In 1989, the Rev. Craig Schill, then a student at University of Arizona,
interviewed some senior citizens for a history project. Each
interviewee told Craig about their life in Arizona. He typed up
interview abstracts and shared them with my grandmother in appreciation
for her assistance in connecting him to other seniors. In 2012, I found
the abstracts among her files and knew they needed to be shared with the
genealogical community.
The abstracts are shared through this blog. There is not a lot of meat, but the notes give a glimpse of their lives. Each interview contains the name, year of birth, place of birth and
when they arrived in Arizona. Other information may include where they
lived, early memories of Arizona, parents' occupation, schools attended,
career, military service, coping with the climate, the Depression,
prejudice, transportation, church, entertainment, opinion of changes,
and other topics they found important.
When I contacted him about sharing this information, Craig wrote "...
that was my favorite project I did when in school. I did the
interviews as an independent study for a history professor. Even though I
was a business major - I love history ..."
Thank you, Pastor Craig, for capturing a little bit of Arizona history.
Others have assisted me to locate more information about these
individuals. Thank you to the gracious Arizona volunteers at Find A
Grave and Obituary Daily Times. Thank you also to family members who
have shared information online.
Following are the interviewees:
- Munday K. Curd (1912-2007)
- Ethel Deanna Schofield Futrell (1905-2001)
- Rosalie Mason Hammock (1924-2006)
- Ethel May Wilbur Mastin (1921-2010) and Alice Jane Wilbur Waggoner (1911-1993)
- Julia May Mills Seitz (1912-1993)
- Charlotte Stearns (1904-1994)
- Shirley Ethel Norvelle Welch (1915-1999)
- Eleanor Treat Woods (1911-2008)
- Benjamin Leonidas Hammock (1919-2001)
- Charles Otho Stillion (1924-2016)
Credit goes to my grandmother and her photo studio for the collection of old photos. Aviation photos are from my collection.