Mench: I am John Mench and sixty years ago I was a young man with a wife and a baby girl, a good job in industrial deferment, a brand new home and a mortgage. Inside of a week or two, I had in my hand a ticket to a camp, an Army camp, an industrial deferment that was cancelled. I still had a wife and a baby daughter but they were now living with my wife’s sister, and my home was rented. The only thing that hadn’t changed was the mortgage.
Seth Wheatley: My name is Seth Wheatley, and it’s S-E-T-H W-H-E-A-T-L-E-Y.
Kelly: Okay. Now, can we start with your telling us where you’re from and how you happened to get involved in the Manhattan Project?
Marge Shipley: As for housing, men would come too, because they would feel that they would get sent for their wives.
Shirely Tawse: What would you do then, take it up with the Tennessee Eastman?
Shipley: I would take it up with Eastman and do what I could. I’d quiet them down if I could. If I saw no reason for their squawks and thought I couldn’t do any better, I’d try to be as diplomatic as I could. I never was cross with anyone.
Shirley Tawse: Pat, do you live here now too?
Patricia Hansard: Uh-huh.
Tawse: I’d like to ask you how you first became interested. How you happened to go to Oak Ridge? You said before it was for the money.
Cindy Kelly: I am Cindy Kelly, Atomic Heritage Foundation from Washington, D.C. and it is Tuesday, January 14, 2014 and I am here with Adrienne Lowry, who was married to Joseph Kennedy, a radio chemist with the Manhattan Project. Adrienne, let us start with you. Can you tell us your name, say your name and spell it, please?
Adrienne Lowry: Oh, my name is Adrienne Kennedy Lowry. Adrienne is spelled A-d-r-i-e-n-n-e, and Lowry is spelled L-o-w-r-y.
[Interviewed by Cynthia Kelly and Tom Zannes.]
Tell us your name.
Louis Turner: My name is Louis Turner. L-O-U-I-S T-U-R-N-E-R.
Gilbert Church: During the construction period there were several fellows that I could suggest you see. One of them would be Phil Gardner, for example. He was a recruiter on the road, and that was one of the biggest problems that we had, was getting manpower. He would know all the detail of that. So would Buster Harris, Bill Taylor—they were associated with the operation of the camp on Burton on a day-in day-out basis.
Stephane Groueff: Is there a movie about Hanford?
Kelly: My name is Cindy Kelly of Atomic Heritage Foundation and this is Friday, November 7, 2014. And I am here in Hobe Sound, Florida and I have with me Kenney. The first question is to please tell me your name and spell it.
Kenney: My first name is Gale. G-A-L-E. My middle initial is G as in George. G-E-O-R-G-E. My last name is Kenney. K-E-N-N-E-Y.
Cindy Kelly: Terrific. I am Cindy Kelly, President of the Atomic Heritage Foundation and we are in Rockville, Maryland. The date is Wednesday, October 1st, 2014. I have the privilege of interviewing Rosemary Maiers Lane. The first question is to ask please tell me your name and spell it.
Rosemary Lane: Spell it? Well it’s Rosemary Maiers Lane. Rosemary, R-O-S-E-M-A-R-Y, one word Maiers – my maiden name – M-A-I-E-R-S, and then Lane, L-A-N-E.
Kelly: Perfect.
Stephane Groueff: If you can tell me even before you came here briefly, your life before and how you happened to be here.
McKibbin: Well, I was brought up in Kansas City, and went to Smith College and traveled a great deal with my father after my graduation, through Europe, through Alaska, through South America.
Groueff: So, your father was—
McKibbin: A lawyer in Kansas City.
