>> This is James Newberry,
and I'm here with Tooken Cade on Thursday,
May 21, 2015, in
the Social Sciences Building
at Kennesaw State University.
And Ms. Cade,
do you agree to this interview?
>> Absolutely.
>> Well, wonderful. Well, we'll go
ahead and get started at the very beginning.
When and where were you born?
>> I was born in Detroit,
Michigan and I was seven,
let's see, 1924, June 21st.
>> And what was your name at birth?
>> Deloris Ann Moran.
>> Sort of rhymed.
>> M-O-R-A-N.
>> Wonderful. So tell me what were your parents' names?
>> My dad's name was Charles.
My mother's name was Elsie.
>> And they divorced in 1932?
>> Right.
>> So tell me about that divorce. Was that a big deal?
>> It was such a small deal.
I didn't know they were divorced.
My mother never told me.
My dad never told me.
And I found out when I was
13 years old that daddy wasn't coming home.
>> How did that make you feel?
>> I cried. But after all,
it would have been five years.
I didn't cry very long. I had mama.
>> And tell me about your relationship with your mother.
>> My mother was my best friend.
She was just so wonderful.
I don't think she ever thought of anybody but me.
>> And how did she show that?
>> Well, she wanted me to go to a good school,
and I was going to the local school and one day she came
home from work and the lady that was
sitting there beside me,
I was trying to teach her to read.
And she said,
you're not supposed to be teaching somebody.
Somebody's supposed to be teaching you.
And she said, I know this wonderful school,
and the girls have all the toys
to play with and each other and nobody's ever lonesome,
and we've got a big bedroom
and there'll be 30 beds up there,
and there'll be somebody in every one of them.
And she said, oh,
it would be so nice for you to go there.
And I said, I want to stay home.
But she kept out of me and it was so gentle.
And I finally said, boy,
I wish I could go there and she said, okay, we're going.
And when I went to the third grade,
I went to St. Mary's Academy in Windsor, Ontario.
>> Tell me about the trip to go to
school in Windsor from Detroit.
>> Well, the school had been
right downtown for a long time, St. Mary's Academy.
It was the nuns of,
I can't think of the name.
Anyway, the people from
the United States wanted that property.
They wanted to put a tunnel
and they wanted it to come up right there.
And so they gave them $1 million to move.
They tore the school down.
And meanwhile, they went out with their money
and made a beautiful way out.
And so it was
only one year old when I
attended it and I was in the third grade.
I cried like a baby when they brought me and left
me there because I didn't want to say goodbye to my mama.
And I think I cried myself to sleep too.
But when I woke up the next day,
things started to get warm.
People kept coming and coming
and they would dropping off their children,
and I got to play with
all the toys and the books that were there.
And we had to line up to go eat the meals,
and we ate in a place called a refectory,
but it was delicious and they were very nice to us.
>> So what did the school look like,
the building that you were in?
>> It was huge. Absolutely huge.
I've got a picture of it in my stuff I brought.
It was as big as this room, probably.
And we had boys,
which I didn't even know about for quite a while.
And they went to school for up to eighth grade.
But we had girls that went all the way through college.
The college section was
separate and I don't think it was probably very big.
But we were big and we didn't mix.
>> What was your best subject there?
>> I don't know. I guess the fact that I felt
safe and I was
comfortable and there was always somebody to play with.
>> And did you have a
particular class that you were good at?
>> No, in the first place,
the room was good size,
and there would be two classes,
the third grade on one side,
the fourth grade on the other.
And we also had day students.
They sent the buses out
every day and brought others to school.
I'm guessing, but I think there would be
no more than 15 to our grade.
So I just did my work and passed the third grade.
Then next year I passed the fourth grade.
When I got into the fifth and sixth grade,
I was sitting on the left
and I was getting hundreds in everything.
So at Christmas time,
she moved me over to
the other side and I was automatically in
the sixth grade and I was still getting hundreds.
So at the end of that year,
I got on to the seventh grade.
And I was thrilled because my mama
had always said that when you get out of grade school,
then you'll be big enough to take care of
yourself a little bit during the day while I am at work,
and I won't have to worry about you.
So you'll be able to go over to a regular school.
So I would have the seventh grade,
same way, good scores.
And then the eighth grade.
After the eighth grade,
we got out on my birthday,
which was June 21st.
And I can remember the nuns weighed me,
I weighed 100 pounds and I was five 5"4'.
And when my mama came and got me that day,
I never went back again as a student.
I didn't go back to see
Sister Rosalie del Palermo
because she was my favorite teacher.
She was the one that passed me from 5 to 6,
and she was not wrong because I
could still keep up with everybody.
So then I went to Annunciation High School.
>> So you returned to your mother's household?
>> Yeah.
>> And tell me about that return.
You were living there with your mother
and eventually your aunt?
>> Yeah. My mother's sister and she
had been together after my dad left.
And of course, that was back then.
So that was when I said,
now daddy can come home and we can all be together.
And mama said he's not coming home,
we're divorced. Just like that.
And I said, oh, mama, can't you change it?
She said, we don't want to change it.
He doesn't and I sure don't.
She never said anything bad about him,
and he never said anything bad about her.
>> So did you see him at that time?
>> Well, he comes around once in a while.
He would maybe two or three times a year.
And he was always bringing me presents.
And he always had silver dollars.
So we called him my silver dollar daddy.
>> So you went to Annunciation High School.
And how many years did you attend it?
>> That was freshman,
sophomore years and senior.
>> And tell me a little bit about that high school.
>> It was a very good high school,
and we enjoyed going there.
And it was three blocks away from our apartment,
and so that I could walk to school,
come home for lunch.
And my mama showed me how to open the can over.
My favorite food was Franco American spaghetti.
And she would always have things
for me to eat and I would make them.
I was pretty independent by
that time because when I was in boarding school,
I would come home one weekend in a month
and she worked downtown and my aunt,
Mooel, she worked downtown.
So I would be in our apartment
and then I'd come down when I woke up
and we'd go out to lunch and then she'd give
me money and I'd go to the movies while she was working.
>> What work was she doing?
>> She worked in a very fancy place called Russeks.
Russeks was in New York,
it was also in Chicago and it was in Detroit,
which incidentally is no longer a big city,
but it was a big city when I lived there.
It was the fourth largest city in the United States.
It had a beautiful big store downtown
called the J.L. Hudson Company.
But it's not there anymore.
And they would have
a parade of Santa Claus much like Macy's does.
And so my aunt worked
there and mama worked at Russeks which
is within the next block. Okay?
>> Okay. [LAUGHTER].
>> And aunt Mooel never got married.
And she went to war when the war was on
because she said that somebody from
our family should be represented.
Her last name was Kampf.
And it was K-A-M-P-F,
the German spelling because my grandfather
had been born in Germany
and came over here when he was 12.
>> Okay.
So did your mother remarry?
>> My mother did remarry.
And we married him on my 14th year.
So I was out of grad school,
and I had just finished my freshman year.
And mama had known him for quite a while,
and he had been very nice to me,
and he had never married.
And so he when he met her,
he said, "I'd like a friend,
but I don't want a wife."
And so they had gone out to dinner and
been for several years.
And when she was ready to come down and get
me from my grandma's house in Princeton, Illinois,
she told him that she didn't want to see him anymore
when she came back because she said,
"I just don't want to just live like this.
I'm 36 years old,
and I need to find somebody and you don't want to."
So she got down.
And two days later, he called her.
He says, "I'm coming down. We're getting married."
>> So she put the pressure on.
>> And so we married grandpa.
And his name was John Shirley.
He was the nicest daddy I ever had.
>> Did you feel like he was a father to you?
>> Oh, yes, he was.
Listen, he wanted to go on my honeymoon.
[LAUGHTER]
>> Really?
>> Really. She doesn't know anything about anything.
>> So he was protected.
>> But mama wouldn't let him go.
>> That's good. So you were going to
high school when Pearl Harbor
was attacked by the Japanese.
And how did that change your high school?
>> Well, it just absolutely scared me to death
because the day it came over the radio,
I was taking a nap and curled up in my bed,
and my parents had gone out for a walk.
And I couldn't tell anybody.
So as soon as they got home,
I said, we're at war.
And they couldn't believe it either.
And it didn't affect us at that time,
but I was in my freshman year at
the University of Detroit and that changed completely.
Everybody went out and it was 75% boys,
25% girls,
and all those boys wanted to go and save the world.
And so when I got to the end of that year in June,
I went looking for a job.
>> And what did you find?
>> I found a job in a Federal Bank.
And I worked in the plancor division.
And I don't know to this day, what plancor means,
but it was when people had
a business and they wanted to do
something for the government,
that would be pro war,
and how much money would it take.
And my dad to explain it said,
"In the carpet industry,
we make 9 by 12 rugs."
And he said that same machine,
if you train it right,
it will make a blanket for a soldier.
So he said most of the carpet mills are making blankets,
and we are financing
the change so that they can do that for us.
And I is the one who wrote the check.
And sometimes it was
like $100,000 and sometimes it was 400.
>> So how did that make you feel?
>> Like I was part of the war effort.
>> So were you still attending
classes at the University of Detroit?
>> Well, the school had changed.
It was empty. It wasn't fun anymore.
And I really just felt like I wanted to do something too.
But on the other hand,
somebody had called the University of Detroit
and asked for some nice girls to work in the USO.
And I was one that was selected.
And they called me and asked me to go over and have
an interview and see if I
qualified, and then come to work.
>> Well, let's go back to the Federal Bank.
How long were you at the Federal Bank?
>> Probably just about a year.
I was only making $80 a month,
so I was looking for a little better job.
>> And at that time,
didn't you also participate in a theater troop?
And how did you get involved in that?
>> Well, I was the one
that got the publicity. I was the chairman.
>> And what were
the other members of the group? Were they friends?
>> They were just making little little plays.
I don't know that we were very successful.
>> And where did you put on performances?
>> It was somewhere downtown,
but I frankly don't remember where.
And it wasn't a very big place,
and it didn't last.
But I was the chairman.
[LAUGHTER]
>> So eventually, you said there was
a call made from the United Service Organizations,
USO to the Federal Bank looking for young women?
And you were chosen?
>> Not to work. No. I got
my job out of out of the paper,
I answered an ad.
But they knew where I was from that I was a freshman in
college and just wanted to help.
>> So tell me about starting work with the USO?
>> Well, we came on Saturday,
and my girlfriend from the UFD went with me,
and we both got assigned to work on Saturday,
from 6-12, or maybe was 7-11, I don't remember.
But anyway, we were coming there.
And she was given the second floor,
and I got the sub basement.
You're smiling and I'm smiling too.
But it was fun down there
because that was a big play room,
and it had all things to play like Ping Pong,
and when you're shooting the ball.
And we had music down there,
and we also had a cameraman.
And he was a volunteer.
And he took pictures of
servicemen and we mailed them out for them,
so they would always have to fill out a form.
And that was my job to get that information.
And that's where I was the night that
my young man came [inaudible].
And he was in the Navy.
And he had come in with his buddy to see where he
could find some little things to play with,
and they had cots
and they had places you could take a shower.
They had a hot meal open in the cafeteria 24 hours a day.
You could always walk in there and there
was always somebody there to feed you.
And so they were just looking.
They had never been to a USO before,
and they were midshipmen.
And they were both cute,
but I got the one and I
said asked him if he'd like to have his picture taken.
And he said not particularly.
And he said, "What would I do with the picture?"
I said, you'd send it to
your mother or possibly your girlfriend.
And he said, "Well,
they know how I look.
They don't need another one."
But he said, "I'd like to have
a picture if you'll be in it."
And I said, "I'm not in the pictures.
I just help get them out."
And he said, "Well, go ask him." So I did.
And he said, "Sure, I'll take your picture."
And he said, "Tell them it's okay."
And so when I told my friend,
and he found his friend.
And you've seen the picture,
I'm in the middle and he's got
one on the other side and Rich on the other.
He told me later that he knew
the minute he saw me he was going to marry me.
And three weeks later, he proposed.
>> So that evening after you took the picture,
didn't he want to take you to see his family?
>> Oh, yes. He offered to take me home.
And I said, I wasn't allowed
to leave with the servicemen.
They were very serious about that.
That was not a place to do that.
But he knew my address because I gave
it to him for the picture.
And he said, "Can I have your telephone number?"
He said, "I want to meet your parents."
And so I said, "Well, that's okay."
So I gave my phone number,
and I took [inaudible] home.
And telephone rang on Sunday morning, and it was him.
And he said, "Can I come out and meet your family?"
And I said, just a minute.
I said, "Mama, that boy I told you about just called,
and he'd like to come out."
She said, "Tell him to come for
Sunday dinner at 2:00 o'clock."
And he did and he made a big hit with my parents.
[LAUGHTER]
>> Well, tell me about that dinner.
Why did he impress them?
>> Well, I think she just thought that he was
away from home and a home cooked meal
was going to feel real good.
>> So tell me about how your relationship progressed.
Did he ask you to marry him pretty soon?
>> Well, three weeks later.
But first of all,
they were having a party out at the base,
and he invited me to that.
And so it meant going downtown
in Detroit and catching a bus,
and taking it all the way South of Rome.
Excuse me, Rome, where am I?
[LAUGHTER] Let's see.
Anyway, he was at
the base and we went out through the base and we danced.
And I wore a brand new dress and it was purple,
and it was real pretty and soft, but it wrinkled.
It was made out of [inaudible] because
that was all that was available.
And I was very embarrassed that
I wanted to be front rows with him.
And he kept telling me,
I looked just fine.
And when it was time to leave,
he took me to the bus
and I knew from looking at him in the face that
he was trying to decide whether he should kiss me
or not because we hadn't had a kiss yet.
And so I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.
And he went, [LAUGHTER] and I got on the bus.
So he proposed in three weeks because it
turned out he had been transferred to Chicago.
The big naval base there was one of the big ones,
and they [inaudible] out him.
And he said, I've got to go and he said,
I just can't help it and he said,
I was just sick about it.
I do want to marry you,
but I didn't want to have to ask you so quick.
But he said, if you will be engaged to me,
I have to complete my job, whatever.
And he said I can't get married until then.
And he said, and I don't have enough money to
buy your ring because he
said money I've got
is home in a bank and my mother can't get to it.
And he said, I don't want to ask her to loan.
And he said I'm
so scared somebody's going to take you away from me.
So he said, I bought you this,
and he showed me my bracelet.
>> Can you hold it up.
>> And it says Tooken and he says,
if somebody has asked for you why
just put out your hand and say I'm Tooken,
and then he started writing
me letters because, of course,
he was in Chicago and I was in
Detroit and we were engaged.
And so he had said Dear Tooken one.
And so I signed every year
Tooken back and forth and back and forth.
And he started calling me Tooken,
introducing me as Tooken and pretty
soon Tooken took over and the life just moved on.
>> So what was it about?
How did he come up with that name?
Obviously, it's like you're his take one.
>> There was a thing
a little pin and I've still got it and
it's a cute little boy and he's holding
something and it says taken and it's a heart.
And he had bought me one and I wore it on
my jacket and he liked that so much.
And he said, I thought taken sounded a little harsh.
So he said, I made it my own name, Tooken.
So you were writing letters back and forth.
And what was it about his personality that you liked.
>> He was so much fun.
He was just so happy and so nice and he loved Coca Cola.
And even if he got him a hot fudge Sunday,
he always had to have a coke to wash it down.
And I just can't tell you he was so thoughtful.
He was so kind. And he kept that.
It wasn't just before we got
married for the rest of my life.
He loved me and he told me he loved me and he
chased me around and he was great.
>> So let's talk a little bit more about the USO.
You said you had started working there
and they had rules about
how the people who were
working there could interact with the servicemen.
>> We were just to be very entertaining but not fresh.
And they had every Saturday night,
there were lots of clubs downtown,
and the building for the USO
was in the business district,
and it was a great big building.
And so that as I said,
I was in the sub basement but
my friend Casey was up on the second floor.
Well, that was where all the dancing and things were on.
But I got to be the dancers as
well because I stayed and helped with the photographer,
but then we all moved up.
>> What things did you?
There was a wonderful picture of you handing things out.
>> That was Christmas and they had
collected tons and tons of kids,
and then we passed them out and they
took our picture and there was a big USO there.
So it was used a lot.
>> Did the USO rent the building?
>> I don't know whether they owned it or rented it.
I think they probably owned it.
>> So did you always work as a photographer's assistant,
or did you change jobs for the USO?
>> No. That's not what I did with the others.
I was a typist in the bank,
and then I worked with
the Hankel Fluor Mill
and whenever anybody asked me what I did there,
I said I was the model for the 98 pound sacs.
>> Okay.
But at the USO,
were you were you paid a good salary?
>> Well, I had a I was making more like $35 a week,
and that was a big jump over the bank.
But Mama didn't charge me to live at home lots of
times kids go off to work and pay to stay with Mama.
But I was Mama's little girl.
And so I had nice clothes
and a bank account and I could go to Chicago.
My last job was working
for a friend of my
father's who was in the carpet business,
and they didn't have any business.
So all I was doing was filing and
answering the phone and just keeping the thing alive.
And we had a big party.
And I got to meet all
of our customers and they all talked to me when
they called trying to get some more carpet and not being
able to get it because there wasn't him and every month,
we would get a certain amount and
the best customers would always get the good stuff.
>> I see. So you were dealing with
the shortages during the war.
And you said you had a dress made of rayon?
>> Yes.
>> So what other shortages were you dealing with?
>> I don't really much know.
I just know that purple dress sprinkled.
And that was the only thing I had like that.
But we couldn't get nylons or anything like that.
And of course, with shoes,
you had to have a little thing out of
your book and sometimes
they weren't as good as they used to be.
But I worked in
the business district with the carpet company.
And so I was only about five blocks
from the train station and on Friday afternoon,
I could walk from there
to and get on the train and in five hours,
I was in Chicago.
And of course, they
were an hour behind us so that when I would get there,
it would be 10:00 and he'd meet me at the train station.
And the good luck was he had
a lovely sister named Eve who lived there.
She was a cosmetologist and she was
a nice lady and she let me have
a bedroom every time I came.
And so I could get over there,
spend all day Saturday and all day Sunday.
Then Sunday, I'd take a sleeper home
and go right to work.
>> So was he training in Chicago?
>> I don't know what he was doing there.
I really don't know,
but they had him for at least two months.
And during that time,
I think I got there about every other month
because I was earning
money and it wasn't expensive to ride the train.
And of course, I didn't have any cost when I got there
and lots of things in Chicago are available,
lots of museums and lots of places.
So what would you all do on these weekends?
>> We didn't eat too expensive.
We'd go to the movies.
We'd just be together.
And then the next place he went was Asbury Park.
So he'd gotten away from me,
but we were still
every day back and forth, back and forth.
>> Where's Asbury Park?
>> It's in near Atlantic City.
And while he was there,
they had a hurricane and it was really bad.
But anyway, then after that,
that was when he was ultimately sent to Ithaca,
New York to Cornell,
and that was to get his ensignship.
>> So did you visit him in Ithaca?
>> Oh, yes. And they had
a wonderful hotel and they had a big window and you'd
sit there in their lobby
and watch all the kids going up the hill,
up the hill, up there because it was
always up the hill in Ithaca.
>> And that's where you married?
>> And the reason we got married
there was because we weren't sure how much
vacation time he was going to get
after he got through with his grades.
And so we didn't dare take a chance.
So I instead of having a nice, long dress,
I had a nice beige suit
and a cute little hat instead of a wedding veil.
And we just had a good time
and went to the movies and were together.
But when we were getting married,
I got my blood taken when we had to get the license,
and he had his there.
Well, mine was sent to
Ithaca because they thought that was going to solve it.
But the blood broke down in the plane.
And then the fact in other words, the bag,
it was in a test tube,
I guess, it was not usable.
They called me up and said,
if you don't get up here right
now and have your blood taken here,
then you can't marry on that date.
So I jumped on the train and got there.
And the people in the hotel helped me and got me
a place to take my test and got me there and everything.
Everybody was so nice.
>> Describe your wedding.
It was it small or large?
>> [LAUGHTER] Well, his parents
came and my parents came,
that was my stepfather,
and that was it.
And of course, everybody
else were people that my husband knew,
but they weren't going to be here either.
They were all scattering
because whatever time they got before they had to
report in depended upon
where they were going and we were going to Norfolk,
and that was a three day run.
So we didn't have much time.
So the girl that was the girlfriend of
his man, what do you call the male?
>> Best man?
>> Yeah, and the best man.
The best man had a best girl. [LAUGHTER].
>> And she was the maid of honor.
>> And she was my maid of honor.
And I don't to this day know who she was.
[LAUGHTER] And I didn't have a bouquet.
I had a corsage.
And then we went back to
the hotel and my dad had gotten a most beautiful,
well, it wasn't really a breakfast,
but it was kind of that.
And we had a cake and we had everything.
And it was for all of us
that had been there, all six of us.
>> And then you had to take the train to Norfolk.
>> And then we had to take the train and
my dad wanted to go with us because he didn't
think I could go on that honeymoon by
myself and my mother wouldn't let him.
But my father-in-law and his wife,
they went to Ithaca to see us married.
But then afterwards, they went to see the Niagara Falls.
>> Oh. They built in a little deep,
like an extra sightseeing tour.
>> Exactly.
>> So when you got to Norfolk,
was he going to ship out from there?
>> Absolutely. He knew he
was going to work to study damage control,
but he was going to be there for awhile.
And originally, he didn't want me to go because he said,
that place is just crawling with the Navy,
and he said, I don't think it's
a safe place for a pretty girl.
But he said, we'll go down together and see how it is.
So when we took the train out
of New York, it was a train.
But when we got to this point,
then it was a boat and then it was a train again.
And because we had passed I don't know
what water we were on.
But when we got in
downtown Norfolk and it was [inaudible].
He looked [inaudible], all those people.
But we went up to the big hotel and at the big hotel,
there was a navy desk and an army desk.
And when people came in,
you went there to find out where to find a room.
And they picked us up for the night and then told us
the following day to come back and
they would get us a permanent place.
So we did, and they sent us out
to see this one lovely area in the Norfolk area,
and it was just a pretty place,
and ensigns and their wives
were just living all open down
the streets because they had
gone door to door asking people,
did they have any extra room for the navy.
And we got to live with Mr. [inaudible] Reverend and
Mrs. White and they
were First Presbyterian which we were.
And we can have their, well,
it used to be the maid's place,
and it was a nice room right over
the garage and had its own bathroom.
And we were the only ones that I know that had that.
That was a good [inaudible] it was $15 a week.
>> How long did you live there?
>> About three months.
And the minister had
a piano down at the foot of the stairway,
which we had to go down when we came out of the room,
and he would play willow,
titwillow, titwillow, and sing.
And he didn't have a very good voice,
but he was shaky and nice.
He was so nice. And I
kept in touch with her until he died.
>> Wow. So at this time,
you were also creating a scrapbook of you and
your husband's relationship and
marriage and some of
the places you stayed during that period.
And tell me a little bit about that?
>> Well, we had a place down the street about
a block and a half that had
a restaurant in it and I can't remember the name of it,
but I've got it written down somewhere.
You could go there and eat for a $1 and it was one meat,
three vegetables, drink and dessert.
Can't beat that. And we could go to the NLB,
which the [inaudible], shoot. [LAUGHTER]. Anyway.
>> Norfolk?
>> Yeah.
Anyway, we could go over to the officers' club,
and we could get steak for that dollar, or lobster.
And they were delicious.
So we split it up.
There were Vegas in both ways.
But he would go out on the USS Wyoming every day.
And they called it [inaudible] because it went
out every day and it came in every day.
So the anchor was always going up and so it was Gogo.
And that was where he was learning damage control.
When he had completed the damage control.
And I think it took us about three months.
And during that time,
President Roosevelt had died.
And that was a very sad occasion
and everything shut down even there.
So that was not a day where we went to the club.
But anyway, then he
got 30 days leave because after the leave,
he was going to be going overseas.
So we went to his family,
and of course, I had only met them twice.
He took me went down when he first got engaged to me,
and then of course, I'd seen them at the wedding.
But we went out to their house.
It was a cute little house and it was in Whitt,
Illinois, which was right next to Nekoma's Illinois.
And so we went there and
spent a week with them, had a good visit.
And then we went up to
Michigan and we had a good time over there.
And we get to say goodbye to everybody.
And then it was forget to be time.
So we went to Chicago and got on the train.
The train took three days and three nights.
When we got to Omaha,
there was another incident
and his wife on the on the train.
And he said, "Where are you going to stay
when you go to San Francisco?"
And we said, "We don't know, we'll just go to the desk in
the airport or the train station."
And he said, "No, he says,
you need to stay at
the Fairmount and you need to send him
a Telegram." And so we did.
And when we got to Omaha,
we got [inaudible] with little thing from them,
and we booked an appointment.
So we stayed at the nicest hotel in town.
And I think I showed it to you.
Wasn't it $6 a night?
>> That's in Omaha.
>> No. That's in San Francisco.
>> So you're at the Fairmount in San Francisco?
>> And that was $6.
We didn't stay in a hotel in Omaha.
>> [inaudible]
>> We learned that in as much as I
was pregnant and couldn't wait for food,
that we need to get off
at the stations and buy some fruit.
So that's what we did,
and each time we get to a big town and we would
get off because they would stay half an hour to an hour.
And so that kept me happy.
I don't think we said I was pregnant, did we?
>> Not yet. [LAUGHTER]
>> Well, that was part of it.
And heck, we were going to wait until
after the war was over,
but it didn't work that way.
They didn't have anything good to stop it from happening.
[LAUGHTER]
>> So you stayed at the Fairmount in
San Francisco, and for $6.
>> And what was nice was,
the president of the United States,
and that was Harry Truman,
and he had three floors in the building.
And I think I showed you a piece
of newspaper that they made,
and put out every day underneath the door.
And of course, we weren't into it,
but we still got the paper.
And I thought that was very special,
because not everybody got to see those papers.
>> Did you get sight of him?
Did you see President Truman?
>> No. I didn't see him,
but I'm sure I saw a lot of other people.
And there were people from all countries.
They were trying to get the United Nations started.
And that was the sole business there,
and he was working with lots and lots of strangers.
And he was a brand new president,
because he'd only been what?
Six weeks in? Something like that.
>> So how long did you stay at
that hotel in San Francisco? [LAUGHTER]
>> Yes. One night. Because when he
reported in at the Navy office,
they transferred us to Seattle.
So we had to come home and
pack what little we had unpacked,
and get down to the station,
and got on a train that took us all day,
that took straight North to Seattle.
And there we stayed at
a little dump of a place overnight,
and then the next day we found a nice hotel and moved.
That was also like $5 or $6 a night.
>> So you were pregnant at this time?
Was it hard moving all over the place?
>> I didn't have any problems with that.
Not with any of them.
I never got sick.
I was going to tell you something. Can you cross it out?
[LAUGHTER] Well, when I went to the doctor for the baby,
he said I was very healthy
and would I like to make some money?
My mother said, "Well, of course, she would."
[LAUGHTER] And because my mother
was the one that took me to the doctor.
Well, he said, "The urine of women who are having
their first baby in this kind of health
is very valuable and they'll pay $1 a gallon for it."
I don't want to do that. [LAUGHTER] And
my mother said, "Yes, she does."
[LAUGHTER] So he said it's very nice.
He said, "Every Friday,
a truck will come up to your house,
and they will put a plain box on the back.
It will have four-one gallon jars."
>> Well, what did they use it for?
>> They made pills out of it for men.
>> My goodness.
>> We had something when we were pregnant,
only the first time for
pregnant women and pregnant horses.
[LAUGHTER] And they would
come and they would leave the bottles.
Mama would go down and get
it and put it in the bathroom,
and I would tinkle in it every day,
and at the end of the period,
every Friday, the bottles kept coming.
I got a check for 60 bucks.
>> Wow. So it was worth the money.
>> Now you can decide whether you want to kick that out.
[LAUGHTER]
>> So let's go back to Seattle.
>> It was a fun place to be.
And we had a good time.
I had to have an aunt that was living there,
which is a miracle,
and she was Minnie Moran.
She got the name at my father's side.
And that uncle was dead,
but, oh my God she was nice.
And she came down and stayed with me
every day at that place after my husband left.
She was nice not to bother us while we were together,
except the one night when we took her out to dinner.
But the minute he was gone,
she was my company,
because I had to wait until I could get a train
back home that had a lower proof for me,
because I couldn't climb up,
and the Navy was waiting to let me know when I could go.
And when it finally came through late than I wished.
I think it was five days later after,
because he left on the 6th and I think it was the 12th.
>> So were there special privileges for
servicemen as they moved around and stayed at hotel?
>> Absolutely. We came first.
Once I got home, I was just took in.
>> [LAUGHTER] So your husband was on the Anderson.
>> The USS Anderson DD 411.
It was famous because it had been in
several wars and had taken beatings and beatings,
but they always put it back together.
>> And where was he posted in the Pacific?
>> They were in the Northern area of the Pacific Ocean.
>> In the Aleutian Islands.
>> Yes. And of course,
that means very close to Japan.
And when he got there,
he got on the ship and
they were cruising, keeping moving.
And there was nothing particularly exciting.
They were watching.
And when those bombs came down,
they were one of the first ships into the area and they
went into the Honshu Islands and were there a week.
I don't know why they did that.
And he never told me.
He didn't want to talk about the war when he got home.
But they were there for a week.
And I've got all kinds of pictures of
the Japanese and I've got all kinds of paper money.
And I've got a flag.
We haven't gotten to the flag. It's in the book.
>> So his ship, the Anderson,
was used later at the Bikini a toll.
>> It was very important
because they wanted to drop another bomb to see
which is exactly what would
happen and how long it bursted and everything else.
And it's not anything I understand,
but I clipped it out of the paper.
And the Anderson was one of the ships they put
there and the only one that completely disappeared.
[LAUGHTER]
>> Today, it's on the bottom of the ocean.
>> Probably.
>> Near those islands where they set
off one of the bombs as a test.
So when did your husband return?
>> After the ship moved away
from the South Sudan they went on down to
the Hawaiian Island and they went to Pearl and picked up
a lot of sailors that had enough hours in to get out.
And so they chugged into San Diego in November,
right around Thanksgiving Day.
Because he sent me a telegram and said,
have come home on my mother's birthday,
that kind of stuff so
that I knew that he was in the United States.
And when he was allowed to, he called me.
And he said, I've tried to get
emergency leave because the baby was
due on the 25th December.
And he said, I'm trying to get it go.
But he said, we're going right back out
to Japan and bring another load home.
And he said, maybe them.
And I said, but that's after the baby is born.
And he said, yes, but he
said I've done everything I can.
And he said, I'll send you
a telegram when the boat leaves because he said,
you cry every time I say goodbye.
And he says, I just can't stand it.
So I got the telegram,
and I'm sitting on the sofa and
I started to cry and my dad said, what's the matter?
And I said, I got a telegram and he said,
well, I haven't opened it.
And I said I know it but I know what it says.
It says he's gone.
And he said, well, just open.
So I opened it and it said,
have 30 day leave.
We'll be there on December the 5th.
And he had gone to
the captain's wife and she got him his 30 day leave.
So then I really cried.
And he said, now, what's the matter?
My dad, and then I said,
well, she hasn't seen me like this.
He said, when he left,
I was still in my regular clothes.
And I said, now, look at me,
I'm a limp, and I said,
I don't want him to see me like this.
And he says, oh, honey, he's not going to see you.
He's just going to eat you up.
So anyway, I went to bed that night,
and the next day, I woke up
and there was a little spot of blood on my bed.
And my mother took me to the hospital and I
had Pat at three o'clock that afternoon.
So Pat was one day old when his father had gone home,
and I had my figure back.
[LAUGHTER].
>> That's a wonderful story.
And he was there for 30 days then?
>> Yeah. And when we countered up his points,
that baby made the difference between
staying in the Navy and getting out.
>> So he got out?
>> And he had to go back to Chicago and get out.
>> So how were those first months after the war?
>> Well, we had a brand new baby,
so it certainly eased
it up for us as far as we were concerned.
We couldn't find a place to live.
And so we went out towards Kalamazoo and areas away.
And we got to a little place called Willow Run,
which is where they made a lot of
the airplanes that were used.
And they had barracks out there.
And we got $120 appointment to go in there and rent that.
If we hadn't been on our honeymoon,
[LAUGHTER] it wouldn't have been feasible.
But we thought it was wonderful.
We bought furniture for it and
we had three bedrooms and one big room
and
I'm hunting for a word.
Oh, the stove out in
the middle was one you had to put wood in.
And my husband rigged up the hot water tank,
which wasn't the hot water tank
because it had to go through the,
what's the word? I'm losing it.
>> I don't know.
>> Anyway, we couldn't have
hot water if we didn't have the stove going.
So he rigged one of
those heaters underneath it and so we got hot water.
And we got the two more and we
had groceries and we cooked on that.
>> How long did you live there?
>> We lived out there three months
until we found an apartment.
[LAUGHTER]
>> And you found an apartment near Kalamazoo?
>> Down right across the street from my mother.
>> So back in Detroit?
>> Back in Detroit.
>> And you had three more children?
>> Well, I had three
because I didn't have three more children
because I didn't have one,
but I had a miscarriage.
When Pat was getting to be two,
I got pregnant again.
And when I was about three months along, I lost it.
It was a boy. And then
he told me to wait a year before I tried again.
And a year later, I went back and I was coming so I
got one down and one that was not born.
And then the other one came.
And they just kept coming every two years.
[LAUGHTER] And I could have had 12,
my father had 11 brothers.
>> Twelve boys in one family?
>> And the night that I
met Rich when he came bouncing in,
he said, you got any brothers or sisters?
And I said, no, I said,
I'm an only child,
but my father had 11 brothers.
He said, 11? [LAUGHTER]
>> Wow.
>> He was thrilled. [LAUGHTER] Anyway.
>> So you had four sons?
>> Four sons.
>> And your husband took a job as
a sales manager with a carpet company eventually.
And where did that take you?
You lived in several different cities?
>> Well, actually,
most of it was in Michigan,
but we didn't move to Kansas City for five years,
and I love it out there.
It was just so much fun.
We didn't live in Kansas City, Missouri.
We lived in Prairie Village,
Kansas, which was right over the state line.
You never have lived near.
It was just so close and
it didn't seem like it should go that way.
In other words, if you went into-
>> Reserve.
The Missouri. [LAUGHTER]
>> Thank you.
>> If you went into Missouri,
you didn't have to pay and you have it delivered,
you didn't have to pay tax on it.
They do now, but they don't didn't then.
And we were a dry country in Kansas,
but they had liquor in the
other so you could go and buy anything on it.
>> Didn't bring it back into Kansas?
>> Yeah.
>> And you did that?
>> Yeah. They didn't care if you drank it.
You're just couldn't buy it. [LAUGHTER]
>> I see.
>> But we didn't like it anyway.
So Richard didn't drink it and I didn't drink either.
And so diet coke always served us.
>> So how did you end up in Georgia?
>> Oh. Well, he worked for a company out of
Chattanooga and he was
the national sales manager of that one,
and they sold it to some other company.
And at that point in time,
my husband said they're going to pick our heads free,
and then they'll let us go.
And so he and the man who was in
charge of making the carpet,
decided they go in business themselves.
And so they went to business themselves.
And they were looking in Dalton,
which was all carpet.
And we decided we didn't want to live over there
because you couldn't get away from Carpet.
And so we looked in Rome and we loved
Rome and there was a Carpet place
there that was running out of business and having
a hard time and they bought
that carpet company and got it going.
>> How did you feel about moving to the deep South?
>> Well, we didn't do it for five years.
For five years, I lived in Grosse Pointe,
which was the nice part of Detroit.
And I lived there and he lived in Chattanooga because he
would come down here every Monday
morning and come home every Friday afternoon.
So we only had weekends and we were trying to get
the kids through school in Grosse Pointe
because it was such a good school and a good place to be.
And so we kept going.
And then we had trouble with.
[LAUGHTER] We had a beautiful house down there,
but it had been built before the sewers had been put in.
So it was on one of those what do you call those.
Underneath ground where when you flush it goes.
>> Septic tank?
>> Septic tank. And we didn't even know we were on
a septic tank until we started having
trouble and then we found
out that we should be on sewers.
So we got a man and his name was Mr. Coloya.
He was the plumber.
And he said he could put us on sewers for $300.
So we gave him $300 and he went out to dig
up the whole front yard and make a nice mess.
And then on Tuesday after my husband was
gone down to Chattanooga,
he came in and he said,
don't flush until Saturday because I can't make it work.
And I said, "I have four children."
[LAUGHTER] He said, "You can't flush."
And I said, well,
I just minute and I went and
got the telephone and I called
Dalton and I got his partner and his partner said,
he can't come to the phone.
He's got a real important call.
And I said, well, he sure
never here when I need you when I
said rang and it rang immediately.
And it was Rich and he said, what's the matter?
And I said here, talk to Mr. Coloya.
I handed it to Mr. Coloya
and they talked and he kept saying,
yeah, okay, Well, I haven't tried that.
[LAUGHTER] He says, handed to me and he says,
Here he wants to talk to you.
He said, I'm so sorry.
Took said, This is my fault.
He said, we've been trying to take
care of Clint and make sure he
gets through school and everything.
But he said we just can't do this.
I said, it's not fair to you.
It's not fair to me,
and it certainly isn't fair to the kids.
So he said, we'll talk about it Saturday.
So when he got home,
when we were sitting at breakfast,
he said, Oh, by the way, we're moving.
With house is going up for sale and we were moving,
and Clint is going to have his senior year room in Rome.
>> How did you feel about that?
>> I was thrilled. [LAUGHTER] I felt sorry that my son,
Clint, who was number 2,
Pat was the number 1.
He was so smart
and I knew he could take care of himself any place.
But I wanted him to have the opportunity
to be the boss and everything.
And he was going to be the president of the class
and he didn't have to go.
So anyway, when we told him,
he was heartbroken and he said, Well,
I said, I just don't want to be not with you,
but I just don't want to go away from the school.
And I said, as soon as this house is sold, we're moving.
And so he went across the street to
his buddy's house and talked to
his mother and came back and he said,
I can stay with them.
[LAUGHTER] And I said, No, you can't.
I said, I'm mama.
And I am so jealous of you
being here with them
that I will not let you come in with us.
And he did.
And we enrolled him in Darlington school,
which is the finest school
and his brothers, but the same time.
So we had three in Darlington and,
Darlington looked at his straight A average and said,
Oh, but we don't know how you got that.
We do it different.
Would you mind repeating this game?
What you do this would you do
that he would come home and slam
his books on the table when he would do and he go down.
I said, I'm pulling you out.
We're putting you out in the city schools.
And we went back to
Darlington and they never give you your money back,
but they did that time.
I said, we've done a terrible job. We're so smart.
We think we know everything and we don't know everything,
lots of wonderful schools around here and
you have been at one.
So he graduated from Easter Rome High School,
and of course, he was on the top and happy as a lark.
>> Well, tell me about volunteering at
the Floyd Medical Center.
>> Oh, okay. Well, last,
I have to come back and tell you that he was
vibrated capital when he was in college,
and I called up Darlington to talk to.
[LAUGHTER] And he said,
I knew when we let him go that we were losing it.
But he came and
wrapped his arms around me while I
was peeling potatoes one day,
and he said, You know, Mom, you were right.
He said, if you hadn't made me come with you,
this would never have been home.
He said it was the right thing to do.
And of course, now that Detroit's
falling out down the hill,
he said, I'm sure glad we moved.
[LAUGHTER]
>> And when did you start volunteering
at the Floyd Medical Center?
>> Oh, well,
somebody told me that
they were going to have a new thing.
They had always had Red Cross ladies,
but they had never had a local.
>> Volunteer.
And this happened
at a party in the little neighborhood that
they were all in and the CEO of FMC was there.
And somebody went up to him and said,
how come you don't have volunteers,
and he said, I don't know.
He says, I got the red cross.
He said, yeah, but that's a different matter.
They can't do anything other than nice work.
But volunteers can earn money.
He says, well, let's have one.
He says, I'll get the nurse and we'll figure
it out and said,
everybody that was in the party
could bring two friends to
this party that was going to be held in
the backyard of somebody's house.
I was one of the two that was invited by a friend
and I went there and this lady
was standing up there and she looked so wonderful.
She was dressed up in her nurse costume.
And she had her surgery on her neck and she croaked.
But even when she croaked,
you were just glad to see her.
And she said, anybody who wanted to join,
could we come up and sign this book
and leave $5 and we'll
have a thing and
we'll get it ready to going so that we can get started.
Took her about three months
and then she called everybody up and she said,
can you come to work this week?
What day are you going and we
picked out whether you wanted to work in the morning
or in the afternoon and whether Monday
through Friday and I picked Tuesday afternoons.
And so I came for
Tuesday afternoon and just
fell in love with the hospital.
She took us out in
the very first time and she had a big cart and it
was full of coca colas and
all kinds of drinks and sweets,
not food, but like fruit things.
And we rolled up and down
the corridor and went
in and asked her if they like something to drink.
And I was not only for the person who
was in bed but for the person who might be visiting.
>> And how long did you work as
a volunteer before you became the director?
>> I worked for 10 years and then she retired.
And when she retired,
I was going to quit because she quit
because her husband had worked with GE and
was going on his sabbatical or whatever.
And she said,
we're going to play and have a good time and she said,
I can't even get time to work.
But she said I told
them that you were the only one that knew what I
was doing and this is not
a thing you can look at a book
for and say, what are you going to do?
You just have to know and I've
been following her around for 10 years.
And she said so she said if
you when he when he offers you the job, you take it.
>> Well, tell me about your husband,
Mr. Richardson passing away.
>> Well, that was three years into when I had my job.
And the funny thing about it was when they offered
me the job and I went home and told him.
I thought sure he was going to say no
because he liked me to go with him on his trips.
And so when he was going around selling, he liked me.
And he said take it.
I said, you're kidding.
And he said, no. He said
you've been doing it for 10 years.
He said, now they're going to pay you.
And he said, I think you ought to try it.
And I said, Well, I don't even know I can follow in her.
She was wonderful.
And he said, You take it.
And I said, Well, if I take it,
I'm going to take it for a year because I'm not going
to go a spoil it out
and go in and go out and make it have to change again.
So he said, well, I want you to do it.
And he was so cute. He started doing the dishes.
And I was always the one that cleaned up the kitchen.
And when he said, no, you're working now.
So I made supper and then he cleaned it
up and that was nice.
And when he got sick he got sick real fast.
He'd had a brain tumor
and they gave him three months to live.
And when the doctor said he had three months to live,
I just burst into tears and went running
down to the CEO's office.
And I said he's dying.
He said, I'm so sorry.
I said, I don't know what I'm going to do.
I said, I can't go take care of
you and I can't take care of
my job and I can't do anything.
He says, and he's rubbing my back and he says,
do you think you could listen to me a bit?
I think I got a really good idea.
And I said, what is your idea?
He said, You take care of him,
and I'll take care of your job and he did.
And then the day after he died.
Why the ambulance was
out there full of food, all kinds of things.
They just was and they had
sent all kinds of things for him to sleep in
and on and they had given
me all the stuff when they came and got
it and cleaned it up and that was CEO.
>> Well, you have shared your story through
the American Rosie the Riveter Association.
Why do you think it's important to
share your memories of World War II?
Well, I wasn't even interested in that,
but somebody had found out about my name and told
Jane Tucker and Jane Tucker called me and she said,
Would you come and tell us how you got your name?
I said, I'd love to because I said that
makes Rich live with me.
And so she said, Well,
the fact of the matter is we're having
the meeting where you live
and that was on Maplewood.
And so she said,
everybody's coming and telling their story.
And so you tell you it's true.
And so all the people that you're dealing
with had been coming had come there.
And so I told my story,
and everybody was photographed when they were doing
except he got me kind of from back
and it was more hair than me.
But I didn't consider that I was in the movie,
but I was and they put me in, my name is in it.
And every time we did that, she said,
No, I can't tell you put
your story in unless you join us.
And she said, it's only $10.
And she said it's not
every week or every month or every year.
It's just one time.
You have to put in $10.
And she said, and if you don't want to do it,
I'll put the money in because I want the story.
So I said, I think I can afford it.
>> Well, thank you, Miss Cade for
talking to me, and we'll end there.