Columbus Park

Two part interview with Rosalie Strada about her life and experience as part of the Italian-American community in Columbus Park. She discusses her parents' and siblings' immigration from Italy, and recalls a warm, sharing community that she believes no longer exists, and notes that though the neighborhood was predominantly Italian-American, they had Black, Jewish, and Mexican neighbors. She also recalls the Great Depression, Pendergast, and World War II eras, working in the garment industry, the business environment on Independenve Avenue, the integration of later immigrants to the neighborhood, the trauma of her father's death, and her son, former Chiefs player John Strada.

Interview with Geneva Migrone about her life as part of an Italian-American family in the Columbus Park neighborhood. She recalls Black and Jewish neighbors, holidays, life in the neighborhood, and working outside the home after having several children. She discusses her family and members of the community enjoying the Don Bosco Community Center, recalls New Deal relief including WPA jobs, and notes the influx of Vietnamese immigrants in the 1970s and '80s.

Interview with Elizabeth Cipolla about her experience as "Lizzie" the Riveter, building B-25s at the Fairfax plant during World War II, and her husband and other family members' service in Europe during the war. She also discusses making skirts and curtains out of fabric from sugar bags, civil defense practices, rationing, war bonds, and other aspects of life on the homefront, as well growing up in the Northeast area of Kansas City before the war, and her family life after, including a period of time when her husband was hospitalized with what would likely later be understood as post-traumatic stress disorder.

Interview with Josephine Lopez about her life in the Kansas City area. Born in 1915, she recounts her immigration from Mexico to the United States on foot as a toddler with her family, her father's work for the railroad, leaving school to work around the age of 12 after her father's death, and her social life in the local Mexican American community. She discusses working at the Hotel Baltimore where she met her husband, staying home with their baby during her husband's army service in World War II, moving to the Armourdale neighborhood in Kansas City, Kansas in the late 1930s, and returning to Kansas City, Missouri, after the 1951 Flood. She also shares stories about going to work at Parkview Drugstore, her husband attending school and becoming a chiropractor, his work with the Department of Labor, moving to Lee's Summit, Missouri, and her and her husband's social, civic, and family activities.