Oral History of Virginia Bonnette, interviewed by Kieran Walsh Taylor and Virginia Ellison, 15 March, 2012
Title
Oral History of Virginia Bonnette, interviewed by Kieran Walsh Taylor and Virginia Ellison, 15 March, 2012
Subject
Description
Born in Charleston in 1922, Virginia Elizabeth Robinson Bonnette attended Memminger High School before graduating from Murray Vocational School in 1939. Her father worked for the City of Charleston and her mother took in laundry. In this interview, she discusses her Catholic upbringing as well as the strategies her family used to survive the Great Depression, during which her father was paid by the City in scrip. She describes King St. in the 1940s and reflects on her first jobs at a five and dime and at Read Brothers, which is still in operation at 593 King. At 17, she began working at the American Tobacco Company on Bay Street, where she was a hopper feeder in the cellophane department. She describes the work in considerable detail. Shortly after the United States entered WWII, she began working at the Naval Shipyard as a clerk in the pipe shop, where she was one of the first five women in the department. She eventually trained as a pipefitter and it was there that she met her husband, Augustus K. “Gus” Bonnette (1921-1983). They married in 1944 just weeks before Gus joined the Navy. Other highlights of the interview include her reflections on life in the Liberty Homes in North Charleston and the war’s impact on working women.
Listen to the audio on the Lowcountry Digital Library.
Source
Women in World War II
Publisher
The Citadel Archives & Museum
Date
Rights
Materials in The Citadel Archives & Museum Digital Collections are intended for educational and research use. The user assumes all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any claimants of copyright. For more information contact The Citadel Archives & Museum, The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, 29409.
Format
application/pdf
Language
English
Type
Text
Identifier
https://citadeldigitalarchives.omeka.net/items/show/216
Coverage
Charleston (S.C.)
Duration
2 hours, 12 minutes
Interviewer
Kieran Walsh Taylor
Virginia Ellison
Interviewee
Virginia Bonnette
Location
Folly Beach, South Carolina
Collection
Citation
The Charleston Oral History Program at the Citadel, “Oral History of Virginia Bonnette, interviewed by Kieran Walsh Taylor and Virginia Ellison, 15 March, 2012,” The Citadel Archives Digital Collections, accessed May 8, 2024, https://citadeldigitalarchives.omeka.net/items/show/216.