Oral History Program Lillian Morrison Interviewed by Sian Jones 20 May 1997 i Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Lillian Morrison Interviewed by Sian Jones 20 May 1997 Copyright © 2014 by Weber State University, Stewart Library ii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. Archival copies are placed in University Archives. The Stewart Library also houses the original recording so researchers can gain a sense of the interviewee's voice and intonations. Project Description The Weber State College/University Student Projects have been created by students working with several different professors on the Weber State campus. The topics are varied and based on the student's interest or task for a specific assignment. These oral history assignments were created to help Weber State students learn the value and importance of recording public history and to benefit the expansion of the Weber State oral history collections. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the Stewart Library of Weber State University. No part of the manuscript may be published without the written permission of the University Librarian. Requests for permission to publish should be addressed to the Administration Office, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah, 84408. The request should include identification of the specific item and identification of the user. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Morrison, Lillian, an oral history by Sian Jones, 20 May 1997, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Abstract: The following is an oral history interview with Lillian Morrison. The interview was conducted on May 20, 1997, by Sian Jones in the location of 2427 Jefferson Ogden, Utah. Mrs. Morrison discusses her life and personal experiences in various contexts such as education, marriage, and her knowledge of the military. SJ: The first thing I want to ask you is to tell me a little bit about your childhood and what that was like, and then you can tell me a little bit about being in the second world war in Africa, and then, so, I want a little bit of a different time frame through your life. So, if you’ll start with your childhood. LM: Okay. When my father took off abruptly, as I said, my mother came to Oklahoma where relatives and friends were. Country people. Cattle farmers. And she had quite a struggle bringing up three children with very little support from our errant father. And somebody convinced her that life in a country of small towns was probably the best thing for her children. So we had the typical family without a father, in Oklahoma, in and out of Shawnee, where I graduated from high school. And I went to work as soon as I got out of high school. My sisters had to support me because when I was past 12, my mother had an emotional breakdown, a deep depression. She was away from us in a hospital for about four years, until I graduated from high school, with the help of my older sisters. They were so young, they had to lie to get jobs— with the telephone company. SJ: So you’re very close to your sisters? LM: Yes I was, especially to the one who died in ’94, in the middle of the month, this year. She was living in Arizona. But I came to Utah because of her. She was here with two of 1 her little children, and I was getting tired of the hurly burly in Washington, D.C., so I came out here, and I stayed. SJ: Do you like Utah? LM: It’s beautiful. Yes I do. I like many things about it. SJ: Okay. How close were you to your sisters? LM: Well, more to the one who died, but also the younger one, the middle one, is living now in Alabama with her only child. SJ: Did you get married and have children? LM: I was married twice with no children. I think that’s the secret of my life because nothing tied me down. I divorced my husbands from boredom. SJ: Let’s not go there. LM: There’s not going to be an approval from some people. SJ: I can understand that. What about your education? What sort of school did you go to? LM: Well, I entered the University of Oklahoma about two or three years after high school. I was trying to work and go to school. I was working full time and trying to take too many courses, and I got working in work and got tired of it and just dropped out. But over the years I’ve been in about three or four universities, more I think, without ever getting a bachelor’s. SJ: So did you enjoy going to school? LM: I did. I’m a bookish person. I learned to read from an oatmeal box and I’ve been a great reader ever since. 2 SJ: So do you feel education is important? LM: Oh yes. Well, I guess somehow I was not driven to stick with anything to get a degree— a specialized education to make a living. I was good in English, though, and German, too, and even translating. SJ: So what did you do for a living? LM: I worked in offices, and my last job was with the magazine of a trade association, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, I believe. That was interesting. SJ: So did you grow up with any close friends? Girlfriends? LM: I didn’t have, I didn’t tend to have close friends. One in high school. But we moved around quite a bit, and after graduating I was only, graduating from high school, and so I jumped around a lot. It’s been interesting but, a rolling stone gathers no moss. SJ: There you go. So how did you end up in North Africa? LM: Well, I was on the west coast working for a family on a family estate, and she, the woman, was a daughter of a shipping magnate, and everyone was joining the services, so I joined. SJ: And what year was that? LM: That was in 1942. SJ: Just after America joined the war? LM: Yes. I couldn't join, I was already over-age, except that the age limit was changed, and so I enlisted from Portland, Oregon, had basic training in Iowa, Fort Demoines, and I hadn't been overseas 'till then. 3 SJ: So what did they have you doing? LM: Office work. SJ: Office work? LM: Yes, with the, they assigned me to the Quarter Master General in Algeris. And I came out of Algeris against war. I think it's stupid. A huge, expensive waste of time, and I think if we kept out of wars we'd be a darn sight better off, and I think women, women can join the military if they want to, and of course they are, but I think it'd be better to try to prevent war. But that's a very large ambition. SJ: True. Yes. So were there a lot of other women around you, during the military? LM: Oh yes. I believe there were 40,000 women in the women's army, and a few women at least ran for colonel or general. SJ: Wonderful. So tell me some stories about North Africa. LM: Well, I was in the convoy to begin with. We took off from New York harbor. Fourteen days to cross the ocean, which of course was much longer than usual. We were in a convoy, surrounded by cruisers and destroyers and so on, because it was considered a possibility that we'd be submarined, but nothing like that happened. So we disembarked at Oran in North Africa, took a train to Algeris till we were assigned to various army posts. It was the Allied Force headquarters of the Eisenhower’s, and the free thinkers, and the British. So I did the usual thing. I will tell you something that I told Captain Donat. He was griping about how his brother- in-law was back in the United States getting rich making shoes, and I said, "Captain Donat, I'm getting tired of hearing you bellyache about your brother-in-law, because this is a total war, soldiers need shoes, 4 and civilians needs shoes. And you would think that I would have been reprimanded, but the general gave me a good conduct medal. But before I got out, we all went to Italy to support the fifth army, and then I was in— (Phone rang) 5