| Summary: | Mrs. Warren tells about her husband’s career as a minister after returning from the war. She also shares some of his stories from his service in Italy during World War II.Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Library
Interview with Frances Warren
October 12, 2011
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Rhonda Haygood and Patti Hannah
Clip 4
Rhonda Haygood: So, did Mr. Warren finish his education out―
Frances Warren: Yes.
RH: ― at Auburn when he got back?
FW: No, see I was teaching there in Spring Garden and Jacksonville was just thirteen miles from us. So at that time he had decided he’d be a teacher and then he got his BS degree and we went to Auburn and got our Masters degree. And he taught for five years. But he was never really, really satisfied with teaching. We went to a Presbyterian Church and he had talked with the minister about his feelings about going into the ministry. And so he said, “Well, I don’t know of any better way than to try it out and see what you think.” So that next Sunday he asked him if he would fill his pulpit that night. That was a time when I had a lot of anxiety because I was accustomed to a Methodist Church close by. In rural areas back then, the Methodist home was furnished with whatever anybody else didn’t want in their home.
RH: Oh, dear.
FW: So I could see me living my life like that and it was something I really didn’t want. But after that first night that he filled the pulpit he felt like that was the thing he wanted to do. So the next week a church in Gadsden called him to come and supply for a night or two, for a day or two. So he did that. And then they said, “We would rather have you and let you go ahead and finish your education [??] in the ministry than now than a lot of people we’ve had.” So he started right then and we would go over on the weekend. Their manse was of course empty and they’d put some furniture in it. The Presbyterians don’t furnish their homes, so they put enough furniture in it we could get by, coming over on Friday or Saturday night. And George enrolled in, he went to Bethel College which is our college and he went to Birmingham Southern some and he had a lot of correspondence courses. So we stayed in Gadsden for nine years and then we went from Gadsden to Central Mississippi to Kosciusko and organized a church and we stayed there three years. And I’ll have to tell you this. George said, our boys were getting about the marrying age, they were dating and that kind of thing, and he said, “I don’t know, but I’d just kind of like for our boys to marry Alabama girls.” So we came to Alabama and our older son went to Germany and found his wife.
RH: Oh, dear. FW: And our younger son went to California and found his. Susie found Jeff in Tennessee. So, so none of them married Alabama boys and girls but they did a good job.
RH: Well, how did he feel when he found out he was going to be shipped out?
FW: Well, I guess he was expecting, I know he was expecting it because all the boys, and I’m sure he, he felt that that was part of his duty. He wasn’t of course happy about going but he was content with it.
RH: And he was in the regular Army.
FW: Right.
RH: Is that correct?
FW: Right. He was in the Army.
RH: So when he came home was his commitment up at that time? Immediately?
FW: Yes, yes. His time was, no from Okinawa. He had served his time and was discharged; most of the boys were discharged shortly after that bomb was dropped.
RH: Okay.
FW: Um-hm.
RH: Okay.
FW: After the second bomb was dropped. George had a lot of problems with his health when he first came home. At that time he had arthritis badly. He would have about once every six weeks he would have high fevers and chills from this jaundice that he had, still a result of that. So for a while he was really sick. But after that he adjusted, I think, fairly well. Um-hm. I’ll tell you about one time that he, while he was in Italy he and his buddy were out in the town when the sirens went off. They were having an air raid and there was an old cistern there in the middle of town that they had converted to a air raid shelter and he said it had just real rickety steps that went down into that cistern. So he and his buddy just got pushed in the crowd and carried down into that cistern and he said he couldn’t help but think, “If a bomb hit this nobody’d ever know what happened to all this bunch of people that was down there.” And he did have trouble with that for a, after he came home for a while. He wasn’t able to sit in the middle of a pew or anything at church. He always wanted to be on the end. And one time I remember we went to, we had, were in a meeting and when we got through there was another couple and us and we decided we were going to Carlsbad Cavern and we drove all night to get there and when we got there George started in, he said, “I cannot go down in this cave. I just can’t do it.” So we sat in the car while the other couple went down. Spent the day mostly. But he, he overcame that fairly soon. Patti Hannah: I have a question about letters. Did you get them on a regular basis or―?
FW: At times we would and at times we’d get maybe ten at one time. Maybe we wouldn’t get any for a while. I don’t know if it was because of the times that they would be bombing in the area where he was cause he was in Naples, Italy and that was right above the harbor and when they would come over to bomb Naples, if they dropped the bombs just a minute too soon the harbor would get it. And so he was in the area where they, a lot of bombing. Oh, and one other thing I forgot to tell you was this family that they lived with had a sixteen year old boy and when the Germans pulled out of Italy, or went further north, well this family had cut a hole up in the ceiling of a closet and put their son up there and put him some food and things up, water and plastered it back up so you couldn’t tell it. And so the Germans came in and searched but they, they were taking all the men and boys but they didn’t find him, so he was there while George was living there. And we were privileged to go back to that same house where he had stayed. They had taken over a school when the, when the Americans went in they took over a school and made the hospital out of it. And we went to that same building but it had been converted back to a school. Then we went to the house where he had stayed and this nice young lady came, was in the front room and she said, “May I help you?” in English. And she had known this family that George knew. But she said they had moved out of town. But we were able to go right back in that same house.
RH: Fascinating for you to see where he had been, I’m sure.
FW: Yes, and fascinating for him, too. It brought back―
RH: To―
FW: ―a lot of memories for him.
RH: ―relive that a little bit.
FW: Um-hm.
RH: Wow. Well, is there anything else that you can think of that you would like to say before we end the interview? Anything you think would be important for people to hear?
FW: Well, I’d like to say the same thing George said in his diary. “That was the happiest day of my life.”
RH: Aww.
FW: December the 25th, 1945.
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