WEBVTT 00:00:00.140 --> 00:00:07.776 identifies it on the tape that today is monday January 29 of 2007. And 00:00:07.809 --> 00:00:13.187 we're here at the S. U. 00:00:13.220 --> 00:00:19.506 Building community community services building uh to do a living history 00:00:19.539 --> 00:00:23.997 uh interview for the living history video project for Arizona state 00:00:24.030 --> 00:00:28.907 University retirees association. And I'm pam Stephenson doing the 00:00:28.940 --> 00:00:33.527 interview. Manny Garcia is our videographer and I'd like to have you give 00:00:33.560 --> 00:00:38.417 us your name, so we're pronouncing it correctly. I'm Ella Mae or Ellie 00:00:38.450 --> 00:00:46.450 Branch theater brand brand, spell that for our transcriber, B R A N S T E 00:00:46.899 --> 00:00:54.899 T T E R. And do you prefer Ellie or Ellie Mae. Um Alright. Um to start off 00:00:55.770 --> 00:00:59.406 , we like to go back and kind of start at the beginning and tell me you 00:00:59.439 --> 00:01:05.167 know when and where you were born. Oh I was born in Oklahoma In a small 00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:12.906 town about 70 miles northeast of Tulsa Oklahoma And was the 8th of eight 00:01:12.939 --> 00:01:20.057 Children. Family big family In 1922, 00:01:20.090 --> 00:01:27.230 Give us the date July 18 in case you want to send your birthday card. 00:01:27.719 --> 00:01:29.719 Actually My mother was born July 19. Really isn't that interesting, isn't 00:01:35.090 --> 00:01:37.706 that interesting? 00:01:37.739 --> 00:01:43.876 Um So um what what was it like growing up in Oklahoma, it was wonderful, 00:01:43.909 --> 00:01:51.626 it was a small town and called Miami. Not Miami as in florida, it's 00:01:51.659 --> 00:01:58.307 spelled the same way. Yes but the I guess the speech pattern was different 00:01:58.340 --> 00:02:03.346 and my parents had moved there from Missouri but it was it was really nice 00:02:03.379 --> 00:02:11.379 , it was a nice friendly town and not at all like today's society. It was 00:02:12.550 --> 00:02:18.196 a very friendly, nice town. Well why did your parents move their, what did 00:02:18.229 --> 00:02:25.747 they do? My my father was working there. They had owned a farm in Missouri 00:02:25.780 --> 00:02:33.186 but he was also a carpenter and builder contractor. And apparently that's 00:02:33.219 --> 00:02:39.777 where the work was at that time. So they sold the farm and we've talked on 00:02:39.810 --> 00:02:45.606 the so they didn't do any farming in Oklahoma. 00:02:45.639 --> 00:02:50.316 And if you were the 8th of eight Children, that was a big family. It was 00:02:50.349 --> 00:02:55.307 very nice meeting a family like that. 00:02:55.340 --> 00:03:00.906 So did you go to a small school then? A small school? 00:03:00.939 --> 00:03:03.867 I really don't know how many schools there were in the town, but there was 00:03:03.900 --> 00:03:08.166 one in our neighborhood which was very nice. And we also live near the 00:03:08.199 --> 00:03:12.816 junior college. It was called a junior college at that time instead of 00:03:12.849 --> 00:03:20.849 community college, which was nice. Were you a good student? Yes, I was I 00:03:22.289 --> 00:03:28.207 was interested in in school. I liked it. What did you do? What you like 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:32.747 the best? Did you have a favorite subject? No, I just I just like learning 00:03:32.780 --> 00:03:37.126 what I could learn. It was a little girl growing up there. What did you 00:03:37.159 --> 00:03:41.136 plan to do when you grow up? I didn't think about it much when I was a 00:03:41.169 --> 00:03:46.207 little girl. But when I got into my teens, I I began thinking about it 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:52.577 more and or and I decided I would like to be a nurse. One of my sisters 00:03:52.610 --> 00:03:58.906 was a nurse. And so I followed in her footsteps. 00:03:58.939 --> 00:04:04.406 Mm hmm. And went to school in ST louis Missouri 00:04:04.439 --> 00:04:07.557 You actually grew up if you're born in 1922, you grew up during the 00:04:07.590 --> 00:04:11.327 depression. And of course we always think of Oklahoma during that period. 00:04:11.360 --> 00:04:16.236 What was that like? Well, it was hard I think for all families including 00:04:16.269 --> 00:04:23.356 yours. But unfortunately my father was able to maintain enough jobs and 00:04:23.389 --> 00:04:27.976 people, there was enough building going on that we were we were 00:04:28.009 --> 00:04:36.009 satisfactory. I mean our situation was satisfactory. It wasn't ah over 00:04:38.339 --> 00:04:45.077 the town was not overpopulated. So the work was not constant, but it was 00:04:45.110 --> 00:04:47.517 satisfactory. 00:04:47.550 --> 00:04:51.887 He had eight Children. Did they work to to help support the family? Uh Not 00:04:51.920 --> 00:04:57.416 really, no. Because being the eighth. Um Some of them had already left 00:04:57.449 --> 00:05:03.527 home and we're working or going to school someplace else. So when I grew 00:05:03.560 --> 00:05:11.560 up There were my two brothers And one sister and myself. But um Yes, these 00:05:12.230 --> 00:05:16.096 were older. Yes. Right. 00:05:16.129 --> 00:05:24.017 Did you have to work to help out? No, I didn't. Um I did have a job after 00:05:24.050 --> 00:05:30.926 I finished high school. And I also went to the community college of the 00:05:30.959 --> 00:05:38.027 junior college which I mentioned for one year. But it was I worked in a in 00:05:38.060 --> 00:05:40.106 a 00:05:40.139 --> 00:05:45.916 I'm not sure how it could be described except it was a bookstore and a a 00:05:45.949 --> 00:05:53.949 story where people caught the bus and other other things like that. But it 00:05:54.129 --> 00:05:58.767 wasn't primarily bookstore, which was interesting for me to because I like 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:06.800 to read. What did you do there? Just general selling and maintaining, 00:06:06.959 --> 00:06:10.306 keeping the store clean, 00:06:10.339 --> 00:06:13.906 Keeping the 00:06:13.939 --> 00:06:19.406 books and on display an appropriate manner. 00:06:19.439 --> 00:06:22.666 As a girl growing up, things were a lot different than they are today. Did 00:06:22.699 --> 00:06:28.926 your family have like a big garden chickens? Oh yes. My my my family did 00:06:28.959 --> 00:06:33.796 have a big garden. It was, there was an empty a lot right adjacent to our 00:06:33.829 --> 00:06:40.147 home and it was owned by one of the neighbors and we had access to that. 00:06:40.180 --> 00:06:45.106 My father another planted and it was wonderful having treasure vegetables 00:06:45.139 --> 00:06:51.437 all of the time. Didn't you help out there? I can't say that I didn't much 00:06:51.470 --> 00:06:59.470 help. I uh I know that I was there and I think I dropped a few seeds some 00:06:59.670 --> 00:07:05.577 place or another, but I didn't do any really formal work. Did you have 00:07:05.610 --> 00:07:11.827 chores that you did around the house? Uh No, not many. I think I had a 00:07:11.860 --> 00:07:16.707 privileged experience being the last eight. 00:07:16.740 --> 00:07:20.546 There was a lot more work to do around the house. We've been to laundry 00:07:20.579 --> 00:07:28.579 and Yes, yes, yes. I did help some with those kinds of things but not 00:07:28.889 --> 00:07:35.166 doing the great detail. and my two brothers who won was I think five years 00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:39.937 older than I and the other was eight years older. So they did most of the 00:07:39.970 --> 00:07:46.236 other any heavy work that needed to be done to help the family. Your 00:07:46.269 --> 00:07:50.007 sister, that was a nurse, how much older was she? She's about nine years 00:07:50.040 --> 00:07:52.806 older than I. 00:07:52.839 --> 00:07:57.137 So she was sort of an example for you? Yes, she was in fact all of my 00:07:57.170 --> 00:08:05.170 brothers and sisters an example for me and they were very very good to me 00:08:05.540 --> 00:08:12.137 growing up. Did you plan to go to college then? Uh Yes, I I think I did 00:08:12.170 --> 00:08:16.207 because I went to college immediately after graduating from high school 00:08:16.240 --> 00:08:21.906 and I thought about going to college elsewhere after I finished two years 00:08:21.939 --> 00:08:27.476 at that junior college, so to speak. But then I decided to go into nursing. 00:08:27.509 --> 00:08:35.509 And and so I reviewed several places to go and decided to go two jewish 00:08:37.049 --> 00:08:41.606 hospital in ST louis, which is where my sister had gone. And what did you 00:08:41.639 --> 00:08:47.057 like about that? And why did you choose it? Uh Well I liked it because I 00:08:47.090 --> 00:08:55.090 knew something about it for sure. Uh for one thing and it was, I had a 00:08:55.870 --> 00:09:03.407 good reputation and uh it was near what was then Barnes hospital and in ST 00:09:03.440 --> 00:09:08.116 louis and some of the classes were shared with that school. And that 00:09:08.149 --> 00:09:13.606 school was associated with the university. There affected jewish hospital. 00:09:13.639 --> 00:09:20.126 Yes, in the hospital I went to was your family jewish. Yeah, so it was a 00:09:20.159 --> 00:09:25.776 good experience for me to be with another group of people whose habits and 00:09:25.809 --> 00:09:30.136 beliefs were different too. It was interesting. What year was that when 00:09:30.169 --> 00:09:37.990 you started? Um I guess it was 41. I graduated from there in 1944.