The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Program Foreign Service Spouse Series MARGUERITE ANDERSON Interviewed by: Patricia Norland Interview date: March 23, 1994 TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in Canada raised in Canada and France Advent of World War II Evacuation to US by ship convoy Marriage to US Foreign Service Officer Pine Manor Dana Hall Katharine (ibbs and Wellesley College Washington DC 1940 Toronto Canada 1941 -esson in protocol Washington DC 1941 A.aiting husband/s assignment Montevideo Uruguay 194011942 Wartime travel en route Ship carrying household effects sunk Housing Environment USO 3io de 4aneiro Bra5il 194211950 -iving conditions Environment Bogot7 Colombia 195011958 Foreign Ministers Conference Emerald mining (eography (erman orphans Fruit vegetables and fish Environment Panama Canal history Institute of International Education 9IIE: Denver Colorado 1958 Foreign grantees Purpose of organi5ation Operations Manila Philippines 195811956 Housing President Magsaysay/s death Environment Schooling Caviti Naval Base Poverty Treasurer Boys To.n Bamboo organ Philippine embroidery Clark Field Huk Balahops Colonel -ansdale Mrs. Imelda Marcos Subic Bay Typhoid fever Washington DC 195611961 Family Meridian House teenage party 3io de 4aneiro Bra5il 196111964 4im 4ones saga American school Treasurer American Women/s Club Douglas Frisch exploits -ocal social customs Booker T. Pitman The ?ugly American“ 3ussian exhibition 3ussian funeral Explaining US political system Some recollections of life in the Foreign Service Possessions lost on torpedoed ship Evening purse Colombian emerald mining Bra5il gold mines Colombia gold museum (old fish hook Dinner for Monsignor McClaferty 9Colombia: Chairs from (erman spies Bo.ties Cooking ducks Ne. Aork City: Wife of Special Assistant to (overnor 3ockefeller Waldorf Astoria dinner for -iberian president and .ife 3ockefeller/s charisma President Magsaysay/s charisma Pocantico Hills estate Duties Professional demonstrators Prince Philip visit Belgian Cueen Fabiola visit INTERVIEW Q: This is Patricia Norland and I' interviewing Marguerite Anderson in Chevy Chase, Maryland on March 23, 1994 for the Foreign Service Spouse Oral History; Inc. Marguerite, I wonder if you could tell us if there is anything in your early childhood and youthful age that prepared you for the Foreign Service- ANDE3SON: Well I definitely felt that I .as fortunate in my early years because my parents .ere American but lived in France. I .ent to kindergarten in Brittany. Every child there has to have documents. If it isnDt a passport itDs at least a birth certificate so the teacher kne. that I had been born in Canada. She told the class that I .as born in Canada and since Canada had belonged to France .ell that really made me French. I .as only five years old so I .ent home and told my mother EI donDt understand. Aou tell me IDm an American and the teacher tells everybody that IDm French because I .as born in Canada. My mother .as definitely an English type of Canadian before she married my father and became an American and she .as absolutely indignant. She told me .hen the subFect came up again and if it didnDt come up automatically then to bring up the subFect to say that if a cat has kittens in an oven it doesnDt make them biscuits. And she had me rehearse it in French: ESi une chatte a des petits chats dans un four ca ne fait pas des biscuits.E So I learned .hat it .as to be a minority from the point of vie. of being the only American in the school. -ater on .e moved to Paris and there I .ent to a French lycee .hich also had very fe. girls because as in some schools here they .ould only allo. girls up through the first four years or so. Eventually I .ent to a proper girlDs French school. One of the girls told her father that there .as an American girl in the school. He said EWell sheDs probably Protestant too.E She happened to be the only Huguenot .hich is a French Protestant in the school and she felt very much a minority there. She then latched on to me and the t.o of us .ere the only Protestants. This .as another experience of being definitely a minority. -ater on my best friend .as French and as I gre. older .e .ent to summer camp an American camp on -ake Annecy .here .e .ore middy blouses and bloomers and .ent skinny1dipping in the lake in the morning. We had to do exercises and it .as very American. The colors of the teams .ere the colors of Tufts bro.n and dark blue because the o.ner of it .as from Tufts. So this .as the .ay summer .ent. We .ent .ith big groups up to Mont Blanc to see the sunrise. But the minute camp .as over I .ould turn back into a proper young lady and then .ould be dropped at my best friendDs chateau in the Champagne area. There of course .e dressed in a silk dress in the afternoon and everything .e did .as just the .ay it should be for young ladies of that period. It .as also the time of year of the hunt season and at the opening luncheons there .ould be t.enty1four at the table. My friend and I .ould help her father choose the .ines and he .ould have the servants bring up bottles of aperitif for before and then maybe sherry .ith the soup and .hite .ine .ith the fish dish or the souffle. And then the red .ine later on. It .as interesting to see that my friendDs father having selected his best for the first round .ould say to his servant EBy no. they .ill have had an a.ful lot to drink so continue .ith this .ineE 1 a lesser vintage. And of course .eDd have champagne for desert. With all this .ine the big subFect of interest at that time .as still World War I and they .ere still fighting the War at the dinner table in France. It had been such a traumatic experience for them. Eventually the conversation al.ays returned to that EterribleE (eneral Pershing. He had lead all these young men over the hill and so many of them had died and ho. terrible it .as and so on. The French had lost so many of their young men and they .ere very protective of young men in general. So I .ould be shrinking there because this .as all about ho. terrible the American leadership had been. My hostess .ould then say ENo. no. gentlemen remember that Mademoiselle is an American.E So I .ould go home to Paris to my parents and I .ould say EI donDt understand.E Aou tell me itDs good to be an American but they say ho. stupid and ho. .icked (eneral Pershing .as.E My mother .ould say EPay them no attention. TheyDre just jealous. If it hadnDt been for these young men the .ar .ould have turned out differently.E By then the French .ere completely demorali5ed and fortunately they had these .onderful young Americans. The (ermans .ere also demorali5ed and that lad to peace for everybody. So that .as another example of someho. being in school and in French homes I learned to be very tolerant of all the different types of people. I had been going to this French school and my parents had al.ays intended that I go to Wellesley. When September came my brother .as in France in a British1style boarding school. It .ould have been called a public school in England and .as completely British. On Sundays they .ould have tea dances and so .e .ould go there after playing golf on Sunday. One day my mother said EI really .ish that .e could have planned it enough in advance to send Marguerite to the States to school. But no. itDs too late for this year so it .ill have to be next year.E The headmaster .ho could really have used a lot more students and therefore more money said EWell .hy donDt you have her come hereGE My family .as surprised including me. My mother said EAou .ouldnDt take her .ould youGE Well I said the right thing if .hat I .anted .as to go to that school. I said ENo no a thousand times no.E And so of course I .as there the follo.ing .eek. I had my room .ithin the Chateau itself. I .as properly chaperoned .ith the headmaster and his .ife on one side and the nurse on the other and the only .oman teacher there on the other side of the hall. Of course there .as a separate building for all of the boys 11 my brother for instance. So I spent a year there and that .as a .onderful experience. The school doesnDt exist anymore. It .as such a small school but there is one retired ambassador .ho actually did go there before my time. Q: .hat was his na e- ANDE3SON: It .as Bill Cra.ford Ambassador William Avery Cra.ford. Well any.ay it .as really an ama5ing experience to be the only girl in a boysD school. Eventually I did go to the States and I .ent through all of the ne. experiences that Foreign Service children suffer through today on Ere1entryE. I had never been to a football game. I never had the right clothes. When all of the girls had little black evening coats .ith the little bunny collar lined in .hite satin no I had a midnight blue one .ith huge sleeves and a big blue fox collar and I .as a real misfit because of this sort of thing.