THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE PACIFIC WAR Nimitz Education and Research Center Fredericksburg, Texas An Interview With Barbara L. Burton Richardson, Texas March 4. 2016 Civilian Naval Employee 1 Mr. Misenhimer: My name is Richard Misenhimer, today is March 4, 2016. I am interviewing Barbara L. Burton by telephone. Her phone number is 972-685-6072. Her address is 535 Buckingham Road, Apt. #1402, Richardson, Texas 75081. This interview is in support of the National Museum of the Pacific War, the Nimitz Education and Research Center, for the preservation of historical information related to World War II. Her alternate contact is John Loera, his cell phone number is 972-998-7937. Her apartment number is 1402. Barbara, I want to thank you for taking time to doing this interview today and I want to thank you about your service to our country over the years. Now the first thing I need to do is read to you this agreement with the museum to make sure this is okay with you. Mrs. Burton: Airight, sure. Mr. Misenhimer: “Agreement Read” Is that okay with you? Mrs. Burton: Of course Richard, of course. Mr. Misenhimer: What is your birthdate? Mrs. Burton: 23rd August Mr. Misenhimer: What year? Mrs. Burton: 2 1925. A long time ago. Mr. Misenhimer: And where were you born? Mrs. Burton: In Los Angeles, California. Mr. Misenhimer: And did you have brothers and sisters? Mrs. Burton: Not anyone that, I had a half-brother, my brother Jim. Whom I was as close to as a real brother. He lost his mom when he was born. And then my dad and my mother married when he was four years old, believe it or not. I was born, well we were five years apart. Mr. Misenhimer: What were your mother’s and father’s first names? Mrs. Burton: John and Helen. Mr. Misenhimer: Now you grew up during the depression, how did the depression affect you and your family? Mrs. Burton: Oh quite seriously. My father was with the Los Angeles Police Department, in the detective division. And they were, along with others, cut back to part-time. We had some money to live on of course. But everything was cut so much that we bought groceries, we lost our home, we kept a car because that was important that he get to work in order to make what little they cut back on. And it was a very serious time for everyone. But being we were a small family we managed. We had to get a rental house that was horrible, I can even remember it. It wasn’t very nice where we had to move to, but it was clean, and you know that was the main thing. Mr. Misenhimer: And what was your maiden name? 3 Mrs. Burton: Tmlay, I-m-l-a-y. Mr. Misenhimer: Then where did you go to high school? Mrs. Burton: To John C. Freemont High School. Mr. Misenhimer: In what town? Mrs. Burton: In Los Angeles. Mr. Misenhimer: And what year did you finish high school? Mrs. Burton: In 1943. Mr. Misenhimer: Now on December 7, 1941 Japan attacked at Pearl Harbor, do you recall hearing about that? Mrs. Burton: 7th I remember Pearl Harbor very well. The morning of December we were sitting in our living room and that’s when President Roosevelt caine on the air and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I regret to inform you that the United States is in a state of war with the Empire of Japan.” I remember that, we were all sitting there, I had a friend over and I was just turned sixteen. Mr. Misenhimer: And how did you think that would affect you? Mrs. Burton: Well I had no idea at that moment, but it didn’t take long to know how it affected us. I mean it was just a complete change over for the whole world. In the United States of America we went on rationing, both in foods and gasoline. Monies were a little better during war time because 4 everybody went to work. If that was any consolation, knowing we were in such a terrible state of affairs and boys were..., well in my high school class, even in ‘43, boys that had turned eighteen they were taken into the service immediately. They didn’t even get to graduate, but they got their diploma. Mr. Misenhimer: And when you finished high school what did you do? Mrs. Burton: I worked my way through college, tried to. It was a hit and miss for awhile. But I would work for awhile and then I would go to school. Save up my money and it wasn’t as expensive then. Went to the University of California and it was close to home so I could you know ride the street car, seven cents to go on the street car. And that’s how I got through school, I wanted to go into nursing. which I did. And I stayed with it till I graduated from my nursing. And then I eventually went into business. I did not stay with nursing cause my father developed a brain tumor and I had to go to work full time and make money. And nursing did not pay money in those days. But it was the love of my life and I wanted to do it, but I did for awhile until I could not do it anymore and had to make money. Mr. Misenhimer: So what kind of business did you go into? Mrs. Burton: I went into working as, I had shorthand behind mc, I had all my business math and correspondence behind me, cause I took a double course in high school, both academic and my other part that I could get ajob with and that was my shorthand and my math and business correspondence. And I had to fall back on that as to make money. And I did, I helped my mother and my dad get better. And he did get better for awhile, then he left us. And then it was up to me and that was fine. It was fme, I managed fine. Anyway that was my life and my brother was of course away, he was in the Navy from the time he was eighteen. And my dad signed him in, he wasn’t quite eighteen but daddy signed him in because he wanted to go, ‘39. 5 Alrighty. Mr. Misenhimer: Who were you working for when you quit nursing? Mrs. Burton: I went to work for Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company for a little while. In Los Angeles on Central Avenue as a secretary and that’s what I did for about a year. And then I went to work for Robert B. Cunningham, who was a medical doctor in Pasadena, California. Worked for him for a long time. Mr. Misenhimer: So when did you graduate from college? Mrs. Burton: In 1947. Mr. Misenhimer: Now during World War II did you do any kind of war work or volunteer war work or anything like that? Mrs. Burton: No. Mr. Misenhimer: I know a lot of us, I was young we collected old rubber, we collected old aluminum. Mrs. Burton: Oh yes. Oh I’m sorry, yes I collected all the tin foil that I could fmd. You know people could buy cigarettes comparatively cheap at that time and there were cigarette packages laying all around that were empty. So I used to go around as a child and collect all of that. Roll it up and my daddy would sell it for me. And we would turn the money in to help the war effort and all that you know. You remember some of it, I’m sure. IVIr. Misenhimer: Ohyes. 6 Mrs. Burton: Not as much as I do, but you do remember it. I had a friend that was born in 1929 and he remembered a lot that I remembered. Mr. Misenhimer: Did you do any work for the Red Cross or anything like that? Mrs. Burton: Not anything except when I went overseas, when I went to Adak, Alaska, they were there at the place where we landed. And even though it was, you know a field where it was very much secure, nobody was to go in there, Red Cross could go anyplace and they were there. And I didn’t work with them but they used to come in to my office and I would do some typing for them and so on and so forth. Like that, that’s all. That was all. Mr. Misenhimer: I mean during World War II you didn’t roll any bandages or do anything like that for the Red Cross? Mrs. Burton: No, no not at all. I was busy doing. Mr. Misenhimer: Anything you remember about your time during World War II? Mrs. Burton: Oh an awful lot, I can remember just about everything that went on, I mean that was civilian oriented, not, not you know in the service. Because nobody knew much about what was going on there during the war itself. Mr. Misenhimer: Doing the civilian part, what all did you do in the civilian part? What do you recall about the war from a civilian standpoint? Mrs. Burton: Okay I can remember walking in the door every night about five o’clock after riding the street 7 car home and hearing Gabriel Heatter saying, “Well it’s a bad night today, that I must tell you that today was not good for the Americans,” or whatever.