ROHO continues to seek male and female participants for oral history interviews regarding a diverse range of home front experiences during World War II. While interviews are primarily conducted in the Bay Area, we are interested in WWII home front experiences across the country. We are also seeking narrators with experiences relating to Port Chicago Naval Magazine and Japanese American Confinement Sites.
For more information, please contact us at rtr@lists.berkeley.edu or 925.937.2290.
In the News 14 December 2011: The Right Way to Put Kids to Work, an op-ed by Sam Redman in today's online edition of The New York Times, including excerpts from Rosie the Riveter WWII American Homefront interviews.
Project Overview In collaboration with the City of Richmond and the National Park Service, the Regional Oral History Office is interviewing residents of the Bay Area about their wartime experiences during World War II. We are uncovering how and why people from different backgrounds came to the Bay Area, what they did when they arrived, and what they learned from the fluidity and flux of wartime life that affected decisions they made after the war ended. We are interested in a broad range of topics: What did women learn about the relationships between work and family life? How did attitudes change toward education? How did war affect race relations and reshape civil rights struggles? Did new ideas about sexuality take root, and if so, why and where? What happened to entertainment? To what degree did religious organizations provide people with a new sense of community? Interviews collected are used in the National Park Service's visitor center at the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Homefront National Historic Park and the Richmond Central Library in Richmond, California. Participating narrators with transcripts are listed below.
Angelina Alexandre
Interviewer: Jess Rigelhaupt
Date of Interview: 1/17/2005
Angelina Alexandre came to Richmond from Merced via Needles, California. She worked in the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant from 1945 to 1946. She was active in the union at her workplace. She tells of the Japanese internment in Needles, and about working while having a family during the war. Duration: 1.5 hours.
Jack Arnold
Interviewer: David Washburn
Date of Interview: 2/1/2003
Originally from Iowa, Arnold entered the merchant marines during World War II, and later settled in Richmond where he had relatives working in the shipyards. For the latter part of the war, he worked as a bartender in several Richmond bars. Discusses: bars, nightlife, meeting wife in Richmond, segregation, local communist activity, development of suburbs.
Tony Avalos
Interviewer: David Washburn
Date of Interview: 11/6/2002
Raised on South 1st Street in Richmond. Avalos attended local schools and St. Mark's Church. Worked in local industries, including Kaiser during the war. After the war he became a longtime employee of the Richmond School District. Discusses: the character of Richmond's Mexican-American community, dances at Sweet's Ballroom, zoot-suiters, racism.
Velma Barkhausen
Date of Interview: 9/22/06
Duration: 1.75 hours
Interviewer: Jess Rigelhaupt
Velma Barkhausen was born in Arkansas, then moved as a child with her family to
Oklahoma. She and her family moved to California spurred by drought and famine
during the Great Depression. Employed first in the agricultural industry,
picking and canning fruits, she and her family later joined wartime industry,
taking jobs in the shipyards. In this interview, she discusses her family's rural
background, migration to California, work in California's agricultural industry,
work in the shipyards, and the Port Chicago explosion.
Avis Blanchette
Interviewer: David Dunham
Date of Interview: 2/13/2004
Avis Blanchette was born in Canada and raised in Minneapolis by her father, an inventor and barber. She joined her family in the Bay Area in 1943, while her husband went off to war. She did office and security patrol work at the Kaiser shipyards, mapping incidents in the shipyard and hosting gala events. In this interview, she talks about social life in the wartime Bay Area and her experiences of shipyard work and union membership. Duration: 2 hours.
Roberta Bremer
Interviewer: Jess Rigelhaupt
Date of Interview: 4/15/2008
Roberta Bremer was born in Vallejo, but soon moved to Crockett, where she grew up. She recounts her experiences working in the office of the Boilermakers’ Union, and as a pilot car driver for the truck dispatch, collecting equipment for Kaiser Shipyard Four. She describes how children of Italian descent would get into fights with her son, who is of German descent, during World War II. She also tells of local reactions to the exclusion of Italians from the West Coast, and the confusion following the explosion at Port Chicago.
Patricia Buls
Interviewer: Kathryn Stine
Date of Interview: 2/12/2003
Patricia Buls was born and raised in Iowa, and moved to the Bay Area in 1942 to be with her husband. In this interview, Ms. Buls discusses wartime housing, wartime work as a draftsman, learning about people from other cultures and racism, being a woman in the shipyards and changing womens roles, raising a family, and participating in Kaisers early health plan.
Duration: 2 hours and 15 minutes.
Edward Carrasco
Interviewer: Jess Rigelhaupt
Date of Interview: 6/18/2008
Edward Carrasco was born in El Paso, Texas. He moved to Oakland when he was seventeen, in order to get a job in the Kaiser shipyards with his brother. While there he got a draft notice, but was deferred after a physical examination and later joined the Coast Guard. He tells of the Mexican American communities in El Paso and Oakland, reactions to the Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles, and socializing in the dance halls of Oakland. He remembers working as a driller in the Kaiser shipyards, meeting his wife at work, and the diversity that the shipyards brought together. Carrasco also discusses the dangers of work at the shipyards, playing dice on the train to Richmond, and reactions to the internment of Japanese Americans.
Mary Ann Ceminski
Interviewer: Esther Ehrlich
Date of Interview: 6/23/2003
Mary Anne Ceminski was raised in Colorado and moved to Kansas to attend college. She got her first teaching job in Kansas and then, during the war, resettled in Richmond, where she initially worked in the shipyards before returning to teaching. She taught elementary school during and after the war. Discusses: impressions of Richmond, working in the office at shipyard, including meeting Henry Kaiser, Nystrom Elementary School, racial issues within the classroom and beyond, social activities in Richmond.
Sal Chavez
Interviewer: David Washburn
Date of Interview: 10/22-25/2002
Born and raised in Santa Fe Railroad housing off lower Macdonald Avenue in Richmond. Chávez worked for local industries, such as the Santa Fe Railroad, American Radiator and Standard, Filice and Perreli Cannery, and Kaiser shipyards. During the war he served with the US Coast Guard, and later started a career as a barber. His interview offers a unique perspective into the history of Richmond's longtime Mexican community. Discusses: life of the employees of the Santa Fe Railroad, Mexican culture in Richmond, social relations (dating) in Richmond schools, race relations. Audio only.
Anita Christiansen and Mary Highfil are lifelong friends, both from Italian-American families, who have lived in Point Richmond all their lives. The interview focuses on their wartime activities with the USO, living and working in Richmond, and changes in the city. 2 hours.
Mary Lou Cordova
Interviewer: David Washburn
Date of Interview: 11/1/2002
Born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Cordova came to Richmond with her parents during the war. Her father found work at Standard Oil. The family moved into war housing off Cutting Blvd. and 40th, later buying a home nearby. Cordova, still a teen when she arrived, entered high school and frequently found friends at local recreation halls. Settled in San Pablo after the war. Discusses: growing up in New Mexico, moving to Richmond, social relations at school and rec halls, attending dances, race relations, attending St. Mark's Church
Willie Mae Cotright
Interviewer: Judith Dunning
Date of Interview: 11/1/2002, 12/13/2002
Willie Mae Cotright is interviewed here jointly with Hubert Webster, also interviewed as part of this series. She was born and raised in Lousiana, and came to Richmond in search of wartime work with her husband as a young woman. In this interview, she talks about housing and work in Richmond during World War II, and discusses her life after the war. She and her husband ran the Cotright corner store, one of the first African American-owned businesses in Richmond, as well her involvement with the local NAACP chapter. She and Mr. Webster also discuss the effects of Richmond industry on the health of their family members. 1 hour, 45 minutes.
Emily DeCory
Interviewer: Elizabeth Castle
Date of Interview: 4/13/2005
Emily DeCory was born and raised in the Encinal village on the Laguna Pueblo reservation. She moved to the Santa Fe Indian Village when she was just three years old along with her family. The village was established as a colony of the Laguna Pueblo and elected its own governor and tribal council. DeCory’s father, Tom Ahmie, served as first governor of the Laguna people in the colony and was re-elected for three times. He worked as a blacksmith for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company. She discusses her life as a Laguna living between the reservation and the advantages offered by urban life. She remembers how they first lived in passenger cars of the train and later were set up by the railroad company in boxcars fashioned as living quarters. She describes the conditions living in the backyard of the Standard Oil Company and the effects of the smoke that blew over the village causing health problems. DeCory eventually returned to live in the Encinal Villlage.
Leona Derheim
Interviewer: Kathryn Stine
Date of Interview: 11/5/2002
Leona Derheim was born and raised in Berkeley and attended Berkeley High School. In this interview, she talks about growing up in Berkeley, playing saxophone in an all-girl band, her work at Southern Pacific, and the Bay Area during World War II. 1 hour and 45 minutes.
David Dibble
Interviewer: Jess Rigelhaupt
Date of Interview: 5/28/2008
David Dibble was born in San Francisco and moved as a young boy to Woodside. Still a teenager, he worked on the homefront during World War II, finally ending up at Standard Oil. He talks about life during the Depression, long walks to Menlo Park, and train rides to San Francisco. He remembers rationing during World War II, the local response to Pearl Harbor, and the lack of concern for the danger of his work. He tells of racial attitudes toward Japanese and Japanese Americans and the effect of media coverage of war on those at home.
Ned and Emma Duran
Interviewer: David Washburn
Date of Interview: 11/5/2002
Raised in a small mining town in southern Colorado. Duran was part of Colorado's Conservation Corps during the 1930s. By the beginning of World War II he was enlisted in the Army's First Cavalry Division, stationed in Texas and Oregon, and served in North Africa. Recruited by Kaiser to work in Portland shipyards, he later came to Richmond, where his brothers were employed by Kaiser. After the war, he settled in Richmond, where he worked for the post office. Discusses: growing up in Colorado, serving in the CC camps and Army; racism in Colorado, Texas, and the Army; coming to Richmond, meeting wife, Richmond's Mexican community, employment after war, buying home in Richmond.
Sisters from Phoenix, Arizona, they came with seven other siblings to work in Richmond's shipyards. Prior to getting married, all of the Gonzalez sisters moved into a home together. Discuss: Coming to Richmond, adjusting to life in Richmond, working in the shipyards, relations within the family, Mexican Baptists in Richmond.
Margaret Fahrenholtz grew up on a farm just north of Great Falls, Montana and moved to Richmond in 1941 to help her aunt with child care. Eventually, she worked there at the War Manpower Commission. She discusses harvest time on the farm in Montana, and her parents’ support for the rest of the family during the Depression. She recounts the local reaction in Richmond to the attack on Pearl Harbor and feelings about the internment of Japanese Americans. We also hear of reactions to the use of atomic bombs in Japan and her being reunited with her brothers who served overseas.
Louis Fantin
Interviewer: David Dunham
Date of Interview: 11/12/2002
Louis Fantin was born in Colorado and followed his older sister to the Bay Area after he completed high school. He worked as a welder in the shipyards in Richmond until he was drafted into the Army where he served in the war in Europe. When the War ended, he returned to Richmond and began working at Standard Oil. In this interview he talks about Richmond during and after the War, his participation time as a soldier and the Battle of the Bulge, and attitudes around race, ethnicity, and gender. Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes.
Stella Faria
Interviewer: Judith Dunning
Date of Interview: 3/6/2003
Stella Faria was born and raised in Pinole, California. Her family was from Portugal, via Brazil. She remembers Richmond during World War II, especially the changing worlds of work, school, and family. She talks about her consternation at the internment of the Japanese in the area, including classmates and people she had grown with all of her life. She remembers her work in the Kaiser Shipyards, in the administrative office of Yard Three and recalls the Port Chicago explosion. She also remembers the environmental toxicity of the wartime industries and discusses the impacts of Richmond industry on the health of her family members. 2 hours.
Bud Figueroa
Date of Interview: 10/25/06
Duration: 1.75 hours
Interviewer: Nadine Wilmot
Bud Figueroa is a native Californian, raised in the Eastlake and Fruitvale
neighborhoods of Oakland. He began his career as a salesman in the jewelry
business; he moved to Sacramento and then returned to the Bay Area to work in the
shipyards during World War II. In this interview, Figueroa tells of his life as
a social dancer, a jewelry salesman, a war =time fundraiser and seller of
bonds, and an entrepreneur. We also learn about ethnic identity, class, and
mobility in California during the first part of the 20th century.
Denise Fleig
Interviewer: Jess Rigelhaupt
Date of Interview: 7/9/2008
Denise Fleig was born in Berkeley, and moved between Oakland and her grandmother’s house in Middletown, Lake County, for much of her childhood. After marrying in 1943, she and her husband moved to San Francisco. In this interview, she tells how her grandmother came to California on a covered wagon. She recounts the inventions and schemes her father, a brick mason, thought up to try to earn money for her mother and their seven children during the Depression. She describes school as a refuge from the troubles of home life during the Depression. We hear in vivid detail about working as a welder in the Kaiser shipyards in Richmond and the friends from various parts of the country she made on the ferry to work from San Francisco. Topics covered also include racial and ethnic attitudes; prejudice against migrants from Arkansas and Oklahoma; the dangers of working in the shipyards; sexism in the workplace and at the university; attitudes about unions; and her dreams of becoming a labor mediator.
Reverend Willie Ford
Date of Interview: 8/4/2006
Duration: 1.75 hours
Interviewer: Nadine Wilmot
Reverend Willie Ford is an associate minister at the North Richmond Missionary
Baptist Church, the oldest African American church in Richmond. Born in Louisiana, he came from a farming and railroad family. He traveled to
Detroit and New York and then, after World War II, joined his mother and father
and siblings in Richmond, where they had migrated for wartime work. He worked as
a streetcar operator, airplane technician, and dry cleaner. He also was a
musician and avid social dancer who danced at the Savoy in Harlem and throughout
Detroit and California. In his interview, he discusses his life and times; the
racial discrimination his family faced in the South and that he faced on the job
in Detroit; a changing Richmond, and his role at the North Richmond Missionary
Baptist Church.
Matilda Foster
Interviewers: David Washburn; Lok, Tiffany
Date of Interview: 3/16/2005
Matilda Foster is from Arkansas. She came to California to work in the shipyards. She was active in her church community, in local Democratic politics, and in the Richmond chapter of the NAACP as it worked to desegregate residential neighborhoods in Richmond in the postwar era. 1.5 hours.
Maggie Gee
Interviewer: Leah McGarrigle; Robin Li; Kathryn Stine
Date of Interview: 4/10/2003, 4/29/2003, 5/20/2003
Beginning in March 2003, a team of ROHO interviewers conducted a series of four interviews with Berkeley resident Maggie Gee. The team consisted of Leah McGarrigle and Kathryn Stine, ROHO interviewers, and Robin Li, a graduate student working with ROHO. Gee was chosen by ROHO and the Rosie Project for a number of reasons. Her stories represent two generations of "Rosies" -- her mother, Ah Yoke Gee, had worked as a welder in the Richmond wartime factories, and Maggie herself had also worked in the factories, as a draftswoman at Mare Island, and also flew with the WASPs, testing planes and flying transport missions. Since that period, she has maintained an active presence in local Democratic politics, and is able to provide long-term perspectives on Berkeley politics and Chinese Americans in the Berkeley area. The interview provides much-needed perspectives on extra-Chinatown Chinese American communities, interracial community-building in Berkeley, and women in the workforce and local politics. Maggie Gee also shares amazing stories of her love of flight, training to become a pilot, and what the experience meant to her in terms of class, gender, and politics.
Joe Gomes
Date of Interview: 6/2/06
Duration: 2.5 hours
Interviewer: Nadine Wilmot
Joe Gomes' parents came to the United States from Portugal in the early 20th century,
arriving first in New York, making their way to San Jose and settling in San Pablo, where Mr. Gomes now resides. Mr. Gomes was 90 at the time of this interview, and a leader in his community. He is past director of the San Pablo Holy Ghost Association, past state president of the Luso-American Fraternal Federation, and currently sits on the San Pablo City Council. In this interview, he chronicles his family background, his years growing up in San Pablo, the Portuguese community in San Pablo, the shift
to and then away from wartime work during his years at American Standard,
working in the shipyards, changing gender roles during wartime work, raising a
family, and his work on the city council. The interview offers
insight into immigrant identity and experience, a changing San Pablo, and the
Bay Area home front during WWII.
Frank Gonzalez
Interviewer: David Washburn
Date of Interview: 10/28/2002
Born in the Mexican state of Sonora, Gonzalez came with his parents to Arizona in the early 1920s. He followed friends to Richmond, where he worked in the shipyards, eventually working his way up to leaderman and then foreman despite his limited English. Eight of his siblings also came to Richmond, where they all worked for Kaiser. Gonzalez later owned a local Mexican market, and then opened a popular restaurant, which still exists. He discusses coming to the United States, working in Arizona, coming to Richmond, working at the Kaiser shipyards, running his business after the war, and being a Mexican Baptist in Richmond.
Phyllis Gould
Interviewer: Brendan Furey
Dates of Interview: 10/7/2002, 10/11/2002
Phyllis Gould migrated to Richmond from a logging community in Oregon, in 1938. After attending welding school, Gould was one of the first women accepted into the boilermakers union after several attempts. As a journeywoman welder, she earned $1.25 an hour. In many ways, this financial independence contributed to her early divorce with her teenage husband.
Alfred Granzella
Date of Interview: 7/20/06
Duration: 1.5 hours
Interviewer: Nadine Wilmot
Alfred Granzella grew up in Richmond and attended Richmond public schools. His
parents migrated here from Italy in 1911 and 1921 respectively, met and married
here, and raised their family in Richmond. In this interview, he tells
about growing about in Richmond, serving in the Navy during World War II as a
teenager, and working for the telephone company for most of his professional
life. This interview offers insights into immigrant identity and experience, a
changing Contra Costa County as experienced from the perspective of expanding
telephone infrastructure and technology and real estate development, the
disbanding of the telephone monopoly in California, perspectives on the Port
Chicago explosion and mutiny, and the Bay Area home front during WWII.
Thomas Griffith and D. Wayne White were childhood friends who were in their late seventies at the time of their interview. They reminisce about growing up and going to school in Richmond, and talk about how prejudice played itself out in their social groups and terrain from their perspectives as two white men. They discuss the war's presence in their young lives, and afterward, when they joined the Army. This interview follows their lives before, through, and after the war. Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes.
Don Hardison
Interviewer: Jess Rigelhaupt
Date of Interview: 3/10/2003
Don Hardison moved to Richmond during WWII to work as an architect in the Kaiser shipyards. In his interview he discusses life in Richmond, the shipyards, living at Atchison Village during the war, and later designing Easter Hill Village.
Judy Hart [transcript in progress]
Interviewer: Richard Cándida Smith
Date of Interviews: 2/9/2005, 10/16/05, 10/18/05
Judy Hart, founding superintendent of the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park, details the steps involved in creating the park from its legislative inception in 2000 to her retirement in 2005. Hart also discusses her previous duties in the National Park Service, including her work as founding superintendent of the Women's Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, New York. 7.5 hours recorded.
Fay Hawkins
Interviewer: Sarah Wheelock
Date of Interview: 6/2/2003
Fay Hawkins worked for the Richmond Police Department from 1946 until the early 1970s. His father was with the police department from the 1920s until 1941. Topics discussed include police practices of the 1920s and 1940s, Fay's views as a long-term resident of the city, several interesting calls that he went on, and his experiences as he moved up through the ranks of the department to Lieutenant.
Mary Head
Interviewers: David Washburn; Susie Dodge
Date of Interview: 4/4/2005
Mary "Peace" Head worked as a welder in the shipyards and lived in Parchester Village. She talks about working in the shipyards, migrating to the Bay Area from Louisiana, and race relations in Richmond. 1.5 hours.
Bertha Hicks
Interviewers: Sam Redman
Date of Interview: 5/24/2011
Bertha Hicks was born to a Laguna mother and Acoma father, and spent her early years in New Mexico. Her father worked for the Santa Fe Railroad brought the family to Richmond. Mrs. Hicks reflects on her experiences at an Albuquerque, NM boarding school, her early married years in Arizona, and her career with Bechtel. As an American Indian of two tribes who married a Navajo man, Mrs. Hicks has a unique and nuanced perspective on American Indian politics and social issues.
Reverend Ross Hidy
Interviewers: Richard Cándida Smith
Date of Interviews: 12/1/2004, 12/15/2004
Ross Hidy served as pastor for the Harbor Gate ecumenical ministry from 1943 to 1947. He discusses the work of his and other ministries in serving the spiritual needs of war industry workers, many living far from their original homes. His wife, Evelyn Hidy, who participated in the Harbor Gate ministry as the pastor's wife and as a Sunday school teacher, joins the interview for approximately 30 minutes. 5.0 hours recorded total.
Mildred and Virgil Hooper had been married 64 years at the time of this interview. She was from Arkansas and he was from Oklahoma; they met in Texas and then migrated to the Bay Area in the early 1940s; he found work in shoe repair, and she in hairdressing. They are longtime original residents of Parchester Village and have much to say about its development. Their interview offers some insights into the experiences of African Americans in the South during the first part of the 20th century, the pull and experience of migration, and work and housing in the rapidly changing Bay Area during World War II.
Charles Huff
Date of Interview: May 31, 2006
Duration: 2 hours
Interviewer: Nadine Wilmot
Charles Huff was born and raised in Oklahoma. He moved to the Bay Area as a teenager and worked briefly in the shipyards, and then returned to Oklahoma and
joined the Navy, where he served in the Pacific theater during WWII. After the
war, he settled in the Bay Area for good this time, working on bridges as a tow
truck operator, and finishing his career as a dispatcher on the Bay Bridge. Huff
shares about his family background, his experiences during the War as both civilian and enlistee, and his experiences as a rescuer on the Bay
Area's bridges.
Altha M. Humphrey
Interviewer: Brendan Furey
Date of Interview: 1/17/2005
Altha Humphrey was in elementary school during the war; her parents were war workers in Richmond. In this interview, she shares her memories of wartime and her reflections on changing gender roles and race relations. 1.5 hours.
Aller Hunter
Interviewer: David Washburn
Date of Interview: 1/19/2005
Aller Hunter was 103 years old at the time of her interview. She was a helper and did clean-up in the shipyards during World War II. She was active in her church community. She came to Richmond from Texas in 1943 and reflects on journey to the Bay Area by train. 1.5 hours.
William Jackson
Interviewer: Jess Rigelhaupt
Date of Interviews: 03/08/2005, 03/16/2005
Bill Jackson was a merchant marine during World War II. As he is chief engineer of the Red Oak Victory, this interview was conducted on the ship, and includes participation by some of the other volunteers. Part of the interview includes a tour, followed by a sit-down discussion. Jackson talks about his experiences during the war, his travels all over the world, and experiences with racism as an African American merchant marine. He is also the son of African American Berkeley activist Frances Albrier. 3.0 hours.
George Johnson
Interviewer: Judith Dunning
Date of Interview: 11/20/2002
George Johnson was 108 years old at the time of this interview. Born in 1894 in Pennsylvania, he was a World War I veteran. After that war, he came to California with his wife and settled in the Richmond Annex in 1935. He worked with various forms of transportation and public transit. His interview focuses on wartime work, living in Richmond , and living in Richmond during World War II. It also offers interesting insights in racial identity in America.
Ted Johnson
Interviewer: David Washburn
Date of Interview: 3/21/2003
An Oakland native, Johnson managed and played accordion for Dude Martin and his Roundup Gang. The country music group played throughout the Bay Area during the late 1930s, but settled down in Richmond during the war, often playing five nights a week at East Shore Park. Martin's band was a popular radio act in the Bay Area for years for much of the 1930s-1940s. Discusses: Music and radio business in Richmond, Oakland, and San Francisco, country music in the Bay Area, the Swedish community in Oakland, music venue the Barn at Eastshore Park in Richmond, the crowd at the Barn, relations with the City of Richmond and police, musician's union in Oakland.
John T. Knox
Interviewer: Laura McCreery
Date of Interview: 6/24/2003
John T. Knox served in the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II and graduated from Occidental College in Los Angeles and Hastings College of
the Law in San Francisco. He began practicing law in Richmond in the early
1950s and was active in Democratic Party elections and politics at every
level of government. Although he represented the Richmond area in the
California state Assembly from 1961 to 1980, the interview focuses on the
Richmond community: politics, labor unions, school board, newspaper,
public housing, voter registration, health care, and business climate.
Ivy Reid Lewis
Date of Interview: 8/4/06 and 9/14/06
Duration: 4 hours, 2 interview sessions
Interviewer: Nadine Wilmot
Ivy Reid Lewis, daughter of local baseball hero and community member Charlie
Reid, grew up in Richmond and West Oakland. Her family resided in Richmond prior
to the wave of migration that came with World War II; she witnessed the wartime transformation of the city up close when her family took in boarders. She worked for the City of Richmond for decades, coordinating the
neighborhood councils that were initiated by Lucretia Edwards and continued as
part of the Model Cities Program. In her interview, she discusses her
family's long history in California; her father's work and legacy in Richmond;
Richmond's changes during the war; her years with the city, cultivating and
building neighborhood councils; and her time as a student at UC Berkeley.
Margaret Loverde
Interviewer: Esther Ehrlich
Date of Interview: 2/7/2003
Margaret Loverde was raised in Berkeley and volunteered in high school at the child development centers in Richmond. After graduating, she worked for a year at the Maritime Child Development Center. Discusses: mother's early role in the centers, the 24-hour center at Washington School, daily life at the Maritime Child Development Center; attitudes toward mothers choosing to work outside the home, including attitudes of the Catholic Church; teachers' and parents' philosophies toward child-rearing; and lobbying efforts to increase teacher salaries.
Matilda Maes
Interviewer: David Washburn
Date of Interview: 4/1/2005
Matilda Maes migrated as a child with her family from Texas and settled in Modesto. As a young woman, she worked in the Moore Dry Dock shipyard during the war. Some of the themes in her interview are her work in the shipyards, raising her family, changing gender roles, and her husband’s involvement in his union. 1.5 hours.
Ermestine Martin Interviewer: Nadine Wilmot
Date of Interviews: 3/30/2005, 4/5/2005, 4/8/2005
Ermestine Martin moved to Richmond from Oklahoma with her family during World War II. She worked in a factory and as a caregiver before beginning her own real estate business, which she still operates. She was part of a group of African American realtors who were instrumental in desegregating Richmond’s residential neighborhoods in the postwar era. She is also a member of Richmond's oldest black church, North Richmond Missionary Baptist Church. Three interviews, 4.5 hours.
James McCloud
Interviewer: David Dunham
Date of Interview: 9/24/2002
James McCloud was part of Kaiser's management team, serving in various positions including field construction superintendent and outfitting superintendent at shipyards one, two, three, and four. He is a native of the Bay Area and attended Stanford University, where he received his bachelor's in engineering. In this interview, you hear a shipyard manager’s perspective on wartime growth in industry and the shipyards.
Ora Lee McCoy Interviewer: Nadine Wilmot
Date of Interview: 3/23/2005
Originally from Texas, Ora Lee McCoy moved to the Bay Area during World War II and worked in a print shop in San Francisco. She went on to work for Ray Collins, the leading African American real estate agent in Oakland during the 1950s, and in postwar Richmond real estate markets as well. She was involved in the efforts to desegregate the Bay Area's housing markets in the 1950s and '60s. 2 hours.
Doris McCuan
Interviewer: Jess Rigelhaupt
Date of Interview: 6/12/2008
Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Doris McCuan moved to the Bay Area in 1942 to join part of her family working at the Kaiser shipyards. She remembers ice skating in the winters in Minnesota, and carpooling to work at the shipyards. Later, she became head general auditor. She tells of looking for housing in El Cerrito and attitudes toward union membership, as well as sentiments toward Japanese Americans during World War II, and feelings about racial integration.
Albert McGee, a native of the Bay Area, worked in Shipyards 3 and 4 in the marine electric shop, where he made flanges for bulkheads. He then became an electrician, installing wiring. During World War II he was also a vice principal in Richmond’s public school, working both jobs simultaneously thanks to the multiple shifts of the shipyards and the school system. In this interview, he discusses his family background, his highly technical wartime work, his lifelong connection with Kaiser medical plan, and the changing face of the Bay Area’s population during the war. For a portion of the interview, he is joined by his wife, Hortense. 1.5 hours.
Mary Newson
Interviewer: Esther Ehrlich
Date of Interview: 10/2/2002
Mary Newson married at 16 and left her home in rural Texas. She moved to the Bay Area, where she worked a variety of jobs before she was hired at the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant in Richmond. She was employed there for 32 years as a janitor, assembly line worker, and inspector, relocating to San Jose when the plant moved to Milpitas. She discusses her rural upbringing in Texas and her journey to the Bay Area; the range of jobs she held as a young African American woman; networking and cohesion among coworkers; the role of religion in her life; and housing, transportation, and the social climate in Bay Area during the war years.
Tom Oishi
Interviewer: Donna Graves; David Washburn
Date of Interview: 12/12-19/2002, 1/17/2003
A native of Richmond, Oishi grew up on the south side of town, where his family operated a carnation nursery. He was part of the first group of workers to be employed by the Kaiser shipyards. Upon graduation from Richmond High, he trained to become a welder and began work at Kaiser by late 1941. All of Richmond's Japanese American families, including the Oishis, were forced to move to the Tanforan Race Track in San Bruno, where they stayed until being relocated to internment camps throughout the West. The Oishis were interned at Topaz, Utah. Oishi was able to work in a nursery in Chicago during the war, and was among the first in his family to return to their nursery in Richmond in 1944. In 1945, Oishi was drafted by the army and served at P.O.W. camps in Virginia and California. He continued to work in the nursery business until the 1990s. Discusses: growing up in Richmond's Japanese American community and attending various city schools; the cut flower business, work at the shipyards, the Japanese internment, and life after the war.
Royce Ong
Interviewer: David Washburn
Date of Interview: 1/14/2003
Raised in Point Richmond, Ong attended high school in Richmond during World War II. He lived with his mother in their family home, established by Ong's grandfather near the turn of the 20th century. He discusses the school environment during 1940s, life in Point Richmond, his mother's job at Standard Oil during the war, and the Chinese American community in Richmond.
Kerby Parnell
Date of Interview: 11/9/06
Duration: 1.5 hours
Interviewer: Nadine Wilmot
In this interview, Kerby Parnell discusses her life of adventure. She migrated to Dinuba, California, from Arkansas with her family as a child in search of better opportunities. In Dinuba, her family worked in fruit and cotton, as part of California's agricultural industry. When Parnell was a teenager, she, her parents, and her grandmother all went to work in the Kaiser shipyards, making for three generations of one family represented simultaneously in Kaiser Shipyard 2. Also during the war, she worked at the Fox Theater, and then, after the war ended, with Rheem Manufacturing Company, Hercules Powder Company, and the Mechanics Bank, where she works still. Her interview illuminates the themes of migration, identity, labor, and a changing wartime Richmond.
Josephina Ramirez
Interviewer: David Washburn
Date of Interview: 10/14/2002
Ramirez moved from Santa Barbara, California, to Richmond after her husband secured a job in the Bay Area defense industry. She was an active member of Santa Barbara's Mexican Baptist community before World War II, and continued her participation in church activities with Richmond's First Mexican Baptist Church. Through the church, she acclimated to life in Richmond. Discusses: life in Santa Barbara before World War II, finding a home in Richmond, meeting people at church and church activities, moving out of Richmond to El Cerrito in the 1950s.
Newman Rebell
Interviewer: Jess Rigelhaupt
Date of Interview: 4/15/2008
Newman Rebell was born in Oakland and grew up in Berkeley. A teenager during World War II, he worked in military warehouses for the summers. He describes redlining in Oakland and Berkeley, watching sports for entertainment, fraternal organizations, and the church as a center of social life for African Americans people in Berkeley. He remembers Japanese American friends being taken to internment camps, and segregation in the military and in unions. We also hear perceptions of boomtown Richmond during World War II, and reactions to the use of atomic bombs against Japan.
Jeanne Reynolds
Interviewer: Esther Ehrlich
Date of Interview: 3/5/2003
Jeanne Reynolds grew up in Richmond in the 1920s and 1930s, and worked as a second-grade teacher in San Pablo during and after the war. She also worked as a secretary at the evening high school in Richmond in 1943, which provided an education to shipyard workers. Discusses: attitudes of the “locals” to the influx of newcomers during the war, including race-related issues; effects of the war on courtship, marriage, and child-rearing; the tremendous changes in Richmond during the war; conditions in the classrooms, social life, postwar Richmond.
Bobby Robbins
Interviewer: David Washburn
Date of Interview: 3/29/2003
A longtime active member of Richmond's music community, Robbins played guitar in several swing bands. He worked as a plumber in the Kaiser shipyards, and in several of the new housing developments that were erected during and after the war. He discusses nightlife and music in Richmond, the musicians' union and community, and newcomers to Richmond.
Roscoe Robinson
Interviewer: Brendan Furey
Date of Interview: 1/13/2003, 1/24/2003
Raised in Houston, Texas, Roscoe Robinson moved to the Bay Area in 1943 with his young wife at age 23. With a train pass issued from his previous employer, the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, Robinson journeyed to San Francisco and found a basement apartment in Chinatown for his family. He later found a job in the Richmond shipyards as a painter, where he worked until being drafted into the army in 1945.
Beatrice Rudney
Interviewer: Jess Rigelhaupt
Date of Interview: 5/15/2008
Beatrice Rudney was born on the outskirts of New Haven, Connecticut. She followed her sister into nursing, and attended nursing school during World War II at New York Hospital. After working at hospitals in New Mexico and Virginia, she moved to Oakland in 1948 to work at Kaiser, eventually becoming the assistant coordinator of home health at Kaiser Oakland. She offers a perspective on training as a nurse during a shortage of medical professionals because of the war. She tells of the emphasis on preventive care at Kaiser, and the racial and ethnic integration of the Bay Area.
Goldie Byrd Ruffin
Date of Interview: 6/12/06
Duration: 2 hours
Interviewer: Nadine Wilmot
Goldie Byrd Ruffin is from an old California family, dating back to 1849 with
connections to many important and historic African American political
organizations such as the Men of Tomorrow and the East Bay Democratic Club. Her
family resided in West Oakland before World War II and witnessed the influx of
new migration that accompanied wartime opportunities in the Bay Area. As a young
girl, she attended Prescott Elementary in West Oakland and was a
student in the classroom of Ida L. Jackson, first African American teacher in
the Oakland public schools. She attended University High School in Oakland,
which later became Merritt Junior College, and then went on to San Francisco
State and UCLA. She and all of her sisters became nurses; she went on to retire
from Richmond Unified School District as a school nurse, a topic which is
discussed in this interview. Her interview sheds light on the transition from
prewar to postwar Oakland from the perspective of an Oakland native. It also
presents a complicated picture of class identity and mobility for African Americans during this time frame.
Polly Russell
Interviewer: David Washburn
Date of Interview: 9/22/2002
Russell moved from Las Cruces, New Mexico, to Richmond with her parents and sister, Mary Lou. Soon after arriving, she was trained as a welder at the Kaiser shipyards. She frequently attended dances at local clubs and Oakland ballrooms. Discusses: life in Las Cruces before the war, adjusting to life in Richmond, working at Kaiser, meeting her husband, dancing and entertainment in the Bay Area, work after the war.
Nellie Sarracino
Interviewer: Elizabeth Castle
Date of Interview: 4/12/2005, 4/14/2005
Nellie Sarracino moved to the Richmond Indian Village in 1942 to work as an engine wiper on the railcars for the Santa Fe Railroad. Later she transferred to work in the repair shop then on to the steam engine supply room. She married Victor "Sandy" Sarracino, an electrician for the railroad, who also lived in the Richmond Indian Village. When she married, she stopped working and focused on her family. In her interview, she offers a detailed description of how the railroad boxcars were dismantled to provide housing for the families of the village. She also discusses her husband’s experiences as a member of a popular band which played throughout the Bay Area, and how she was able to cook traditional foods in a special oven built by her husband. She is Ruth Sarracino Hopper's mother.
Ruth Sarracino Hopper
Interviewer: Elizabeth Castle
Date of Interview: 4/12/2005, 4/13/2005
Ruth Sarracino Hopper, a Laguna Pueblo Indian, grew up with her family in the Richmond Indian Village. Her rich interview covers topics such as the social life of the young people in the village, the sports they played, and where they congregated in Richmond. She also provides a detailed and interpretive perspectives on how the tribal council and government of the Richmond Colony functioned in relationship to the local authorities in California as well as to the Laguna Pueblo Nation in New Mexico. Hopper describes how remarkable it was to speak her tribal language, practice traditional lifeways off the reservation in the confines of the village - yet all in a major urban area. She is the daughter of Nellie Sarracino.
Marian Sauer
Interviewer: Jess Rigelhaupt
Date of Interview: 10/15/2002
Marian Sauer taught in the Richmond public schools during World War II. She discusses her experiences playing in an all-woman swing band, as well as life in Richmond before and after the War.
Irvin Shiosee
Interviewer: Elizabeth Castle
Date of Interview: 4/11/2005
As a young boy during WWII, Irvin Shiosee moved to the Santa Fe Indian Village (also called the Richmond Indian Village) established in Richmond, California in the late 1920s. The Laguna Pueblo negotiated an agreement with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company, allowing it to lay tracks through their ancestral lands in exchange for jobs with the railroad. His grandfather and father worked for the railroad; during the school year, he grew up in Richmond and traveled back to the reservation for the summer. Shiosee discusses his life as a young man experiencing a sometimes hostile new culture in the Bay Area and the public school system in Richmond in particular. He shares his memories of race relations, social life in the Bay Area as a teenager, and what it was like to arrive at school a fluent speaker of his own Native language, Keresan. He also talks about how easily he picked up Japanese because of its similarity to Keresan while serving in the military. He is now retired, living at home on the Laguna Pueblo lands.
Reverend Andre Shumake Sr.
Date of Interview: 10/27/07 and 10/30/06
Duration: 1.75 hours
Interviewer: Nadine Wilmot
Reverend Shumake was born after World War II to parents who had migrated to the
Bay Area from Louisiana for wartime work. He was raised in the North Richmond
Missionary Baptist Church, where he is now an associate minister. He was a leader of the Tent City antiviolence vigil held in Richmond in October 2006, an organic community movement led by the faith
community to protest and mark the epidemic of violence and homicides
occurring among Richmond's predominantly African American youth. This interview
highlights how subsequent waves of migration were connected to the primary
wartime migration from the South. It also relates Richmond's past to its
present, showing the multigenerational sweep of residents' experience, and the
process of urban transformation.
Frank Shutiva was born in the Richmond Indian Village in 1927. He is from the Acoma Pueblo Nation, a neighboring tribe of the Laguna Pueblo, which also negotiated a deal with the Santa Fe Railroad to provide jobs for tribal members in exchange for access rights through Acoma land. He remembers that there were Indian "colonies" all along the rail line in California, including Bakersfield and Barstow; his father worked as a painter in Richmond. When World War II began, the teenage Shutiva got a job as a painter because all young men were headed into the service. After working for the railroad during school breaks, when he graduated from high school, he was drafted into the Army in 1946 and was stationed in Japan. He discusses how many parents were nervous about living in the village after the bombing of Pearl Harbor because of their proximity to potential enemy targets like the Standard Oil Company. Shutiva moved to the Acoma Pueblo reservation to retire.
Celeste Silvas
Interviewer: Judith Dunning
Date of Interview: 3/31/2003
Celeste is the sister of Stella Faria, also born and raised in Pinole. She talks about wartime in Richmond, her work in an administrative office in the shipyards, and then her work after World War II for the Richmond Unified School District. Like her sister, she has been an active member of the Portuguese community in Richmond and Pinole, and reflects here on being the daughter of immigrants. 1 hour, 45 minutes.
Betty Reid Soskin
Interviewer: Nadine Wilmot
Date of Interview: 11/7/2002, 11/11/2002
Betty Reid Soskin, of Louisiana Creole heritage, is a native of Oakland and was witness to the massive in-migration of Southerners during the 1940s. During the war she worked in the administrative offices of a black auxiliary boilermakers' union (A36) in the shipyards as well as the federal government. With her first husband, she started the famous Reid’s music store on Sacramento Street in Berkeley. She is active in Bay Area Democratic politics. Three interviews, 4.5 hours.
Marian Sousa
Interviewer: Kathryn Stine
Date of Interview: 9/30/2002
Marion Sousa was born and raised in Eugene, Oregon, and moved to the Bay Area in 1942. In this interview, she talks about her wartime work as a draftswoman in the shipyards, the scarcity of housing, being a woman in the shipyard and in the unions, and raising a family. 1 hour and 35 minutes.
Frank Stevenson
Interviewer: Esther Ehrlich
Date of Interview: 4/29/2003
Frank Stevenson was raised in rural Louisiana, left home after seventh grade, and worked his way westward, eventually ending up at the Ford Assembly Plant in Richmond, where he worked until his retirement. He discusses attitudes toward young African-American men both in the rural South and in the West, specifically in relation to work; importance of the UAW-CIO union; role of nightclubs and street life, particularly as they reflected social attitudes toward race and gender; housing in Richmond during the war years; informal segregation in Richmond; and shifts in neighborhoods after the war.
Harriette Stewart
Interviewer: Kathryn Stine
Date of Interview: 12/16/2002, 1/21/2003
Harriette Stewart trained as a nurse and was a member of the team of doctors and nurses that staffed Yard One of the Kaiser Shipyards. She came to the Bay Area from Nebraska via Los Angeles in 1941, and stayed and built a life with her husband. Her interview contains a great deal of information about the Kaiser shipyards--labor and safety practices and treatment of injuries--and the beginnings and growth of Kaiser Permanente Health Plan, especially obstetrics at Kaiser's MacArthur and Broadway location. It also contains insights into women's changing roles in mothering and working; housing; and the flow of migrant workers arriving in Richmond.
Hattie Stillwell
Date of Interview: 8/12/06
Duration: 1.75 hours
Interviewer: Jess Rigelhaupt
Hattie Stillwell came from a rice-farming family in Arkansas. She moved to the
Bay Area with her husband during World War II, and worked at Moore Dry Dock shipyard.
In this interview, she discusses her early life and family background in
Arkansas, migrating to the Bay Area, the boilermakers' union, how Oakland has changed
over time, and racial discrimination in Arkansas and California.
Vie Taylor Wims Interviewer: Nadine Wilmot
Date of Interview: 3/1/2005
Vie Taylor Wims is a retired African American realtor who worked for Neatha Williams, the major realtor in Richmond working with African Americans looking to buy a home. This interview focuses on changes in the housing market during and after World War II, as well as strategies developed to secure home loans for black property buyers. Wims also worked as a burner at Moore Dry Dock. She came to the Bay Area from Texas during World War II. 2 hours.
Howard Thor
Interviewer: Brendan Furey
Date of Interview: 11/12/2002
Born in San Franciso in 1923, Howard Thor came from a Scandinavian family of merchant marines. His father, a leader of the International Longshoremen's Association, greatly influenced his decision to enter the merchant marines after the war and later teach at the California Maritime Academy. During the war, Thor was a student at UC Berkeley; during the summer, he worked in the Richmond shipyards as a shipfitter helper.
Faith Traversie
Interviewer: Elizabeth Castle
Date of Interview: 2/19/2005
Faith Traversie joined her sister, Theodora Means, in the Bay Area during World War II and went to work as a “Winnie the Welder” at the Mare Island Shipyard. After receiving superior marks in her qualifying tests, Traversie attended welding classes and did most of her work on heavy cruisers. Traversie, a Lakota from the Yankton Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota, fielded many questions about her identity as a Lakota woman during her two years at the shipyard. After returning to South Dakota, she and her husband, Whitney "Jockey" Traversie, become stalwart supporters of the American Indian Movement when it swept through the Dakotas in the 1970s. Her children and nephews were key organizers in the movement.
Isiah Turner
Interviewers: Richard Cándida Smith
Date of Interviews: 2/4/2005
Isiah Turner, retired city manager of Richmond during the launching of the park, grew up in Parchester Village, a post-World War II suburban housing development in Richmond where African Americans were able to buy homes. Many of the homeowners, including Turner's father, were war industry workers who had come from the South in search of employment. He discusses the development of the community, education, and race relations in Richmond. 2 hours.
John Vincent
Interviewer: Judith Dunning
Date of Interview: 6/25/2003
In this interview, John Vincent talks about the history of the Richmond Yacht Club, of which he was an early member; its displacement by the shipbuilding activities of World War II; how it survived the war; and its second life after the war. He discusses security and patriotism during the war years, with some reference to the internment of the Japanese and Italians. He talks about MacDonald Avenue and Richmond before, during, and after the war. During the war, he worked as an engineer at Chevron's research and development department, developing and supplying new forms of lubricant for large vehicles and submarines. This is the second interview the Regional Oral History Office has conducted with Vincent; he was first interviewed in 1990 as part of the Richmond Community History Oral History Series. 1.5 hours.
Jamie and Louise Voorhies
Date of Interview: May 31, 2006
Duration: 2.25 hours
Interviewer: Nadine Wilmot
Jamie and Louise Voorhies had been married for more than 65 years at the time of this
interview. Jamie was born and raised in rural Nebraska; Louise is from Denver,
Colorado, where they met and married. He came to Richmond to work in the
shipyards after training in Denver. She followed shortly after, and they
settled in Richmond and raised a family. They are lifelong Kaiser Health Plan members who were part of Kaiser Hospital's volunteer corps until recently. This interview explores some of the signal events of World War II from the home
front vantage point; work in the shipyards; perspectives on sexuality and gender roles, race, and ethnicity; and urban change in Richmond. It presents a complicated picture of class, identity, and economic mobility for Americans.
Hubert Webster
Interviewer: Judith Dunning
Date of Interview: 12/12/2002
Hubert Edward Webster was born in Louisiana, where his family farmed and his father worked in a sawmill, and moved to the Bay Area following the war. In this interview, he talks about his early life and work in rural Louisiana, being drafted into the military and being stationed overseas, and returning home after the war. His interview gives insight into the terrain of postwar Richmond. Webster is joined in this interview by his wife, Cecile, who discusses raising a family and the changes Richmond has seen over the years. 1 hour 45 minutes.
Dallas Wilcox Interviewer: Brendan Furey
Date of Interview: 1/19/2005
A native of the Bay Area who grew up in North Oakland, Dallas Wilcox was a slinger in the Richmond shipyards when he was 17 years old. He also worked in the Moore Dry Dock shipyard. This interview contains rich descriptions of the Bay Area before, during, and after the war, and of shipyard work. 2.0 hours.
Lee Wilson
Date of Interview: 6/22/06
Duration: 2 hours
Interviewer: Nadine Wilmot
Lee Wilson traveled by train to Oakland from Arkansas in June 1943. She came
to join her husband, who had preceded her to the Bay Area to participate in the
wartime employment boom. Upon her arrival, she moved to Richmond and began working in Kaiser Shipyard
4, where she worked for the remainder of the war. Soon
after, she joined the North Richmond Missionary Baptist Church. She discusses her wartime work in the shipyards and membership in the boilermakers'
union, the internment of the Japanese, and some signal events of World War II,
wartime rationing strategies, and housing in Richmond during and after the war.
This interview also creates a more complex picture of migration.
Bernadine Wong
Interviewer: Jess Rigelhaupt
Date of Interview: 11/28/2007
The seventh of twelve children, Bernadine Wong was born in Locke, moved to Courtland, and spent her elementary school years in Nevada City. In 1942, her family moved to Oakland to run a grocery store. She remembers singing in the adult choir at an episcopal church in Nevada City, and the diversity she found after moving to Oakland. She offers a view of war rationing from the perspective of running her family’s grocery stores, and a tale of racial and ethnic integration through the foods requested by the family’s diverse customers. She also talks about going to war bond rallies and seeing the housing shortages during World War II.
Dorothy Wright
Interviewer: David Dunham
Date of Interview: 3/26/2003
Dorothy Wright was born in Oregon, and traveled by boat with her parents to the Bay Area in 1921 as an infant. She lived in Oakland and worked in Richmond during the war. In this interview she discusses her family background and her young adult years in the workforce: working at Montgomery Ward in Oakland, as a telephone operator charged with decommissioning the telephone accounts of Japanese households set for internment, and in the human resources department of Standard Oil at the height of wartime hiring. This interview offers insight into gender, race, and ethnic relations before and during the war. Duration: 2 hours.
Lucille Ziesenhenne
Interviewer: Jess Rigelhaupt
Date of Interview: 2/12/2003
Lucille Ziesenhenne has lived in Richmond since 1936. In her interview, she discusses how Richmond changed from a "sleepy town" to an industrial center during World War II. She also details her experiences working for the War Manpower Commission in Richmond.
