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House OKs budget
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Lack of water cited in deaths of nine firefighters
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House member who sought combat tour returning
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Woman pleads guilty in surrogate mother scam
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Fairfield County deputies bust moonshine stills
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SC House delays action on $7 billion budget amendment
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Party opens Aiken Bluegrass Festival
5/8/2008 9:24 PM
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Journalism award leaves teen ‘speechless’
5/8/2008 11:47 PM
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Police are working to identify suspects
5/8/2008 11:46 PM
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Graduate has already made a difference
5/8/2008 11:51 PM
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Police looking for suspect in carjacking
5/8/2008 11:44 PM
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USCA graduation list
5/8/2008 11:32 PM
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Local restaurants prepping for the Mother's Day rush
5/8/2008 9:24 PM
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Luncheon attendees celebrate, give awards to special mothers
5/8/2008 8:24 PM
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HEAT officers maintain highly visible profile
5/8/2008 8:24 PM
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Re-enactors to bring 1800s back to life
5/8/2008 8:24 PM
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Rex pushes, Ryberg opposes passing PACT bill
5/8/2008 8:24 PM
Author explains war letter book
3/21/2008 12:19 AM
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By ROB NOVIT Senior writer
With so many American men fighting on two fronts during World War II, the women stepped into the spotlight back home - working in factories, taking care of family farms, even enlisting themselves.
They also wrote letters, some to loved ones overseas or to family members, others to help the morale of troops, still others fighting for a seat at the table for postwar planning.
Dr. Judy Litoff, a Bryant University professor in Rhode Island, has collected more than 30,000 letters over the years and has published a book about them. She discussed the letters as the keynote speaker at the annual Pickens-Salley Symposium on Southern Women, held at USC Aiken on Wednesday.
The symposium is named after the Pickens-Salley House on the USC Aiken campus and two prominent women who lived in the house decades apart - Lucy Holcombe Pickens and Eulalie Salley.
Ola Hitt, 97, received the Pickens-Salley Southern Woman of Distinction award, presented by Dr. Deidre Martin, USCA's vice chancellor for advancement. Martin described how Hitt operate a residential home for U.S. veterans in Aiken for more than 30 years.
The symposium also featured a short video that complemented Litoff's topic. Produced by USCA professor Dr. Maggi Morehouse and Christi Koelker of Storylinemedia.com, the video featured interviews and oral histories from World War II of three Aiken women - Vivian Milner, Hattie Allen and Idelia Bodie. Their stories were combined with the letters read by Ann Gordon that were written by her parents.
Letter campaigns to boost troop morale were especially met with enthusiasm and ingenuity in the South, said Litoff. Teachers were prolific writers, and Litoff located handmade cards and letters.
The letters to husbands and boyfriends reflected the love and anxiety of many women. But they also suggested that women were confronted with the opportunity of a new place in the world for them.
Southern black men and women supported the war effort, Litoff said, but the war didn't change racial attitudes. An African-American woman, Mary C. Harris, wrote that she was ready and anxious to join the war effort as a nurse and enlisted.
"But she faced so much discrimination," said Litoff. "The African-American Army nurses were required to perform menial tasks. They rode on trains in separate coaches and couldn't eat in the same restaurants in the South."
Women overall got jobs in areas that would have been inconceivable before the war. One woman wrote of working on a swing shift at a shipbuilding plant so she could be home with her children during the day. She felt a sense of responsibility and the male workers called her "Shipyard Babe." But the woman expressed regret with the growing knowledge that at war's end, her new and exciting career would come to an end.
An Army nurse in France wrote of the horrors of seeing so many men grievously wounded and the fear that came with hiding in foxholes to escape the German planes. But there were lighter moments, too.
Remarkably, about 1,000 women trained as Army Air Fore service pilots, said Litoff. In a letter to her mother, one young woman recounted her feelings of independence, her overwhelming joy of flying and being alone in the sky with her craft.
"The gods must envy me every day," she wrote. "I am far too happy."
Contact Rob Novit at rnovit@aikenstandard.com.
3/21/2008 12:19 AM
0 comment(s) on this story E-mail this story to a friendBy ROB NOVIT Senior writer
With so many American men fighting on two fronts during World War II, the women stepped into the spotlight back home - working in factories, taking care of family farms, even enlisting themselves.
They also wrote letters, some to loved ones overseas or to family members, others to help the morale of troops, still others fighting for a seat at the table for postwar planning.
Dr. Judy Litoff, a Bryant University professor in Rhode Island, has collected more than 30,000 letters over the years and has published a book about them. She discussed the letters as the keynote speaker at the annual Pickens-Salley Symposium on Southern Women, held at USC Aiken on Wednesday.
The symposium is named after the Pickens-Salley House on the USC Aiken campus and two prominent women who lived in the house decades apart - Lucy Holcombe Pickens and Eulalie Salley.
Ola Hitt, 97, received the Pickens-Salley Southern Woman of Distinction award, presented by Dr. Deidre Martin, USCA's vice chancellor for advancement. Martin described how Hitt operate a residential home for U.S. veterans in Aiken for more than 30 years.
The symposium also featured a short video that complemented Litoff's topic. Produced by USCA professor Dr. Maggi Morehouse and Christi Koelker of Storylinemedia.com, the video featured interviews and oral histories from World War II of three Aiken women - Vivian Milner, Hattie Allen and Idelia Bodie. Their stories were combined with the letters read by Ann Gordon that were written by her parents.
Letter campaigns to boost troop morale were especially met with enthusiasm and ingenuity in the South, said Litoff. Teachers were prolific writers, and Litoff located handmade cards and letters.
The letters to husbands and boyfriends reflected the love and anxiety of many women. But they also suggested that women were confronted with the opportunity of a new place in the world for them.
Southern black men and women supported the war effort, Litoff said, but the war didn't change racial attitudes. An African-American woman, Mary C. Harris, wrote that she was ready and anxious to join the war effort as a nurse and enlisted.
"But she faced so much discrimination," said Litoff. "The African-American Army nurses were required to perform menial tasks. They rode on trains in separate coaches and couldn't eat in the same restaurants in the South."
Women overall got jobs in areas that would have been inconceivable before the war. One woman wrote of working on a swing shift at a shipbuilding plant so she could be home with her children during the day. She felt a sense of responsibility and the male workers called her "Shipyard Babe." But the woman expressed regret with the growing knowledge that at war's end, her new and exciting career would come to an end.
An Army nurse in France wrote of the horrors of seeing so many men grievously wounded and the fear that came with hiding in foxholes to escape the German planes. But there were lighter moments, too.
Remarkably, about 1,000 women trained as Army Air Fore service pilots, said Litoff. In a letter to her mother, one young woman recounted her feelings of independence, her overwhelming joy of flying and being alone in the sky with her craft.
"The gods must envy me every day," she wrote. "I am far too happy."
Contact Rob Novit at rnovit@aikenstandard.com.
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