Military spouses

Interview with Mary Alice Patterson about growing up in Kansas City, Kansas, during the Great Depression, and her marriage to her husband Dee. She discusses Dee's education as a civil engineer at the University of Kansas, his enlistment in the Navy Seabees in 1943, his service in the Pacific, and sending V-mail and care packages to him while managing life on the homefront. She also discusses memories of VJ Day while they were stationed in Providence, Rhode Island, and life after the war, with Dee returning to engineering and later work with the General Services Administration, and notes her sister Virginia's service as a nurse in the Women's Army Corps in the Pacific during the war.

Interview with Shirley Smith Ramey in which she shares photographs and discusses growing up in Northeast Kansas City, Missouri, her ancestors and how the family came to the area, and how her parents learned trades at a school for the deaf in Fulton, Missouri. She describes being raised by her grandparents and her mother, who worked in the local garment industry, eloping with her husband Owen, and their early marriage and work. She also discusses moving back in with her family while pregnant when Owen left to fight in World War II, later following Owen's orders to San Antonio and Denver, post-war life in east Kansas City, and being part of the "white flight" to Johnson County.

Interview with Margaret Anne Cummings about her experience as a military wife during World War II, and post-war life with her husband Franklin. Cummings discusses moving to "the country" while her husband served (she does not specify which branch of service) out of state and overseas, the birth of their daughter, and Franklin's service as a cook during the war in Europe. She also discusses the service of other friends and family, and the finances of the family during wartime. Cummings went on to teach in the Kansas City, MO, school district from 1958-1981.

Interview with Elaine C. Wills about her experience as an aircraft sheet metal mechanic during World War II. She discusses attending the Aviation Institute of Denver with her husband, and their move to California to work at two different aircraft manufacturers until her husband was drafted into the Army Air Corps. She mentions moves to Nebraska, Texas, and back to Kansas City, and describes her experience repairing aircraft damaged in the war and as a woman working alongside men and as a mother managing childcare while working. Elaine later worked for Luzier Cosmetics in Kansas City and was working on finishing her college degree in her 80s, and also discussed rationing, what she enjoyed in her personal time, and her education, marriage and family life.

Interview with Esperanza Amayo about her life as a daughter of Mexican-American immigrants in Kansas City, Kansas, during the Great Depression; about her brother, friends, and neighbors being drafted into the military; and the discrimination she and other local Mexican-Americans faced in the community. She also discusses her husband Lou's service in the army and his experience at the Battle of the Bulge, and the assimilation of Mexican-American families in the United States.

Interview with Georgene Stinnett in which she describes her childhood on an Iowa Farm, taking the civil service exam, and moving to Washington, DC, to work at the Pentagon during World War II. She discusses being a stenographer in the Signal Corps, taking dictation from officers and working with classified documents, having lunch while bands played in the Pentagon courtyard, and recalls Franklin D. Roosevelt's death and funeral. She also recalls measures taken by her family and others on the home front, and working as a USO hostess, where she met her husband, and notes improvements in medical care during the war years that benefited her during her pregnancies.

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 Catherine Curtis about her experience as the wife of airman Herbert Brecht during World War II, moving around the country with her young daughter, and his capture as a prisoner of war, and later death, in Europe. She discusses being a member of the Gold Star Wives, her later remarriage, life, and work with the PTA and Old Town Spring PAC, an urban renewal project, in Independence, MO.