Oral history interview with Louise Ross Yegge, 2002

WOMEN VETERANS HISTORICAL PROJECT

ORAL HISTORY COLLECTION

INTERVIEWEE:Louise Yegge

INTERVIEWER:Eric Elliott

DATE:January 25, 2002

[Begin Recording]

EE:That's all right. I just appreciate you doing this.

LY:Since I had colon surgery I just--this is the way I do.

EE:It's more trouble than it's worth.

LY:It just left me. Well, I've had three cancers. I've had breast cancer, kidney cancer, and colon cancer. I'm legally blind and hard of hearing. I've had congestive heart failure. But outside of that, I'm doing fine.

EE:Outside of that, you're fine. You're ready for dancing next week.

LY:What?

EE:You're ready for dancing, outside of that. [laughs]

LY:Yes.

EE:Listen, transcriber thank you. This is Eric Elliott, and I'm with the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. This is an interview for the Women Veterans Historical Project at the university. Today I'm at the home of Louise Yegge.

Miss Yegge, I just want to say thank you, on behalf of the school, for sitting down with me to do this today. We're going to talk with you about your service in the WAVES. I wanted to start out asking you the same question I ask 00:01:00everybody, which is where were you born and where did you grow up?

LY:I was born and grew up in Harrisburg, Arkansas. I was born March 12, 1918, in Harrisburg, Arkansas.

EE:Is Harrisburg north in the mountains or south where it's flat or somewhere in between?

LY:It's northeast corner.

EE:Northeast corner. So it's not too far from Memphis [Tennessee], is it?

LY:No, about sixty miles.

EE:Tell me about your folks. What did they do for a living?

LY:What?

EE:What did your folks do for a living?

LY:Well, my folks died when they were very young. My father had his own business. He had a bottling plant to bottle soft drinks like cream and strawberry and all that stuff. My mother was a schoolteacher. But my father died when I was five, when he was thirty years old, of congestive heart failure.

EE:So that's a family--

LY:I guess. They didn't have fluid pills then like they do, like I'm taking now, and his body just swelled up. And then my mother died when I was eleven. She committed suicide.

EE:So it was just you and your brother?

LY:Yes.

EE:Was your brother younger than you or older?

LY:I was two years older than he was. My mother grieved herself to death after my father died. She just grieved herself to death. But my grandfather, we lived with him, and my grandfather raised us then till we were through high school.

EE:Was this your mom's dad?

LY:What?

EE:Was your grandfather your mom's dad or your father's dad?

LY:My father's dad.

EE:That's a lot of transitions coming up, and plus I guess at about that same time the Depression hits, not too much longer after that.

LY:1931--'29, '30, '31 --while I was in school.

[Telephone rings. Tape recorder turned off.]

EE:What did your grandfather do for a living?

LY:My grandfather was a born salesman, and he had a ready-to-wear store, a general store, back in those days in Arkansas. Well, it was just a general 00:04:00store. I say general store. They didn't sell groceries, but ready-to-wear. He was just a born salesman and a wonderful man.

EE:That's good. Now, you were telling me before we started that you finished school at sixteen.

LY:Yes.

EE:Was that there in Harrisburg?

LY:Yes.

EE:What was the name? Was it just Harrisburg High School?

LY:Harrisburg High School, that's right.

EE:Because I know in the thirties North Carolina only had eleven-year school.

LY:This had twelve grades. Twelve grades.

EE:So you were fast.

LY:Well, I took summer school, too. I needed to go to work to make some money, so I went to summer school. I did everything I could to speed it up.

EE:When did you graduate then? In '36?

LY:No, in '34.

EE:Thirty-four?

LY:Yes.

EE:Did you have a favorite subject in school?

LY:Did I have what?

EE:A favorite subject in school? Something you liked to study.

LY:Math and Latin. Of course, I don't know any Latin now. [laughter]

EE:I had a Latin teacher myself in high school. Then when she left the system, they couldn't find one to replace her.

LY:Oh, really?

EE:So I sort of missed mine.

LY:I had a very good Latin teacher. I think that's why I liked it so well.

EE:A good teacher can make the difference on things.

LY:Yes.

EE:But then when you finished, you were telling me that you got a job in Memphis. How did you find out about a job in Memphis, so far from home?

LY:Well, because I was living with my grandfather, my brother and I were, but we had a cousin and her mother, an old maid cousin and her mother living in Memphis. 00:06:00So when I finished high school in Arkansas, they told me to come to--there wasn't any jobs up in town--to come to Memphis and see if I couldn't find a job there. And this was in 1934. I got a job with Sears, Roebuck [and Co.]. They had a big mail-order plant there, thirteen floors high. It wasn't a retail store; it was a mail-order plant.

EE:So you were living with them while you were working?

LY:I was living with them, and I lived with them, I think it was six years. And then one of my girlfriends from Arkansas moved up to Memphis and asked me to get an apartment with her. But I lived with my aunt and cousin for six years, and 00:07:00then I got an apartment with her.

EE:You must have been working there then when Pearl Harbor happened.

LY:Yes.

EE:What do you remember about Pearl Harbor Day?

LY:I remember that I was over in Arkansas spending the day with some friends, and I was at their house when we heard about it. That's what I remember about it.

EE:How did work change? When you went back, did a lot of folks leave work to join up, or how was it?

LY:Well, I guess. I guess. I can't remember there being a mad rush.

EE:But were you worried about things when it started?

LY:Was I worried about things?

EE:Yes.

LY:Not really afraid, I don't think.

EE:Early twenties, it's kind of hard to be afraid of a lot of things, isn't it?

LY:No, and I've always had a lot of faith.

EE:That's good. You joined up with a group called the WAVES [Women Accepted for Volunteer Service] not too long after that. Tell me, the WACs [Women's Army Corps] started in 1942. You did not join the WAC. What made you decide to join the WAVES?

LY:I don't know. I don't know. It just appealed to me. It just appealed to me. My brother was in the army.

EE:Had he been drafted?

LY:No, he volunteered. I'm trying to think. No, I don't know. The navy just 00:09:00appealed to me.

EE:There was a slogan that the navy and other folks were using that said "Free a Man to Fight." Did you remember hearing that slogan? Did that mean anything to you?

LY:Yes.

EE:Did you have any other friends who had joined the service? Women friends?

LY:Well, the girl that I had an apartment with, she joined the WACS right before I joined the navy. She joined the WACS, and she wanted me to join the WACS, and I don't know, something just kept pulling me towards the navy. And I just said, "No, I'm going to join the navy."

EE:So I know some of the army folks weren't too happy to have women in the army. 00:10:00I don't know if your brother might have said anything to you about that or what. How did your brother feel about you joining?

LY:The navy was the same way.

EE:Was it?

LY:Yes, I went through some of that, yes, but I always thought I carried my weight.

EE:You were telling me before we got started that you were the seventh to join in the WAVES when you signed up.

LY:I was the seventh to join at Hunter College [New York].

EE:At Hunter College when you went through.

LY:I think they had a place at Cedar Rapids [Iowa].

EE:Cedars Point?

LY:Cedar Rapids.

EE:Cedar Rapids, right.

LY:Or Cedar Falls. Cedar Rapids? It was at one or the other.

EE:Des Moines. I know they had a training facility at Des Moines, Iowa.

LY:That was the army. The navy had something at Cedar Falls or Cedar--it was either Cedar Rapids or Cedar Falls.

EE:Okay, I'll check on it.

LY:But they also had one at Hunter, and this one was at Hunter College. When it was in the Bronx on the reservoir, we used to have to drill out there on that cold reservoir and it was in the wintertime, and that wind come across that reservoir really cold.

EE:Well, if you were the seventh, how organized were you? Had you ever been outside, taken on a big train trip before? Had you ever traveled much?

LY:Let me think. Well, yes, when I was fifteen, an aunt had invited me to Los Angeles to spend the summer, so I had spent the summer with her when I was fifteen.

EE:So you had been on a big train trip before.

LY:Yes.

EE:What do you remember about basic training? How was it for you? Was it difficult?

LY:Well, I thought it was all right. I did think, yes, you had to work hard, but I didn't think it was anything unreasonable. I don't recall that I felt like it was unreasonable.

EE:What was the hardest part, the physical part or being around other people? What was hard for you?

LY:Oh, no, being around other people didn't bother me. Well, I guess, yes, I guess the physical part, to have to drill and stuff, learn. But I liked drilling after I got used to it. I had to drill in formation and stuff. I loved it after I got used to it.

EE:Now, you joined in December, but you didn't actually go to Hunter until a couple of months later. Is that right?

LY:That's right.

EE:So this would have been February or March.

LY:It was February.

EE:So that is pretty cold in New York.

LY:Yes, it is, especially where that was located at that time on that reservoir there in the Bronx.

EE:Well, now, did you get to travel some outside of Hunter, or were you pretty much confined to being there?

LY:I had one-day liberty in the six weeks that I was there.

EE:So, one day to see Manhattan.

LY:One day. I went to the Stork Club with some other ladies in our uniforms, and no one had ever seen a WAVE[S] uniform before. And we had at that time not nylons, but tan cotton stockings. Now it wasn't very long they changed to nylon. But when we went to the Stork Club that day, they let us do whatever we wanted. We got on the subway and we did, three or four of us went to the Stork Club, and we saw the Rockettes that day. We did go see the Rockettes. Oh, anyway, I'm 00:15:00trying to remember what else.

EE:Well, you know, I've had so many people tell me that they joined the WAVES because of that uniform, that that uniform looked so good.

LY:Because what?

EE:Because the uniform looked so good.

LY:Well, they hadn't been around that much when I joined.

EE:But stockings kind of ruined the look, those cotton stockings. [laughter] What kind of shoes were you wearing when you first came in?

LY:Black oxfords.

EE:Black oxfords, okay. They could work on the style a little bit. [laughs]

LY:And after I left Hunter, I was assigned to storekeepers school in Bloomington, Indiana, at the university.

EE:So how long were you at Bloomington?

LY:It was either three or four months.

EE:So they'd teach you basics about how to keep books and things like that?

LY:Yes, either in the supply department or the commissary department. I ended up mostly in the commissary department.

EE:Now, was that storekeepers school just for WAVES, or did you have regular navy men there as well?

LY:This was just for WAVES. They set aside one dormitory there at the University of Indiana. They set aside one dormitory for the WAVES, and then they had one building that we went to for our classes. We had English and math. Then we also 00:17:00had things that would apply to being in the military. I'm trying to think what else. My English teacher was George Barnett. Oh, and worst of all, I had to take typing, and I have never been a good typist. I was forced to take it. You had to take it to get your rating, and I struggled and I struggled with that.

EE:I'm a two-finger typist myself.

LY:I had real good grades on my subjects, but that typing would always bring it down just a little bit on my grade.

EE:So you had a man as an English instructor. Were there other men instructors, too?

LY:Yes. Now, I was trying to think what he taught, but there was one named Cleaver. I'm trying to remember what he taught. I can't remember who the math teacher was.

EE:Were most of your teachers men or women?

LY:They were men, civilian men.

EE:Civilian men. This was at storekeepers school. At the basic--were your teachers women or men instructors at basic?

LY:Let me think. Gosh, I'm blank on that.

EE:Because you were in early enough when they might have had to fill some of those positions with men. I don't know. They had to train some navy women early on to be officers. If you can remember it, we'll come back to it.

How many women were at storekeepers school with you? About forty? How many altogether was the bigger group?

LY:I'm trying to think. There were two companies of us. I was in Company Ten. 00:20:00There was Company Nine, I think. That might not be exactly right, but that's the way I remember it.

EE:And is that about the same that was at basic, or did you have more women at basic than you had at storekeepers school?

LY:I tell you, I'm blank on the basic.

EE:After you left Indiana, you got your orders to scenic Ottumwa. Where is Ottumwa? Is it near Des Moines or where is it?

LY:It's not far from Des Moines.

EE:You sort of surprised me by telling me that you were in a naval station in Iowa. What all was there in Iowa? It wasn't a fleet of destroyers. [laughs]

LY:Well, meatpacking.

EE:Oh, okay.

LY:That's at Ottumwa. The hotel there, the Hotel Ottumwa, has a real nice restaurant called The Pink Pig.

EE:So you don't want to go there if you're livestock, because that means you're not coming back out. [laughs]

LY:I guess so.

EE:What kind of naval facility was it? Was it an air station?

LY:It was a naval air station. It trained cadets to fly.

EE:So it was primarily a base for men, and the women were there in service roles, or what kind of work did the WAVES do at that base?

LY:Well, they also had men in supply. They were navy men in supply and in 00:22:00commissary, too. They had women in the Hospital Corps there and also--let me think.

EE:So it sounds like the kind of work that you did would have been done by a man, because you were freeing a man so he could go fight. Is that right?

LY:Do what?

EE:The kind of work you were doing with supply and commissary probably would have been done by a man before the war started.

LY:Yes. The first job I had when I went to Ottumwa and they assigned me to 00:23:00commissary was something called the jack of the dice.

EE:Okay.

LY:And that means that I was in charge of the storeroom for kitchen supplies, canned goods, and anything, staples or anything, and I was in charge of that. I had to keep track of that, keep inventory on it and issue it to the cook. You know, I'd keep track of it.

EE:So did the cook function like your CO [commanding officer]?

LY:What?

EE:Was the cook your commanding officer?

LY:No.

EE:You had a WAVE that was your commanding officer?

LY:Now, are you saying my superior or my commanding officer?

EE:Was your superior a --

LY:My superior was a man. I had a chief, a chief commissary officer. That's an enlisted man, you know, the highest you can get in enlisted. I had a chief. I worked for an old Chief Wallace from Texas. Also I worked for about an eighty-year-old man that they had called back into the service during the war. He had retired and they called him back in during the war. And here's this old white-haired, apple-cheeked gentleman, and about eighty. His name was Chief 00:25:00Mulligan, and he was a retired chief commissary. I'll tell you something funny about him, if you have time.

EE:Sure.

LY:[Laughing]. He was a very modest, bashful sort of man, and he wasn't used to having women in the service. One time he and I were walking down the corridor, and he was just a gentleman all the way. In those days, we had buttons on our panties instead of elastic, and we were walking down the hall, and all of a sudden I felt that button give way, and here I am with this eighty-year-old man. 00:26:00And I just said to him, "Chief, my panties have fallen off. My panties are falling off." He didn't say a word. He took the key out of his pocket. He opened the storeroom door and pushed me through it. [laughter]

EE:Being a gentleman, he didn't want to--

LY:He knew how to get out of trouble. He knew how to get out of trouble.

EE:Sounds like once you got to Ottumwa, the folks that you worked with treated you pretty good.

LY:That was a good base. And that's where I met my husband.

EE:What was he doing at the base?

LY:He had been overseas. He'd been a couple of years in the South Pacific, and 00:27:00after they served a certain length of time in the South Pacific, they rotated them back to the States. So he had done his overseas and he came back to Ottumwa. His family lived in Iowa, so they put him close to his home. He worked in the supply office, and I worked in the commissary office, and we talked to each other on the phone on business all the time, but I had never seen him. This went on for quite a while.

And one day this guy walks up in front of my desk and he said, "I think we've talked on the phone long enough. I thought I'd come over and let you see me in person and see you in person." And that was the first time I saw my husband. And 00:28:00that was about, oh, around Thanksgiving, I guess, and we were married February the sixth.

EE:Was this in '44?

LY:It was Thanksgiving of '44, and we got married February six of '45.

EE:Now, what was your husband's name?

LY:John. John Francis Yegge.

EE:I'm kind of partial to John. That's my son's name.

So he came back. You started working with him maybe in the summer of '44, then.

LY:What?

EE:When did he get back from South Pacific? Summer of '44?

LY:Oh, no. It's been more or less -- around Labor Day.

EE:Before he got on the scene, did you socialize with the other WAVES on the base?

LY:Oh, yes.

EE:So you all hung out together?

LY:Oh, yes. Yes, I still have two friends that I keep in touch with.

EE:Oh, that's great.

LY:One in Massachusetts and one in California. Most of the rest of them have died out.

EE:What did you all do for fun?

LY:Well, I guess the things that--go to movies and things like that. There wasn't a whole lot.

EE:Was there an NCO [Noncommissioned Officer] Club on base?

LY:I don't think so.

EE:So you went into town, basically?

LY:There was an Officers' Club on base. I don't remember there being a petty 00:30:00officers'. Yes, we went into town.

EE:Is there a movie or a song from that time that you remember as being one of your favorites?

LY:I should, because I love music. What was it? Right now I'm blank on that.

EE:Probably so many of them they kind of run together after a while.

LY:Well, I remember one thing. In Bloomington, when I was going to the university there, they had a jukebox in the mess hall. When we'd stand in line 00:31:00or ate our meals, they had that going, and I remember that there were some good songs on there, and right now I can't think what they are or what they were.

EE:When you were working in Ottumwa, what was your workweek like? Was it a six-day week or did you get the weekends off?

LY:I had the weekend off. Yes, I usually just worked a five day week.

EE:Were you able to keep up with your brother during this time, writing him letters and things like that?

LY:Yes.

EE:Where was he stationed?

LY:Paul was stationed in England at the time, and then he came back over here and he was at McDill Field in Florida, in Tampa, Florida. He was at McDill 00:32:00Field. He died a long time ago. He died in 1975.

EE:When you think about it, what was the hardest thing you ever did in the service?

LY:Learning to type. Learning to type.

EE:[laughs] Well, that's not too bad.

Was there ever anything that got you afraid? Were you ever scared of any situation that you went into?

LY:No.

EE:Other than that typing test.

LY:No. No, I had really great men that I worked for, and I thought my working 00:33:00conditions were very good.

EE:Did you ever think about making WAVES a career?

LY:Yes, until I met my husband. Yes, I did.

EE:So you got out of the service in September of that year. Did he get out first? Is that how it worked?

LY:No, but he knew he was getting out. He knew he was getting out. After I met him and we knew we were going to get married, then I just went ahead and went to Great Lakes and got my discharge. And then he got his discharge. I don't 00:34:00remember. They kept him a while. You know, they called it--what? When somebody's indispensable. His commanding officer or his superior officer, anyway, the supply officer kept him for a while because he needed him there. So I think it was November before he got out or something like that.

EE:Forty-five was a big year for you because you got married, you got out of the service, started a life out there together. There's a couple of other things, though, that happened that were pretty big. Do you remember anything about VE or VJ Day, the end of the war?

LY:Yes, but I don't remember right now except just being happy about it. That's all. I don't remember anything.

EE:How about the day that President [Franklin D.] Roosevelt passed away? Do you 00:35:00remember that day?

LY:Well, I have, but I don't now. I can't think of it.

EE:What did you think of President Roosevelt and of Mrs. [Eleanor] Roosevelt during the war?

LY:Well, I always like them. So, I mean, I don't have any complaints.

EE:So you weren't that politically interested at that time?

LY:I've been politically interested. I'm a Democrat. [laughs] I'm still politically interested.

EE:Now, once you got out of the service, did you all move back to Iowa? Did you all move closer to him?

LY:We moved back to his hometown.

EE:Which was? What was his hometown?

LY:Boone, Iowa. Mamie Eisenhower's hometown.

EE:How long did you all stay in Boone?

LY:We stayed in Boone til 1953, I think it was, and we moved to Memphis. Now, let me get all this straight here. Don't go too fast for me.

EE:Well, now, were you working after the war, or did you stay home with the kids?

LY:I started raising a family and started having children.

EE:What kind of work was John doing?

LY:He worked for his father. His father owned a lumberyard and he worked for his father.

EE:And then you went to Memphis, and then after Memphis did you come here?

LY:I think we did move to Memphis in 1953, and he went to work for the E.L. Bruce Company, which makes hardwood flooring, and they transferred him out here.

EE:Well, you figure he knows wood after all those years in a lumber house.

LY:I guess so. He liked anything to do with wood or lumber or anything.

EE:I talk to people about their experiences and I ask them --

LY:About what?

EE:About their experiences during the war, and wondered if you think that the country was more patriotic back in the forties than it is today.

LY:Yes.

EE:How do you feel that way? Just the way people talked or the way they treated each other? What made it so?

LY:Well, they were more patriotic then. I don't know. It seems to me that people 00:39:00are a lot more self-centered now. Well, that sounds self-serving.

EE:If a girl came to you today and said, "I'm thinking about joining the service," what would you tell her? What would be your advice to somebody who wants to join the service?

LY:Well, I sure wouldn't tell her not to. I don't know. Circumstances are different now, and she'd have to look into it to be sure it was what she really wanted to do. Times were different when I went in. You are more patriotic during wartime. But I don't see anything wrong with being in the service. I mean, I 00:40:00don't know how it's different now than it was when I was in.

EE:When you talked about going to the Stork Club, nobody had ever seen a woman in uniform before.

LY:That's true.

EE:And then today I would imagine that over in Afghanistan we've probably got women who are combat pilots.

LY:Yes.

EE:Do you think that that's a good thing, that women can fly airplanes and fight in combat? What do you think about that?

LY:I don't have a feeling about that. [unclear] I don't really know.

EE:So you're not just uncomfortable with that idea?

LY:No.

EE:Now, you have two children?

LY:Yes.

EE:Did either of them ever express any interest in joining the service since both you and your husband had been members of the service?

LY:I'm going blank here. Well, Vince, definitely not. Mike was in the service. He was in Vietnam.

EE:Was he in the army?

LY:Yes.

EE:You survived a lot of transitions there when you were a young person. You're 00:42:00home and then go and live with your grandfather and then going off to the big city and making a way for yourself. When you look back at your time in the WAVES, if you had to do it over again, would you have joined the WAVES?

LY:Yes.

EE:How do you think it changed you the most, your time in the service, other than getting a husband?

LY:That wasn't what I was--

EE:Or learning to type. [laughs]

LY:How do I think it changed me the most? Well, I think it makes you more 00:43:00independent, for one thing. And then I certainly don't think it hurts anything to be more patriotic.

EE:You were telling me that you still keep up with the two friends from Iowa.

LY:Yes, I do.

EE:Are you involved in any other like the WAVES National or any other groups?

LY:No, I'm not. Mainly I can't see. The only writing I do is to write my weight on my calendar every morning, because I can't see I've written and I can't read anything else. I take these things and people read them to me, but I can't see to read them now.

EE:You know, when we started doing this a couple of years ago, really around 00:44:00here there wasn't a lot of attention that was being given to women veterans. I know that in Washington they built the new monument right at the opening of the National Cemetery for women veterans. Were you ever active in the American Legion or in other veterans groups before the last few years?

LY:No. No, I wasn't really.

EE:How about your husband? Was he involved in them?

LY:Yes, John belonged to the American Legion. I think the way I felt about it was that I joined the navy when I thought I was needed, and I enjoyed it, and I did the best I could with it, but it wasn't something I was making a career of. Now, I have a friend in Colorado who is a retired army nurse. I grew up with her 00:45:00in Arkansas in that little town, and she is very interested in all these organizations, and she's really gung-ho about it, which is just fine. I can't see to read anything, and I'm not really--she writes and tells me things and people read it to me, what she writes.

EE:Well, in your household, when everybody was talking about times in service, was it mostly your husband that was being talked about, or did you get in stories about your time in Iowa, too, where you'd been?

LY:Oh, they let me talk. [laughter]

EE:You know, I've talked to some households where both the man and woman were in service, and a lot of times the men's stories get told a lot more than the women's. But it's sort of neat because you two both were in the service together.

LY:Well, I'll tell you. My husband was a very quiet man, and as you can see I'm a whole lot different. John was quiet.

EE:So you made sure your view got across.

[End Tape 1, Side A--Begin Tape 1, Side B]

EE:All right. I was just going to ask you, Miss Yegge, if there's anything about your time in the service and what it meant to you and your family that I haven't asked you about that you wanted to share with us today.

LY:You pulled a real tearjerker. I loved it. It loved the navy and it meant a 00:47:00lot to me, and still means a lot to me.

EE:Well, I can tell you that it brought you some of the greatest happiness that you ever had, because you found John and you've got a lot together.

LY:What?

EE:By finding your husband and finding a life together, that's a pretty good legacy to take home from a place, isn't it?

LY:Yes, it is.

EE:Lots of good memories.

LY:Yes, indeed.

EE:Well, on behalf of the school and myself, thank you for sitting down to do this today.

LY:Thank you, Eric.

[End of Interview]