Cresskill Public Library (NJ) is very interested in the memories of our old time Cresskill residents and families. We are subsequently embarking on a local World War II oral history project that will include Remember When parties and American Legion nights, and will work closely with Cresskill Historical Committee members.
The Cresskill Public Library is committed to providing services and resources to meet the informational, educational, cultural, artistic and recreational needs and interests of its residents. The library encourages people to utilize its resources and connect intellectually and socially with other members of the community. The library strives to provide services that are accessible, convenient and responsive to community needs. The library will seek to create and build upon mutually beneficial relationships with the Borough of Cresskill, its schools, community groups and organizations to enrich the lives of our residents.
As a member of the Bergen County Cooperative Library System (BCCLS), our library also adheres to the directives of that group’s mission statement:
- BCCLS is a consortium of public libraries that delivers quality library service to the general public through sharing of books and other materials, purchasing, maintaining and sharing a computer system and providing common access to electronic resources.
- BCCLS initiates, nurtures, and manages cooperative public library services of which reciprocal borrowing is the cornerstone. These actions provide its users the widest possible access to all types of materials and information and facilitates the use of global technology in public libraries.
- BCCLS advocates the provision of professional reference and information services to the patrons of BCCLS libraries.
- BCCLS supports coalition and consensus building as key steps in addressing and respecting library needs at the local, county, state and national levels for both adequate funding and appropriate legislation.
- BCCLS affirms that libraries are forums for information and ideas and endorses the American Library Association Library Bill of Rights.
Interested in participating in this World War II oral history project? Contact Cresskill Public Library Director Rita Browning (browning@cresskill.bccls.org) and Emerging Technology Librarian Intern Kim Livingston (kimberly.livingston@
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John Willey, a native of Seaford, Delaware, served in the Navy during World War II. Born in 1921, John is currently 97 years old and recalls both Home Front and war time experiences. Prior to the war, John worked for a regional oil distributor, Peninsula Oil. In 1940, John married Virginia Elliott and had two […]
Sophie Adams
Raised in a rural community in Wyoming during the 1930s, Sophie Adams ended her schooling before the ninth grade to help out on her family’s farm. Eager to join the war effort, Sophie travelled for the first time to California, eventually landing a job at the Lockheed Corporation as a riveter. In this interview, Sophie […]
Rev. William “Father Bill” Amann
Rev. William “Father Bill” Amann was born in 1928 and experienced the war as a teenager living in Rochester, New York, where he worked for the Eastman Kodak Company during the summer. He later attended seminary, also in Rochester. Father Bill has been a priest for sixty-five years and currently works part-time at St. Joseph’s […]
Elmer Andersen
Elmer L. Andersen was born on June 17, 1909 in Chicago, Illinois. One of four children, he grew up in Muskegon, Michigan, attending public schools and graduating from junior college 1928. Andersen relocated to Minneapolis and, after a year as a salesman, enrolled at the University of Minnesota. He graduated in 1931 with a degree […]
Frances Arcement
Frances Arcement was born in 1926 in Columbia Heights, Minnesota. She graduated from a vocational high school in Minneapolis in 1942. In 1944, she moved to Renton, Washington where she worked for as a riveter at a Boeing manufacturing plant, helping to assemble B-29 Superfortresses. Frances remained at Boeing until the end of 1944, when […]
Virginia Babbitt
Virginia was born on March 4, 1926 in Portsmouth, Virginia. She was a sophomore in high school when Pearl Harbor was attacked. She had a younger sister who was around five at the start of World War II. She graduated high school when she was seventeen and started attending USO dances, where she met her […]
Carol Baker
Carol Baker was born in 1939, and grew up in Baltimore and Pasadena, Maryland. During World War II, she collected tin foil and her mother volunteered with the American Red Cross. Her family rented rooms to servicemen during the war. Two of her uncles served in World War II, one of whom liberated a concentration […]
Jack Beebe
Jack Beebe was an elementary school student during World War II, and lived with his parents and sister in West Sayville, New York. The Beebes were a well-established family name in the tight-knit Dutch community of West Sayville, having worked the Great South Bay for many years previously. Jack’s father was the manager of an […]
Jonathan “John” Behlen
Malcolm Nichols was born in Watsonville, California, in 1913 with a congenital hearing defect. He was raised a Methodist, and was deeply influenced by looking at pictures of war in the encyclopedia and by the works of Mahatma Gandhi. As a result, he registered as a conscientious objector to war based on his religion, but […]
George Bennett
George Bennett was drafted into the army after the Pearl Harbor attack. In his interview, he recalls Pearl Harbor and the anger he felt towards the Japanese military in the days after the attack and his desire for retribution. He also discusses getting drafted to serve his country. Reaction to Pearl Harbor That wasn’t good. […]
Gloria Berg
Gloria Berg, a native of Kalamazoo, Michigan, was a college student when World War II broke out. Ready and willing to join the war effort, Gloria began secretarial work at the Kellogg Army Air Base and later procured a job at the 11th Naval District at Coronado Island, where she met her first husband. She […]
James Block
Transcript James Block’s father, George Lawrence Block, was in the Navy during World War II. In his letters home to his mother, he describes his time on board his battleship, and all the interesting places he has visited during his time during the war. One of James Block’s favorite letters is the first letter his […]
Aileen Frazier Boggs
Aileen Frazier Boggs was born in 1918 in Des Moines, Iowa. She graduated from Des Moines East High in 1936, and then spent several years doing housework and childcare in private homes. Aileen also worked some months as a clerk at a local Woolworth’s department store. In 1939, she married Mel Boggs. The couple purchased […]
Ervin Borkenhagen
Ervin Borkenhagen was born in 1918 in Blue Earth County, Minnesota. He was raised on the Borkenhagen family farm, remaining there until he was seventeen. He then moved to town and started work as a blacksmith. During the war years, Ervin continued to work as a blacksmith and a farmer. Because of his status as […]
Alice Bradshaw
Alice Bradshaw was born on January 24, 1922 in Brooklyn, NY. Raised in New Rochelle, NY, her father was an architect who worked in New York City. Alice attended Parson’s School of Design from 1941 through 1942 but ultimately left school to work with her father. Alice served as an Air Raid Warden and also […]
Wilodeen Brady
Born and raised on a farm in West Virginia, Wilodeen Brady was a young woman at the onset of World War II. Wilodeen plowed with her brother on her family farm and served as a riveter at Eastern Aircraft in Baltimore, Maryland, during the war. She learned a special riveting sign language and experienced a […]
Sue Bramhall
Sue Bramhall was born July 26, 1934 in Seaford, Delaware. Mrs. Bramhall’s father owned the local paper, the Seaford Leader during her childhood and World War II. This provided the elementary school aged Sue with a closer look at the war. Her mother also was a plane spotter. As an adult, Sue has been a […]
Jan Brandon
Jan Brandon was born in 1929, and spent much of the war as a high school student in Mount Vernon, New York. As she was sheltered from the details of the war by her parents, her experiences were shaped by the various ration drives, air raid drills and other community activities. In this interview, Jan […]
Lois Olhoft Breitbarth
Malcolm Nichols was born in Watsonville, California, in 1913 with a congenital hearing defect. He was raised a Methodist, and was deeply influenced by looking at pictures of war in the encyclopedia and by the works of Mahatma Gandhi. As a result, he registered as a conscientious objector to war, but was classified as 4-F […]
Kathryn Brennan
Kathryn Brennan was a teenager in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, during World War II. Her father was a World War II veteran who was upset that the United States was going to war again. She received war news from the radio, and had an uncle who stormed the beach at Normandy and developed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder […]
Jane “Jerry” Bristoll
Born in 1928, Jane “Jerry” Bristoll was a teenager attending boarding school in Virginia during the war. In her interview, Jerry shares childhood experiences that revolved around her life as a native of Chestertown, Maryland. These include patriotism in her church, activities on the Chester River, purchasing rationed groceries, and President FDR’s visit to Chestertown. […]
Edmond Broberg
Edmond Broberg was born in 1921 on a farm in rural Pillsbury Township, Swift County, Minnesota. He and his four other siblings attended a local country school during the early to mid-1930s. Edmond did not go on to attend high school, but worked on the farm with his father instead. Because he was the only healthy […]
Maybelle Broberg
Maybelle Broberg was born on May 28, 1925 in Louriston Township, near Murdock, Minnesota. During World War II, Maybelle lived at home on the family farm. After high school she worked at the Cargill Grain Elevator and as a bookkeeper at the State Bank of Kerkhoven, Minnesota. In this interview, Maybelle recalls rationing, shortages, and […]
Karl Brown, Jr.
Karl Brown was born on November 4, 1929 in Seaford, DE. He was twelve at the time of Pearl Harbor. Karl was a boy scout and sold war bonds in school. His father was a local banker, and his brother-in-law served in the Army Ordinance and was stationed in England. While his brother-in-law was in […]
Evelyn and Orville Bruss
Malcolm Nichols was born in Watsonville, California, in 1913 with a congenital hearing defect. He was raised a Methodist, and was deeply influenced by looking at pictures of war in the encyclopedia and by the works of Mahatma Gandhi. As a result, he registered as a conscientious objector to war, but was classified as 4-F […]
Polly Campbell
Polly Campbell was born June 21, 1926 in the Northwest Philadelphia neighborhood, Germantown. She attended Germantown Friends School during her youth. Polly’s brother was a ROTC participant, and her father was a veteran of the First World War and also served as a block warden. Mrs. Campbell, now 92, has daughters living in Maine and […]
Barbara Cangiano
Barbara Cangiano was born in 1925 on New Years’ Day in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. She was a sixteen year old high school student when the United States entered World War II. She had a brother who served in the Navy Seabees and a boyfriend who served in the Army. She currently lives at Heron Point in […]
Virginia and Allen Capel
Virginia Capel was a five-year-old farm girl in Kent County during the war, whose primary experience involved German POW’s on her family farm. Allen Capel also grew up in Kent County, Maryland, on a farm. In this interview, Virginia Capel shares her stories regarding German POW’s working on her family farm, and the impact that […]
Virginia and Allen Capel
Transcript Fermenting Beer Was there a black market in Chestertown? I’m sure there was. Probably the biggest black market would be for booze. Yeah, well everybody had a still. And there was no shortage of liquor and beer. I do remember two beer labels — Arrow Beer and Gunther. That was the only two. Then […]
Frances Carter
Born in Springville, Mississippi, in 1922, Dr. Frances Carter grew up on her father’s farm during the Great Depression. Fran worked summers waitressing in order to attend Wood College and she taught primary school. She then moved to Birmingham, Alabama, where she became a wartime riveter. After the war, she returned to her job as […]
Robert “Bob” Carter
Robert “Bob” Carter was a Washington College graduate in 1942 from Berlin, Maryland. A day before being drafted into the Army that year, he was deferred to a graduate school physics program at Purdue University. A year and a half later, his professors invited him and his lab partner to come join them at a […]
Celebration and Relief
The news of victory brought a wave of celebration across the country, from the streets of Philadelphia to the farms of Iowa. Americans hosted parties and parades, screamed with joy and wept with relief, and celebrated the end of rationing by burning worn rubber tires. As described by Mary Jane Rambo, those who returned from […]
Lo-Yi Chan
Lo-Yi Chan was born in Canton, China, in 1932. Fearing a Japanese invasion of southern China leading up to World War II, his parents initially fled to Honolulu, Hawai’i. There, they experienced the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Concerned about the new possibility of a Japanese invasion of Hawai’i, the family once again […]
Philip Cicconi
Philip Cicconi is an Italian-American and son of an Italian immigrant. He was born shortly before the war began and was around six years old when it ended. Philip’s family lived in Philadelphia during the great Depression and during World War II. He had a cousin who served during the war, and Philip himself went […]
Mary Clardy
Mary Page Clardy was born in 1922 in Manly, Iowa. She was the oldest of five girls. Her family had moved up from the South before her birth because of her father’s work with the railroad. Mary grew up to attend local schools and graduated from Manly High School in 1941. She worked from 1941 to 1943 in Manly and in […]
June Clark
June Clark was born on June 27, 1932 in Queenstown, Maryland. Her mother had a restaurant [Marie’s] and her father was a truck driver, and her aunt worked in the Glenn L. Martin airplane factory. She, her brother and her parents ferried once a month to Baltimore to bring her brother to Hopkins Hospital. She […]
Close-Knit Communities
Both homes and businesses adapted to wartime responsibilities while continuing to serve as places of community gathering. These sites of gathering reflected the importance of small-town social connections, evidenced by the clientele of James Mears’ family barbershop—who accepted haircuts from a 9-year-old standing on a box of shotgun shells—and the lively celebrations at the Deaton’s […]
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Lisbeth “Bunny” Adams was a thirteen-year-old year old girl when Pearl Harbor brought America into the war. Her mother became the community air raid warden for her small neighborhood outside of Philadelphia. Her cousins living in Maine were sent off to war and expanded their worldview. Ration Hoarders I remember particularly that these little groceries […]
Connie Burns
Connie Burns was born in 1939, and grew up in Ohio and Kentucky. Her younger brother had many health problems as an infant, so her family had to mortgage their home three time to afford medical care for him. Her father was exempt from military service because of the number of children he had, but […]
Eddie Cook
Edwin Cook was born in 1931 in Queen Anne’s County in Maryland. He was around the age of ten when the war began. His family lived on a farm in Centreville, and most of his time during the war was spent tending to the farm and attending school. On the days that he and his […]
Howard Cook
Howard Cook, a lifelong resident of Centreville, Maryland was born on March 27, 1931. Mr. Cook was born into a farming family and has continued the farming tradition during his lifetime. His mother, who had a college education, was a schoolteacher, and his father ran the farm. Howard had two brothers who also worked on […]
J. Carl Cooper
J. Carl Cooper grew up in Chestertown on Philosopher’s Terrace with a father who was a banker and a mother who was a homemaker. The United States joined the war when Carl was 11 years old. Throughout the war, Carl delivered newspapers and learned about the war through the headlines. His family had a garden […]
Bruce Craig
Bruce Craig was born in 1938 in Chicago, Illinois, the eldest of four children. Soon afterwards, Bruce’s family moved to Wilmette, Illinois, where they remained during World War II. They subsequently moved to Green Bay, Wisconsin. During the war, Bruce’s father worked in retail at the department store, Carson Pirie Scott & Co., and his […]
Ralph Deaton
Ralph Deaton was born in May of 1936 in Queen Anne’s County, Maryland and spent much of his youth during the war living in Church Hill, Maryland. Clarence Deaton, Ralph’s father, owned a trucking business as well as a popular tavern called the “Country Boys Inn.” Throughout the interview, Ralph shares his father’s businesses. He […]
Nancy Dick
Nancy Dick was born in 1940 and lived in Chestertown, Maryland for the duration of the war. In her interview, she shares her memories of blackout curtains and air raid drills, with Dr. Livinggood, the head of the Psychology Department at Washington College. Additionally, she talks about race relations in the Chestertown community. Blackout Curtains […]
Mackey Dutton
Mackey Dutton grew up in Chestertown, Maryland from the age of three-weeks-old. She was also a student at Washington College beginning in 1947. In her interview, Mackey describes how Chestertown changed and developed over the course of the war. She talks about the town as it was in her youth and stories involving her father’s […]
James Daniel Dyer
Walt Winicki was born in 1928 and grew up during the Great Depression and World War II in East Meadow, New York. To help make ends meet in a single-parent household, he worked on string bean farms in the area over the summers. Radios and movies were a big part of his life during the […]
Ruth Edwards
Growing up in Hamlin, West Virginia, Ruth Edwards worked in an expediter position at the Carnegie-Illinois Steel Company after graduating as valedictorian from her high school. At Carnegie-Illinois, she helped manufacture parts for battleships. During World War II, her future husband was a prisoner of war held by Japan. After the war, she held a […]
Donna Ellett
Donna Ellett was raised in Dearborn, Michigan, where she lived throughout World War II. Her father was involved in civil defense and while her family did not speak much about the war, she had three distant relatives who fought overseas. She learned about the war primarily through radio and movie newsreels, and collected newspapers for […]
Donald “Don” Elliott
Donald Elliot was born in 1931, and lived in Ohio and Indiana before his family moved to Florida when he was six. Don had many relatives involved in the war effort, including his half-brother and cousin, the latter of whom was killed in the Battle of the Bulge. His father was also called to work […]
Mickey Elsberg
Mickey Elsberg was born in 1939 in New York and is Jewish-American. In his interview, Mickey speaks about the way the war affected family life including the food they ate, and the activities his mother engaged in. He also talks of receiving news at Temple services and movie theaters. His also discusses how his father’s […]
Facing Disapproval
The first step to becoming a conscientious objector was registering with the local draft board as a “4-E.” This designation was difficult to obtain and easily denied, requiring an additional appeals process through the Department of Justice. Securing the 4-E was only half of the battle. Especially after the attack on Pearl Harbor, conscientious objection […]
Robert Farrell
Robert Farrell was born in 1933 in Rochester, New York. He lived there during World War II before moving to Florida later in life. He served in the military before the Vietnam War and he offers this perspective looking back on World War II. This interview prominently features his wife Helen, also from Florida. Robert […]
Fear and Familiarity
Some residents of the Eastern Shore met Germans face-to-face without leaving their homes. When able-bodied men like Allen Capel went off to war, their family farms faced a labor shortage alleviated in part by the nearby German prisoner of war camps. His sister Virginia describes how the prisoners were bussed in daily, labored by day, […]
Lyle Feisel
Lyle Feisel was a farm boy and had three brothers enlisted in the military during WWII. He lived on an Iowa farm with his family. In this interview, Lyle spoke of his experiences working in the local farming communities. He discusses being loaned out as a communal laborer as a child, his memory of V-J (Victory […]
Elaine Figgs
Elaine was born on October 27, 1928 in Seaford, DE. Her father was a farmer who used an animal-drawn plough for their small farm. At the time of Pearl Harbor, Elaine was thirteen years old and on her way to the local movie theater where she worked as a ticket seller. She used her income […]
John Figuerido
John Figuerido was born in 1941 to a Portuguese American family. He grew up in Massachusetts during World War II. Later in life, he used his Portuguese language skills to help other Portuguese people who came to America to work. In this interview, Figuerido discusses his Portuguese heritage, growing up in Massachusetts, the food they […]
Dorothy “Dot” Finn
Dorothy “Dot” Finn was born in Longacre, West Virginia, during the Great Depression. She attended school in West Virginia before starting work in a TNT plant running ammonia conversions during World War II. Dot’s future husband also worked at the plant and remained on the home front due to his expertise as a chemical engineer. […]
Barbara Finneson
Living on the west coast at the time, Barbara Finneson was in the fifth grade when Pearl Harbor was attacked. In this interview, Barbara discusses how she remembers having Japanese classmates while in school, but soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor, they seemingly disappeared. Following Pearl Harbor, she witnessed one of the first anti-Japanese […]
Frank Fiorello
Frank Fiorello was raised in Queens, New York, during World War II. He was born in 1936 to an Italian immigrant family and attended Catholic school as a child. He later went on to serve in the Korean War and moved to Florida later in life. Frank Fiorello recalls his memories of being a young […]
Lucille “Lou” Butler Ford
Lucille Butler Ford (b. 1922) is an African American woman who grew up in Harlem and the Bronx. Soon after graduating from Wadleigh High School, Lucille looked for work at the Brooklyn Navy Yard with a friend who was also from the Bronx. She began working as a messenger at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and […]
Dorothy “Dot” Foster
Dorothy “Dot” Foster was born in 1925 outside of Manchester, England. When World War II began, she was fourteen, which was the age children typically enrolled in finishing school or got a job. She worked in a factory sweeping floors until she was old enough to help produce parts for guns and also lived through […]
Jane Fox
Jane Fox was born on August 26, 1921 in Mt. Holly, New Jersey. She worked at a law and real estate office between high school and business school and later worked as a secretary at Fort Dix. Jane’s mother was involved with organizing USO dances, while her father was an air raid warden. After marrying […]
Robert Fox
Robert Fox lived in Silver Spring, MD and in Mount Vernon, NY during WWII. His father was in the army and worked on the Manhattan Project as a lawyer. In this interview, Robert Fox recounts his experiences as a young child on the Hone Front. He participated in many war effort activities such as canning, […]
Douglass Gates
Douglas Gates was five years old and living in Wilmington, Delaware when the United States entered World War II. In this interview, he shares stories about his parents taking in female defense workers and gives a glimpse into what it was like as a child during the war. He also speaks about the rationing of bubble […]
James Griffith
James Daniel Dyer was born in Whittier, California, on August 30, 1910. After attending a Methodist youth conference and seeing a vision of Christ, James felt compelled to register as a conscientious objector before even the attack on Pearl Harbor. During World War II, James was assigned to the Civilian Public Service camp called Camp […]
Lew Halin
Lew Halin was a young, Jewish-American in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the war. He would often ride his bike to his uncle’s house and would spend much time at his uncle’s hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In this interview, Lew shares his experiences as a young boy. These include the many different ways he and […]
Linda Hall
Linda Hall was six-years-old when World War II began, where she lived in Southern Ohio. In this interview, Linda shares her experiences of a distant war, albeit through the lens of a young child. These include a childhood crush, tension with a neighbor’s mother, and a migrant living in her family’s spare bedroom. Letter From […]
Priscilla Hall
Priscilla Hall was born on February 9th, 1922 in Montpelier, Vermont. She was 19 years old and a recent high school graduate when Pearl Harbor was attacked. She met her future husband through a friend. They were roommates attending Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. They married in 1942. Priscilla had a brother who was […]
Barbara Hayes
Barbara W. Hayes was born in 1939 on Wye Plantation, in Queenstown, Maryland, where she lived for the majority of her childhood. In this interview, Barbara explains how she worked as a domestic for the Houghton Family on Wye Plantation, in addition to aiding her infirm grandmother during summer. She shares the different procedures she had to […]
Hearing the News of Victory
The three stories below describe how an average day was transformed into a cause for great celebration in both ordinary and unconventional settings. Leslie Prince Raimond heard the news while with her family on the beach, describing how the announcement—carrying in the wind from local Air Force Base speakers—sounded like a “voice from the heavens.” […]
Aline Hill
Aline was born on November 3rd, 1928 and raised in Seaford, DE. She was attending high school when the war started. As a teenager growing up during the war, she recalls attending USO dances in Fort Miles with other girls from her town as well as performing air raid drills at her home. Her father […]
Pearl Margolis Hill
Pearl Margolis Hill (b. 1923) grew up in the Middle Village neighborhood of Queens. Pearl attended Grover Cleveland High School and two years at Queens College. After her husband joined the Army in the early 1940s, she decided to work at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in order to contribute to the war effort. Pearl has […]
Madelyn Hollis
Madelyn Hollis grew up in Virginia during World War II. She had older brothers, one of whom was drafted into the service, and a brother-in-law who also served in the armed forces. In this interview, Madelyn describes the experiences of her brother and brother-in-law serving in a segregated army and the frustrations the latter encountered. […]
Owen Hughes
Owen Hughes was born in Freemont, Ohio, in 1919. After high school, he worked as a commercial sign painter and trained in hand lettering techniques. In anticipation of the draft, Owen joined the Air Force with hopes of becoming a flyer. After his arrival at the Air Force base in Patterson Field, Ohio, for training […]
Jane Hukill
Jane Hukill was young during World War II. Her father was in the Army during the war. In her interview, she discusses hearing about Pearl Harbor with her family and them fearing for her father who was supposed to be stationed there. She discusses her family trying to get in touch with her father after […]
Clare “Pat” Ingersoll
Pat Ingersoll was married to a farmer during World War II. Her son was born during the war in 1944. In this interview, she discusses rationing, the effects of the war on their farm, and raising a new born during the war. Rationing at Bryn Mawr You mentioned gas, it was hard to get back […]
Fred Israel
Fred Israel was a sixteen year old college student when World War II began. Despite being in college, he joined the Naval Reserves as soon as he had the opportunity. In this interview, he shares memories from his naval training, as well as his reaction to the end of the war. Drafted into the Navy […]
Eleanor Jamison
Eleanor was born on September 21st, 1926 in the town of Seaford, DE. She was a freshman in high school when Pearl Harbor was attacked and graduated in 1944. Her family lived on a farm in Seaford so she experienced the war through farm living. She was able to experience life in a nearby town […]
Leslie Jenkins
Leslie Jenkins was born outside of New York City in 1940, where he grew up during World War II. He was raised in an American family with German roots. His father was a banker and his mother was a stay at home mom. His family moved to Florida later in his life, where Leslie still […]
Geraldine Kiernan and Richard Johnson
Geraldine Kiernan Johnson (b. 1925) was born in Norfolk, Virginia, but her family moved soon after to the Washington, D.C. area. Her father, James Eugene Kiernan, was a member of Governor General Frank Murphy’s staff and they lived in the Philippines from 1933 to 1936. Kiernan was transferred to the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1940, […]
Gloria Johnson
Gloria was born and raised in 1926 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 1944, following high school graduation, Gloria worked at the Minneapolis Public Library until she attended college at the University of Minnesota. Following the war, Gloria married her husband Oscar, with whom she raised two daughters. She worked a number of different jobs over the years; including a […]
Kenneth Jones
Kenneth Jones was born in 1921 and grew up in Illinois and Ohio. During World War II, he joined the Army Air Corps when he turned twenty-one and worked as an airplane mechanic in the European theater. He later worked on developing atomic bomb technology at Los Alamos before he began working for a paper […]
Alan Koblin
Alan Koblin was ten years old when Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7th, 1941. In this interview, he discusses where he was when he heard about Pearl Harbor, his mother’s initial reaction, and his school’s response on the following day. Learning about Pearl Harbor I was ten and a half years old on December 7th, […]
Alfred “Al” Kolkin
Alfred Kolkin (b. 1918) grew up in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx. After graduating from high school, Alfred worked for the Sperry Gyroscope Company in Downtown Brooklyn. He started working as a mechanic at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1940 and was later promoted to a managerial position. During his time at the Yard, he […]
Joan Rosenberg Kovachi
Joan Rosenberg Kovachi was a child during the outbreak of World War II. She grew up with her twin sister and parents in Buffalo, New York, and her father worked for the Merchant Marines as an engineer. Joan remembers hearing President Roosevelt’s announcement of the U.S.’s entry into the war on the radio. She recalls […]
Jack Kratoville
Jack Beebe was an elementary school student during World War II, and lived with his parents and sister in West Sayville, New York. The Beebes were a well-established family name in the tight-knit Dutch community of West Sayville, having worked the Great South Bay for many years previously. Jack’s father was the manager of an […]
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Rita Browning is a resident of Ridgewood, New Jersey, and has been working at the Cresskill Library for 16 years: 8 years as an Adult Services Librarian and 8 years as the Director. In her years as a Librarian, Rita has always been interested in and in charge of local history and archival materials. She has an undergraduate degree in English and a Master of Library Science degree from the University of Southern California.