Oral history interview of Mary Evans Comstock

Collection:: Veterans History Project: Oral History Interviews
Title:: Oral history interview of Mary Evans Comstock
Creator:: Eberhard, Sarah
Comstock, Mary Evans, 1923-2011
Date of Original:: 2004-12-01
Subject:: World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Douglas DC-3 (Transport plane)
Government securities
Comstock, R. Don, 1921-2010
Forrestal, J. Vincent (James Vincent), 1892-1949
Flippen, Royce Norwood, 1902-1988
Bullitt, William C. (William Christian), 1891-1967
Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
United States. Navy
United Service Organizations (U.S.)
La Guardia Airport
Location:: United States, Alabama, Madison County, Huntsville, 34.7304, -86.58594
United States, Georgia, 32.75042, -83.50018
United States, Georgia, Atlanta Metropolitan Area, 33.8498, 84.4383
United States, Louisiana, Orleans Parish, New Orleans, 29.95465, -90.07507
Medium:: video recordings (physical artifacts)
mini-dv
Type:: Moving Image
Format:: video/quicktime
Description:: In this interview, Mary Evans Comstock recalls her life during World War II. She worked as a secretary for the Navy, as she had taken typing and shorthand in college. She remembers visits to the White House. Near the end of the war, she began a career as a hostess with Pennsylvania-Capital Airlines, flying on the "Norfolk Shuttle." She describes the joy she felt flying the sailors out of Norfolk on their way home from war. She was in New York when the end of war was declared and describes what Times Square was like. She describes meeting her husband, who was an officer in the Navy who played baseball with the Pensacola Flyers baseball team.
Mary Evans Comstock worked for the U.S. Navy in Washington, D.C. during World War II.
Mary Evans Comstock World War II Oral History Atlanta History Center With Sarah Eberhard December 1, 2004 Transcriber: Joyce Dumas [Tape 1, Side A] Interviewer: Thank you. And we'll have, you know, as you probably know, about a little over an hour or so, around there or give or take to…but um… Comstock: Oh, and anyway…anyways, no one much will see it. But that's okay. Interviewer: Well, it's all…it's all important and it's about what you want to tell us. Not even so much what I want to ask you. And what I'm gonna do here is go ahead and start and state that my name is Sarah Eberhard interviewing Mary Evans Comstock on December first, 2004, at the Atlanta History Center for our Veterans History Project homefront interview. And if I could just get you to state your name and date of birth again. Comstock: I'm Mary Evans Comstock and I was born January 7, 1923. Interviewer: Okay. Thank you very much. We are just gonna…um, I'm just gonna start by…even though we will concentrate on your…the World War II…your activities during that time, let's start with um…you were born in Huntsville, Alabama, and just some of your background leading up to your college years and then ending up in working for the Navy Department in Washington. Comstock: Well, I guess I will start really being in college and hearing the news of the war. Interviewer: And this is when you were in Nashville? Comstock: I was in Nashville and it was on a Sunday afternoon and we heard the news on the radio and everyone gathered in our room. And my roommate's boyfriend was in the National Guard and she immediately said, “I'm going home to be with him.” So she just packed her bag and left and I didn't have a roommate, of course, so someone came immediately. But that was interesting. And I think we really…just kind of were shocked and looked at one another. “What are we to do? What is happening?” So at the age of eighteen you're not…you don't really realize how important and how really devastating the war was, which is maybe good. Interviewer: Yeah. Now, had there been…as you were mentioning, cause you sometimes don't realize leading…leading up to it when there was the war, you know, when it had been going on in Europe up to this point, had there been a lot of attention or had the magnitude of it… Comstock: Well, I think this may be interesting. When I was in high school in nineteen forty, that's when Hitler invaded Germany invaded Luxembourg, many of the countries. And the principal, we had, at that time we had chapel in the mornings. Interviewer: And where were you in high school? Was this in Huntsville? Comstock: Yes. Uh-huh. And anyway, he would tell us…he was in World War II [I?] and so he would come in and tell us the process of Hitler and when he did get…tell us…then in 1940 when he invaded France and so on, he said, “I think there's going to be a war.” And so, I think I was prepared mentally about what is happening, but when it really happens your whole…you feel, your feelings entirely change. Interviewer: What…when was…I guess your…you mentioned your roommate's boyfriend in college. When was the first that you began to notice, you know, young men in…like, you know, your either friends or family or wherever going over? Was that immediately after Pearl Harbor? Comstock: Well, we were all in college and you didn't…most…I didn't know anyone at that time that was going then, because most people were in school and were able to finish college. So I didn't really know until…my sister went to Washington, I guess in ‘42 or maybe in early ‘42. So when I went back to school then, she said, “Maybe you'd like to join me?” And I said, “Oh yes.” You know, I felt really patriotic. “I would like to go to Washington.” And so, I didn't know exactly what I could do, but I took typing and shorthand and was excited about going and I did go. And when we first got…when I went into Washington, there were lots of young people, mostly women at the time, and we were put in a pool, the way they sorted them out. And you were going to be assigned a certain job. And we're sitting there all very naïve, anticipating where we would go or what. They were taking pictures and so my picture appeared in the Washington paper. “This person has come up from Alabama to be in the war effort.” So that was…I was…didn't think much about it, but I realize now that was right nice, wasn't it? And so, then I was assigned to the Secretary of Navy Forrestal's office and that in turn was a very elegant place and lots going on. I did not work directly for Forrestal, but I worked for a man called Mr. Flippid [phonetic] who was a Navy graduate and I was really…he had a secretary, so I was receptionist and did typing and shorthand. And at the same time, William C. Bullitt had just returned from Russia as ambassador. So, I in turn took his phone calls and did some work for him. But he had a secretary, so I was kind of the front person for those people. And consequently, it was interesting because the Bullitts were very good friends of the Roosevelts, and their daughters particularly were in touch. So Mrs. Roosevelt would call about his daughter and I was able to talk to those people, which seemed, at the time, just a normal thing that one does in Washington if you're going. But when I think back, I'm…I think it was an experience. I didn't realize it was unusual that I was able to do that. So I've worked…in one of the experiences working for William C. Bullitt is he had me…he came in one time…he'd just come back from Russia, as I said, and he had me…he handed me something and told me to type it and I could not make a mistake and there would be no erasures. And it was a long letter. And so I…I was very nervous doing this, hoping that I would complete it. I did. He didn't stand over me or check it, but he checked it afterwards and it was accepted. So I felt, “Oh, I have arrived.” And those experiences were, I think, interesting to remember. Interviewer: Now you said your sister had previously gone up? Comstock: Yes, she had gone with the FBI. She was older than I was and she had finished college and so she had gone, as a war effort. I mean, you know, we all… “Let's go.” So that was kind of unusual, I suppose. Interviewer: Was she having some interesting experiences, too, with the FBI or could she talk about them? Comstock: Well, she did fingerprinting, counting fingerprints. And I was thinking, “Gee, that's really hard,” because you couldn't make any mistakes. You could make…you know, you'd have a certain amount you had to count during a day and you couldn't make any mistakes either, so. Anyway, occasionally, I mean, I guess if you made three, then you're not qualified for the job, so you'd have to do something else. But she got…she stayed up…she did okay. Interviewer: Now, was there a lot of…in your position, was there a lot of flurries of activities or things leading up to, you know, major um…operations that were taking…when you look back, that were taking place in the war or did you… Comstock: Well, we went…we went…we were very active in relationship to the war. First, we had…later, I mean not right at first, but we had friends and relatives over, so we spent time wrapping packages that had to be wrapped very carefully and we would stand in line in Washington, a very long line, to mail them. So we felt good about doing that. Always had a good feeling. We bought Treasury Bonds. And we also went to the USO and I, at that point, was taking some voice lessons, so, some other good friends who were singing well, we would go and sing. And I don't even remember what all we sang, but anyway we would go down there to sing, the USO. Then most all of the places that you saw the…the soldiers and so on, they were all out in the different places, so you were in contact with them. Interviewer: And so, your social life pretty much… Comstock: Yes, we socialized with the…with some…cause it was, Quantico, you know, was there. People came up from Quantico and so…at that time, so. And Navy, of course. I was in the Navy, so. The apartments [inaudible] you saw some people, but of course, most people in the Navy were overseas. But anyway, you were associated with them. Interviewer: And was it at this point that you started having more friends and…did you have any family members that were over at that time or…um… Comstock: Yeah, uh-huh. We had just cousins. I didn't…we were the oldest of our…in our family, so. My sister and I. I had three brothers, younger. But they were four and five years. So, it was mostly cousins and friends that, you know, that had gone later. Interviewer: Now…um…after now you…the war was still going on when you had…when you…were you still in Washington then in middle of forty-four when you left the Navy Department? Let's see. Comstock: Well, yes. I left the Navy Department because Mr. [?], my immediate boss, was a Naval Academy graduate and he decided to go to sea. He said he'd sat there long enough. He had to get out. And with that, this office was disintegrated and so, I was sent to another office, which was fine, but it wasn't quite as exciting as where I had been. And I was doing more routine work. And I thought, “I'd like to get out, too.” So I applied for a job with the airlines as hostess. That's what it was called. The airline was PCA in Washington, D.C. Right there. So I applied and I was taken. It was one of the first classes that they had. I think I was in the fifth graduating class. And we were flying DC-3s and twenty-one people. And immediately I was put on the Norfolk shuttles. And the Norfolk shuttles were the DC-3s which went down from Washington to Norfolk to pick up the sailors or other…mostly they were…they were mostly sailors that had just come in. And they'd be twenty-one and you'd stand there and those sailors were so jubilant and so excited. So the entire forty-five minutes…I think it was how long it was then. It was a DC-3, which went about a hundred eighty miles per hour. So anyway, they'd be so excited about coming home and…so that in itself was a real joy for me and for them. Interviewer: And um…let's see. So you were actively working as a hostess then throughout the…um, like the last year, year and a half of the war. What other experiences did you have during that time? Comstock: Well, it was mostly people flying priority, of course, that flew then because there wasn't that many seats and flying was not that…people didn't fly that much anyway at the time. In other words, we were to teach people that flying is safe. It sounds kind of unusual now, but that was one of things we were doing. But then, after I…for a while in Washington I did that. Then they opened a base in New York and I went to New York. And going there, it was another experience because we had an apartment. Six girls rented an apartment at Jackson Heights right near the air…LaGuardia Field. And we would try to get a cab because we…sometimes we would have to walk. We'd try to get a cab and the cab driver would say…wasn't very long. He would tell us, “No gas.” Because gas was rationed during the war. And we learned to tell him…it was a man at that time, driving cabs in New York…to tell him, “Well, just drive to the next police station then.” Of course, he knew that we knew that you…he wasn't supposed to not take us regardless, so. Or take anyone. But depending on their route, whether they were going to make money or not is the way they decided where they where going to go. So that in itself and of course, lots of rationing back in those days, both in Washington and New York. And we had…I remember we bought Treasury Bonds. We felt…and I've wondered, “What happened to my Treasury Bonds?” I guess I must have cashed them somewhere along the way. I'm not…they're not in my possession now. [laughs] Anyway, those are things that you really have to think back, what happened at that time. And we were a group. We were six, were living. And people were coming back then from the war and they would be…we would have new people, men coming in, you know, to tell us stories and so on. So that was interesting. And if you'd like me to get to the end of the war, we were sitting there in New York when this happened. Interviewer: [whispers] Oh, my goodness. Comstock: We were just sitting, listening to the radio and Glenn Miller's “Moonlight Sonata” or some such on the radio, they said, “The war has ended.” And you can imagine how excited we were. Well, immediately we just hastily got dressed and said, “We're going to Times Square.” So we hopped the subway and went to Times Square and all the people on the subway were joyous, and . . . . Interviewer: What time of day was that? Do you remember? Comstock: It must have been late in the afternoon, because we were there at night celebrating. So I don't remember the exact time, but I know it was at night that we were there celebrating. When we got off the subway, bells were ringing, church bells were ringing and horns were blowing. Oh, it was just so exciting and then we looked and here was this flow of sailors. Again, I was very involved with sailors it seems. And they came and would grab us and hug us. You know, just sweep you off your feet practically. And it was so interesting because everyone was participating. It wasn't like…no one was singled out for anything. It was just that this is a great day for everyone. This was the atmosphere. So that, I guess, was a highlight of my participation in the war effort, being on Times Square. Interviewer: Oh, that's wonderful. Now as you were…you had mentioned that in your working as a hostess then that you were…a lot of the passengers were people returning from towards the end of the war and um…were you still doing just one particular route or were you flying a variety…having a variety of routes out of New York or… Comstock: I'm trying to think if this was during the war that I had…out of New York. But I had various routes, yes, out of…I guess…you just want something at the…during the war years. Interviewer: Or…no. Even…even, you know, in the post-war, you know…in the post-war years as you were… Comstock: Well, the post-war years were, I guess, exciting because I was flying the southern route and that was kind of during the…some elections. You know, the presidential elections. And some of the candidates like Henry Wallace would be on my flight. Interviewer: Oh, see…I mean, that would be very interesting if you would tell us some about that. We…um…because the elections were…let's see…that… Comstock: I have to think for the year. Interviewer: Yeah. Would that have been in forty-six? Comstock: Yes, I guess so. Uh-huh. Um-hmm. That was…see, that was really post-war that a lot of things [inaudible]. Interviewer: That would have been…yeah, about a year after. Comstock: And so that was…when he was running…it was in the South and he was not as well thought of cause it was a new party starting and all. That sort of thing. So anyway, he sat up on the front seat and I announced to them that…Paul Robeson was with him as well. So most of the people weren't really interested. I noticed that. Then several people would ask…you didn't talk politics to any on your…to your passengers…you spent a lot of time in conversation with your passengers cause you had twenty-one and you had…took hour or two between flights a lot of times that you…that's what you did was talk to people. And I remember every so often they would ask me something about, “Who are you for?” or “How…” and I would tell them if I…I was frank, but it would never be any sort of political discussion, saying why or when or what, “How about you?” Interviewer: Now how many hostesses did you have on a flight? Was it just you or did you have two? Comstock: No, I was just one. Interviewer: Just one. And how many… Comstock: We sat on the back…on the jump seat and there were twenty-one. You had two pilots at the time. And so, I guess…you know, it was interesting flying then. Interviewer: And um…so how long did you continue flying then? Comstock: Well, I went to…from New York, I went to Birmingham for a bit. But then chief hostess down there. And then I went…they opened a base in New Orleans and that was nineteen forty-eight. And so I went there and I met my husband then and a year later I retired. Because at that point, you couldn't work after you were married. Interviewer: Now had he been in the service? Comstock: Yes, he was in…had been overseas. He was in the Navy. An officer in the Navy. He had finished college and gone right into the Navy up at Columbia for the training and then went into the service and got out in, I guess, forty-six or forty-seven and came to New Orleans to work. He was a baseball player but he had lost a lot of time and had to find another profession. Interviewer: Where had he played baseball? Comstock: In Pensacola was where he was…Pensacola Flyers. Interviewer: With the Navy? Comstock: Uh-huh. Interviewer: [inaudible] We used to vacation in Pensacola. Comstock: Oh, did you? Interviewer: When I was growing up. Comstock: Don't you like it? Interviewer: Oh, everything's torn down now. Comstock: I know. I know. Interviewer: All the places we used to go. Comstock: So that's really kind of my story. Interviewer: Well, that…I'm just…I just think all of this is so interesting. Is there anything else either during your time at the Navy Department…I mean you touched on some really interesting things, like some of the…even the little things. The phone calls you got or some of your social activities. Things like that that you think of that are just little stories of interest. Cause they're all so… Comstock: Well, some of the things we…we were…it was a friend of our family's that the lady had been up since World War Two and she…we lived with her in the condominium. My sister…and she was very involved with lots of organizations. She was a writer as well and so we got to go…you know, many places with her that were educational and interesting. Of course, we went to the White House. You know, Mrs. Roosevelt…saw her at some writers' group or some such. I mean it was a small group that wasn't like a tourist group. So those were kind of, I guess, interesting things you were introduced to at that time. And I…I guess I haven't really thought that much about who else I might…but in the flying, of course, I had lots of…of uh…Helen Hayes and…um…Jackie Robinson and you know, just many, many celebrities. I suppose that's what they're called. Interviewer: Yes. Any little interesting stories with those that you think of or anything that stands out in particular, even if they're not related or…during [inaudible]. Comstock: No, I'm just always…nice to see someone in person that you have admired. I suppose that's the bottom line. I mean, there really isn't any particular thing that…they all behaved so well and so cordial. Interviewer: And that's when flying was a… Comstock: Flying was really different because…one I guess…some of the stories I've told about flying is we'd be flying over…near Charleston over the mountains. The wings were icing up and I didn't realize how bad and I'm up to the cockpit to ask the pilots if they want something and immediately, “Do not say another word, go back, sit down.” The wings were filled with ice and we could crash any minute and it was one of the oldest, most…pilots that I really respected the most. I thought, “Well, he can do it. He can do it.” But we were…came close a lot of times. But somehow or another when you're young, you don't think it'll happen, do you? So anyways, that's the beauty of it, isn't it? It's the beauty. Interviewer: And then at what point did you come to Atlanta? Comstock: We came in…I believe it was nineteen fifty-two. We've been in Atlanta since fifty-two. We left…we were in New Orleans, lived there for a year and a year in Charlotte and then our third year of marriage, we came to Atlanta and this is our home. And we have really enjoyed it. It has grown, as you well know, and it was…it was really a real community when we came. And I feel we have maintained that where we've lived, as a community. So, I'm happy about that. Interviewer: And have you been in the same neighborhood since you… Comstock: We were in one neighborhood, nearer town, Sherwood Forest. And then we moved out to where we are now, which is out near Westminster School, that's where my children were. Interviewer: Oh, okay. Comstock: So that's, we moved out there when they were eleven and thirteen or so. Interviewer: Okay. Anyway, let me see. I've got…[inaudible]. I'm gonna pause this for just a second. We've got a little more [tape stops]. [tape starts] …that they might want me to follow up on for any reason that I might not have known… [end of tape]
Metadata URL:: http://album.atlantahistorycenter.com/cdm/ref/collection/VHPohr/id/340
Additional Rights Information:: This material is protected by copyright law. (Title 17, U.S. Code) Permission for use must be cleared through the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center. Licensing agreement may be required.
Extent:: 27:20
Original Collection:: Veterans History Project oral history recordings
Veterans History Project collection, MSS 1010, Kenan Research Center, Atlanta History Center
Holding Institution:: Atlanta History Center
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