Recently, on my mother's 96th birthday (the photo below is from that day), she told me an amazing tale from her younger years that I'd only vaguely heard before. I asked here to write down a brief summary of the events, and here's the result.
My husband worked in the offices of U.S. Steel in San Francisco in 1945, the year we were married.
The company thought he should have some experience working in a steel mill environment, so a transfer was made, I believe in January of 1946, to the offices of Geneva Steel, a subsidiary of U.S. Steel in Orem, Utah. It was situated on a lake not far from iron deposits, so it was an ideal location for a steel mill, even though in a rural area. Nearby was Provo, Utah, location of the Mormon university, Brigham Young University.
Orem was a small farming community, so I think it was unusual that a Mormon farmer there built a small tract of small houses called Christeel Acres and, happily, one was available to rent to us.
There wasn't much work opportunity for young women outside of minor clerical jobs at the mill, but I didn't want to just be idle and so tried to think of something useful I could do.
This was shortly after the end of World War II and my experience of having worked in San Francisco, managing the local office of the American Hellenic Corp. based in New York City, acquainted me with the desperately poor conditions of Greece after the Nazis vacated it.
My work there, coupled with the work I'd done at U.S. Steel for two years and a field survey for the University of California at Berkeley, prepared me to take on a more challenging job.
I had heard on the radio (no television yet) about a U.S. town sending relief to a needy European town and thought that this would be idea for the little town of Orem to undertake. It was populated mostly with Mormon residents, who were very caring people and used to taking care of their own people in need.
I contacted the mayor who was very supportive, as well as some of the leading townspeople, who were as well, and so the project started.
There were daily accounts of the progress in the local daily newspaper, as well as occasional ones in the Salt Lake Tribune, which I saved to a keep a record. Unfortunately, when I moved recently the movers disposed of these articles, and specific memories are hazy.
Committees were formed, and townspeople were very cooperative. We often had meetings, and I was frequently on the radio.
We collected lots of clothing, as well as canned goods and money to purchase flour and rice once the shipment reached New York.
There were workers who worked so hard, sorting and packing. Two of those who did this were Lorna Maycock, a Mormon, and Lorna Morrow, an Episcopalian.
When all was finished, two young local men who had a large truck and could handle the several tons of goods, offered to drive their truck just for the cost of the trip, and did so.
I don't remember exactly from then on. I believe the American-Greek relief association took charge in New York and saw that this was delivered to a small town in Greece.
My husband and I returned to San Francisco after a year in Orem, but Mayor Gilman reported that he'd had considerable thanks from Greece.
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Soon after sending me this, my mother wrote the mayor of Orem to find out if the city had any records of the drive. Mayor Richard Brunst responded, as did Steven Downs and Nick Estrada from the city manager's office. Newspaper records for 1947 didn't exist, but they did find three articles from 1948 and 1949 in the library's digital archives of the defunct Geneva Times.
Click here to view/download a PDF of them.
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