Margaret Harrington Oral History Side B - Edited

title:

Margaret Harrington Oral History Side B - Edited

creator:

Harrington, Margaret "Margo" (Hemingway) (1916 June 21 - )

subject:

American Red Cross

description:

Side 2 of 2. This is the edited interview audio. Margaret Harrington (formerly Hemingway) was born on June 21, 1916 in Auburn, New York and grew up there as the youngest of four children. She first grew up going to public schools in the city, then attended Madeira School in McLean, Virginia for high school and The Finch School in New York City for college. After finishing school there, she got a job at Best & Company and worked on and off in various roles. When the United States joined World War II, she didn’t feel suited for military service and her sister-in-law’s mother was heavily involved in the Red Cross, so she signed up for the New York chapter and was accepted in 1943. She had been working at the National Broadcasting Company before then, but it didn’t leave her with much time for volunteering, so she wanted to do more. She went to training in Washington, DC and Blackstone, Virginia for the Clubmobile branch. In January 1944 she was sent overseas, landing in Scotland then heading to London to find out their assignments around England. She was assigned to Woolacombe, England to serve donuts and coffee to arriving troops on their way to the continent and to continue driving various vehicles, especially the Clubmobile. After being there for three to four months, they went over and continued their driving and other work on continental Europe. She remembers one Clubmobiler dying from a stray bombing attack and she had a couple of close calls herself, but generally there weren’t many casualties or other incredibly close attacks. She was overseas for two years , leaving the service and returning to New York in January 1946 because staff was being cut down after the war. She worked with publicity firms in New York for a couple of years, and met her future husband while at this job. He was a Navy man who had served in the Pacific, and they married in 1948. A transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Akin, Evelyn

date:

1994-08-02

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

51.02

source:

NSCD | CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

322061

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) | 1943-46

rights:

Unrestricted