Finding Sanctuary at Aunt Shirley’s Farm
Tina Dietz grew up in rural North Dakota in the 1980s. Though her home life was turbulent, there was one place she felt most loved.
In 2018, she came to StoryCorps with her partner, Patrick Conteh, to remember.
Top photo: Tina Dietz and Patrick Conteh at StoryCorps in Bismarck, North Dakota. By Savannah Winchester for StoryCorps.
Bottom photo: Tina’s great aunt Shirley Krosch, who passed away in 2012. Courtesy of Tina Dietz.
Originally aired June 28th, 2019, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
For a Father’s Last Meal, the Main Ingredient Is Love
Juan Reyes grew up in a small town in Mexico and immigrated to the United States in the 1940s. He eventually settled in Texas, where he raised his two daughters, Estela and Candi Reyes.
In Juan’s later years, his struggle with diabetes intensified, and he became more sick. At StoryCorps in El Paso, Estela and Candi remembered caring for him in his final days.
Top Photo: Candi and Estela Reyes at their StoryCorps interview in El Paso, Texas in 2012. By Anaid Reyes for StoryCorps.
Bottom Photo: Juan Reyes in the early 1970s. Courtesy of the Reyes family.
Originally aired June 14th, 2019, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Remembering a Gay Icon in Mother Bryant
Alexei Romanoff is a Ukrainian immigrant who grew up as an only child in New York City. As a kid in the 1950s, Alexei knew he was gay — but it wasn’t something he spoke about openly.
Now 82 years old, Alexei came to StoryCorps with his husband, David Farah, to remember the person who taught him to be proud of who he is.
We’re sharing this story as part of Stonewall OutLoud, our national effort to look back on life before the Stonewall riots in 1969, and to ask people to use the StoryCorps App to help preserve the stories of LGBTQ elders before they’re lost to history.
Photo: David Farah (L) and Alexei Romanoff (R) at their StoryCorps interview in Los Angeles, California in June 2015. By Jill Glaser for StoryCorps.
Originally aired June 7th, 2019, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
104-Year-Old WWII Veteran Remembers Fake Tanks, Sound Effects in Top-Secret ‘Ghost Army’
Gilbert Seltzer was an architectural draftsman when the World War II broke out. Soon after he joined the Army, he was told he would be put on a top-secret mission — and an unconventional one at that.
He had been selected to lead a platoon of men in a unit dubbed the “Ghost Army,” made up mostly of artists, creatives and engineers. Their mission? Deception. From inflatable tanks, to phony convoys, to spreading misinformation in bars, they used any possible trick to fool the enemy.
Gil is now 104 years old. At StoryCorps, he sat down with his granddaughter, Sarah, to remember this unusual outfit.
Top photo: A young Gilbert Seltzer in uniform in October, 1942, after graduating from Officer Candidate School in Fort Belvoir, VA. Courtesy Gilbert Seltzer.
Middle photo 1: A dummy 155 mm gun. Photo taken between 1943 and 1944. Courtesy Ghost Army Legacy Project, The George William Curtis Collection.
Middle photo 2: Gilbert Seltzer eating lunch at Pine Camp, Watertown, NY, during the spring of 1941. Courtesy Gilbert Seltzer.
Bottom photo: Sarah Seltzer and her grandfather, Gilbert Seltzer in West Orange, NJ for StoryCorps in January 2019. By Afi Yellow-Duke.
Originally aired May 25, 2019, on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday.
Walking in a Mother’s Legacy
Sada Jackson lost her mother, Ileana Watson, to breast cancer in 2016. Just after saying goodbye to her own mother, Sada became a mother herself.
Years later, Sada was still longing for all the moments they’d never get to share — and thinking about all the questions she never got to ask. So she sat down at StoryCorps in Kansas City, Missouri with her mom’s best friend, Angela Morehead-Mugita, to get to know her mom a little better.
Top photo: Sada Jackson (right) at StoryCorps in Kansas City, MO in 2018 with her late-mother’s best friend, Angela Morehead-Mugita. By Savannah Winchester for StoryCorps.
Middle photo: Sada Jackson with her mother, Ilena Watson, in October 2014. Courtesy of Sada Jackson.
Bottom photo: Sada Jackson with her son, Kendrix, in November 2018. By Bria Siglar.
Originally aired May 10, 2019, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Adopted Woman Finds Siblings, Learns Family Secret
Lisa Bouler Daniels grew up knowing she was adopted; and as an adult, she began searching for her birth family.
By the time she found them, both her birth mother and her adoptive mother had passed away. But she did track down her biological brother: Benjamin Chambers.
And the story of her adoption unearthed a family secret that had been kept quiet for decades.
Photo: Benjamin Chambers and Lisa Bouler Daniels at the Chicago StoryBooth in December 2018. Rocio Santos/StoryCorps.
Originally aired April 26, 2019, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Carolyn DeFord
Carolyn DeFord, a Puyallup tribal member, grew up with her mom, Leona Kinsey, in a trailer park in La Grande, Oregon. Twenty years ago, Leona disappeared on her way to her friend’s house, and was never seen again.
She is part of an epidemic of Native American women who have gone missing and never been found.
No one knows exactly how many Native women are missing or murdered, though a report put out by the Urban Indian Health Institute in 2017 cited 5,712 reports of slain or missing Native American women and girls by the National Crime Information Center. Only 116 of those cases were logged into the Department of Justice database for missing persons.
Carolyn came to StoryCorps to remember when she received the phone call that her mother had gone missing.
Leona’s case has never been solved. Since her mother’s disappearance, Carolyn has worked to help the families of other missing and murdered indigenous women.
Top photo: Carolyn DeFord poses with the Missing poster for her mother, Leona Kinsey, who went missing October 1999, at her StoryCorps interview on January 24, 2019 in Renton, WA. By Dupe Oyebolu for StoryCorps.
Middle photo: Carolyn DeFord poses with her mother and daughter in La Grande, OR in their last photograph together before Leona disappeared in 1999. Courtesy Carolyn DeFord.
Bottom photo: Leona Kinsey pictured at her home in La Grande, OR. Courtesy Carolyn DeFord.
Originally aired March 29, 2019, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Remembering the Assassination of Civil Rights Leader Edwin Pratt
This is a story about an assassination of a Civil Rights leader you might not know about.
Throughout the 1960s, a man named Edwin Pratt was the head of the Seattle Urban League, where he rallied against discrimination in hiring, education, and housing.
On a snowy night in 1969, three men carried out a hit on Pratt in his home, while his wife and five-year-old daughter Miriam were inside.
Miriam recently came to StoryCorps with her godmother Jean Soliz, who was her babysitter and neighbor at the time, to remember the aftermath.
After 50 years, the investigation of Edwin Pratt’s murder remains unsolved.
Top photo: A family photo of Bettye, Miriam, and Edwin Pratt together in 1966. Courtesy Jean Soliz.
Middle photo: Miriam Pratt and Jean Soliz pose at their StoryCorps interview in Renton, WA on January 22, 2019. Photo by Dupe Oyebolu for StoryCorps.
Bottom photo: Jean Soliz and Miriam Pratt make the black power pose together, a few months after Edwin Pratt’s assassination in 1969. Courtesy Jean Soliz.
Originally aired March 22, 2019, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Their Love for Each Other Grew into a Love for their Community
In 1997, Sharon Adams felt a call. After 30 years away from her hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, she moved back into the house where she grew up. As Sharon was fixing up her family home, she needed an electrician. That’s when she met her now-husband, Larry Adams.
They’ve since completed several projects around the house, but the couple’s biggest undertaking came when they turned to the area outside of their home.
Inspired by Sharon’s memories of her once close-knit community, they established Walnut Way, a nonprofit dedicated to revitalizing their neighborhood.In the two decades since, they’ve built and restored more than 100 homes and transformed over 20 lots into gardens and orchards.
At StoryCorps, they remembered how as their relationship grew, so did their involvement in the community.
Top Photo: Sharon and Larry Adams in the house where their nonprofit, Walnut Way, is based. Photo by Adam Carr.
Bottom Photo: Sharon and Larry Adams in front of their peach trees. Photo by Sara Stathas.
Originally aired February 15, 2019, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
The Man Who Disabled Two Hydrogen Bombs Dropped in North Carolina
On January 24, 1961, a U.S. B-52 bomber was flying over rural North Carolina when fuel started to leak, the plane snapped apart, and the two hydrogen bombs it was carrying fell into a tobacco field. If detonated, these 3.8-megaton weapons would have had an impact 250 times greater than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Lieutenant Jack ReVelle, a munitions expert who was 25 at the time, was the man called to the scene. His job was to make sure the bombs didn’t explode.
He came to StoryCorps with his daughter, Karen, to remember those harrowing eight days.
Top photo: Four of the “terrible ten” – from ReVelle’s team – observe the retrieval of the second bomb’s parachute pack from inside a hole they dug over the course of eight days. Photo courtesy of the United States Air Force.
Middle photo: The first hydrogen bomb in January 1961. Photo courtesy of the United States Air Force.
Middle photo: 24-year-old First Lieutenant Jack ReVelle in 1960, the year before the incident in North Carolina. ReVelle worked in Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD). Photo courtesy of the United States Air Force.
Bottom photo: Jack ReVelle and Karen ReVelle at their StoryCorps interview in Santa Ana, CA. Photo by Kevin Oliver for StoryCorps.
Originally aired January 25, 2019, on NPR’s Morning Edition.