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Stumph, Marye (audio interview #3 of 3)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - By the time of this third and last interview, Stumph had become even more comfortable with the interview process and, as always, was candid about her own experiences but reluctant to say anything negative about others. 1/15/1981
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- 2021-07-27
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- *** File: rrrmstumph9.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-5:33)... After she was laid off from Vultee, Stumph registered with her local unemployment office. She worked a few odd jobs before finding a clerical position with the Federal Civil Service. She reviews the circumstances that led her to this job, and describes her responsibilities at the Navy Separation Center. She later worked six months for the [Long Beach] Unified School District and then as a switchboard operator at Famous Department Store. (5:33-7:59)... When Stumph and her mother moved to their home on Gaviota in 1944, they continued to operate a childcare service to supplement her income. Shortly after losing her job at Vultee, the mother of the only two children for whom they were caring married and ended her childcare services. With the loss of this income, it was vital that Stumph find work as soon as possible. A few weeks later, she was hired at the civil service. She thinks her income was around $1,900 per year, which was about the same rate of pay she received at Vultee. (7:59-14:26)... Stumph wanted to stay in aircraft work, but "it was an emergency that they hired women in and I didn't figure there was enough chance in finding anything [in defense] to bother trying." Ideally, she wanted to utilize the skills she learned while at Grau Business School. She spent the majority of her nine-month appointment with the Civil Service in a typing pool. She took the "GS2" examination and was placed on the federal registry of civil service jobs. While awaiting a new appointment with the Civil Service, she took a temporary position at the [Long Beach] Unified School District operating the switchboard and completing various clerical tasks. When that job ended, she found work at the Famous Department Store as a switchboard operator. (14:26-21:30)... In October 1947, she received a temporary Civil Service appointment to the Long Beach Naval Hospital, and was hired on a permanent basis a short time later. She describes her responsibilities while employed in the Top Side Personnel Department at the hospital. Around May 1950, she was laid off when the hospital closed. In June 1950, the hospital was acquired by the VA Hospital and she was rehired. She worked for the VA Hospital until her retirement in 1974. (21:30-27:14)... When she began working at the Long Beach Naval Hospital she was classified as a GS2 Civil Service employee, and by the time she retired in 1974, she reached a GS6 classification. During her career at the hospital, she worked in various clerical capacities from clerk typist, to patient rationing clerk. She also was the assistant to the civilian supervisor, and periodically helped at the admissions and discharge desks. There were approximately nine civilians working in the hospital office at that time, two of whom became Stumph's close girlfriends. (27:14-30:26)... Stumph describes the employment benefits provided for Civil Service employees. She rarely used sick time while employed at the hospital. She believes that her work at Vultee aggravated certain health conditions, such as problems with varicose veins, because she was required to stand the majority of her work day. The noise level also may have led to some slight hearing loss. End of tape *** File: rrrmstumph10.mp3 (0:00-7:32)... She talks about her son's (Bill) career in the Merchant Marine and the Army Transport Corps. He married at the age of seventeen, and he and his wife had a daughter, Katy. Stumph's son was an absentee husband and father because he was gone so often. His marriage was unsuccessful and ended in divorce when Katy was three years old. When his ex-wife (Fritzy) remarried, her new husband adopted Katy. Stumph's son settled down after a four year term in the Navy during the Korean War, but his second marriage was not successful and ended with an annulment. He son died in a work accident on July 3, 1973, one of the few dates in her life that she can remember. (9:15-21:13)... Stumph's children were very close, being only nineteen months apart in age. Her children had a strong resemblance to their father's side of the family and looked alike. Her daughter, Carol, graduated from high school, and although Stumph wanted her to go to college she was not interested in a college education. She worked a little after high school and then married a man Stumph described as a chauvinist. Their marriage was unsuccessful and ended in divorce. She eventually remarried and moved to Topeka, Kansas. (7:32-9:15)... Stumph assesses herself as a mother, indicating that she was not "fit to cope" with raising a son. She lacked a male role model growing up, and felt insecure about her abilities to manage her son's life. This may be one of the reasons he grew up to be an adventurous man who "just wanted to live." She had a much easier time understanding and getting along with her daughter, who, unlike Stumph, has control of her children. (21:13-26:54)... Stumph was not very interested in dating men. She occasionally thought about it, but never seemed to meet any available men she admired, or any admirable men for that matter. She does not consider herself a frigid woman. Sex was not that important and it never bothered her that she was not having any. She felt complete without a man in her life because she had her family and friends. In 1950, she purchased a car and began taking vacations with her mother and friends. End of tape. *** File: rrrmstumph11.mp3 (0:00-5:02)... Stumph continues a discussion on her social activities outside of work. In the 1950s, after she got a car, she began taking more art courses with a particular interest in pottery. She describes some of the pottery projects she is currently working on. When she retired, she was able to devote much more of her time to arts and crafts classes. (5:02-6:30)... Stumph remembers her experiences at Vultee fondly. She enjoyed her work and would have stayed in defense had she known jobs were available to women. Working in the aircraft industry during the war did not change her life in a significant way. The work was simply available and she took advantage of it. When it was over, she moved on to a new period in her life, and enjoyed all of the jobs she held following the war. (6:30-10:59)... Stumph supports the ERA and women's rights although she does not always agree with the tactics that women use. Although she does not see herself as a militant woman, she realizes that if women are too passive they will not achieve anything. She does not believe that gender inequality affected her life because she was never denied anything on account of her sex. She was never interested in a "man's job" and did not consider herself a threat to men. Given the opportunity to live her life over, she definitely would pursue an art education. Rather than fighting for women's rights, she would be pursuing an artistic career. (10:59-15:19)... Stumph goes into detail about her close relationship with her granddaughter, Lynn (her daughter's daughter), and how this differs from her relationship with her son's children. (15:19-16:47)... Stumph's mother came to Long Beach in 1941 for a visit and decided to stay for good. She lived with Stumph until her death in 1969. She was not a dependent person, and did whatever she could to "pay her way." More than anything, she was a big help to Stumph. Stumph gave her paychecks to her mother who managed the family finances and the household. End of tape.
- SUBJECT BIO - Marye Stumph was born in Geneva, Ohio, where she was raised by her mother and her grandmother. After high school graduation, when her mother's millinery business failed, they moved to Cleveland, where Stumph had to get a job, giving up her dream of going to art school. She married a year later in 1928 and moved with her husband to Akron, where she lived with her two children until the marriage failed. She returned to her home town and worked in a factory there until moving to California in 1940. Initially, unable to find a job, she collected unemployment and attended business school. However, she was not able to support the children, she sent her son back to Ohio with a friend, and placed her daughter in the Children's Home in Hollywood for a few months. Once she started working at Vultee Aircraft in early 1941, she was able to re-establish family life. Her children returned and her mother joined her and ran the household while Stumph worked at Vultee. When she was laid off from her job at war's end, she began a career in Civil Service, eventually becoming a clerical worker at the Naval Hospital (later Long Beach V.A. Hospital) in 1947. She remained there until her retirement in 1974, after which she seriously resumed her lifelong interest, filling her house with her art work. Stumph was referred to the RRR project by her granddaughter, who was a friend of one of the project staff, Jan Fischer, who conducted the oral history. The three interviews with Stumph, which totaled more than five hours, were recorded in her simple, wood frame home in Long Beach, where she lived with her blind dog. The rocking chair in which she sat during all the interviews was obviously her "center," surrounded by papers, books and her art work. TOPICS - Civil Service positions; Navy Shipyard Terminal Island; post war work; employment at Long Beach Naval Hospital (later VA Hospital); impact on health of war work;children; motherhood; attitudes towards sex and dating; and social activities; social activities; artistic interests; impact of work on her life; feminism; relationship with grandchildren; and mother;
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