SP(G)3 Marjorie Williams Rooney Oral History Side A

title:

SP(G)3 Marjorie Williams Rooney Oral History Side A

creator:

Rooney, Marjorie "Midge" (Williams) (1922 August 12 - )

subject:

Navy WAVES

description:

Side 1 of 2. Marjorie “Midge” Rooney (formerly Williams) was born on August 12, 1922 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which is where she grew up with her parents and two brothers. She graduated from the Milwaukee Downer Seminary in 1940 and decided to attend a fine arts school. She went to the Boston School of Applied Arts, a two-year program through the Boston Museum. At the time, many pieces of art had been brought from Europe and elsewhere to the Boston Museum for safekeeping, so the students at the time saw art they otherwise never would have. She returned to Milwaukee after graduating and was hired as the first woman in the Art Department at The Milwaukee Journal. Her father tried to get his commission back from World War I but was too old, and her brother was taking classes to prepare for a commission in the Navy, and she was frustrated with her job, so she decided to enlist in the Navy WAVES. Within three weeks of applying, they were called in and shipped off to Hunter College in New York for basic training. After six weeks there, she was sent to Pensacola, Florida for advanced training to be an aerial gunnery instructor. She was in only the second group to be sent to aerial gunnery school. Most of their instruction involved learning how to use several different firearms, and the math accounting for two moving objects at the core of aerial gunnery. After two months there, she completed training and was assigned to an operational base near Miami, Florida, which was the last stop for Navy pilots’ training before shipping off to Europe. When she was stationed there, no barracks were available for WAVES, so for six months they were housed off-base in Al Capone’s former home called Terrace Barracks. She remained at this station for the entirety of her service. She was discharged through the Great Lakes Camp and returned home in December 1945. She was frustrated trying to figure out what to do as a career, so she moved to New York in 1946 to try and find work as an artist. She found work in the advertising department of B. Altman’s and met her future husband, who she married in 1947. She continued working until having their first of four children in 1950. Rooney returned to Milwaukee in 1963 after divorcing her husband. When she left the service Rooney had reached the rank of specialist gunnery 3rd class, and for her service she was awarded an American Campaign Medal and World War II Victory Medal. A transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Greeley, Elizabeth

date:

1989-09-27

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

803; 1989.803

source:

NSCD | CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

541834

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) | 1943-45

rights:

Unrestricted