traveling out of the county?
>> Not until I got married.
>> So where did you go to high school?
>> Cumby, Texas.
>> And you graduated in?
>> '37.
>> And so you said your father
sent you to college. What college was that?
>> It's East Texas State College and Commerce, Texas.
>> And what were you going to train to do there?
>> What did I do?
>> You went to school to be a teacher?
>> Yeah, I was just going to be a teacher.
I really didn't know what I wanted to be.
I was 20 and 21,
so I just wanted to have fun. [LAUGHTER]
>> Well, what was having fun?
>> Well, just going and boys.
And I had a lot of friends
and we had parties and things like that.
We walked everywhere or they'd ride horses.
And my dad was real strict,
but there were a lot
of girls and boys that
lived in the country with their parents, of course.
And it was near a lot of
places and so it was fun. [LAUGHTER]
>> So you trained to be a teacher.
Well, tell me about teaching.
Did you like it? Were you good at it?
>> No, I wasn't a good teacher
because I was too good to my kids.
I didn't want to give them bad grades
and see them frown and make them sad.
And I thought that's not for me.
And I taught two years and then I happened to
go in the dress shop one day
finding things for my daughters
to put in lay-way and to wear to school the next year.
And I said I'd love to work here.
And the manager said,
well, that's not a bad idea.
You want to fill out application?
And so I got a job.
He called me the next week,
and that was my life.
I love dress shops and fashion. That was me.
>> That's clear. [LAUGHTER] So that was later on?
>> Yes.
>> That after the war.
>> Yeah, that continued.
But as soon as we got married,
we moved to Long Beach, California.
That's where my husband's brother and his wife lived.
And we moved to California.
We all had an apartment together.
And then, of course,
the war broke out
the first week that we went to California.
We were walking down what they call
the pike by the ocean,
and they announced on the radio,
and we had just bought a little radio the night before,
and they announced about Japanese.
And so then my husband's brother
was captured by the Japanese.
And so he was what they called four elf.
He wasn't at the, I guess, best of health and they
wouldn't have taken boys that had any illness,
like he had thyroid problems.
But they took everybody.
He was what they call a four elf.
Well, his brother was captured
in the Japanese prison camp,
and he said, I'm going to go sign up.
Even though he was four elf,
and so they took him right on in the Air Forces,
but he didn't leave the States.
Because he was still not able
to really be in the service,
but that's what he wanted to do
on account of his brother being captured.
>> Well, let's go back.
How did you meet your husband?
>> Well, on a blind date.
His brother was dating my girlfriend and he said,
I have a brother I think you'd like.
So I said, Okay.
[LAUGHTER] And believe it or not,
he proposed to me when I was picking cotton.
[LAUGHTER]
>> Really.
>> His dad was sitting in the car.
And he just got out of the car and came on down
the cotton patch and here I was with
this big bonnet on and my cotton sack
and I had no idea why he was out there.
And he wanted to date for that night.
But anyway, he told me then later that that's what he was
going to do and he decided to wait on
the date to ask me to marry him.
[LAUGHTER]
>> So what was his name?
>> August Turner.
>> Okay. And what kind of a guy was he?
>> Well, he was a nice guy that
good looking and Carol's father.
I had three children by him,
a son and my two daughters.
And my son died with heart attack.
But I have my two daughters left.
>> So when was your wedding to August Turner?
>> When was what?
>> Your wedding.
>> My wedding was October 4th, 1941.
>> Okay. So was it a big wedding, a small wedding?
>> No. We were married in the preacher's study.
[LAUGHTER]
>> Do you remember what you wore?
>> A blue dress.
[LAUGHTER] I know it was a blue dress.
>> And were members of your family there?
>> No. Just my friend and his brother.
>> So you said after the wedding,
you all moved to California?
>> Yes. His brother lived there and his wife
and so my dad had helped me buy a car.
It was 36 Ford,
[LAUGHTER] and that's what we traveled in to
California and that's where my son was
born and Carol was born.
>> So why did you all decide to go to California?
>> Well, he had worked there in the Ford motor company.
He was a mechanic.
>> And that's your husband or your brother in law?
>> My husband.
>> Okay. And tell me about the apartment that
you were sharing with your husband's brother?
>> Well, it was a three bedroom apartment,
believe it or not,
right on the ocean Long Beach, California Ocean front.
And no big, nothing exciting.
>> And you tell me a little bit about it,
but tell me more about your memories
of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
>> Well, all I know
about that is that my brother in law was,
captured and then is before the March.
Yes. It was before that.
Well really, I don't remember too much about
the war because my husband,
he had the spyroid problem
and he didn't stay in very long.
He got a discharge.
>> Okay. So what branch of the military did he go into?
>> Air Force.
>> All right. Was he posted on a base?
>> Well, yeah, he didn't leave Texas, really.
And he didn't, you know,
because it's his health
and they didn't send him anywhere.
>> Okay. Was he on a base in California?
>> Well, it's Texas.
>> Okay.
>> El Paso, Texas.
>> And that was at the time you married him?
>> Yes. It was after I got married.
>> Okay. So you
were living in Texas after you got married?
>> In California because that's
where we were when the war broke out.
>> I see. Okay.
>> Yeah. So you were living
in California when the war broke out?
>> Yes. And at
what point did you go try to get a job at a factory?
>> Well, all the story courses in my book.
But I was looking at the one as
since my husband wanted to join the Air Force.
I decided and my girlfriend
that she just graduated from high school.
We both wanted to work and
do something and I was reading in the paper
where they needed women
to take the men's jobs that had to go.
And so she and I went down and
applied for Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach.
And they signed us up.
We had to go to six weeks training as a Riveter,
and I'm a member of the Rosie the Riveter.
And we changed,
she did the bucking and I did
the riveting and vice versa on the fuselage
and different parts of the B-17 and B-19.
>> So Douglas Aircraft was producing
those two planes? The B-17.
>> Yes. And Douglas Aircraft.
>> So how big was Douglas Aircraft?
>> Well, to my estimation, very large.
One of the largest aircraft factories.
>> And did you have to have an ID card to get in?
>> Oh, yes, very strict.
And we had to know
our Social Security number
every morning when we went to work,
we had to repeat our Social Security number.
That's when I learned mine.
[LAUGHTER]
>> And who trained you?
>> Well, I guess
it's the people at the aircraft company.
After we went to six weeks school,
they had the instructors there for
the aircraft of different places.
I worked on what they call the fuselage and the jigs.
You put different parts of the plane,
they call them jigs,
to work on rivet And then after they
were ready to place on the plane,
we would get inside.
I say, we, my friend and I,
they let us work together.
And whenever I loved
to rivet and she loved to do the bucking,
which is they had what they call
a big bar bucking and you'd put that up against
the rivet as it went through and that would
flatten the rivet then where it would stay.
And of course, we had inspectors that came by every day
before we got off from work
to make sure everything was right.
And so it was fun though. I enjoyed it.
>> So you said you were working with your friend?
>> Yeah.
>> Were there other workers in your group?
>> Oh, yes. Mostly women
and the boys were like 17 years old.
But we had fun.
And then whenever my husband came
home for leave,
well, he was there for
a month because there is a sick leave.
And that's when I got pregnant with my son.
And I worked until I was
eight months pregnant and that's when I
quit and the boys,
they made up money to buy my son
a baby bed and the girls gave
me a shower for other than gifts.
And so it was really
a place to work and everybody was so congenial.
>> Well, tell me, what did you
wear when you were working?
>> Well, all the pictures
I've seen are the women they are in overalls.
I didn't wear overalls.
I guess that's when I start started wearing pants
because women haven't worn pants for a long, long time.
But I guess that and bandanas.
I don't remember that much about it
because I've just go about the pictures.
>> Did you tie your hair back?
>> Well, no.
Well, I didn't think I looked good.
[LAUGHTER].
>> You wanted to look good?
>> They didn't really require
that because it's according to what you
were doing but if you were a welder,
you had to do a lot of things,
protections than you would what I did.
>> So what riveting tool did you have?
>> What I'll call a rivet gun.
I don't know, it's like automatic screw driver,
that kind of machine and you'd hold onto it and you
had to be strong and and it'd shake you to pieces.
But the bucking,
the person that had the bar,
it was easier to buck than it was to rivet.
>> So you were doing it at the same time?
>> Oh, yeah.
>> The bucking and the riveting?
>> Yeah. Because you had to
be sure there's somebody on the other side to mash
that rivet where you
shoot the rivet in and then the person on the other side,
they have that bar ready to press it,
and the rivet goes up against it,
and that's what makes
the part that you're riveting stay together?
>> I see. So you said that
some of the other workers were young men, boys?
>> Yeah, 17 years old.
I worked with a boy that was 17.
He was so sweet though.
Peter Grass was his name.
I never will forget it.
[LAUGHTER]
>> Were there older men?
>> No. I guess they were either
too ill or in the service.
>> Did you have any difficult interactions
with men working in the plant?
No. In fact, the bars always said they enjoyed us.
Women worked there.
And I worked in the bots and
screw department because she had to
learn what bolts and everything.
So whatever anybody needs something,
they'd come up to the little booth
and tell them what they needed,
and then we'd have to know what it was.
And we had to learn the names of
all the bolts and what they looked like.
So we'd be ready to give
them the material that they had asked for.
But because that's the only tough part
about it is remembering things like that.
[LAUGHTER]
>> So when the fuselage came
out to the area where you were going to work on it,
did you have to go up on a platform?
>> No. We went inside the plane.
>> And how did how did they move it around the plane?
How did they move the fuselage?
>> Well, the planes usually were just stationary,
they were that way for a long being built.
And then we'd get inside and
work on the fuslage when they were
stationary to finish up the finishing part.
>> Did you ever get injured?
>> No.
>> Did you feel like you faced any danger on the job?
>> No. It was fun.
I didn't think anything about things like that.
It was just having a good time because
everybody was so nice you couldn't
help but enjoy your work.
And it was three of us girls.
So my friend that
did the rifting with me, had her own car.
She got it for graduation gift,
and so that we went back and forth in
our apartment in her car.
>> And what hours did you work?
>> Well, I was what they call swing shift,
and we had to work different shifts,
sometimes it'd be day shifts.
And then the swing shift you go in,
I think at three o'clock and
work until 7:00 or something like that.
I don't I don't remember the hours,
but it was called swing shift.
It was the evening shift.
And the one that had gone in in the morning,
they were leaving and then we'd come home to work.
>> So you said you rode with your friend?
>> Yes.
>> Were there blackouts along the coast?
>> Yes. And most
of it is when we were at home and we had to
darken our windows and
be sure there was no lights on at all.
>> And how often did that happen?
>> Not real often, but everybody,
you couldn't see a light
anywhere because it's all completely dark.
>> So did you have breaks while you were at work?
>> Oh, yes.
And we made Nicola hour.
[LAUGHTER] That was our raise.
>> Well, so how much was your salary overall?
>> Well, you know what? That gave us,
I really don't remember.
I really don't remember because
teaching school only made $79 a month.
[LAUGHTER]
>> So do you remember if it was
more than that or less than that?
>> It was less than that or about the same.
And we were also tickled to get nickel a raise.
[LAUGHTER]
>> So it wasn't very much.
>> No.
>> And what did you use the money for?
>> Since my husband was in the service,
I started our bank account, believe it or not. [LAUGHTER]
>> Did you?
>> Yeah.
>> Where did you set up the bank account?
>> In Texas, where my parents lived.
>> So was there a union in your factory?
>> If they was,
I didn't know about it.
I wasn't that far along with it.
[LAUGHTER] I'm sure there was.
>> So your husband came on leave
and you got pregnant and worked until your eighth month?
>> Yes.
>> And so we was it
easy for you to work being pregnant like that?
>> It was what?
>> Was it easy to work when you were pregnant?
>> Well, I don't remember,
but I guess it was because being inside
the airplane and working inside,
it wasn't anything hard about it really.
>> And so you said you left the job.
>> Oh, yes.
>> And tell me about leaving the job.
>> Leaving?
>> Yeah, you left because you were going to have a baby?
>> Oh, yeah. That was just
about it whenever they gave me the shower
and they wished me good luck and all that.
And then I never worked anymore.
>> So let's see here.
I want to get the timeline straight because you talked
about your husband going back to El Paso.
So was this after you worked at the factory?
>> Oh, yes.
>> So he was relocated back to Texas?
>> Well, they wasn't ready to dismiss
him because he had to get a,
what do you it whenever you're unable to stay in service?
>> Discharge.
>> What kind of discharge?
[LAUGHTER] But he got a discharge from the service.
>> And that was in Texas?
>> Yes.
>> So did you live with him on a base in El Paso?
>> No, I lived in our apartment
with his brother and his wife there in Long Beach,
and I was working at Douglas.
>> So your husband went to Texas by himself?
>> Yes. He was sent to El Paso.
>> I see. So you had to live
alone for a period of time or live without your husband?
>> Yes. Well,
not really alone because I had his brother.
The brother worked at the shipyards
and and his wife and I were very good friends.
And so we all lived together and got along fine.
>> Did you get a ration book for the household?
>> Oh, yes. And that's whenever they had ration for gas.
And because I didn't have a car [LAUGHTER] and I didn't
learn to drive until
I had taught school a couple of years.
My dad helped me buy a car.
[LAUGHTER]
>> So let me see here.
So tell me about that
brother-in-law who was a prisoner of war in Japan.
How did you learn of that?
>> Well, he came home the war was over.
He came home and my husband
went to I want to say San Francisco,
wherever the ship came in,
and all the prisoners of war were on the ship,
he went up there to greet him.
And then he went back to Texas.
That's where his family lived.
>> Well, what had he been through in Japan?
>> What had he been through?
>> Yeah, as a prisoner of war.
>> I know he was a musician
and gave his guitar to a Japanese to get something,
I don't know what, cigarettes or what it was.
But just whatever they could get
for relaxation or something.
They would promise these Japanese guards
different things like cigarettes.
If they wanted cigarettes,
they had to promise them
different things to get anything like that.
>> Was he healthy when he came home?
>> No. He was a pretty large guy when he went in;
not large, large,
just a pretty average guy.
He was six feet tall and filled out real well.
But he was skin and bones when he came home,
nothing like he looked when he went in.
>> So your husband,
he was in the Air Corps?
>> Yes.
>> And what did he do in the military?
>> He was a mechanic on the planes.
>> So he stayed in the United States?
>> Yes. He never left Texas.
>> And he worked on plane engine?
>> Yes.
>> And so eventually he was discharged?
>> Yes.
>> And what did y'all do after his discharge?
>> We went back to California and my daughter,
Carol, was born there,
and then my dad wanted us
to move back to Texas, so we did.
And he was still
a mechanic and we had
our own business and a service station with it.
And so we lived in Commerce,
Texas, and that's where my other daughter was born.
And so that's just about it.
[LAUGHTER]
>> Ready to warp it up. So I
do want to ask you a couple of other things.
Do you remember the end of the war?
>> Oh, yes. We all went down
the Long Beach Streets and everybody went crazy.
And it was just everybody hollering.
The boys were grabbing the girls
and whether they married or not and kissing them.
It was really a jolly time.
Very fun.
>> Very exciting?
>> Yes.
>> So your husband was a mechanic after the war,
and you said you went to work in retail, right?
>> Yes.
>> In retail clothing store?
>> In dress shops,
not department stores, but ladies boutiques.
And I was a sales and I was a manager,
and I was a bar.
I just did it all because I loved it.
>> And you ended up having three children?
>> Yes.
>> And do you have grandchildren?
>> Yes.
>> And great grandchildren?
>> Yes. I have three grandchildren.
[LAUGHTER] How many great grandchildren,
three, four?
I think four.
>> Four.
>> And how did you end up in Georgia?
>> Well, Carol and I,
of course, came together.
She had lost her husband
the year before my husband passed away.
I was married again.
Foringer, a wonderful, wonderful guy.
>> How did you meet him?
>> On a blind date. [LAUGHTER] With a friend of his.
He was a pilot and they were training
to be captains on the 747.
And I met him on a date,
and that was it. [LAUGHTER]
>> And when was that?
>> Oh, boy.
>> Not the exact date,
but just was that in the '60s,
the '70s, the '80s?
>> The '70s.
>> So that was after your first marriage?
>> Oh, yeah. I divorced him.
>> Okay. I got it.
[LAUGHTER]
>> Carol, don't mind. My kids
wanted me to divorce him anyway.
>> So this fellow,
your second husband Mr. Foringer,
he was a pilot.
>> He was American airline pilot.
>> Okay. I see.
>> And he was a captain.
He was one of the best men that ever lived.
I don't care if I said.
Everybody else thought so.
>> And you lived with him in the Arizona?
>> Yes.
>> Okay. And then you and your daughter moved to Georgia?
>> Yes. Whenever he passed away,
my wonderful son had
a heart attack three months after my husband died.
Carol's husband, of course,
had passed away the year before.
And my daughter and her husband here said that,
looks like we needed to come to Georgia because they were
the only relatives we had, really close relatives.
And he was an ex Marine.
Well, he was still in the Marines at the time, I think.
But anyway,
they lived here and so that's the reason we came,
and we're still here.
>> So Mrs. Foringer,
why do you think it's important to
share your World War II story.
>> Well, the club that I belonged to,
they just thought it was a good idea for
all of us to tell our stories,
and we'd have a book made up.
And so that's the reason.
I was one of the members,
and I told my little story,
which wasn't very exciting.
But everybody in our club had their own story,
and they were very interesting.
In fact, we all signed
each other's pictures in the book and read their stories.
And it was a nice club.
They still have active clubs,
the ones that are still living.
>> And when did you
join the Rosie the Riveter Association?
>> When did I join?
Well, it was in the late '70s, I guess.
>> Why did you join?
>> Oh, well, I thought it'd be nice,
because the other ladies were also.
And they worked in the shipyards.
Anything to do with
the man's job that they took over during the war.
We were all just called Rosie the Riveters,
and I just happened to be a Riveter.
But they had pilots,
they had truck drivers,
all those in my book.
There's all these stories of these women
and things that they did and they're very interesting,
a lot more interesting than mine.
>> But do you feel like yours was
a significant contribution to the war efforts?
>> That's what?
>> Do you feel like you made
a significant contribution to the war effort?
>> Well, I think so.
That's what I enjoy doing,
and that's what they needed,
because they had to have somebody take the men's jobs.
And so that's what we did.
>> So Mrs. Foringer,
can you tell me about your brother, Ray?
>> Well, he did not want to go to the war.
He worked on my dad's farm too,
and he was 21 years old,
and a wonderful good-looking guy.
And he had a girlfriend.
I always chose his girlfriends.
If I didn't like them, I didn't want him to go.
But anyway, she kept egging him to marry
before he had to go to service
because they knew he was going to be drafted.
He didn't sign up and he wasn't working in any kind
of shipyards and they liked that.
And he didn't have family, of course.
So no excuses to keep him out of the service.
So he was drafted.
I was living in California at the time.
Three days before he was killed,
he and a buddy of his had come down from Fort Ord where
they were going to be getting on the ship
or plane and going to Okinawa.
And they came down to
have dinner with us
before they had to go back to Fort Ord.
And I never will forget,
he and his buddy were
walking in front of my husband and me.
And I said, "Ray,
honey," I said, "I think you're such a handsome guy,
but don't let it go to your head."
I'll never forget that.
So anyway, they went on to Fort Ord,
shipped out the next day to Okinawa.
That was the last I ever saw him.
He was killed the third day he was on Okinawa.
Sad, sad.
>> So how did that affect your family?
>> Well, my mother and dad,
of course, they took it very hard.
And he had just married.
She pretended she took it real hard.
I guess she did, but she married within
six months after he was killed,
and that really hurt my dad.
>> How did you learn the news of his death?
>> How did I use what?
>> How did you learn the news of his death at Okinawa?
>> With a telegram first.
I got it before she did.
She was living with us while he was in service,
my husband and me.
So I saw these two soldiers
coming up to the door, and I said, "Oh,
no," because I had dreamed,
believe this or not,
I had dreamed the night before
that my brother had come home.
We lived there by the ocean.
And he had gone out on
this bridge pier and jumped in the water.
He said, "I don't want
to be here if I'm not a whole person."
Well, I got the news the next day.
He was in the field hospital from shrapnel wound.
He had gone out to save a buddy and he was killed
while he was dragging his buddy back.
Somebody had written my sister-in-law
and told her about what happened for him to be killed.
She just really took it hard,
but I didn't feel sorry for some reason.
To me, it was a pretense.
But I suffered for many,
many months. I'd cry.
He and I, a lot
of people thought we were husband and wife.
We were just always together,
and just two years difference at our age.
And I remember he would play dolls with me,
and I would play cars with him.
We just did everything together.
>> Well, thank you so much
for sharing that story with us.
>> Well, thank you.