Mrs. Brenda Hotard: After WWII- School Life

An Incredible Story of a Life Devoted to Dance and So Much More

 

AFTER WWII: SCHOOL LIFE

When we recovered, it was slow from the war. The family was still poor. Thank heavens for good schools! My sister and I both excelled at school and loved school. We loved school. I would die rather than be prevented from going to school, so often when I felt like I was maybe sick, I wouldn’t let my mum know because I wouldn’t want to stay home. School was just a wonderful, wonderful experience. My sister was a year ahead of me, of course, and the schooling was excellent in London in those early years. We really were progressed rapidly from the reading, writing, and arithmetic of the early age. That is my impression.

By then, I was definitely always into acting, dancing, and entertaining. I knew that because I was always performing at home. If uncles and aunts would come over, I would perform something—sing a song or do a dance. I found in school—other than the academic part, which was always fun and the fact that I was always, from day one very athletic—that I would be selected to do the narration for any of the major productions that required a narrator. It was always, “Well, Brenda’s going to tell the story.” So I did all the nativity plays—any play or production that needed a principal speaker. And I usually had a speaking role in any play.

We did one about “raggle-taggle” Gypsies, and I remember standing up there. We took that to competition actually, in London. **Announces strongly:**

Away with the raggle-taggle Gypsies, ho!

(We laugh…) That sounds like so much fun! It was fun; it was very fun. It was the tale of a wealthy family’s daughter who was lured away by a gypsy clan passing through.

That was at the elementary school or the grade school. My teachers there were very strongly encouraging my mum to allow me to pursue the arts. Of course, my mum didn’t know what “the arts” really were. My parents had no concept of really “the arts.”

At age eleven, for every child in the English school system no matter where you lived up and down the land (Scotland too, I believe, and Wales), you took a very important set of examinations called the Eleven Plus. Everyone took it on the same day throughout the land. My sister and I had no idea what this was all about really; we were just told it was the Eleven Plus or scholarship exam. We would “sit” and answer all these exam questions and hand this examination in, which was not unusual. We did that all the time, but these were all graded by an essential examining body of the entire land. The standard was uniform and equable wherever you lived.

A small percentage, I guess “the most successful group” if you like to put it that way, were given the opportunity to go to a “Grammar School.” The Grammar School was a school of the highest learning standard and expectation. (We didn’t even really know what the Grammar School was; we didn’t know the meaning of these terms.) Then, you might go instead to a “Secondary Central School,” which would be the next lower category. You might go to a “Secondary Modern School” if you did not do as well on these exams. The Secondary Modern School was something like a trade school. The Secondary Central School was the school in which you could transition up or down if you happened to be a “late bloomer” or become less interested over time. We thought it was a wonderful system!

Well, my sister was offered the chance to go to The Burlington Grammar School for Girls. It had always been a fee-paying school founded in the sixteenth century as a church school. It happened to be a stone-throw away from our house. We were aware of it because we would see these Burlington Grammar School girls. They would have these really spiffy velour hats, and their uniforms were rather nice. We would see them being dropped off by cars. (My parents never owned a car—not from the day they were born until the day they died.)

So my sister got to go to the “Burlington” because that very year, the Burlington was required by the London County Council (the governing authority of all the London schools) to open to eligible grammar school students coming from surrounding areas, no matter what their means. We could ordinarily never have afforded to go to that school. My sister was in the first wave of this new system.

The next year, I got to go to the Burlington as well. So we were both there, and that was when our education foundation really deepened because they offered foreign languages (Latin, some Greek, French, and German) and a curriculum that we could never have imagined. They also offered all manners of sports. There were two specially qualified sports mistresses, and we played every sport in the book (field hockey, gymnastics, tennis, netball, rounders, and all the track and field sports). We had a field day every year in the summer, which was an outdoor event with all the running and track and field events. It opened up a world that we would never have had the opportunity to experience had we not just happened to be arriving at that Eleven Plus when all those changes were happening.

My sister and I have both talked about all this and have said how fortunate we both were to happen to have been brought into this excellent system. It sounds like a college. It sounds amazing! It was just wonderful, and the music… Of course, I was so interested in the music, and the music teacher, whose name was Ms. Godden, and I became very “good friends.” I got to sing a lot of solos, and we did lots of competitive choral work within an intramural network of schools, which were all at one time public schools (the equivalent of US private schools). They were all top-notch schools.

(To be continued in following sections…)

Mrs. Brenda Hotard: Time of the War

(Born 1941)

 

An Incredible Story of a Life Devoted to Dance and So Much More

Parents: Edward George & Vera Margaret

Father’s Parents: Ellen “Nanny Branscum”

Mother’s Parents: Eleanor “Nell” May

Siblings: Joan Margaret, Michael John, Ronald George

Husband: Ernest Paul

Children: Jennifer & Paula

 

TIME OF THE WAR

When were you born?

I was born in 1941 in London during the 2^nd World War. I was the second child in the family, my sister having been born slightly less than a year before I was. We lived in a small brick house in a suburb at 39 Primula Street, W12.

We were in blackout wartime conditions at the time. I am told that my mother went rather suddenly into labor; we didn’t own a car or a telephone, as we were a working-class family. Because of this, my father put my mum into a child stroller (my mum was small) and rushed her to the hospital, which fortunately was a scant mile away. It became a famous burn center for RAF (Royal Air Force) pilots who had serious burn injuries during the war. It is now a famous research center and is still the hospital for burn casualties; it was being transformed at the time of my birth.

My dad apparently rushed my mum in, and the nursing staff assisted her to the delivery. My dad said that there was no waiting time. They took Mummy away, and then they came right back out with her clothes, which were still warm. They were saying, “It’s a girl!” (Laughs…) I rushed into the world, which is somehow very typical because I have been rushing ever since!

I was the second child, and because I had an older sister who was apparently precocious, I learned very quickly by always wanting to be the same as my “one-year-older-than-I” sister. Growing up, we were treated as twins because I was not lagging behind in size or manner. From the start, I was always dancing, making up odd movement phrases and gaits. (We laugh…)

My mum played the radio constantly; she loved music. There was always popular music on the radio. (We had no other access to music.) She sang. She sang everything. She had a very pretty voice, and she knew the words, which is why with any song that comes on the radio that’s of her vintage, I seem to know all the words. I have been asked there is any song I don’t know. Well, if there is any song from that era that I don’t know, it’s because my mum didn’t know it! I just remember her voice, and I remember all the words to the songs. It was during the American songbook era, and “we” don’t write songs like that anymore. It was Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin, and all the greatest songwriters of the 40’s. Those were the songs that were being played because I was born in ’41, and I was growing up with my mum singing all the time.

That was significant because I was surrounded by music. It wasn’t classical music; it wasn’t performance per-se, but it was beautiful melodies from the great songbook enduring in beautiful words. Have you ever listened to them? Mm-hmm. You have to listen to them. Like in our ballet class—“I can’t help loving that man of mine!” Yes… you hear me sing it. (Laughs…) That’s Gershwin! **Sings**

 

Fish gonna swim; birds gonna fly,

I’m gonna love one man ‘til I die.

Can’t help lovin’ that man of mine…

 

And that’s only the opening little verse, but they are all… Ella Fitzgerald—do you know Ella Fitzgerald? Mm-hmm, and jazz and big band and all the musicals, like Oklahoma. Oklahoma came out then. Show Boat… Yes. Some of the songs in those early Broadway musical theatre productions are enduring today. They are just as beautiful. “Surry with the Fringe on Top”—do you know that one? Oh, yeah! From Oklahoma! From Oklahoma. And of course, the Oklahoma theme (starts singing). The lyrics are so very, very beautiful! We can’t hold a candle to them today.

Anyway, that was part of my up growing, as was poverty. We didn’t think of ourselves as poor; we didn’t know what it meant to be poor, so it was not a negative association for us at all. But we were poor. There were four children in the family eventually. My dad, who had his own little business before the war, lost his business during the war. He had been apprenticed as a carpenter in his early teens. His business was in repairing and making fine furniture. I think he was a master carpenter, but nobody was making and repairing fine furniture during the war. (Laughs…) We were lucky we could save a stick of furniture from the bombs!

So, his business went away. He did not serve in the army because he had a congenital heart murmur. He had had rheumatic fever as a small boy, and rheumatic fever, in those days, was often not diagnosed or treated. It frequently left its sufferers with a heart valve deficiency, so those people with a heart ‘murmur’ were always asked, “Did you have rheumatic fever?” In many cases, the patient did not know or remember.

My father did not pass his physical for war service, so he worked with the Civil Defense, getting people out of burning buildings and saving people from bomb devastation. My sister and I have determined that when I was two and a half (around the summer of 1943) and she was three and a half, something occurred that we remember as if it were yesterday.

She and I shared a bedroom in the upstairs of our very small railway house; it was a brick house that my parents rented from the Railway Company. (My dad didn’t work for them, but somehow, we lived in one of their houses.) We had a front garden—mostly grass and michaelmas daisies—and a very small back garden. About 25-30 feet up a steep embankment from that garden was a railway line. It was the Great Western Railway that traversed South England at its widest dimension from the West Country to the seashores of the East. Trains rattled by all the time as we were growing up. We didn’t notice them much, except during the war.

At that time, outside our back window (our bedroom faced the railway line)… First of all, they had huge barrage balloons hanging in the air. Have you ever seen a barrage balloon? It’s like a Good Year blimp that you would have floating over a ballgame, but these were all gray. They were like huge, gray elephants up there, and they were a screen, a barrier against an aircraft coming in to bomb us. So, we became accustomed to seeing these huge objects floating around in the sky, day and night.

Then, we had an Ak-Ak gun—an anti-aircraft gun on the railway (you could see it), as it would trundle back and forth. There was a siding that it would go into if a train was due, but it was constantly firing if there was some foreign object in the sky. They, of course, would be alerted to shoot it down. So, this was one of my very first memories. I also remember the milk trains carrying supplies coast and on to the frontlines across the Channel. The trains would come down that railway line shrouded in black whispering a muffled clack-clack, clack-clack—very quiet.

Everything was shrouded in black; we were not permitted to use lights in our houses. We had to have complete blackout conditions, so that the enemy would not have a target. All the time? Yes, because we were constantly being invaded from the air. Anyway, it was night, and we were up at the window because the Ak-Ak gun was just so noisy. We were up there looking, and as it fired, it would illuminate the sky. Then, all at once, we saw this black, rocket-shaped object with flames just flaring from its tail. We hadn’t seen anything like it before, and it was terrifying for us. We both instantly started to scream loudly. We couldn’t interpret it. You don’t even wait; it was just a reaction.

My mum and dad hadn’t gone to bed, yet. My mum was knitting; my dad was reading the newspaper. I remember all the details of this, and they just scurried up the stairs. The stairs were like this narrow (shows me with her hands). Two people side-by-side could not run up the stairs. They were steep like little cottage stairs. So, they were falling and bumping each other, coming up the stairs, and they grabbed us. They didn’t know what we were screaming about. They grabbed us out of our beds, and just as they did, the whole house shook… This was the very first V1 rocket and had been fired in Germany with a time mechanism to come over London (just where we lived) and then cut out and drop and bomb. It gave us no warning, no whine.

There was a V2 rocket, which came later. They were both just devastatingly destructive to the city of London. But that bomb had dropped in the street next to ours. That’s why we saw it—because it was on its way down. If it had hit a structure along the way, it would have exploded, of course. My mum and dad had no idea what it was. It was all big news the next day.

Then, as a result of that, we—the children of London—were evacuated out of the city of London and maybe some of the other cities, too. (You might know this story.) The people of the countryside and the smaller towns in England opened their homes to take the children of London in and keep them safe during the war. I remember very well. We went to two places; we were miserably unhappy in both of them. Many things that I won’t go into happened in these various homes that are not good memories of that time. Eventually, my mum who came to visit (I think on Saturdays only) decided, “Enough of this. We’re going back to London. We will take the risk.” It was a very calculated decision on her part because there was bombardment danger in London, but she could see that we were not being well cared for and that we were very unhappy.

So, we spent that time between when she came for us and the end of the war in London. We would retreat to an air raid shelter. Whenever it was possible to do so, the yard of each individual house in England was excavated, and an air raid shelter was built underground. It was damp and cold. We would go down there and spend the night because the bombing usually happened at night. Every night? Every night. It seemed the wail of the sirens were always sounding. I’ll never forget that sound and the instant fear that followed. Toward the end of the war, though, my mum and dad stopped going down there because we would all wake up in the morning with puffy eyes because of the dampness. We would all be coughing. My mum said, “You know, it was a choice.” It was always a choice. Either go down there and be safe if you got a direct hit, or go up into your house and not have all these physical reactions.

We had a big, big, huge oak trestle table, so it had great bulges of oak legs and then a single, connecting, strong board underneath. It was very heavy and very thick and wide enough that we could make beds under it. We slept on one side or the other of this trestle. Bombs would be landing; we would hear them. The house would shake. My dad would say, “If this house takes a bomb, this is probably the safest place.” We also had a cupboard under the stairs, and that was another alternative place. For wartime experiences, there are many in detail, but those are the ones that stand out in my mind.

During the war and after the war, food was scarce. We had ration books, so each family could only buy a certain number or amount of anything. Everything wasn’t always available anyway, so we eeked out a pretty narrow diet of essentials. But the government was very wise about trying to maintain the health of the children. At clinics that were dispersed throughout London in every borough (district), essential foods were available and free, such as cod liver oil, which I loved. My mum would go and get a bottle as often as possible. Again, it was rationed and depended on the number of children you had. At that time, my mum had my sister and me.

We had a teaspoon of cod liver oil every day, and we had evaporated milk or sometimes even condensed milk. Have you ever had evaporated milk? It’s sort of like Carnation in a can that has been boiled, and it’s got a slightly different taste from milk. It’s very nourishing. We also had dried egg powder. We didn’t have eggs because all the eggs were being supply-lined to the troops, so we had egg powder, and we had to reconstitute it. I remember so well those three and orange juice. My mum would get a small bottle of concentrated orange juice. I am certain that the reason we came through the war in decently good health as children (with all the deprivation that there was) was that the government provided these essential nutrients through their clinics that were everywhere.

However, we couldn’t get just anything we wanted until about ten years after the war. It took the country an incredibly long time. Maybe not ten, maybe six years. That’s a long time. It took ever so long for the farmers and the crops and the population that it took to run the farms and the factories in the cities—the whole infrastucture. We were just so devastated after the war.

I think having lived through that with my sister, it is easy to see why people who are not bombarded, like people in America, have no concept of what it is like to live through the terror of that warfare with Germany. Of course, it was our second war of the twentieth century against that terrible foe, and the country was on its knees at the end of that war—financially bankrupt. The citizens and all the buildings in London had been bombarded. It was such a difficult thing to build back from, and we could not have done it without the help of America—not only America coming into the war and helping to win it, but also helping us to recover from after-the-war. We were all very well aware of that and have never stopped being thankful.

Our school was a walking distance away from the house, and I remember in some of those very first years when we went to school, we would occasionally be called to the nurse’s office. On this occasion, everyone was filed into there, and we were given something like Ovaltine or hot chocolate powder. It was sweet, and it would be leftover supplies from the war that had been provided by the United States.

To prepare us, the school would send home a note: “Please bring some paper bags.” In those days, we saved every paper bag. We saved everything and anything that was useful and could be saved. Candy, which in England was called “sweets,” was displayed loose in bins or behind glass, then weighed, and poured into a paper bag not much bigger than a French Fry bag. We would take the paper bags into the school, and they would fill them with “this” chocolate powder. I will never forget the taste of this divine chocolate powder because we just didn’t have such luxuries. In fact, I have been searching for that particular flavor for the rest of my life. “Oh, can I taste that chocolate powder? Is that from America?” I wanted to find that fabulous nectar that I remembered from the war! (Laughs…) I never did find it. Anyway, these are funny little things that stay with you through your life.

 

(To be continued in following sections…)

Mrs. Newell Tozzer (Part III)

(Continued from Part II…)

Were you interested in politics as much as you were interested in history?

Yes indeed. I couldn’t help but be interested in politics, being from my family with Daddy’s fame and newspaper knowledge. My grandfather, Alfred Colquitt Newell, had been a big newspaperman himself before he went into the insurance business. His grandfather was governor of Georgia—Alfred Holt Colquitt.

We would talk politics at home all the time. It was just inevitable.

Do you remember the first presidential election that you got to vote in for?

No, I don’t really, but I think at that time, Georgia had just become one of the first states if not the first to let eighteen year olds vote. Was the age twenty-one before? Yes, but then Georgia changed all that, which was significant.

Do you have a favorite president from over the years?

Probably Eisenhower. Daddy knew Eisenhower in the war. Really? Oh yes, he did. He went to his press conferences, so he met him and knew him. I was at Sweet Briar when Eisenhower was inaugurated, and Daddy got me tickets to the parade, which was wonderful. I could go up and had good tickets to sit up on the parade route to see Eisenhower’s inauguration, so I think I would say Eisenhower. I took a friend of mine from Sweet Briar, and we went up on the train early in the morning (probably at 5 or 6am) to spend the day in Washington. Daddy was already there. That was when Daddy was the president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, so I think he had an even more special place to sit than we did. Still, he got us a good seat on the parade route. That’s exciting! Oh, it was thrilling!

Then, Eisenhower awarded my daddy the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the highest award a civilian can achieve in this country. Wow! Was there an event that happened that was the reason it was given to him? I think it was mostly for his war correspondence—his bravery, his war correspondent career, and being captured by the Germans. He wasn’t even in the military.

He could’ve been in the Army, and he hoped and tried to do that. However, there was some minor health reason that kept him away from that. You see, Clemson was a military school in those days. He was a Second Lieutenant when he graduated from Clemson. He kept that up (his Second Lieutenant title), but for some minor health reason, he couldn’t join the Army. That was when he persuaded his boss to send him to London as a war correspondent, which really made his fame.

What about your career after your year of teaching at Westminster?

I guess I taught there for two years; it was wonderful. Then, I went up to Cleveland in the summertime to be in my sister’s wedding, and I met Brent Tozzer and fell in love with him. I met him in Cleveland; he was from Cleveland. He was much older than I—sixteen or seventeen years older depending on what time of year it was. He had been in World War II and had a wonderful record in World War II.

He was very handsome and was working for Kenyon College, the Episcopal school. I had always said that I wanted to marry someone and live in a college town. I met him through friends of Mary Lane and John’s on a blind date and fell in love with him. That was between the two years of teaching at Westminster.

We decided to get married, and after I taught just half of the second year, I went to Dr. Presley and told him. He said, “Well, I think you need to just go on, and I ‘ll get someone else to fill in the rest of the year for you.” That was a hard thing to do… So I got married and moved to Ohio!

Do you remember your wedding day and what it was like? Was it a really happy day?

Oh, it was a beautiful, happy day. Unusual for Cleveland, the weather turned good. It was April, and it can be snowy in April in Cleveland, but the weather turned pretty. I woke up that morning, and all of a sudden it was going to be a beautiful day, which was incredible.

We were having a small wedding at home, which Mary Lane had had, too. Mine was a little bit bigger than Mary Lane’s, but still. (We laugh…) There were certain people I wanted to be sure were invited, like my mother’s UDC, the United Daughters of the Confederate. She loved them.

At any rate, I woke up and was having coffee out in the backyard. We had a beautiful backyard that went down into a lake, and there was a summerhouse—we called it a gazebo (a pretty little octagonal summerhouse out by the lake). I said, “The weather is going to be pretty, and I’m going to be married out here,” so we changed the plans from having the wedding in the house to out in this beautiful, little summerhouse. It was a lovely, outdoor wedding; that was fun.

I had already asked my best friend in Cleveland’s two little girls to be flower girls and to carry my train. (I had a long train.) When it was so pretty, I asked the next-door neighbors’ little girls to be flower girls, too—we were good friends with them. She had two little girls about the same age; they were about three and five years old. I just had Mary Lane for my matron-of-honor, and Billy was Brent’s best man. Then, we had these four little flower girls carrying two little bouquets and two of them carrying my train. Wow, that must have meant the world to them.

I worked at the newspaper two different times here at the Atlanta Journal, which is now the Atlanta Journal Constitution. The first time, I worked for Sue Mobley’s, Aunt Sue Brown Stern, who was the society editor. I worked there just about eight months for her maybe. I loved her; I was very close to her, but I got very tired of just writing up weddings and parties. That got boring, so I quit. Then, I went back to Cleveland.

The second time, I had gotten my Master’s at Georgia State University. That was where I finally got my Master’s. I got a job then, which didn’t last long, but it was exciting, working for historic preservation section of the state of Georgia. Then, I got mixed up in some political mess, so the job didn’t last but six months. But… you have to remember one thing. This is a true saying: “When one door closes, another opens.”

This lady who was a friend of my parents and who had a big job at the AJC—she and I were having lunch just when I found out that the state of Georgia job was not going to last. She said, “Newell, I have a place for you in the promotion department of the AJC,” so I went there and worked for her for at least two years. That was an exciting job but demanding. I had to be downtown at 7:30 in the morning to do things. If there were a hole in the newspaper, I had to put a promotion ad in. I quit that job in the promotion department after probably two years, but it was a wonderful experience.

Then, another door opened, and I met Frances Porcher, whom I had never known before. She was an Atlanta girl who was four or five years older than I. She was the top editor at the Centers for Disease Control. Francis introduced me around at the CDC, and I hooked up with this wonderful lady who is still my friend, Priscilla Holeman. Priscilla hired me as a writer/editor, and I worked for her for probably two years.

Then, I got what they called a “temporary job.” In other words, I didn’t have full insurance benefits. Then, I got a job with another part of the CDC called “NIOSH,” which was initials for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. They were just moving the headquarters to CDC in Atlanta from Washington. I got a job there, and that job was fabulous. I was able to go places, do things. When the director of NIOSH found out that I spoke fluent French, he created a position for me as director of international visitors. Since NIOSH’s headquarters was in Atlanta, we had a lot of international visitors.

I was with CDC (most of that time was with NIOSH) for almost twenty years. Wow. What that after Mom and Brent were in college? During their high school and college years. That ended up being a very wonderful career for me. NIOSH and I just meshed like this (shows me with her hands). I put on big meetings in Cincinnati, Ohio where NIOSH had about one hundred people working. It was a time when I just commuted between Atlanta and Cincinnati. My boss sent me to a World Health Organization meeting in Geneva. Wow.

So learning to speak French has been a great help in my life and career, and it all began with Mademoiselle Groleau at the Washington Seminary. (We laugh…) She was fabulous. I did my junior year in France from Sweet Briar College, too.

Was your junior year in France the first time that you went out of the country?

Yes, we went to Canada a lot because Ann Lane and Bob lived close to Canada. Was that when you were growing up? Yes, they lived in Aroostook County, Maine. They bottled Coca-Cola up there. We went up there in the summer three or four times. Mother took Mary Lane and me up there on the train when we were little. Boston was halfway; it’s a long way.

After you went to France during your junior year in college, is that when you started to love traveling?

Yes, during my junior year. Sue was there, too. We were there together in Paris. We didn’t live together, but we traveled together on all our vacations. Then, Sue Brown came over right after we got out of school. I went to Spain with Sue and Sue Brown, and I had about two or three weeks there. We went on the train from Paris to Spain. I had that much travel in the summer. I had lots of travel during the year. Then, I came back home, and we traveled on a boat, which was wonderful (on a ship in those days to Europe). We didn’t fly. How long did that take? Five or six days. It was wonderful being it gave you that wonderful feeling of being in transit. I love being on the ocean in transit. You really knew that you were between things, then.

The summer between my junior and senior years was when we moved to Cleveland. Daddy had gone up there before, but Mother had commuted between Atlanta and Cleveland. Daddy had promised me that we wouldn’t break up our home in Atlanta. He said, “We will not break up the home in Atlanta until you get home and can be a part of it.” So I was a part of packing up the house in Atlanta. That was sad, of course, but Nana could always make it fun. She said, “We ought to have a dance the last night.” (Laughs…) Did you? We didn’t, but I had a date, I remember, and we kind of danced around.

We had one car, then. We never had two cars until we were in Cleveland. Mother was, of course, so wiped out and tired from the packing of the huge, old house we had here. She was organizing all of that. Mama went on the train to Cleveland to rest because it was a long train journey. Daddy put Mary Lane, Billy, and me in the car to drive up. At the last minute, Corinne Murray (who was our helper then)—she did a little of everything and was a young black woman. At the last minute, Mother had invited her to come with us, and she said no, that she didn’t want to come. Still, at the last minute, she came and jumped in the car and moved to Cleveland with us. She had a big, nice room in our basement and stayed right there with us.

At any rate, in Cleveland when I started work up there after Mother had had me take the Junior League provisional course, I was office manager at that brokerage firm (my first job in Cleveland).

What do you think your favorite, biggest accomplishment that you’re most proud of is?

Raising my children to be good people. That’s my biggest and best accomplishment—no question about it. It may be my hardest one! (Laughs…) Oh, I bet!

What was the hardest thing about raising children?

I think the hardest thing was being very much on my own. I was a single mother, so I think that was the hardest part. You know, your grandfather (my husband) died when they were very young, really. That was awfully hard on them and on me because he had been a big help to me. That was sad and hard.

Was the divorce really hard, too?

Yes, it was, but I felt like I had to do it. I didn’t want to do it, but I felt like I had to do it because he had lost three or four jobs. He had just gone into a decline, so to speak. He just went downstairs into his office and sort of stayed down there. It was just impossible for me to be married to someone who was not out in the world. I had never been involved with a man who wasn’t working. If I had been in a different time or era, maybe I would have just realized that I needed to be the worker bee, but I grew up in a different time when a man went to work and had a job. I was not used to that, so yes, it was hard. It took a long time. Yes, I can definitely understand that, though. I know it was hard on your mom and uncle, but I had to do it… kind of to save myself.

Mom always talks about your dog Honey. What’s your favorite pet that you’ve had?

I was always the dog person in our family even growing up. We had a wonderful West Highland Terrior that somebody gave us named Burly—Burly of Bryans’ Burlesque. (Chuckles…) He was a white Scottie, but mostly he was grey. We loved Burly, and I loved Burly so much.

One time Burly got lost. Mother put an ad in the paper for him. This was during the war, and she said, “One dirty West Highland Terrier in the vicinity of Peachtree Road in Lindbergh.” Mother got a telephone call from this man at Christ the King, a Roman Catholic Church up the street. He said (speaking in a French accent), “Mrs. Bryan, this is Monsieur Morleigh at Christ the King. I think we have your dog. Come see.” So Mother went up there, and Burly ran into her arms. Aww… Burly was all-white! They had bathed him! (Laughs…) The priest said to my mother, “Mrs. Bryan, your dog likes to go for a ride in the car.” This was when gas was rationed, and we couldn’t go for a ride much. Mother said, “Yes, so do I, but I just have an A-card, so I don’t get to do it very much.” Then, Mother offered the award that she was going to give, and he said, “Oh no, I will just give it to the church,” so Burly came home with us.

Burly was one of my favorites. Honey was who I brought your mother and Brent up with. Honey was a darling dog. She died at the foot of my bed. I came home from work at the newspaper one day and found her asleep at the foot of my bed. Fortunately, Brent was home, and he and Billy buried her in the backyard. Yeah, I think she was my mom’s favorite dog. Oh, I’m sure she was. She was so sweet… just a real honey and pretty—a cocker spaniel.

Then, I started having cats. Like ChaCha! (Laughs…) I decided that that was how your mother and Brent could learn the facts of life! Oh, in having kittens… I was going to let the cat have kittens. Fortunately, my mother happened to be here from Clemson and was staying with me. One time, the cat we had (I think it was Snowflake) had a bunch of kittens, and she refused to feed them. She would not nurse them.

It was just awful. I didn’t have any money to speak of, so I couldn’t just constantly take her to the vet. Still, I took her to the vet one time, and he said, “This is what we call ‘feline inertia.’” I said, “You mean that she’s just lazy?!” He said, “Yes, she’s just lazy.” So he told me that the Humane Society would spay her for very little money. He said that I had to get some goats’ milk and drip goats’ milk with a dropper into those teeny little kittens’ mouths. Aw… For several nights every four to five hours, Mama and I would drop goats’ milk into those baby, baby, baby kittens’ mouths. We kept most of them alive.

From then on, I had cats. I tried with one puppy dog, and I even built a run for the dog in the backyard. It dug out from under the run and escaped, so that’s when I decided that I just couldn’t do dogs any longer. I just wasn’t home during the day to train them. I had to give up on dogs and concentrate on kitty cats.

What are some of your philosophical beliefs about life?

Whenever one door closes, another one opens. That’s a big belief. There are hard times, but you get through them. Work is a good thing, and family is the most important thing. Family is the number one, most important thing in life aside from a belief in God. Believe in God and then family. They pull you through the toughest times. Yes.

What problems in the world are you most concerned about, and what do you think needs to be done about them?

Oh, Mamie! (Laughs…) Is that too deep, too??? (We laugh…) As far as the worst situations in the world, I think we still have the same problems that we’ve had all along.

What advice do you have for me and younger generations about living their lives and making choices?

Keep your options open. Study hard, play hard, love hard. Make lots of friends, and keep friends. The longer you keep them, the longer you’ll value them. Just like in Girl Scouts: “Make new friends, but keep the old.” Exactly, we put that on Mama’s tombstone. That’s a good motto.

Keep thinking, and what matters most is family.

Mrs. Newell Tozzer (Part II)

(Continued from Part I…)

When I was born, it was very funny. The story [of how I got my name] was told to me all my life. In the hospital, my grandfather turned to my father and said, “Wright, what’s her name?” Daddy said, “Her name is Ellen Newell, of course.” My grandfather, who was a wonderful boss, said, “She’ll be named Ellen, but she’s going to be called Newell. I’m going to get a namesake!” (His last name was Newell.)

I didn’t like it part of the time growing up because it was so different and unusual, but I came to like it. That’s great!

Did your parents tell you anything about the day you were born and what it was like?

Mother was in labor a long time, I heard that, but she loved her doctor. I was brought home because it was Christmastime. In those days, mothers stayed in the hospital a long time—about two weeks—but it was Christmas, so I was brought home to 1 Clifton Road, which was my grandparents’ wonderful home. We had Christmas there. Did your mother get home in time for Christmas? Yes, she got home just in time for Christmas. Oh good! You were her Christmas present! Yes!

The story goes that her bedroom was upstairs at Nana and Pop’s house and that my uncle Bob Whatley and my father carried her downstairs for Christmas with the family.

What were your parents’ full names?

My mama’s full name was Ellen Hillyer Newell. Newell was her maiden name, and Hillyer was her mother’s maiden name. Her mother’s father had been mayor of Atlanta—George Hillyer. He was a very prominent lawyer and mayor of Atlanta.

My father’s name was William Wright Bryan. He was named for his grandfather, General William A. Wright—his mother’s stepfather, actually, but she adored her stepfather. She loved her stepfather so much that she named her only son, my father, for her stepfather, and [my father] was always called Wright.

General Wright is buried out at Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta. Is it in the section where Uncle Big Bill is buried? No, it’s in the Confederate section. He was a big Confederate general, and he was controller general of the state of Georgia for fifty years. There’s a beautiful inscription on his grave, which his wife, Granny Wright, got this famous newspaperman to write. It says, “Southern gentleman, controller general of the state of Georgia for 50 years.” He lost a leg in the war, yet he still was able to get around and manage. This is my great-grandfather, the one that my daddy was named for.

Do you remember when Aunt Mary Lane was born?

Not really, but she’s exactly three years younger than I am. She was born in December of ’36. We were staying out at Clifton Road; I’ve been told that many times, so I’ve heard about it. We were very close to our next-door neighbors, and when Mama went into labor, they couldn’t find Daddy. It turned out he had gone to a movie. What?! Yes, he had to be downtown very early everyday to get out the afternoon newspaper. He had to be downtown by 6:30 or 7:00 am, so he was finished by 2:30 or 3:00 in the afternoon. He had just taken off to see a movie that he wanted to see. They couldn’t find him when Mama went into labor with Mary Lane, so I was left with the next-door neighbors, who were our good, good friends: the Oberdoffers.

We had help, but it happened to be the day that was the helps’ day off. Wow, of course that would happen. Of course. So I was always close to the Oberdoffers; they had a daughter named Gail who was my age, so I was just sent over to them.

What else of your childhood do you remember? I guess a lot of it was during WWII.

Well, I was getting older by then. I think the most important thing to know was how close we were to our grandparents: the Alfred Colquitt Newells. They played a big part in our bringing-up. We went to their home all the time and had so much fun there.

We actually lived there. I was born and came home after Clifton Road to 15^th Street to the wonderful house that my father and his sister had inherited from Granny Wright. I went to kindergarten at Spring Street School right there.

Then, we moved out to Druid Hills to Nana and Pop’s house and actually lived there. That was very helpful to them because they had bought [the house at] Sea Island and were spending six months of the year at Sea Island. It was helpful for them to have us in their house in Druid Hills. After Spring Street Kindergarten, which is near 15^th Street, I went to first and second grades at Druid Hills School, which was near Clifton Road. My best friend at Druid Hills School was Mary Burke, and she married Foy Hood. She still is a good friend. Isn’t that wonderful! Wow! Brent [my son] was in school with her daughter, so it continues.

Then, Mother decided she wanted us to move to this side of town so that we could go to school with all her friends’ children. We were still at Clifton Road when Billy was born. He was born in September 1940. Still, we moved over here when I started the third grade in 1941. [My parents] bought the house on Peachtree Road three doors up from Lindbergh Drive, so I walked to E. Rivers School and was in the room with lots of their friends’ children. I loved E. Rivers School, and I went there from third grade through seventh grade. That took us through World War II, and that was when Daddy made the speech for my graduation.

I was talking to one other person who said that she had a big graduation in seventh grade, too. Why was that?

It was a tradition to have a graduation from seventh grade. The girls all wore white dresses, and the boys wore white pants and white shirts. Everybody was in all white, and it was down on the field, which was decorated with nice things.

After E. Rivers, was there a high school, or did you go to junior high?

No, I went straight to Washington Seminary, which was where my mother and my grandmother had gone to school. It’s now a part of Westminster, but it was separate in my years. I went there starting in the eighth grade and went through high school there. I loved it.

Do you remember what you did for fun during high school? Did you have lots of spare time, or were you really busy?

Both. We had some teachers who were very, very hard and strict. Thank goodness they were! For instance, Mademoiselle Groleau was our French teacher from Paris, and she was very strict. We had to really work for her. I also had wonderful history teachers who got more and more interested in history, which was fabulous.

I was editor of the Annual. I was also the editor of the little annual we had at E. Rivers. Bryans were always the editors! You were following in your dad’s footsteps! Exactly. We also had spend-the-night parties, and I’m still friends with people who were in our class at Washington Seminary. For instance, you know Aunt Sue Mobley. She and I were classmates at the Seminary, and she and I went on to college together. Atlanta was so much smaller then that it wasn’t as dangerous, and a friend and I were laughing about how when we had spend-the-night parties at her house, one time we got out in the middle of the night and had a Conga line across Peachtree Road! That sounds like a lot of fun, but it’s crazy to think of now!

Was there a special place where all the teenagers hung out, like a fun place to go for a Coca-Cola?

There was Rusty’s Drive-in. It was on Peachtree; it exists no more, of course. It was a place where anybody that had a car could go. [Having a car] was a very special thing. I had one rich friend who had a car. We would go in the car after school in high school to Rusty’s, which was sort of a competitor to The Varsity. It was very much like The Varsity in that you drove in, and there was a carhop who came and took your order. It was closer to our homes than The Varsity.

Did you learn to drive when you were in high school?

When I was sixteen, I did. My daddy taught me. He was a calm teacher, so he was assigned to teach me to drive. (Laughs…) I can remember where I got my driver’s license. It was out on Confederate Avenue, which is near downtown. Was it scary to drive in Atlanta back then? It’s gotten much more scary over the years. I was scared, but it’s much more scary now.

I remember I had a little accident, and my sister was in the car. She always reminds me when she comes to town that that’s where we had that accident. It’s on Lindbergh Drive. Atlanta was so much smaller in those days that we used to go out Lindbergh Drive, and it was sort of like the country. We could chop down a Christmas tree! We didn’t have to buy one; Mama could just go down there with an axe.

You know, Mary Lane and I, both being born in December—I was the 15^th and she the 10^th—always had a combined birthday party until we were grown-up almost. Mama would have about forty to fifty children to our house on Peachtree Road. Wow! She decorated for Christmas and would have two cakes (one at one end of the table and one at the other in the dining room) ice cream, games, and all that until I was in high school.

Do you remember when you went off to Sweet Briar College?

Yes, I do. We took the train from Brookwood Station. That was the nice thing about being able to go by train: Sweet Briar was on the main line of the Southern Railway. We could get off either at Monroe, VA, which is just about three to four miles from Sweet Briar, or if there were enough girls, which there frequently were, they would stop at the little Sweet Briar Station, which is now on the Sweet Briar campus instead of down by the tracks. It’s wonderful to go by train.

My grandmother’s famous saying that she told to both her daughters was “I want you to marry somebody and stay in Atlanta, but if you have to move away from Atlanta, you must live on the main line of the Southern Railway, so I can get to see you.” That main line goes up through Monroe, VA and Sweet Briar, VA up to Washington DC and then New York. It goes from New York down this way to New Orleans.

Did you ever get to go to New Orleans by train?

Yes, but when I lived in New Orleans, I didn’t go by train; I went by car. I shared a car with my brother Billy. When I went to Tulane, which was a few years after I got out of Sweet Briar, we drove down from Cleveland in this wonderful, old car that was Billy’s and mine. I went to drop him off at Vanderbilt in Nashville, TN where he was going to school. He graduated from Vanderbilt and loved it always.

How did you know that you wanted to go to Tulane after Sweet Briar?

Well, I had done a lot of things after Sweet Briar. I worked as a secretary-receptionist-office manager sort of job at a wonderful brokerage firm in Cleveland for a couple of years. Did you live with your parents there? Yes. Mama had made me promise that I wouldn’t get a job until after I took the Junior League provisional course, which was very interesting and good for me because it taught me about Cleveland.

We had just moved to Cleveland between my junior and senior years of college, so when I graduated from college, I hadn’t spent much time there and didn’t know anything about it. It was a good idea [to take the provisional course] that Mother insisted on because I met people my own age, and I’m still friends with some of them. One of them is my close friend still.

I did the Junior League provisional course, and then, at Christmastime, I met this nice gentleman at a party. He asked me what I was doing, and I said I was getting ready to “pound the pavements” and look for a job. He called me up right after that and offered me this wonderful job as secretary-receptionist-office manager at this small, fine brokerage firm. The office was at Shaker Square, which was near our house, so that was nice. I could bop home for lunch. I stayed there for a while (two years nearly).

Then, a very, very famous historian Bell Irvin Wiley, who was the most famous historian of the Civil War, came to Cleveland to make a speech. He stayed with us, and he was so sweet and kind that he sat up with me one night after his speech until about 2am and said, “Newell, if you will just get back into what you like, teaching will be for you.”

I guess by that time, I had taught for one year in the city of Cleveland Public Schools. Somebody asked my daddy if I was going to teach the next year, and he said, “Over my dead body.” I had a really hard year. It was a strange system; they promoted the half-year. Half the children were in the second grade and half in the third. I didn’t know how to teach children how to read. I had to stay up every night learning the lessons and doing the lesson plans. It was a very tough year.

Bell Wiley came to Cleveland to speak and said, “If you’ll just get back to what you love to teach, teaching will indeed be right for you.” So he helped me get a scholarship to Tulane. I got a tuition scholarship for my Master’s degree in history. He was good friends with the head of the history department at Tulane, so he wrote letters for me and got me this wonderful scholarship. It was a tuition-free scholarship, so I had to pay my own way, like living expenses and all that, but I had my tuition. I had a wonderful year in New Orleans.

Then, I was starting to go for my PhD. I didn’t actually get my Master’s at Tulane; I just did all the work. I got sort of antsy and decided I needed to teach, so I called up Dr. Presley at Westminster in Atlanta. He called me back shortly after that and offered me a job teaching at Westminster. So I drove up to Atlanta in this car that Billy and I shared. I got an apartment and taught there, and I loved that. It was a wonderful experience and very happy. I worked hard—very hard. Did you still teach elementary school? No, I taught high school; that was a good thing. I found that much more “up my alley.”

One of the most exciting, wonderful parts of that was that I taught with the lady who had taught me at Washington Seminary and who had been an inspiration as a history teacher to me. She gave me a lot of leeway to do whatever, and of course, I had just been at Tulane doing graduate work, so I had a lot of knowledge. It was wonderful and fun! I’m still friends with some of the girls who were seniors that year.

One time, a group of about six or eight of the students in that class had an extra period that semester. I proposed to my friend, the head of the history department, to teach them a course in Georgia history, so we had a whole semester in Georgia history, which was fascinating.

Westminster was very different then. It was separated into the Boys’ School and the Girls’ School. It was not coeducational then, and I taught at the Girls’ School.

What do you think about the difference between separating the genders and having a coeducational system? Which is better?

Well, I went to a girls’ school always—at high school and college. I think it gave me a great deal of strength to go to an all-girls school where I didn’t have any competition from boys. To gain more confidence? Yes, to gain more confidence and to be stronger. I believe in separate, not coeducation, especially for girls. I think it benefits girls.

This is a funny question. Do you remember any crazy dates or funny dates that you went on in high school or college or even afterward?

(Laughs…) Yes indeed, yes indeed. I remember lots of them, and you know, you had to go out with who asked you. Girls didn’t ask boys for dates in my day. My mama preached to me that you had to go out with the first one who asked you. You couldn’t wait around for the better option… so yes, there were some crazy ones. Were some of the boys crazy dancers? Oh yes, so much so. I would get the giggles, and I would try to hide my giggles because I didn’t want to embarrass them.

In high school, we had sororities and fraternities. It was just a sort of Atlanta tradition. It probably wasn’t good, but that’s the way it was. There was Rush. There was a place called “Dead Man’s Curve,” and we would meet there. Anyway, there were sorority dances, and we had “no breaks.” Have you ever heard of a “no break?” That’s when a boy cannot break in. Most of the time a boy could break in, and the popular girls would have many, many, many breaks. At a “no break,” that would be a dance where you would just have one boy to dance with.

If I hunted, I could still probably find some of my dance programs. They were small, probably about this size (shows me with her hands). You could hang a pretty thing on your wrist, and you got boys to sign up for which dances they wanted to have with you. That’s wonderful; it sounds like so much fun! It was. The wonderful thing was that you had a big sister in the sorority. My big sister, who was one of the daughters of a friend of my parents of course, got me dates, which was a huge help. She kind of looked after me. All the big sisters kind of looked after the younger ones. She would help me fill out my dance card so that I wasn’t a “wallflower.”

The style when I was in high school was to wear a hoop skirt. Later on, your mother wore my hoop skirts a lot. Ms. Buffington was the sewing lady who made the dresses to go over the hoop skirts. I think she probably made the hoop skirts, too. It was just about three steel hoops sewn into a petticoat. Then, she made these dresses to go over that. Did you get to pick out the pattern and the fabric? Yes. She mostly just drew a picture of what she could do for us. We went and bought the material, and she made it into a dress. I was very lucky because my mother’s best friend Rebecca (we called her Aunt Rebecca) gave me a dress one year. [Dresses] were expensive. I think that’s the one your mother wore some when she was in high school herself, so they served a purpose. I bet they were beautiful dresses. They were really pretty. The dances were at the Biltmore Hotel.

I guess the most important thing for you to know is that my father was one of the most important men in Atlanta, Georgia and actually in the state of Georgia. He was urged to run for governor of Georgia. Mother told me that, but he did not want to do that. He was so important, though, to the state and so famous. He went around making speeches to different groups all over the state all the time. I was very fortunate in that he took me with him some of the time. Sometimes Mother couldn’t go with him, so he took me with him. That was fun.

I came from a family that was very much involved in politics and the state. That was one of the most important things about my background.

 

(To be continued in Part III…)

Mrs. Newell Tozzer (Part I)

(Born 1933)

Parents: Ellen Hillyer Newell & William Wright Bryan

Siblings: Mary Lane & Billy

Husband: Brent Tozzer

Children: Ellen & Brent

 

Life During WWII

We lived on Peachtree Road, three houses north of Lindbergh Drive. That was neat because gas was rationed during WWII. Everything was rationed, and Mom was very proud of having an A-card, which was the least amount of gas anybody could get. She said she only had enough gas to go once a week to the grocery store and to take us to the doctor if we got sick.

Everything was rationed—not just gas, but sugar, coffee, tea, clothes, all sorts of things. The thing that Mama had the hardest time with was that shoes were rationed. She had three growing children whose shoe sizes were constantly growing and changing, so what she did was very fortunate. She swapped her mother (my grandmamma)—“Nana” swapped her shoe coupons for Mama’s sugar coupons because Nana just had to make a cake every week. She was a wonderful cake maker and had to make a cake. We loved it. So [my grandmother] didn’t need the shoes, and my mama desperately needed them, so she got her mama’s shoe coupons. But the gas coupons were really precious.

How did you adapt with all the different food that you had to eat, like the food without your sugar?

We somehow just managed, but the gas was really hard.

My father was a war correspondent during WWII. He persuaded his boss, the owner of the paper, to send him to England. He became very famous as a war correspondent and got there in time to interview Georgia boys in England, and all of this was the buildup for D-Day, the invasion of Europe.

Daddy was away, and Mama said that the thing that saved her sanity was that she had a ladies’ club, and they were called the “War Widows Poker Club.” The War Widows Poker Club met on Saturday nights and played poker. I don’t think they betted much money, but she said that it saved her sanity. They had some grown-up conversations together as friends, and they kept close to each other.

Mother said that when she would drive home from the War Widows Poker Club, (because the gas was so scarce) she couldn’t decide whether to leave the car in the front yard where she was afraid somebody would siphon off the gas. People stole gas by siphoning it off. To park, she would have to go way down in the backyard where the garage was, but there, she was afraid somebody might get her. (Laughs…) Because of that, she had a great debate with herself: where to leave her car!

But see, it was wonderful—she didn’t have to take us to school much because we could walk the two blocks down the street to E. Rivers School, and we could walk the two and a half blocks up the street to the Baptist church where we went to Sunday school and church.

Where was this house again? Was it the one that [your parents] brought you home from the hospital to [when you were a baby]?

No, that’s in Ansley Park right near the Driving Club. [The house that I’m talking about] is on Peachtree Road in Buckhead, and it’s now part of that pretty condominium development called “The Gates.” It was just three houses up from Lindbergh Drive near Peachtree Battle.

At that time, there was no shopping center there—none. There was this funny fruit stand. It was more than a fruit stand. It was covered, and it was called “Fred’s Fruit Emporium.” It was on Peachtree Road. There was just nothing down in the valley of what is the Peachtree Battle Shopping Center now. That didn’t come until the 1950’s.

At any rate, my fourth grade teacher, like all of us, liked a Coca-Cola. She liked to have a Coca-Cola every morning. Mrs. Wilson was her name, and she was at E. Rivers. She would send me across the street to Fred’s Fruit Emporium to get her a Coca-Cola in the morning. My mother did not like that a bit; she did not approve of that because one—it took me away from class, and two—I had to cross the street, and three—people thought Fred’s Fruit Emporium was a iniquity or something. It really wasn’t, but it was dark and dingy. You didn’t even go with a buddy? No, I just went by myself. Mama did not like that.

My mama was a strong lady, and she marched herself in to see the principal, Ms. Osterhout. When my sister Mary Lane, who was three years behind me, came along, my mama said, “I do not want Mary Lane to have Ms. Wilson. I want her to have another fourth grade teacher.”

Well, Ms. Wilson heard about it and was very offended. She walked up to call on Mama in our home, and she accused Mama. She came to your house? Oh yes, she did. She said, “Why did you request that Mary Lane have another teacher?” Poor Mama… She had to cope with talking to Ms. Wilson, but it was funny.

Do you remember what your favorite subject was in elementary school or high school?

Always history. History was always my favorite subject.

Did you talk about the war (WWII) when you were in class?

Yes, we did, and our daddy came and made the graduation speech in seventh grade when we had a formal graduation from seventh grade. The girls wore white dresses, and the boys wore white shirts and white pants. It was a nice formal graduation, and Daddy made the speech. He talked about prison camp. It’s really funny: he always told the story about how he was liberated by the Russians. His prison camp was in Poland, and the Russians came into Poland and liberated his prison camp.

He had been shot in the leg, and they had not done anything about his wound in the prison hospital because they didn’t know how much tetanus he had had. Without knowing how much tetanus this was, they were afraid to operate on him, so the bullet was just still in there. He told the story about when he was taken into Russia. The Russians actually took him into Odessa. At any rate, these Russian nuns bathed him. He told that story. (Laughs…) You know how old you are in the seventh grade; that was a little embarrassing for me. Still, he loved to tell the story of the Russian nuns giving him a bath.

The nuns also gave him the china—it was beautiful china—that he ate his first meal on when he was liberated. Mama always kept that china in her cabinet where she kept pretty china in the living room. So were the Russians nicer than the Germans? I think so, but he said those nuns really scrubbed him! (We laugh…) That’s crazy! It was funny to hear about that.

Did your father like to travel?

He always liked to travel, but at any rate, he got on a ship to Marseille from Odessa. Fortunately, when he got to Marseille, France, who should he see but a friend of his from Atlanta! Everybody in Atlanta knew that Daddy had been captured and was a prisoner of war, and everybody was worried about him. This old friend came up to Daddy and said, “Wright, what can I do for you?” Daddy said, “Well, in pre-war times, you were a banker, and I need some money. Can you lend me some money?” He was able to lend Daddy money that got my father to Paris! Well, actually maybe he got on an Army plane or something, but he loaned Daddy some money.

Then, when Daddy got to Paris, fortunately, another good friend was head of the first general hospital in Paris. He got Daddy in that hospital and saw to the fact that he had the best doctors. He was operated on. This was after the war? Yes. It was right after he was liberated from prison camp before he got home. This man got good medical attention for Daddy’s leg with the bullet in it and got the bullet taken out. [My father] stayed for probably three or four months in the Army hospital in Paris.

We have a picture of him in bed in hospital with a famous movie star and skater, Sonja Henie. You may never have heard of her, but she was very famous when I was your age. She came to visit men in the hospital, and there was a picture of Daddy and this General who got him in the hospital, and Sonja Henie by his bed. That picture just went all over everywhere.

Did he ever talk about what France or Paris was like while it was under control by the Germans or even afterward?

No, he wasn’t there, then. Well, he was captured in France. Was he captured right after he recorded about D-Day? Shortly afterwards, maybe six weeks afterwards. His D-Day report was so famous. It went all over every network. Every network had Wright Bryan’s D-Day report on it, and it made him very, very famous.

He did get to Paris for the liberation of Paris, and that was fabulous. Then, it was very scary for us because we heard his broadcast from the day of the liberation of Paris, too, and he said where he was. We could picture where he was, and when I went to Paris, I could see exactly where he was. [In the broadcast,] you could hear the shots coming, and the snipers were still there. The Germans were still in control of Paris until a few days later. It was pretty scary to hear your father being shot at. That would be scary.

He went into Paris in a Jeep with a driver and John MacVane, who was another famous war correspondent.

Did your father talk about the war a lot when he came back?

He talked about it because he was so famous and had written these reports, so everybody invited him to make speeches. He went not just around Atlanta, but all over Georgia. There were invitations from Rotary Clubs and Kiwanis Clubs, high schools, colleges to talk about his experiences because he was that much in demand and that famous.

It was really funny. One time, he went to South Carolina to an old girlfriend’s hometown. She and Mother were sitting on the front row, and he was starting to talk. She turned to my mama and said, “Aren’t you afraid Wright will forget something?” Mama said, “No, if he forgets, I’ll just go up and give the speech for him! I know it by heart.” (Laughs…) They were a very happy couple. Anyway, [the experience] made him his career.

Right after he got home to Atlanta, he was made the top editor of the paper. He had been just the managing editor before the war, but when he got home from the war and prison camp, he was made the top editor of the paper. That was huge. He remained that until he became the top editor in the country. He was president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. That brought him to the attention of Cleveland, Ohio, who needed a new editor for their paper. Their old editor was getting old and tired and sick and what not, so they came down and recruited my father to be editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which was one of the top papers in America.

Did your family move to Ohio?

Yes, we moved to Cleveland, Ohio when I was between my junior and senior years in college. Mama said that they had ten happy years there and one unhappy year. That was when a young man about my age (whose family did happen to own the paper in Cleveland) came in and started bossing Daddy around. Daddy had been brought up there to revive the paper. That didn’t fly, so my father quit the Plain Dealer.

That was when he went back to his Alma Mater of Clemson University. They had been after him for a while and really wanting him to come to Clemson. The last part of his career was a happy one in Clemson. Your mother would remember it well. Actually, your mother was born in Anderson, South Carolina next door to Clemson. At any rate, he was vice president for development of Clemson, which was a huge job. It was next to the president of Clemson. He had a very happy and successful time there. He made speeches for the president and raised money for the university. He and mother loved Clemson, and we did, too. We had a wonderful home and experience there.

So that was his working career. He was a big man, and he was tall and handsome. He was 6’5”. He got tired of people asking him how tall he was, so he would reply, “I’m 5’17”.” just to make them be quiet. That’s funny!

 

(To be continued in Part II…)

Anonymous (Part III)

(Continued from Part II…)

How did you decide that you wanted to be a nurse?

I like science. My older sister wanted to be an engineer; she liked math and became a math professor. My other sister likes books—law books. She memorized a speech from beginning to end.

I’ve always liked science, even when I was little. I liked to look at science pictures and science books. My dad always said, “Why are you looking at all those science books about how your heart works?” I just always liked to do that. That’s how it is, though; you find what you like to do, and then you study it. You go into it, and the deeper you go, the better you like it. The human body is a wonderful machine. Treat it well. That’s good advice. Treat your body well, yes.

Did you and your husband travel around the world?

Oh, yes. He traveled to Japan for work. I was supposed to go with him, but I couldn’t go because when I didn’t work anymore, I volunteered a lot in the library and was the school nurse. I was busy all the time, sometimes doing home care for elderly friends. See, I learned how to use my time; you have to be efficient because there’s a lot of work. You don’t get much time for yourself, but you don’t need time for yourself! (We all laugh…) You can always go to sleep.

What is one of your main accomplishments that you’re most proud of?

Everything. Sometimes, when I was young and working in surgery, we would get patients from France, Libya, and Algeria. There was a princess, a very nice lady, who needed surgery at our university hospital. I was asked to fly home with her after the surgeries. So I did. I could just stay a couple of days and then go back to work.

I’ve always liked adventure. That’s great that you jumped at any opportunity. As long as I was available… I just used all of my days off because in France, we didn’t have many days off, but that has changed a lot in the last fifty years. In France at that time, we worked six days a week, but I tried to introduce them to the five-day work system, which was hard to do (with new laws for the workplace and muck more). Now, it is done.

I also tried to install the new intensive care for big surgeries and to train specialized nurses. That’s why my surgeons sent me there [to the United States]. So you could bring back these ideas and concepts. Right, to work more efficiently.

You said that reading was one of your hobbies. Do you have any other hobbies that you do right now?

Well, I swim everyday here, and in the wintertime, since the pool is not heated, I go to our gym and enjoy the spa. I always have much writing and reading to do.

This is just a funny question: if you could support one genre of fine arts, what would it be?

I love the symphony and Opera, operetta. We love pretty music in my family. My sister was a pianist, and her husband was an organist; I think he played every church organ in Europe. He’s a great person. I like music—concert music, and when we were young, we all played the piano.

Have you had any pets during your life?

Who has time? If I lived in the country, I would like a Great Dane. I love the Danes. Some French have Danes; they’re just adorable dogs. I don’t like the little Chihuahuas. (We laugh…)

What are some of your philosophical beliefs about life?

You have to enjoy life. You have to be happy with what you do. Don’t look down at what you could’ve done; do it! Do something nice. Have life in you. Be energetic. Help someone who needs it; there is plenty of need for it.

Yesterday, looking down from my balcony, I did a lifesaving act—poor guy. I went down to the pool fast. He couldn’t get out of the pool. He’s a very nice person; he lost his balance. He couldn’t get back on his feet, so he was hanging on the handrail and just lying on the steps. He couldn’t figure out how to put his feet down. He kept on lying there with his head in the water off and on and called for help. He thanked me profusely afterward.

How would you define a successful life, and what do you think has made your life successful?

Just having a positive outlook on your life, and listen. There’s so much to learn from other people, and I’ve learned from everybody. I learned from you. You’re pretty young to do all that [interviewing]. Are many young girls interested in that nowadays? Would you like to become a journalist or a writer? You are on the right track, already a Girl Scout. Congratulations. Thank you so much!

I know my granddaughter’s boyfriend is a nice guy; he is an Eagle Scout. He is very outgoing, plays the saxophone well, and is always helping someone. You have to prove a good attitude and respect and stay dedicated to your work, your faith, and your actions. I think you’re right; I think it’s the way you grow up, too. Yes, you have to be taught when you are young. Yes, and seeing the way things are when you don’t have food and learning to survive. It was tough… even now, see, because you still have that barrier. I can still remember when my parents were mistreated. You know, you don’t forget that in your life, but you will try to forgive. It affects you in some ways, and I know some people who do not know what war is, only when you are in the middle of it. But science is interesting; science is so wonderful. Now, they have come up with this nanotechnology, though; I haven’t gotten that yet. (We laugh…)

It really is amazing how technology has opened the doors to knowledge and everything. I know; it’s amazing. It’s unbelievable, but my husband had, at that time, a lot of knowledge about that. When he started with his company in programming—when I met my husband (husband-to-be, at that time)—his company in the 60’s had computers that were big drums. The computers had to sit on a solid big block of cement with a certain cool temperature in the room. And the printouts… they were little strips of paper with holes in them. I would say, “How do you read that?” He would say, “Oh, I can read that. It’s easy.” (We all laugh…) It’s totally different, now.

It’s mindboggling how technology came from those big drums. It was very expensive to have those machines in the office like that. They got smarter and smarter—and now those computers are getting smaller and smaller. I have to learn how it works. Well, we will never know enough; the children will learn and know much more in the coming years of their use.

You can find all kinds of information and much, much more. Now, I have a cell phone. My son would say, “Keep your phone hanging around your neck, so you find it fast when I call; it might be my last call.” When he learned to fly helicopters, he was in Kuwait and Korea.

Were you really scared for [your son when he was overseas]?

Yes, I was always worried for him. He’s doing a very good job, like his dad. Now, I get after him because he’s too strict. He says, “Mom, you taught me that.” Yeah, right… (We laugh…) Blaming it on you… He’s so efficient, too, and with a good memory. I guess I had a good memory, too, when I was younger.

When I was working, I used to go climbing in the mountains—high mountains, on a rope. That’s amazing. What kind of mountains have you climbed? In the Alps. You have to go to the Alps if you go to Europe. You haven’t seen Europe if you haven’t seen the Alps. I remember one named L’aiguille du Midi, which is part of the High Alps, which is about 15,000 to 16,000 feet high. If you climb up that mountain, you’re going to see the world.

Did you climb it? No. On the ropes you did, wow. We went down by skiing. That’s a major accomplishment. That’s amazing! That’s one thing I learned when I went to college. In high school, we didn’t have time, and it was a very expensive sport. You need a lot of training before you climb high. We didn’t have time because we had so much to learn. So, in college, you learned how to ski, and you skied down that mountain. Yes, but slowly. It was fresh air; I’ve always liked fresh air. Fresh air is important, not air conditioning.

What advice do you have for young people, like me?

Learn, learn, learn as much as you can, and I add, you never stop learning; it is an ongoing process. There’s so much to learn, to see, to hear. Help others. Stay mobile, stay active, stay in good physical shape. Eat the right foods, but do not forget to pray.

Anonymous (Part II)

(Continued from Part I…)

What were high school and college like for you?

High school was wonderful, and we lived in Strasbourg, which was a very big city. So, you went back to Strasbourg to your house? Yes, after the war, we went back to our house; that was a relief. With what little we had, we were happy. Dad never complained; he was happy, and so were we. Of course, it was hard when the Nazis were looking for him, especially for my mother. I remember, one time, I was crying. Then, a soldier hit me in the face to be quiet, and I fell against the wall and got a bloody nose.

So, in high school, it was wonderful. I went to school in Notre Dame Catholic high schools. It was bombed during the war; my sister was there at that time. Then, the school closed, and we attended public school. My mother had the perception that it was daylight again. We could talk; we could breathe; we could pray.

During high school and college, we always excelled. My older sister is a brain; she’s a walking encyclopedia—both of them! Me—I’m more sporty and outdoorsy. I knew I had to learn it, though, so I had to study hard during my spare time.

College was a wonderful time in my life, and that town had several big colleges. As our home was only a few miles away, we never had to be in a dorm. We could always go home. That was wonderful… so we never really experienced the dorm life.

When I was a student nurse at the hospital, we had to spend sometimes months where we had night duty. That was very difficult at the beginning, as you had to be up all night. While you were studying to be a nurse? Yes, in training. Did you work in a hospital? You had to do practice time. You had classes in the morning, and then in the afternoon, you had to be with the patients on the floor—or patients in the morning and classes in the afternoon. You had several years to get your degree to become a R.N. (three or four years), but there’s always more to learn. Anyway, that’s college, and both of my sisters went to college for many years.

What kind of things did you do for fun as a teenager?

You know, we didn’t have much time. We had fun going to school; that’s fun, you know. To me, that’s enough. We had to get to school on bicycle or by the Rail Tramway—the electrically connected thing. After the change to the bus system, people liked it; the bus was so much more accurate time-wise. We started the hospital training for my classes at seven o’clock in the morning, and for some classes you had to come back in the afternoon. In some areas, we still used the Tramway. It was running until late evening. Buses were sometimes caught in a jam; I remember that, but all went well.

You could not be late because nursing in the fifties was a very strict life. Do you know the name Florence Nightingale? Mm-hmm… Who was she? Well, I know she was a nurse. Wasn’t it during the war? Yes, she was rigid and our director! She was British, and her first name was Florence, too. (We all laugh…) It was very good, though, to learn how to do nursing.

Anyway, later, I started to learn to play tennis… and swimming, too. Swimming was mandatory during the German time. You had to be fit, so we had swimming once or twice a week—45 minutes in the swimming pool. There was a big bathhouse because Germans are crazy with fitness. You had to be fit; you had to know how to march, you know. And this was when you were little, too? Yes. The bathhouse was a big building with a huge pool, and it was three meters deep (that’s about ten feet). And, we would jump. Oh, I love to jump! (We all laugh…) My sisters didn’t like it, but I was more daring. They were more daring with the books, and I was more daring with traveling and exploring, but I enjoyed learning about geography a lot.

When you were in high school or college, did you do any dating or go on any fun dates?

High school… we didn’t have time—no dating. We were three girls and enjoyed it. It was always possible to bicycle, to swim, to knit, and we did a lot of hiking on the weekends. It was not part of our life. I only learned about big “graduation” when I came her in the US. We were having a reward but not a class “cap and gown” celebration.

With our parents, we had lots of games and quizzes about our lessons. That was very challenging. My wonderful mother used to be a teacher. My sisters were brilliant, so I had to keep up with them… like it or not. (We all laugh…) But I sincerely have to compliment them.

Well, I remember that during the winter season, on Sundays, we did family games (memorization games), and everybody played. Oh, and we played the piano; we all played the piano. We played six hands on the piano when we were young. My mother also played the violin. We played piano a lot and had to practice, as we had lessons, rehearsals, and recitals. We always played by heart. That’s the only way to retain it. Memorization is good, but my mother always said, “Repetition is the mother of learning.” Tell that to your children.

When did you meet your husband?

One of the surgeons (a brilliant guy) with whom I had worked for about 15 years had just come back from a big surgical convention in St. Louis, Mississippi. He came by and said, “I want you to go to the states for an exchange program.” That’s how I got here! My mother said, “Why do you want to go there? Okay, learn more and learn well.” (We all laugh…) “Make sure you take advantage of what you learn.”

It was a magnificent three-year experience from New York to the west coast! American nurses went to France, and French nurses came to the US. At the time, you had to pay your own way, but in return, you received your salary. Every hospital required paperwork. They had you tested in the English language, your knowledge of R.N., and the specialty you requested. You had to be working about ten or fifteen years in your field before you could inquire about an exchange program.

For example, one of my girlfriends wanted also to apply; her specialty was kidney dialysis. We graduated at the same time with high grades. We never knew how high up we had graduated, though; we never tried to find out until then, as we had great jobs. We were at the top. We were both happy that we had graduated high in the class.

Where did you stay in the United States?

First, you had to look for a hospital offering exchange programs. The first hospital I went to was in Seattle, Washington because my girlfriend said, “We better start on the other side and work our way back.” (We all laugh…) She said, “If we start in New York, we’re never going to make it to the other side.”

It was smart because the hospital in Washington State was a wonderful university hospital. (We tried to be at the same hospital.) In France, at that time, she was in the medical ward, which was a different building than where I was; I was in the surgical building. Anyway, we had to choose a good hospital, and we got lucky. You could not stay more than one year in one place, but you had to stay at least six months. It was perfect because we had a whole state to explore… even the American continent.

When we finally made it to the hospital, we had different tests and all routine for work. It’s funny because there were other nurses in the same classes who wanted to get a job at that hospital. We did better than the American kids. It made us think, “What are they learning?” (We laugh…) “Cream of the crop,” they called us.

Washington was a nice state. We had patients from Alaska because in 1963, there was a big earthquake. Do you know anybody who was in that earthquake? It was an 8.2 earthquake, a very big earthquake. Half of Anchorage fell in the water. It was very bad, and some patients still had surgeries a year after that.

We went to see a patient’s home in Fairbanks, as it was a “log-house.” It was beautiful, and they kept it warm by hanging big “bear furs” all along the walls—great insulation. It’s very interesting; we saw many eagles. I had never been in a log-house before. It was wonderful, so we did quite a bit of exploring. One time, we went there in June on one of the longest days where there was daylight past midnight. We were up all night flying back to Seattle, and before seven o’clock, we were at our job. Did you get any sleep? Oh, I do not believe so, and we worked hard and well that day.

After that, we went to Arizona. Oh, and that’s totally different! Yes, and a great state with a beautiful desert. We wanted that because they had a good program, and we wanted to go out there to see the Grand Canyon and the famous cacti.

Then, we went to New York at our nursing job. That was only available at that time. It was the big Bronx hospital with many patients; we worked on double shift.

Which was your favorite place? Do you have a favorite?

New York, I loved New York at that time.

So, through this program, you were able to travel?

Oh, yes. Because we could work in general schedule well and organize our days off (we usually had an eight-hour workday), it was paradise. In France, we had longer hours in a workday, up to 10 or more per day and 6 days a week. We worked from seven o’clock in the morning to ten o’clock at night six days a week in Europe! But here, we worked double shifts often to midnight (from seven to three and three to midnight), and I was back the next morning at seven. You have to be determined and motivated to work. I don’t regret anything; New York was a great place to work and to learn.

When you came to America, I bet you discovered a lot of cultural differences. Did you like the cultural differences?

I expected that because I was told about it. You have to be informed, especially if you want to get a paying job. Also, you have to have an assigned doctor as a sponsor before your arrival, who checks on your work and gives you important information about work ethics, etc. I returned to him or her my reports.

I met my husband in Arizona.

The sponsor, a surgeon, had three sons, and one of the sons had an office next to my husband-to-be (all in the same building); he had a computer business there. The son invited my husband-to-be to the farewell party for the nurses. His Dad said, “Why don’t you come; we have some French, Australian, and Swiss nurses.” Even some young Swiss and British interns were part of it. It was wonderful.

So that’s how you met your husband? Yes, that’s how I met him. It was in Arizona. It’s nice and sunny and warm with palm trees, which are a delight to see. It was gorgeous. My husband-to-be said, “It was nice meeting you. I think I might come to see you in France.” I thought, “Yeah, you will…” (Laughs…) He did! He came over there to see me… he wanted to meet my family and tried to talk me into coming back over here.

So, you actually went back to France after… Oh, yeah, after the three-year program, you had to return and bring back to your country what you had learned.

When he came to France, he arrived about four months later. He came right away to the hospital where I was working, went to a waiting room, and with the Big Boss passing by, asked him (in French!) whom he wanted to see. That was a big new story that day.

Before I left from the US, I had planned another last class there about the BIRD breathing machines, adaptable for babies or adults. I don’t know if you know what a Bird machine is. It’s a breathing machine used during surgery or for other things. That was back in the United States? Yes, that was in Palm Springs, and he said, “Okay, I’ll come see you.” So he was persistent! Yes…

When did you both get married?

We got married in 1968. In France or the United States? Here [in the United States], and one year later, we had one son. He went to West Point. He’s now past forty. He was tiny when he was born, really tiny—five pounds, but he made it. He’s a big boy, now, in the Army and is also a pilot. (We laugh…) Yep, he flies helicopters. Later, he married, and he has a lovely family with four beautiful children.

Do you remember what your wedding day was like?

Wonderful. We were married just past 40 years. We had a great life together. He was a very caring, generous person. He has a lovely family, still living in Texas, and we all spend so many interesting celebrations together. I am so happy about that. I will keep alive those special memories.

My husband died too fast, after only a few weeks. Was that recently? Just four years ago. That’s why my son moved me here (talking about the retirement community). He didn’t want me to stay in California. I had a beautiful house—a big house, big garden with peach trees, grapes, fig trees, apple trees. I miss that, but my son wouldn’t have time to go back there; it takes a whole day to fly there. He’s so organized and meticulous just like I used to be. Everything has to be just right; he has zero tolerance with it. (We all laugh…) He’s fantastic.

Did you and your husband keep French traditions in the family?

French traditions? I wouldn’t say so. Did he already know French when you got married? Some, we went there about every year when my son was growing up, so he could learn languages. He spoke French and learned Alsatian—it’s a dialect. He was very good at learning dialects.

 

(To be continued in Part III…)

Anonymous (Part I)

 (Born 1933)

 

I was born in France. My family lived in France, and we were three little girls. My dad built a house in 1938 outside of Strasbourg, which is outside of Paris toward the German border. I was five years old, and my sisters were seven and nine years old. In 1939, World War II broke out, so then we had to leave our lovely house. We had to get away, so we were evacuated from Strasbourg. Can you imagine a dad who just built his house debt free and then had to leave it?

My father was raised in a nice, little town in Alsace. His father was the mayor of the little town. His grandfather and back to several generations, relatives were also mayor of the town. They were very hardworking, nice people and a very interesting, motivated family. They had a big farm with lots of grapevines, wheat, and hops and also chickens, cows, horses, and greyhound dogs.

What town did you grow up in?

It was a suburb of Strasbourg. My father built his house so that we could see the majestic and beautiful cathedral, built over 1,000 years ago, just about three miles away, and to admire it from our balcony. I remember well, after the war, the cathedral bells were always ringing every evening at ten o’clock for fifteen minutes. It was and still is so beautiful and added many lights.

Did you all go to the cathedral in Strasbourg every Sunday?

Well, we were three miles away. My dad had a car, but we also had bus transportation or Tramway. Do you know what the Tramway is? It goes on rails, the connection is electric wires, and it doesn’t make any pollution. It’s nice, and it’s quiet.

Nevertheless, we were evacuated in 1939 for two years, and my dad sometimes tried to go back to Strasbourg, but the Gestapo were closing roads in our old neighborhood. It was an organized place; they wanted to live in our house. We had a telephone in there. My dad was so worried, and we were young.

He was an engineer. He graduated from engineering school in Strasbourg when he was 21 years old. He was a very smart person and liked mathematics. He was very worried about what would happen to the house—the beautiful house, the beautiful cathedral. Sometimes he didn’t come home fast; my mother worried because you could not drive many kilometers. Whenever he didn’t come home, she worried that he got caught by the Gestapo, which happened. It happened? Oh yeah, it happened… Then, they searched what could be in his car.

Was it really scary? Did you and your sisters realize what was going on?

Well, my mother was a teacher, teaching history and French. She was also born in Alsace, and her parents had a bakery store. She loved history. (I didn’t like history because it’s just what you saw around you at that time.) We were often scared, very scared. Next to the house we were in, the neighbor was a butcher. Actually, he was not a butcher; he just had a big farm. I know that sometimes, the Nazis came and wanted a pig, so he had to kill a poor, little pig. You would hear the pig squealing; it’s unpleasant to hear when you are young. I always felt sorry for that little pig. The Nazis were the only ones who got the meat. Normally, we didn’t get anything. It was a very poor living—not poor living, but there was nothing available.

What town did you all evacuate to? Was it still in France?

At the first house, I don’t remember the name. I was trying to look for it in my old school papers to find the name, but I did not. It was still in France, further inland, away from the border.

The second town was a bit larger. It was a nice, big house and used to be the City Hall. Two staircases brought you to the ornate door. We lived there in two rooms, looking down at a garden where there were lots of tall weeds. It seemed also dilapidated and half destroyed on one side, and there were lots of holes on the neighbors’ wall. There were five of us there. I also remember a beautiful roof with colored tiles; a lot were broken or missing.

Was it in the countryside or further south?

The second one was closer to Strasbourg. The first one was more in the countryside, and it was a hilly area.

Our mother was protecting us very much from the things that could happen… if the Nazis snatched us, you know. It was hard, but we survived. We could go back after two years to our big home. My dad had a sister who had a big farm, and she would get some food for us sometimes, like a little bit of fresh butter or eggs, because we were so limited on what we could buy. We had the coupons, and you could get maybe a loaf of bread for the five of us a day; that’s it.

We were very limited on what you could get. It was very hard, and my mother was so skinny. A little bottle of milk was sometimes all she could get for all five of us. I remember one time, I tipped the glass over at the table, and so I licked it off the table because it was still good. It was on the table, but it was so good. You don’t want to lose that because when you don’t have any food, it is precious. You lick every drop of it because it’s good—delightful. Even water was good.

Did you have any animals—a cow or a chicken?

Animals? No, you couldn’t have any animals. Only if you lived in the countryside—you might have a dog or a cat, but no, you would need to feed them, too. To have a chicken would be beneficial; an extra egg would have been a luxury.

Did your family know any Jewish families who lived in Strasbourg?

Oh, a few of them. They were hiding. Some people were hiding Jewish people. That is why the Gestapo was always searching, but beware if they found some hiding.

Anyway, after that, we returned after about two years, but the war was still going on in Italy. In our neighborhood, the Battle of the Bulge was going on. It was not far from us. When we got back home, we had to go to a German school there. And participate in the Hitler Youth? Oh, yes, and if you didn’t do it, your parents were penalized. So, we learned. It was a tough time.

My dad had a radio, but they confiscated so much in your house. They knew we had a radio and wanted to take it away, but my dad was hiding it very well. One of our neighbors was helping my dad because he was not going to join the Nazi Army. So, our neighbor was hiding him. We didn’t know, and then, we were searched by the Nazis. They would kick our door open and search all through the house.

Was this in the house in Strasbourg or after you evacuated? This was when we came back to Strasbourg, yes. That was really tough because they kept a good watch on us. It lasted several months (when he was hiding), and then, he knew through the radio that the Americans were landing in Normandy. It was no time to go outside your house because there was a man always leaning over on windows, helping the Nazis, and giving them information. So he was a spy? I do not know. It’s so amazing that I still remember that guy leaning on the window all day and all night. He never rolled the shutter down, so he could always watch the neighborhood

Another of our neighbors across the street was the owner of the brewery. He often invited the Gestapo and Nazis to his house. His son, who was my age, kept telling them, “We are still speaking French together when we play.” We were born as the French, but we had to learn German at the school. You had to be careful to whom you talked and be aware of suspicious people. A lot of suspicion… We learned more about diplomacy after the war; they talked to us about that at school—the behavior and mentality of people, especially in wartime when food was scarce and when people were under much fear and stress.

Who talked to you about that (the mentality of people)?

In schools and our parents. My mother was really good at that. You have to be very careful about how people judge you and how they defend themselves about it, how they are just pointing their fingers at people even though they are the ones who are doing the bad things. (During the nights when they were searching, they would just kick our door open, search every corner, throw everything out of the closet to find something French.) My mother was hiding the French books very well. She was a teacher.

So, they were just trying to erase French culture and submerge the country with German culture?

Yes, the school was pretty tough, and the teachers also. Were they really strict (the teachers)? Yes, and when you are young, it has much impact on you. My older sister was thirteen by the end of the war, and she even had to dig ditches. You were really supposed to be fourteen and a boy, but she was thirteen. She had to go to dig ditches already. Ditches for…? Yes, they dug deep ditches, so the Germans could hide in ditches and shoot at the Americans when they came. Oh, like trenches. The children were the ones who had to dig those? Wow, I didn’t even realize that. Yes, and she was only thirteen. Did you have to dig, as well? No, I was only nine.

That was during the last five or six months before the Americans landed in Normandy. When the Americans arrived in Strasbourg in their huge and heavy talks, all the houses were shaking, and they threw us chewing gum.

Did you say that Strasbourg was the city that you were born in?

Strasbourg is in Alsace, I was born in Lorraine, and my dad was a surveying architect, surveying the city. He was also an engineer, and he graduated in 1921. He was born in 1900; he was just twenty-one years old. I have some nice pictures of him where all the men had hats on. Did you know that? They had hats on! (Laughs…) They were very stylish and dressed up in their suits and their ties and everything.

I think it’s wonderful to be so in touch with your heritage.

Yes, it’s important. I think it’s very nice. My older sister was a mathematician, a great mathematician, a doctor in mathematics. She taught math to the guys who went to the moon. It’s above me. (Laughs…) In this country? In France.

My son, along with Dad and I, flew over Europe often so that my son would learn English, French, and German because Strasbourg is Alsace. (Usually, here in the US, it is called Alsace-Lorraine, 2 different counties.)

Could you spell the name of the town you were born in?

Metz. M-e-t-z. During the war, they built a big Maginot Line. If you like history, you’re going to have to learn that. They built it so that the Germans wouldn’t pass through there. Oh, we learned about that! And they thought that the Germans wouldn’t be able to pass, but then, they passed through Belgium, right? Right, it was a big battle, “The Battle of the Bulge.” Four of my mother’s cousins (four boys) were all shot. Even two of them were at a much younger age. Oh, it was just miserable, so sad.

I remember so much about the Nazis because when you are young, it stays with you for the rest of your life. We are very sensitive of what we see and hear. You do not grow out of it. Every war brings back memories. You have a fearful reminder as you live through each other war. A lot of children in Iran and Iraq—do you think they’re going to remember all that? They’re going to remember that, whether in a good way or a very bad way.

All of my sisters and I have three names Do you go by both names, like double names? Not really, but we record them as they are in many documents, on passports and others. (She tells me some of the names.) They’re beautiful names.

Yes, the saint of Odile was the daughter of an emperor from Alsace-Lorraine from the time of the 4^th century. A very intelligent person (the emperor)—he built castles and had a lot of land and horses, and the castles still exist! Those constructions are incredible and strong. The entrance or hallway was where the hunters would leave their gear and things like that. They would have the most daylight beams going into the dining room through small-shaped windows, and the walls are thick like that (showing me how thick they were). So, how they could build that is unbelievable! And you’re going to learn that; you have a lot of things to learn. (We all laugh…)

You’ve told me a lot about your childhood. What was it like when the war was over?

When the war was over, we were happy. We could buy a little bit more because when you would go to the store, you had a little more coupons. There was a change because before, there were Gestapo in the store to make sure the store wouldn’t give you extra food. If the bread weighed too much, they would cut a piece off—if it was more than a kilo. It was by weight, not by loaf. They wanted to make sure that you didn’t get too much. (I groan.) Oh yeah… (Chuckles…)

Children need to learn by example not to waste food. They need to appreciate how it is made, how you grow the grain, and that you might not have bread tomorrow. It’s a very precious thing just to make bread. It’s a lot of work; have you ever done that? Well, I haven’t made bread with yeast and everything to have it rise, but I’ve made banana bread and stuff like that. It’s different. Yes, usually, you have to depend on the sun and the rain. You know that? It’s the way to survive because you could lose all your food. And they were working hard—those people—to make their food, to make grain, and to make wheat (you need wood to make the fire). Wow, I bet. Just like the Indians.

I will always remember that our first Christmas after the war, we could buy little Tangerines. They came all the way from Algeria, and they tasted sooooo good. We did not have any during the war, and even on that Christmas, we had just five of them, one for each.

Well, I appreciate everything I have. I worked hard for all my life; I worked a lot. I think that’s great. It’s awful when people take things for granted. Oh, yes. It’s nice that someone works hard so that you can have an easier life later on. We just have to stay healthy.

 

(To be continued in Part II…)

Mrs. Dorothy “Dottie” Bryan

(Born 1922) 

Husband: Robert (Married on June 5, 1942)

Children: Wyllian and Robert Junior

When were you born?

January the 13^th 1922. On Friday—Friday the 13^th. (Laughter)

Did your parents tell you anything funny about your birthday?

No, my mother died when I was about 2 and a half, and I was raised by my grandmother. There were 4 children. They tell me that my mother knew that she was not going to make it, so she requested that two of the children go with her parents and two with my daddy’s parents. So, that’s what they did. I was raised by my grandmother and granddaddy, but they never told me anything funny about Friday the 13^th. (Laughter)

So did you have brothers and sisters?

I had one brother, but he died when he was 6. Oh, I’m sorry. He had mastoids. It’s a disease of the ear, and they didn’t have penicillin or anything like that. So, my younger sister and I lived together. That must have been fun. Yes, we had a good time.

What is her name?

Her name was Virginia, but we called her Neine. (Laughter) I don’t know how we got that name. I guess we couldn’t say Virginia. And, she’s gone now, so I’m the only one left.

What were your parent’s names? Or your grandparent’s names, I guess?

My grandparents, their last name was Teates.

What was your childhood like?

Well, it was happy. We had a good time playing together. I can’t remember any bad things about it. It was fun. Well, that’s great. Yes.

Did you all grow up in Virginia?

Virginia, that’s the house that we grew up in (pointing to a framed painting), and we had a big yard in the front. We’d play, and we had a little walkway. Cement—we roller-skated on it. And we lived across the road from the school.

So, did you walk to school every morning?

Oh, yes, and my grandmother kept boarders. She kept teachers. Of course, it was just a little town. There was no hotel or motel, so different families boarded the teachers. We always had teachers. That’s so cool.

Do you remember any fun ones? Did you get to talk to the teachers a lot?

Yes. In fact, I was in love with the principal! (We all laugh.) I thought he was wonderful, but they were really like brothers because we just lived so close, you know. We had a good time with them, and they treated us really well. It sounds like fun. Yes, it was.

Was it a place out in the countryside or a little small town?

It was a little, teeny town. I think the population was fifty! (We all laugh.)

So you pretty much knew everyone?

Yes, that’s right. The school was consolidated; they’d bus children in from all around. It was a happy life. My grandparents were real good to us. Of course, we got switched sometimes when we misbehaved. I think children need switches more, now, than their parents give them.

*Now did your two sets of grandparents live near each other?*

It wasn’t far, but we didn’t see them too much… But it wasn’t too far. They lived in the little town next to us.

Did you get to see your other siblings on holidays or anything?

Yes, but we grew closer, really, when we grew up. My older sister went to Washington to work and lived with relatives in Washington D.C. We’d see her often.

Did your grandparents tell you any stories about their lives to you? Any family stories, anything about family heritage or traditions?

Well, not really. Now, my grandmother’s mother lived with us at one time before she died, and of course, we got to know her—my great grandmother. My grandfather’s mother lived up the road from us, and we went to see her every Sunday. After church, we’d go up there, so we got to know her. That must have been really special. Yes.

Do you remember anything that stood out about the Roaring Twenties? Did all that excitement impact your family at all? Or anything with the Great Depression, too, afterward?

Well, that’s why I was with my grandparents because my father lived with his parents. My father’s family had a big dairy farm, and I was born on that. But, when my mother died, it was the Depression. That’s why I think she said to break the family up, you know.

My grandfather was agent and operator of the railroad, The Southern Railway, so he had a good job. We didn’t want for anything. We had everything we needed or wanted That’s wonderful.

Did you ever get to hang out around the railroad or see what it was like?

Yes, we’d do that some. One thing that was fun was that there were people in Maryland who had homing pigeons, and they would send the pigeons out of town. To my grandfather—we’d let them out, and he’d have to telegraph the time and all. We would help him let them out and look for eggs, and that was fun. (Laughs…) We loved doing that. That sounds cool.

What about high school? Was high school really far away?

No, it was in the same building. That’s where my principal was the history teacher, and of course, I said I was in love with him. (Laughs…) We just admired him. The agriculture teacher and the principal both lived with us.

What was your favorite subject in school? Was it history?

No, I really didn’t have a [favorite subject]. I just studied them all. That’s good too. We sat around the dining room table and studied.

Did you ever get to ask questions to the teachers that lived with you if you didn’t understand something?

No, I don’t remember that.

What about after high school? When did you leave home, or did you stay in the town?

No, I came to Atlanta. I had an uncle and aunt that lived in Atlanta. They were transferred to Atlanta with the Southern Railway when the home office moved from Washington to Atlanta. I came down here and went to business school and lived with my uncle and aunt. It’s long gone now, but it was Crichton Business College in Atlanta.

Is Atlanta really different now?

Oh, yes—so different. I don’t even know where I am, now (Laughs), and I used to know every place. It’s grown, and it’s changed. That was when I came to Atlanta in 1938. After I finished business school, I got a job, and I met this man in a church that worked for the telephone company. He got me a job at the telephone company—Southern Bell. That’s where I met my husband. Really! When did you all meet? In 1941. We married on June 5, 1942.

What was your wedding day like?

Well, there was no gas; you had to go where there was gas. We married in the Presbyterian manse. (That’s where the preacher lived—in the Presbyterian Church.) We went to Alabama because that’s where you can get gas. And Tennessee—you had to go where you could get gas because it was rationed. Our honeymoon was there—in Alabama and then Tennessee.

And then he went off; he joined the army and went off in September. He went overseas and didn’t come back for three years. Oh, my goodness. *That’s a long time.* And you were newlyweds! But there were a lot of them [a lot of years to enjoy].

Did you all write letters back and forth?

Yes, I wrote him everyday. He didn’t write everyday, but he wrote some beautiful letters. I’ve got them all. He was wonderful.

What was it like for you during the war?

Well, I was working for the telephone company, and of course, we had a lot of government contracts. My grandmother came down and lived with me for part of the time, but we had to move so much because we’d get an apartment where the male [of the family] had been in the service and then he’d come home. So, we’d have to move. We lived in several different places during that time. My grandmother was with me most of the time, and my sister was with me some.

Do you remember right when the war ended where you were or what it felt like when you heard that the war was over?

Well—of course, I was more interested in Bob’s coming home… I remember that he came on a train to Atlanta, and I was living in Decatur at that time. He came walking in—I didn’t know what time he’d be there, you know. He came walking in, and he said that he met a friend [on the street] that he had known before he went overseas. The friend passed him on the street and said, “Hello Bob.” And he’d be gone for 3 years! (Laughs…) He said he felt so funny, you know.

Then, I quit work, and we had our first little girl in 1946. We had our son in 1950.

What are their names, your children?

Well, we lost our daughter. She had breast cancer, and she died in 2001. Her name was Wyllian. That was my mother’s name too. That’s a beautiful name; I don’t think I’ve ever heard it before. Well, they say that when my mother was born, her good girlfriend telegraphed [my grandmother] and said, “Name her Wyllian. It’s the feminine for William.” And that was my grandfather’s name, William. So, I said that if I ever had a little girl, I’d name her Wyllian… but she had a hard time with that name. (Laughs…) My son’s name is Robert. He’s a Junior [Robert Junior].

Did they get along when they were growing up?

Oh, yes. Of course, my son gave her a hard time (chuckles), but he’s wonderful. I couldn’t do without him.

When they were growing up, did you have any fun pets or animals?

We had a dog that lived outside, but we always had a dog.

Was there one decade [that was your favorite], like the 50’s or the 60’s? Or something that stood out that you, had the most fun in, or were the craziest styles? Listened to the most famous music? Like the 40’s or the 50’s?

Of course, the Big Bands were our favorites. I don’t know much about the music nowadays, but we loved the Big Bands. I’ve listened to some of that music; it’s great dance music. That was music, I think. Now, I don’t understand it. (We all laugh…)

Did you and your husband go out dancing a lot?

Well, we went some, but not all the time. I wasn’t a very good dancer; he was good, but I wasn’t.

Once you got married and once he came back, did you a keep up with your job and your career?

No, I quit. To raise your children? Yes.

Was it hard raising your children?

No…no. (Chuckles…) They were good children.

What was the best part about being a mother?

Well, just loving them. Of course, I did love them. Like I said, they were good children.

Do you remember any main national events after the war? Or any world events? Anything throughout history that stands out? Or that impacted you? You could talk about your favorite president or famous politicians?

No, not really. Of course, the atomic bomb, I guess, was a terrible thing, but it brought my husband home. I had mixed emotions about that.

So, what are some of your hobbies now? What interests have you had over the years? Or what’s been the most fun to do?

Well, gardening. I used to love to work in the yard. Of course, now I can’t do it, but I used to love that.

Do you have a favorite flower?

I guess the roses. I love flowers. I used to raise them, but now I can’t.

When you were younger during World War II, did you all have a victory garden, or did you know people who did? Were those popular?

No, we didn’t, but when we moved to Peachtree City, we had gardens. We really raised a lot of vegetables. Of course, we had a big garden at home when I was growing up.

What kind of vegetables did you grow?

Potatoes, carrots, beans, and corn. A little bit of everything. They had grape vines—beautiful, white grapes that were so good. Did you make into jelly or just eat them right off them vine? No, my grandmother did [make jelly]. She did all kinds of things, and she made wine. Oh, really? Yeah. Did she make dandelion wine? Yeah, she made dandelion wine. And elder bloom. Elderberry? Elderberry and elder bloom, and we used that for communion some. It reminds me of Anne of Green Gables a little bit. Have you read those books or seen the movies? Yes, I’ve seen the movies. I love those movies. Those are some of my favorites. Yes.

I remember that because there was that one funny scene where she got her friend drunk by accident because they were drinking wine instead of the juice they were supposed to drink. (Laughs…) I remember that one.

What’s your favorite book? Or even when you were growing up?

I didn’t read like I should have, I don’t have a favorite book.

What about movies? Do you like to watch movies?

Oh, yeah. I like the old ones; I watched the old timey ones, the black and whites and all that.

Have you seen lots of the ones with Katherine Hepburn?

Yeah, she’s good. And Cary Grant, I think, is my favorite… or maybe Clark Gable. (Chuckles…)

Did you ever meet anyone famous or go any concerts or anything?

One time, when I was working in the Hurt Building in Atlanta, Tyrone Power was in. I don’t know why he came, but all the girls were anxious to see him. And I remember that I went down to the lobby and saw him. I just ran up to him and hit him on the back! (We all laugh…)  Why I did that I don’t know, but I did. Was he polite? He just walked on. (Laughs…) That’s funny. I’ll never know why he was there.

So, when you were younger, outside of school, did you have any pastimes that you liked to do, like hanging out with friends, hiking, swimming, dancing, or playing any sports?

Well, we didn’t do that in that little town, and my grandmother was very strict. I couldn’t date until after I graduated. Really? Yeah, and I didn’t. (Laughs…) I knew better. She was protective of us. My younger sister—she kind of rebelled. (Laughs…) Yes, but I thought you were supposed to mind your parents.

What do you think you’re most proud of out of everything you’ve done? Is there one big accomplishment? It could be something small, too, that you remember from your childhood that you were so proud of? Or even raising your children? I mean, I know that’s a big accomplishment.

*She raised two fine children. I’ll say that.* Well, I guess [raising our children] and our church life. We’ve been church-going from the beginning. Well, not from the beginning, but… Of course, I’m living on memories now. That’s wonderful—lots  of good memories.

So do you remember any big inventions that you were really surprised about? Crazy inventions that you remember? Or important ones? Like the washing machine or something that made a big difference?

(Laughs…) Well, all of those—and the microwave, I guess—that was good. Of course, during the war, we couldn’t get all those things. I remember we had an icebox where we had to get ice and put them in… and the ringer-type washing machine. So, they were big improvements. Did you have to hang up clothes on a clothesline after you washed them? Yes, yes. That’s right because we didn’t have dryers. (Chuckles…)

What about deliverymen and stuff? Did they have to deliver the ice for your icebox? Yes, but that wasn’t too long. I remember it was hard to find things like that.

I know you were talking about your religion, but what are some of your philosophical beliefs about life? And what’s gotten you through the hard times?

Well, Jesus has gotten me through, and my husband was real strong.

So, would you say that your family has probably been one of the biggest things that has made all of your experiences really happy and your life successful?

Yes. I think my grandparents—their dedication to us and taking us in. Because my grandmother was just fifty when she [took in] me and my 8 months old sister, and she raised us.

So were they your main role models when you were growing up?

Well, my grandfather and grandmother… and the memory of my mother. She must have been wonderful.

*I’ll answer here that Dottie’s daughter, Wyllian, and her husband—how long were they married before they adopted the children? Do you remember? Do you remember how long they married before they adopted?*

It seems like it was 19 years ago.

*It was a good while, and they adopted four children. The four were related and were siblings, but some of the church ladies had a shower when Wyllian instantly became a mom. I always admired Wyllian and Micheal for doing that—big hearts.* Wow,yeah.

Where did the children come from? Did they come from this country?

Yes. Georgia. So you get to see them frequently? Well, not now I don’t. They’ve got their own families, and they’re busy.

Did you get to do much traveling? I know you grew up in Virginia and then came to Georgia. Did you get to go to any other states?

No, no. Just here and there. Living in the south. Yes.

Where did you say that you grew up in Virginia?

It was a little town called Bealeton. It’s near Warrenton and Fredericksburg. Yes, it’s pretty.

So did you visit a lot of the battlefields growing up?

Well, after I grew up, I did. When you were old enough to appreciate it? Yes, to Gettysburg—we went there once.

We didn’t do a lot of traveling, really. Well, my grandparents were busy working and raising us, so we didn’t do a lot of traveling. But, we came down to Atlanta every summer to visit my uncle and aunt.

Are there any shops or stores in Atlanta that stand out that you remember going to or any fun places that you hung out?

Well, Rich’s was, I guess, our favorite. Of course, it’s long gone now. Of course, we didn’t even need to lock our house. Really? No. Back in those days, I remember when Wyllian married, we never thought of locking our house. When she started getting all of her gifts, Michael said, “Y’all better lock the doors.” (We all laugh…) But, you know, we lived in a neighborhood where we didn’t worry about that. Because you knew everyone, right? And trusted them? Yeah, that’s right.

*Did you ever take Robert and Wyllian to ride the pink pig at Rich’s at Christmas?*

You know, we went, but I can’t remember them riding that. But, we used to go to Rich’s. (Mhmm)

*One summer, my husband took Dottie and me on a tour in Atlanta. It’s been ten years or more, I guess, but Dottie could remember a lot of what used to be there. Of course, we were looking at what was there, but it was interesting because my husband is a native. So, they could talk about, you know, times gone by, and it was interesting.*

This is kind of a big question, but what advice do you have for younger generations and people like your grandchildren or people like me to live a good happy life and enjoy it?

Well, I think you need to grow up in a church, and you need to love your family and respect them. Be careful what organizations you join, and just love each other. That’s great advice.

Have you supported specific organizations or anything? Or advocated any causes throughout your life? You’ve been a big part of your church, you said, and that’s a big cause.

Mm-hmm. Well, now, that’s about it, That’s a big one; that’s great.

*Dottie’s done a lot of different things in the church.*

Are you a volunteer?

Yes, I enjoy that.

 So do you go to the Presbyterian Church here?

No, Methodist. Bob was Methodist, and I went with him. We were married by a Presbyterian minister, but I joined the Methodist Church with him.

I did have a happy life growing up, and I’ve had a lot of sorrow, too, but I’ve managed to live through it. I’ve got so many friends, and I think friends are wonderful. I think you need friends; I couldn’t have managed all this without friends.

Mrs. Connie Warren

(Born 1921)

Parents: Bass and Madge

Husband: Harry Matthew Warren, married on April 3, 1943

Children: Cheryl and Harriet

*Because of technical difficulties, this interview could not be recorded, so it will be told in the form of a story of a glimpse into Mrs. Warren’s exciting life.

 

Mrs. Constance Warren was born in January of 1921 during the Roaring Twenties. During her childhood, she loved to dance, especially the flamboyant Charleston.

When she was young, her family moved into a brand new neighborhood, and she decided to have a neighborhood party to introduce herself to her neighbors and to make new friends. After her mom set out delicious cookies and refreshing lemonade, twenty kids came to meet their new neighbors. (Ms. Warren said that it made her want to throw a party every single day.) The neighborhood party is when she made her three best friends: a Chinese little girl, a black little girl, and a little girl the same color as her.

At school, Ms. Warren’s favorite subjects were geography and English, and in sixth grade, she even skipped 6A and went to the harder 6B. Sitting outside under a tree at A.L. Miller High School during her senior year is when she remembers reading her favorite novel Gone with the Wind.

Later on, Ms. Warren went to Western College in Macon, GA and majored in Education and Government. Then, she was hired into a government position and handed out rationing stamps to people throughout World War II.

When she met her husband, Ms. Warren worked at Davison’s, a department store. One day, a charming man who said that he wanted to buy perfume for his mom came up to the counter and asked the saleslady (Ms. Warren) what her favorite kind of perfume was. She gave him her suggestion, and he bought the perfume and left. Later that night, Ms. Warren went on a blind date that her friend had planned for her, and to her surprise, the sweet man with the perfume from earlier in the day (which was actually a gift for her) was her date! Needless to say, the couple fell in love and later got married in St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Memphis, Tennessee during a 3-day pass in World War II. (*As a side fact, Ms. Warren’s friend in Tennessee lived next to Elvis Presley, so Ms. Warren got to meet him and shake his hand!)

Ms. Warren’s husband was in the Air Force and traveled with the Japanese and Dutchmen in the Air Force during World War II. The couple lived in Memphis and then was transferred to Macon, Georgia. Years later, Mr. Warren had eye cancer, passed away, and is now buried in Fayetteville.

While she and her husband lived in Macon, Ms. Warren won the Miss Macon contest, which her mom won, as well, when she was younger. Ms. Warren looked up to her mother very much because her mother was always so funny, and she had never even seen her mother cry. Ms. Warren’s mother owned a dress shop in Macon, and she was the one who gave Ms. Warren away on her wedding day. (*A fun fact about Ms. Warren’s mother is that she actually got to see the premiere of Gone with the Wind and even got to shake hands with Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh!)

Two of Ms. Warren’s favorite places that she has been include the pink beaches in Bermuda and the beautiful country of Ireland where her husband played golf. In fact, her husband was an avid golf lover, and for three times he made a hole in one. (For this, he was in the magazines Golf Digest and Delta Digest, and Ms. Warren still has the exact golf ball he used for those lucky shots.) While traveling, she and her husband loved to ride in jet planes, and Ms. Warren even took a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon once on her way out to California.

Ms. Warren’s biggest hobby is reading, and she says that even though her husband loved golf, she has no patience for the sport. Some of her favorite books include Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell and The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller. Some of her other hobbies include playing the games Bingo and Bunco and going out to lunch with her lunch bunch group of friends. She loves Italian food, and her favorite restaurant to visit is Olive Garden. Ms. Warren is also a part of a Bridge Club, and she told me that at their annual Halloween party, she dressed up as Dolly Parton. (She laughed and told me that the secret to her costume was buying an extra big bra to stuff!)

Some of Ms. Warren’s accomplishments include learning so much throughout her education, making so many valuable friendships in every place she’s been, and being a Girl Scout leader in both of her daughters’ Brownie troops.

During the 1996 Olympics, Ms. Warren drove around the homemakers who made the athletes comfortable during their stay in Atlanta. She helped plan fun trips for the athletes, including excursions to try line dancing, to tour the CNN Center, to go on behind-the-scenes tours at Fox Theatre, and to open the well-known southern restaurant Pittypat’s Porch. Ms. Warren even got to see all the “big shots” while touring the Centennial Olympic Stadium (which later became Turner Field).

Ms. Warren loves going to the High Museum in Atlanta, and some of her favorite art pieces include Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring and da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. To solve the world’s major problems, as she says, the economy needs to go up, and there has to be more peace and fewer wars. To her, some of the most important elements of life are family, ancestry/ heritage, and traveling, and one thing she would love to do would be to go on an African safari because she loves animals. One of her favorite pets she has had is her Boston Terrier “Bubbles.” Ms. Warren mentioned that one of the only days she had to skip work was on a day to take Bubbles to the veterinarian because of his broken paw. Her boss, not knowing that it was her dog that was the sick one, sent flowers and a get-well card, and got pretty upset when he found out that he had done all of that just for a dog. Oh well; it gave Ms. Warren (and me later) a good laugh!

Overall, Ms. Warren says that her life has been quite successful, and her advice to younger generations is to study hard, make something of yourself, go to college, take advantage of everything you can, do unto others as you would have them do to you, and make it so that you never meet a stranger.