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- Description:
- Laura Lutes Waters talks about volunteering for the American Red Cross during World War I so that she could be near her brother who was a U.S. Marine serving in France. She says that it was very difficult to get into the Red Cross at the time and that it took her two tries before she was finally accepted. She discusses her Red Cross training, being shipped to Europe aboard a troop ship carrying African-American soldiers and laborers and being pressed into service as a nurse to assist the ship's doctor. After Waters ends her interview, Evelyn McHiggins discusses Waters' childhood, post-war life and career as a business woman. McHiggins says Waters was born in Minnesota and spent her childhood in Alaska during the Klondike gold rush and later in life became well known nationally as an innovative and respected travel agent. The recording is introduced by Vivian Peterson.
- Date Issued:
- 1983-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Florence Failing Kenny discusses her service in the British Volunteer Army Division during World War I. Kenny says that she found out about the VAD through newspaper stories in Syracuse, NY where she was attending college and decided to join up and go overseas. Kenny talks about taking convalescing soldiers to have tea with the royal family, meeting Princess Alice, the differences between the English socialites who were in the VAD and the Americans and says that all VAD uniforms were tailor-made because the English socialites wouldn't accept generic sizing for their uniforms. She also remembers being reprimanded by a colleague's parents for taking the English girls to a cocktail bar in London and ending up in a rest home after the war because she had lost so much weight. Kenny is interviewed by Genevieve Hill Cadmus and Thelma Norris.
- Date Issued:
- 1983-05-28T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project