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Verreaux, Vi (audio interview #1 of 1)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - A single relatively short interview was conducted with Vi Verreaux as a project for a directed studies in oral history. Despite a heart problem that restricted her activities, the narrator was lively and had a very good memory. Unfortunately, plans for subsequent interviews were never realized and, as a result, the documentation on the founding and early days of T.H.E. Clinic for Women is thin. [Note: the acronym stands for "To Help Everyone."] 10/28/1992
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- 2020-03-23
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- *** File: fhvverreau1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-4:01)... One of thirteen children, when she was in grade school, Verreaux was teased by other children about her mother having so many children. She decided then she did not want to get married. She thought that if she did not get married she would not have children. She was never told anything by her family about reproduction and she was very naive about such things. She had eight brothers and four sisters but was somewhat of a loner. She recalls wearing bib overalls when she was younger. Verreaux's mother died in her seventies and Verreaux described herself as the matriarch of the family at the time of the interview. (4:01-10:21)... Verreaux was raised on a farm and was the first in her family to finish high school. Her aunt was a nurse and had traveled cross country to visit the family. She influenced her niece to become a nurse but because Verreaux had health problems, she decided to go into journalism. Verreaux went to business school in Sioux Falls and when WWII began, she and a friend went to California to work the night shift at Douglas Aircraft. She started nights and first worked in the medical department. She lived in Fullerton for a while and had roommates. She worked in several departments in Douglas and enjoyed medical the most. (10:21-13:00)... Verreaux thought it was just great to get out of her house in South Dakota and enjoyed working at Douglas Aircraft. She then moved in with a woman who had a small child. She heard about the free community colleges and went back to Compton to attend. (13:00-18:00)... Verreaux was working at Douglas, El Segundo when she met her future husband, after which she took some time off from school. She was married when she was twenty five and notes that she was a virgin. She had taken a public speaking course that influenced her dramatically. She did get her Associate Degree, and then married after initially turning down her future husband. She became pregnant right away. Her family knew she would be a working woman and encouraged her but Verreaux says it was only to get her out of the house. Her siblings married and left home and also worked on farms for room and board. (18:00-23:50)... Verreaux wanted to join the WAVES during the war but couldn't because of her health. This was a big disappointment for her. She worked at Douglas Aircraft until she married and then went to work at Von's supermarket after she moved to East L.A. with her husband. She worked until the day before her baby was born; she was able to hide her pregnancy. She then worked at a drug store and in 1950 they wanted to get out and go to the foothills. Her husband and she bought a house and they lived there with their two children. (23:50-27:44)... Verreaux's first involvement with her community was "trick-or-treating" for UNICEF. Her neighbors thought she was a communist because of UNICEF, but now her old community has Halloween parties for UNICEF. She then became involved with her church and was so involved with community events that she was out every night. She also got involved in politics, and when she found out about community events she loved to be involved. Her husband was supportive and was great with the kids. Verreaux felt bad that her husband did the housework because she thought she was supposed to do that work. It was not until she read Betty Freidan's book that she realized what she was upset about. (27:44-29:28)... Verreaux was very involved with her church group and she and the other women re-did the nursery and got the husbands involved. She did many projects with her church group on limited funds but was always very active. End of tape *** File: fhvverreau2.mp3 (0:00-5:04)... Verreaux went back to California State University, Los Angeles, while her children were still in high school. She received her B.A. there. Another influential person in Verreaux's life was her husbands' mother; she was always encouraging Verreaux in terms of education and living independently. Verreaux admired her and wanted to be like her. She thinks that her mother-in-law was part of the reason that she married her husband. Her husband supported her and gave her everything she wanted. (5:04-7:37)... Verreaux was asked why she was never home once she became involved in community events. She always felt more comfortable in an office setting than in the home. She did not like the duties at home and preferred the office duties over housework. (7:37-10:11)... In the 1960's, when the Kennedy's were killed, Verreaux was in college and working as an office manager. She was greatly affected by it. Her mother-in-law passed away shortly after that. Her children were in high school at this time and she had one son and one daughter. (10:11-13:22)... Verreaux and her husband did not really talk about the Vietnam War as they were both very busy. She did not really get involved in the Women's Caucus until the 1970's. She was going to school and working at the same time so that took up all of her time. In 1957, she had a hysterectomy and did not get hormone replacement . She became very depressed. When she wrote her doctor a note saying that she was very depressed, she had hormones sent to her. Her husband had a vasectomy after their second child and that was in part due to his mother. (13:22-18:28)... Verreaux got her degree in sociology and was working at an electronic company as a bookkeeper. She had a hard time adjusting to being a professional and when she got a job teaching sociology at CSU Dominguez Hills,didn't really mingle with her male colleagues. After working for a while doing social research at an anti-poverty agency (EYOA), Verreaux went to work at L.A. Regional Family Planning (LARFP). She was fired from that job after having a problem with the while male manager and his accountant. That was the first time she was ever fired; she did not want to work after that. She had many different jobs and loved to interview as she had high marks from all of her employers. (18:28-26:04)... When Verreaux's mother-in-law died, she was doing market research. She then got involved with NOW after she had read Betty Friedan's book. In 1971 she saw an article in the L.A. Times that the Women's Caucus was coming to South Central and she went to the meeting. It was the most uplifting experience and she has been involved ever since. Verreaux met Mary Petrinovich who was starting a clinic on Wilshire Blvd and needed a Director of Finances. She took the job and commuted four days a week to work there, all the while remaining active in the NWPC. She learned enough to open a second clinic on April 25, 1972. She notes that there were no protesters at either clinic; rather, they did have funding problems initially. A lot of the clinic services focused on abortion screening. Women were then referred to San Vincente Hospital for the procedure. This was at the time that women had to say they were thinking of suicide in order to get an abortion. A lot of the women were "Hispanic" and Catholic so they could not tell their parents. The other services at T.H.E. Clinic included V.D. testing for both men and women and Ob-Gyn care. (26:04-30:49)... On Mothers Day in 1972, T.H.E. clinic ran an add in the Los Angeles Times noting that it was offering free abortions. Verreaux started another clinic after she quit the original clinic, which closed down. Despite initial difficulties, they found funding and a new director and located at 3860 Martin Luther King Blvd. The county did their lab work for free and they also did venereal disease testing. At the time of the interview the clinic was also funded to do AIDS testing. End of tape
- SUBJECT BIO - Violet (Vi) Verreaux, an activist in the National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC) was the founder in 1972 of T.H.E. Clinic for Women. [Note: the acronym stands for "To Help Everyone."] The tenth of thirteen children, Verreaux was born and raised in South Dakota. She moved in California in 1942 with a friend and got an office job at Douglas Aircraft. After the war and a brief stint in college, she married and became pregnant almost immediately. During the 1950s, she became very involved in community activities work in her church and, eventually, in local politics. Eventually, she fulfilled her college aspirations and after obtaining a degree in sociology from CSULA went to work in an anti-poverty program. In the fall of 1971, Verreaux saw an article announcing the formation of the National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC). She went to the meeting and became involved immediately, eventually becoming the Southern California Regional Coordinator. In 1992, a book she co-authored with Laurel Knapp on the NWPC in California was published posthumously (NWPC in California, its beginnings). Through her initial involvement in the NWPC, Verreaux met Mary Petrinovich, who was starting a clinic in Los Angeles. After working there as a Director of Finances, Verreaux she gained enough experience to start T.H.E. Clinic for Women in April 1972. For the next two decades, until her death, Verreaux remained active in the NWPC and the Democratic party. TOPICS - early influences; childhood; working at Douglas Aircraft; community college; meeting husband; move to East L;A; and then to foothills; involvement in community; church group; college; mother-in-law as role model; political activism; hysterectomy; 1960's; employment history; NOW and women's caucus; involvement with women's clinic and starting T;H;E; Clinic for Women;
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