Life Story of Dorothy Evelyn McRae Keller, sixth installment

My first employment away from home was in Tucson in the Welfare Office. I was a file clerk and enjoyed living away from home for the first time in my life. I lived with some other women in the YWCA and walked to work every day. One of these women taught me to crochet which I still enjoy doing. The Welfare Offices covering the state held a convention in Nogales and I was able to attend. While we were there, we went to a bull fight. What a spectacle that was! I was amazed at the brutality; especially how the horses suffered.

In 1941 I was transferred to the Welfare Office in Phoenix and lived with Aunt Delia Winsor (my grandmother’s sister) and her two children, Ruth and Thurston. It was while living with them that I learned the basics of driving a car. My Grandma came to visit a few times and it was wonderful to see her. Later on she came to Phoenix and we rented a duplex on West Jefferson. It sure was like being home again. I loved my job as a clerk- typist. It was during this time that the attack on Pearl Harbor came. I will never forget that day. As President Roosevelt said, “It was a day that will live in infamy”.

Several of the boys I went to high school with died in the war that followed and it was a sad time for everyone. I remember all of the different planes which flew over Phoenix, as Luke Field and Williams Field were nearby. Young men from all over the country were training to be pilots at those bases.

I was working with a woman named Bea Dooley and we became good friends. Her brother had a good friend named Ralph Keller and she suggested I might like to write to him. She said he was a member of the church and she didn’t think he was writing to anyone special. In 1942 I felt that I needed to be more involved in the war effort so I moved to San Diego and lived with my cousin, Mildred Tenney Handy. I got a job working as a stenographer at Consolidated-Vultee Aircraft. My boss was Don Carlos Smith and he was good to work for. It was during this time that I started corresponding with Ralph. He was in England at first and then was sent to North Africa. We wrote to each other often and enjoyed our friendship. About five months or so later he told me that he loved me and this was my first experience of more than friendship. I was 22 years old and I guess I had lived a very sheltered life. It seemed to me that this was going to be a meaningful relationship and once again I wanted to be more involved in the war effort. In 1943 I joined the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps.

Link: Life Story of Dorothy Evelyn McRae Keller, seventh installment