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Studer, Helen (audio interview #1 of 4)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - Studer was rather nervous in this first interview, conducted at the kitchen table in her small, cozy home. This first interview was particularly difficult for her because it dredged up memories of a very painful early life, and she often confused the sequence of events. She leafed through photographs during the interview and asked repeatedly that the recorder be turned off. 5/28/1980
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- 2021-05-24
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- *** File: rrrhstuder1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-6:35)... Studer discusses her family history dating back to her great grandparents. Her parents separated when she was less than five years old and she went to live with her grandfather and step-grandmother on a farm in Kansas. Her grandfather raised sweet potatoes and peanuts and also cultivated a large vegetable garden. Outside of staple food products, the family lived off what her grandfather cultivated. He owned a team of horses and a covered wagon. Studer remembers that at least twice a year, the entire family traveled to wherever crops were being planted and her grandfather's team of horses tilled the land. (6:35-14:20)... She traveled with her grandparents in a covered wagon; her step-grandmother cooked the meals for the family and the men working with them. The children were responsible for collecting cow chips for the fire. From Kansas, her family traveled to Pueblo, Colorado, where her grandfather owned a bee farm. They stocked up on food prior to leaving because there were few places where they could purchase food along the way. If they ran out of meat, the boys hunted prairie chicken and quail. When she became ill during one of their trips, her grandfather nursed her back to health by feeding her mare's milk. (14:20-20:04)... She has very few memories of her mother, who died in 1905 after giving birth to Studer's half-sister. Studer lived with her grandfather until she was about nine years old, at which time she was stolen by her stepmother. Her grandfather attempted to regain custody of her through the courts but was unsuccessful. She then moved to El Dorado, Kansas with her father. Her stepmother and father were cruel and she frequently ran away from home to an aunt who lived nearby. She received a whipping from her father and stepmother each time she ran away. The last time Studer ran away, her aunt beat her stepmother with a horse whip. The county courts interceded and Studer lived with the town sheriff for several months. The judge refused to grant custody rights to Studer's grandfather or father and she was sent to the State Orphan's Home in Atchison, Kansas. (20:04-23:55)... In the orphanage, Studer was befriended and taken care of by two Black girls. She also was close friends with the superintendent's daughter and frequently was allowed to stay the night in their home and walk to town. When she was eleven years old, a couple who owned a berry farm adopted her. She would have preferred to stay in the orphanage. The couple who adopted her was good to her, but she had a difficult time working on the berry farm. (23:55-28:10)... Adolphus and Pearl LeBounty, who adopted her, owned an eleven-acre berry farm. She had a difficult time working on the farm and insisted that she return to the orphanage. When Adolphus (she refers to him as "grandpa" during the interview) agreed that she would no longer have to hoe, Studer returned to their home. Adolphus eventually sold the berry farm and they moved into town. He found work as a traveling salesman, selling apples to neighboring towns. When she was sixteen years old, Studer enrolled in nursing school but was not allowed to continue in the program because of frequent nose bleeds. Instead, she went to a business school in Kansas City and studied stenography. When she graduated, she went to work at a hardware store for two years, and then got married. End of tape. *** File: rrrhstuder2.mp3 (0:00-1:49)... When not working on the farm, Studer had very few household chores for which she was responsible. Mrs. LeBounty attempted to teach Studer how to sew but it was not a successful venture. The LeBountys never formally or legally adopted Studer. When they died, Studer inherited very little because they did not have much in the way of money or material possessions. (1:49-4:29)... Studer never saw her grandfather again after she was taken away by her stepmother. When she entered the orphanage and was adopted by the LeBountys she completely lost contact with her family. After she moved to California, she heard from a brother occasionally; her half-sister, who was born and raised in Colorado, once wrote Studer. She introduces several photographs of family members into the interview. (4:29-9:52)... Mrs. LeBounty did not believe that girls should just sit around the home. Although she was a kind woman, she was not very patient. Studer had a difficult time learning how to sew and crochet because Mrs. LeBounty as impatient. When Mrs. LeBounty told Studer that she was dumb, Studer was bound and determined to learn how to crochet to prove that she was not a stupid child. Studer also learned how to bake bread and can while living with the LeBountys. (9:52-11:11)... Studer's foster parents were religious people; Mrs. LeBounty was a Protestant and Mr. LeBounty was a practicing Catholic. Earlier, when Studer lived with her grandfather, she was raised Catholic, and she continued to practice Catholicism when she moved in with her foster parents. She was displeased with the religious divisions in her foster family and decided that when she married she and her husband would practice Catholicism and raise their children in the Catholic Church. (11:11-13:50)... Mr. LeBounty was a loyal democrat and quite argumentative about his political views. From a very early age, Studer decided that she did not like to argue about religion or politics. After she married, Studer and her husband very rarely argued. When arguments between them did erupt, they never thought about divorce as a way to resolve their marital problems, which she believes is now commonplace. (13:50-16:21)... Studer and her foster mother were aware of the suffrage movement. Her foster mother often complained about women's ineligibility to vote whenever her husband went to the polls. Studer's husband supported woman's suffrage and they had an egalitarian relationship. Even though her husband was the head of the household, he did not subjugate her in any way. As a "rule," she made most of the family decisions and received whatever she wanted. Because of her experiences, Studer thinks that women's battle over equal rights was "stupid." (16:21-23:47)... She describes some of the activities she engaged in with her friends when she was a young girl. When she was old enough, her foster parents allowed her to drive their horse and buggy around town with her friends. She also was permitted to attend the local square dances held in the town. Studer shows the interviewer several photographs depicting her foster family and her girlfriends. (23:47-29:33)... She enjoyed reading when she was a young girl. While living with her foster parents, she attended a one-room country school, grades one through eight. There was one teacher at the school and the older students frequently helped with the first graders. Studer was a good student and scored high marks in math and grammar. She describes herself as a tomboy, indicating that she played games with boys during recess. Prior to living with her foster parents, she attended school at the orphanage. When she lived with her father and stepmother, she attended a country school but has no memories of her experiences there. End of tape.
- SUBJECT BIO - Helen Studer was older than many of the other defense workers who came out of the home to do war work. Although she had worked out of the home for short spells after she married, these were always part-time or temporary jobs. Born in Kansas in 1898, Studer was raised first by her grandfather and eventually adopted by an older couple. After high school, she went into nurses' training and then to business school, and worked until she married in 1918. Her three children were born between 1918 and 1928. The family was hit hard by the Depression, beginning with the farm depression in the early 1920s, and for a while lived in a tent in a city park in Colorado. They were beckoned west by the promise of war good paying war jobs, and she went to work at the newly opened Douglas Aircraft plant in Long beach in 1942. Studer's primary identification was always as a housewife and mother, and she made a direct connection between her war work and the well being of her son, who was in the service. When the war ended, she was forty seven years old and tired and was ready to return to full-time homemaking. She kept all the tools she had used on her Douglas job and regularly used them for home repairs. After almost forty years, she was still proud to ply her mechanical skills. The four interviews with Studer, totaling six hours, were conducted by Cindy Cleary in Studer's bright kitchen in the small and compact home that she shared with her husband from 1948 until his death in 1972. At the time of the interview, she was already much less robust looking than she appeared in the 1978 photograph, but she seemed to be in good health and spirits. However, by 1981, when her oral history was reviewed with her, she was frail and bedridden and was enraged at the humiliation of being helpless and dying a slow, painful death. She died a few months later. TOPICS - family background and history; housing; childhood; rural life; schooling and education; foster parents; nurse's training; business training; and early work experience;farm life; family history; household chores; childhood; foster parents; domestic training; religion; suffrage; attitude towards equal rights; marital relationship; and schooling and education;
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