Regional Oral History Office University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California An Oral History with Shirley Larkins Interviews conducted by Don Warrin in 2012 Copyright © 2013 by The Regents of the University of California ii Since 1954 the Regional Oral History Office has been interviewing leading participants in or well-placed witnesses to major events in the development of Northern California, the West, and the nation. Oral History is a method of collecting historical information through tape-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. The tape recording is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The corrected manuscript is bound with photographs and illustrative materials and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and in other research collections for scholarly use. 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, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ********************************* All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between The Regents of the University of California and Shirley Larkins, dated February 20, 2012. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. Excerpts up to 1000 words from this interview may be quoted for publication without seeking permission as long as the use is non-commercial and properly cited. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to The Bancroft Library, Head of Public Services, Mail Code 6000, University of California, Berkeley, 94720-6000, and should follow instructions available online at http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/collections/cite.html It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Shirley Larkins, An Oral History conducted by Don Warrin in 2012, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2013. iii Shirley Larkins, 2012 iv v Table of Contents—Shirley Dias Larkins Interview: January 15, 2012 [Audiofile 1] She talks about her grandparents, three from the island of São Jorge─Maternal grandfather Peter Silveira managed the Eagle Dairy at Strawberry Point in the 1890s─His interest in educating his children─Paternal grandfather prospected for gold, ran a small dairy in Tennessee Valley─Life on the dairy─Explains how typical dairy ranchers didn’t own the land but leased it─Maintenance of Portuguese customs─Speaks of parents’ activities [Audiofile 2] Life at the Headlands dairy: Father, mother, brother, herself─Her education and employment─Activities with the local Portuguese community vi Introduction -- Shirley Larkins In January of 2012 Lissa McKee and I sat down with Shirley Dias Larkins to talk about her life, which began on her father’s dairy at the Marin Headlands. Three of her grandparents had emigrated from the island of São Jorge in the Azores and became involved in the dairy industry of Marin beginning in the late 19th century. She speaks about the typical roles of men, women, and children in everyday life on a dairy. We learn of her grandfather’s intense interest in his children’s education, and we follow as well her own educational process and her later career. Don Warrin, 2013 1 Interview 1: January 15, 2012 Begin Audiofile 1 01-15-2012.mp3 Warrin: Today is January 15, 2012, and we’re in the home of Shirley Dias Larkins and my name is Don Warrin. I’d like to ask you, first of all, your full name, Shirley Dias Larkins. 01-00:00:41 Larkins: Well, I was baptized Shirley Claire Dias, and then I married, in 1954, and picked up the name Larkins. Warrin: And when were you born? 01-00:00:58 Larkins: November 8, 1931. Warrin: And where? 01-00:01:03 Larkins: Well, at the time of my birth, my parents were living down in the Marin Headlands. My father was manager of the dairy that was there, and I was actually born at Cottage Hospital in San Rafael. Warrin: I see that your family has a very long history in the Marin dairies, and I thought we might go back to the original dairy people, your grandparents. I wonder if you can tell us a little bit about them. I understand that one grandmother was born here in California, but the other three came from the Azores. 01-00:01:49 Larkins: That’s correct. My maternal family had the name Silveira, S-I-L-V-E-I-R-A. My grandfather, Pedro, (Peter), came from the Azores; and my maternal grandmother—Mary Botelho was her name—she was born in Walnut Creek, in the East Bay. When her family immigrated, I don’t really know. How she and my grandfather met, I can’t really say that, either. But I think most of the socializing between families was done at the Portuguese holiday celebrations, and it’s possible she met him at one of those, which were very prevalent in the East Bay and down in the [San Joaquin] Valley. They married probably in the mid-1890s, and he obtained the job as ranch manager for Dr. Benjamin Lyford, who had property in Strawberry Point, which was part of the Reed Ranchero, I guess it would be called, that he married into, from Hilarita Reed. So Dr. Lyford had built what he called his model dairy, called Eagle Dairy, on that peninsula of Strawberry Point, and had a thriving dairy there, and my maternal grandfather was hired to manage it. So my grandmother gave birth to all of her children in the little manager’s house on that dairy, and there are pictures of it, which I can give to you for your archives. 2 Silveira family, circa 1910 3 Foreman’s house at Eagle Dairy 01-00:03:43 My paternal grandparents were both born in the Azores. My paternal grandmother, I think, was called Bibliana. I can’t remember her maiden name. And the grandfather was Manuel Dias, D-I-A-S. How they immigrated, I don’t know, other than that the family history is of whalers. I had thought they had probably landed in New Bedford; but since then, I’ve learned that San Francisco had quite a whaling industry, so it’s possible they came right to the San Francisco area, because I don’t recall any discussion in the family of anyone immigrating across the plains in the 1849 Gold Rush era, when so many people came from the East Coast to the West. Warrin: Well, essentially, the preferred way to get to California was by sea, around Cape Horn, even those who weren’t whalemen. That’s how the bulk of the Forty-niners arrived in California from the East Coast. And it might’ve been a New Bedford whaler, because they came out here, too, at that time, and spent two or three years, sometimes, in the Pacific, before going back to New Bedford. But do you know anything more? Evidently, on the Silveira side, there was a whaler, also? 01-00:05:30 Larkins: I don’t believe so. I’ve never heard anything of that. And what brought him here, I don’t know, other than that he was a rather progressive man. I don’t 4 know what his education was; I don’t think it would be higher education. But he certainly wanted the best for his children, and was the type of man to always go forward, never to go back, and never to be happy with the status quo, but to always want something a little better, which is why he came from the East Bay over to this job, to Marin, which seemed very enticing to him. Because Dr. Lyford, at that time, he had tried to develop the peninsula of Tiburon into what he called Hygeia, his city of health. He also was very progressive and the type of doctor that believed in holistic medicines and proper diet and air and such, would keep people healthy. In fact, the dairy at Strawberry Point, Eagle Dairy, all the fencing was whitewashed and things were quite sanitary, because of his medical background. Although actually, Dr. Lyford himself, there’s some question as to whether he ever had a medical degree. But that’s another story. Warrin: This Mr. Silveira, what was his first name? 01-00:07:02 Larkins: Peter. Warrin: Peter Silveira, to be hired as the manager of a dairy ranch, he must’ve had quite a background before, when he was living in Hayward. 01-00:07:15 Larkins: It’s possible. They were not young when they married. I think my grandmother was close to thirty when she married. Well, he died at, I think, the age of sixty-five, or sixty-two, when he died. And my mother was graduating from Tam High, at the time, which was 1922. She was the fourth child. So he would’ve been in his thirties when he had his first child, probably in his early thirties, when he had his first child. I think my grandmother was probably in her late twenties when they married. 01-00:08:01 In terms of my paternal grandparents, I don’t know too much about them, except they were older. Grandfather did a lot of gold prospecting.