Ellingson, Evelyn

              
ORAL HISTORY OF EVELYN ELLINGSON
Interviewed by Barbara P. Campbell
August 21, 2002 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  My name is Evelyn Martin Ellingson.  My husband’s name is Robert Donald Ellingson.  This is August 21, 2002.  We live at 185A Outer Drive, Oak Ridge, Tennessee.  I came to Oak Ridge in May of 1943 as a single woman because I had a job here with Tennessee Eastman Corporation.  Now, I would like to say a little bit of how I got that job because that was in the beginning.  
I had a friend, a University of Alabama classmate of mine that was working for Tennessee Eastman in Kingsport, the home office of Tennessee Eastman.  I was working in Atlanta for Good Rich Robert Company.  Having graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in Business Administration she called me and she says, “Oh, they’re starting a great big war project and I can’t tell you much about it but why don’t you come up to Kingsport and have an interview and see if you can get a job and we can be together.  They will pay your way.”  Well, at that time a single girl, anybody that would pay my way anywhere, I was willing to go so I got on the train in Atlanta. I remember distinctly having to change trains at Ooltewah, Tennessee, which I had never heard of and got to Kingsport, the home of Tennessee Eastman.  
I was interviewed by Ronald Flannery, who was head of the Accounting Department and he offered me a job. I’m not sure but I believe the salary was $135 a month.  So I accepted, went back to Atlanta, resigned my job and went back to Kingsport.  I got to Kingsport on May the 3rd.  We worked in Kingsport about two weeks and then we came to Oak Ridge.  Now, I don’t remember the exact date, it was something like the 24th, 25th or something like that we came, my friend and I.  
MRS. CAMPBELL:  This was what year?  
MRS. ELLINGSON:  1943. 
MRS. CAMPBELL:  No, what month?  
MRS. ELLINGSON:  May. 
MRS. CAMPBELL:  May, okay May 1943. 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  There was no place to live in Oak Ridge.  They were building the city and the plants. So my friend and I lived in Fountain City, which is a part of Knoxville and she had a car and we rode to work every morning and four men rode with us, four men who lived in the Fountain City area and in other words that was the first carpool.  We did that until the dormitories opened and we moved into the first dormitory that opened and that was Beacon Hall in what is known now as Jackson Square area.  That was in June. 
MRS. CAMPBELL:  You went into Beacon Hall? 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  Yeah.  I’d like to say a little bit about the early days of us living in the dormitory.  There were three dormitories in a quadrangle and they were building dormitories all over town but the three in the quadrangle on Central Avenue were the three first, the originals.  And right across the street was the cafeteria in which everybody ate morning, noon and night.  That was a great meeting place too.  Every time we’d see someone come in, Oak Ridge of course was very informal and every time you’d see someone come in with a suit on we’d laugh and say, “Oh, there comes some newcomers to town.”  Behind the cafeteria was a room that was reserved for entertainment and there was a nickelodeon in there and every night after supper everybody would go to that room and dance and we nicknamed Café Coca-Cola because we only had soft drinks and beer to drink and no other food of any kind so we had a good time.  But everybody in that dormitory area went over there every night to have fellowship.  Of course that was in the days of the mud too because they were building Oak Ridge and we would walk from Beacon Hall across the [Oak Ridge] Turnpike up the hill to the DOE [Department of Energy] building.  We were in part of the DOE building that they were still working on. They had not finished building the building so they literally built that building around us as we worked.  And there were days that we walked to work barefooted and carried our shoes and washed our feet after we got there and put on our shoes because of the mud.  Incidentally, that was in the days of when every woman wore a dress too.  There were no slacks.  So, you can imagine how we all looked doing that.  Trying to think… 
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Did you meet Bob there? 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  Yes. Well, Bob was one of the people we laughed at as a newcomer for wearing a suit.  I remember he and Virgil Hanes came together from Idaho, and they came on the train and they came into the cafeteria and as I said we saw those two boys with suits on.  We laughed.  We said, “Oh, those are newcomers.” We met in Café Coca-Cola when the housemother, at that time, the dormitories had housemothers and the dormitory wasn’t as strict as a college dormitory.  You didn’t have to check in and out or anything like that, but this housemother just kept things more or less the house, head housekeeper I suppose. 
MRS. CAMPBELL:  But you had only girls in that dormitory? 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  Only girls in the dormitory and there were boy dormitories, men I might say, and Bob was in one of those and he and his friend, Virgil Hanes, came into Café Coca-Cola, and his housemother came in with them and she came over to the table where I was sitting with some other girls and she says, “Oh, I want you to meet two of my nicest boys and I want you to take good care of them.”  And I thought she really meant it.  So, Bob and I started dating then and we married in October of 1945.  
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Where did you live when you got married?  
MRS. ELLINGSON:  First place we lived were the efficiency apartments that are still on… 
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Broadway? 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  Broadway and it was very fine.  That efficiency apartment had two rooms, one bedroom, the bath and then the combination living and kitchen. The kitchen was just one wall of the thing, a small stove and a small refrigerator and a sink, but it was ideal for a newly married couple that both worked.  As I said, I was in the Accounting Department at Tennessee Eastman and Bob was, well he started by then, the building that he was to be in was up and he was, he was working in that building.  But when he first came here, he and other men were selected to go to Berkeley, California, to learn the procedure of the electromagnetic process and they were out in Berkeley for about three months. At that time, we wrote letters back and forth which I still have.  And then when he came back, he was in the plant, I believe it was 9204-1.  
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Was that at Y-12?  
MRS. ELLINGSON:  Yeah, at Y-12, he was in Y-12 his whole, well, except for two years.  He was at Y-12 his whole 40-year career.  But getting back to the early days, we use to court at that time. They were building the high school up on the hill which is now, there’s nothing there now but the football field, but that was the first high school, Oak Ridge High School.  
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Then it became Jefferson Junior High? 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  Yeah and then it became Jefferson Middle School, and of course, Jefferson moved over to the other area and there’s nothing there now except Blankenship Field.  But as I say we use to court up there because they were building the building and they had stacks of lumber all around. We use to sit on the stack of lumber and talk, you know.  But that was the beginning of our courtship.  
MRS. CAMPBELL:  What about events that were happening in Oak Ridge at this time, or when you were first married and so on? You probably didn’t know as much about the schools until later when you had children, but you went to church I guess, right away? 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  No, I want to say something about the beginning.  There were no stores out here and so we would go to Knoxville to shop and they furnished buses for us to go to Knoxville to shop and the buses were free.  And they were these great big, we called them “cattle cars” that carried just a whole lot of people. 
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Did you work on Saturday?  
MRS. ELLINGSON:  No.  
MRS. CAMPBELL:  So, you could go shopping on Saturday?  
MRS. ELLINGSON:  So, we went to Knoxville.  Now, the Knoxville merchants did not care for Oak Ridgers. You know, for a while Knoxville was very snooty about Oak Ridge.  They thought we were not much and people came from everywhere else, you know. Well, they were just Knoxville; it was a very ingrown town I mean they had the few elite people, and that was about it, but eventually when they saw we had money and all these people came in and spent the money then they have finally come around to accepting Oak Ridgers, I think.  But for a time they were rather aloof.  
For entertainment, we would go in and eat in Knoxville.  One place we ate was Johnson Hall, which was in the Andrew Johnson Hotel, which is no longer there it’s a business building now.  But it was very nice and they had, of course, the white tablecloths and napkins and served very nicely and we enjoyed that.  We also went to Regas, and at that time Regas had two rooms, one room was they had a bar, not a liquor bar, a bar where you ate… 
MRS. CAMPBELL:  A counter? 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  A counter with stools and I can still see the black and white squared marbled floor.  They also had booths.  I remember I use to enjoy getting liver and onions there because there are not many places you can get liver and onions and I love that.  So, we were of the first people to enjoy Regas before they expanded.  We ate all over in Knoxville just for somewhere to go.  We went all over, and in fact, we went in a lot of dives over there that I don’t think we would go in today, but at that time, we were young and single and wanted to go places, you know, and do things, and so that’s what we did.  
MRS. CAMPBELL:  You didn’t go to the movies in Knoxville because you had a movie here.
MRS. ELLINGSON:  We had a movie here, the Center Theater, and I think we went to the movie every time it changed for something to do.  After we got married, as I said, we moved into the efficiency apartments, and we lived there about two years until I was pregnant and then we moved into an A house on Georgia Avenue, at 138 Georgia Avenue. We lived there for about 10 years until we built our own home at 185A Outer Drive.  Bob and I married in October of 1945, in my hometown of Cullman, Alabama.  And as I said our first …
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Daughter? 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  No, did I mention the efficiency apartment? 
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Yeah. 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  Okay, well our first home was efficient.  We, our first daughter, Donna, was born in April of 1948. 
MRS. CAMPBELL:  And you were living on Georgia Avenue? 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  Living on Georgia Avenue in what was then the old hospital.  It’s the same site as the present hospital, but a different building, and at that time, women who had babies, I stayed the hospital 8 days flat on my back. It was a different era, but when I think when we came home from the hospital we were better equipped you might say to take over the chore of taking care of a baby after you have rested awhile.  
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Did your mother come and help you?  
MRS. ELLINGSON:  No, my mother did not come.  I had another woman, a black woman that helped for, I think, about a month.  And that was all and then Bob and I were on our own.  Bob fortunately took the 2 a.m. feeding I remember that so I could sleep through, and then of course, by 6 a.m. I was up taking care of her.  Our second daughter, Mary Claire, who’s called Missy, was born in March of 1951.  There’s three years difference in their ages and she was also born in the same building or same hospital building.  Dr. Julian Reagan was my obstetrician.  He was originally from Birmingham, Alabama. So he and I could speak the same language and my father was a doctor. So every once in a while my father would call Dr. Reagan to see how I was getting along.  
So in 1949, well the churches had started forming out here, I don’t know how soon, but we had a church to begin with on Chapel on the Hill where all the denominations met, and in other words, you had church going nearly 24 hours for the different denominations.  My church, the Christian Church Disciples of Christ, formed out here in July of 1949.  I joined in September of 1949, and the charter was signed by 85 members. I am a charter member of that church and Bob and I have been very active in the church all these years.  Bob came from Idaho and he was a Mormon, but I might say, he was not a very good Mormon. So he joined my church and so we have had a very fulfilling experience in our church life.  I joined AAUW [ American Association of University Women] in 1954, and no one asked me or anything. Someone asked the other day, “Who asked you to join AAUW?”  I said, “Well, no one I just appeared and said I wanted to join.”  
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Had you known of AAUW before in college? 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  No, I don’t think so, and that has been very nice experience all these years.  I have formed some very fine friendships through AAUW.  
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Were you, did you join when Eleanor Roosevelt, did you get to meet her?  
MRS. ELLINGSON:  No, I didn’t get to meet her.  I don’t remember what year was she here?  
MRS. CAMPBELL:  She was here in 1954.  
MRS. ELLINGSON:  Well, I guess… 
MRS. CAMPBELL:  I came in February and I must have joined and I don’t remember how I joined either, but I did shake her hand although I don’t remember it really.  
MRS. ELLINGSON:  I don’t remember.  
MRS. CAMPBELL:  To go back to your church, where did they meet at first? 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  Oh, the church, first met in schools. 
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Where did your… 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  We first met in the old Robertsville Junior High School, which was a brick building, which has been torn down and been replaced by the present Robertsville.  It was a two story building that was formally, I think. It was in the early days Robertsville and that’s where we met first and then a Baptist church was meeting in the same building and I think we kind of collided in the building. So then we moved to Fairview, which was on Badger Road where ORAU is now.  There was a school there, an elementary school called Fairview.  
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Was that a school that was here before Oak Ridge?  
MRS. ELLINGSON:  No, no, no. 
MRS. CAMPBELL:  That was an Oak Ridge school? 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  Yeah. An Oak Ridge school and we met there. Then we acquired one of the original country churches that was on this site when the government took over, at Arkansas Road and Oak Ridge Turnpike. That’s where we stayed for two years and it caught fire because for heat there was just a great big stove in the middle of the room. The men of the church had to build a fire on Sunday morning, and I don’t know what happened. There was some trouble in the flue, I think, they said it caught fire and so we couldn’t meet there anymore. Then we met in Woodland School until we built our present building, which is at 203 Michigan Avenue.  
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Was that church building similar to the United the Chapel on the Hill, did it look like that?  
MRS. ELLINGSON:  Well, it was white, yes it was. 
MRS. CAMPBELL:  That military… 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  Yeah. 
MRS. CAMPBELL:  …Type? 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  No it wasn’t a military. It was from the native Tennesseans.  It was one of their country churches.
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Oh, alright. 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  …that was originally here.  See on the site when the government took over this area and how many thousand acres are in the area?  
MRS. CAMPBELL:  92 square miles. 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  Yeah, something like that. There were many country churches, and you know, there’s still one down at X-10, you know that one you pass all the time. So this was one of them and the government, at that time, it was used for meetings.  Anybody that had to have a meeting for reason met in places like that. So, our church had it for about two years until it caught fire, and then we [moved on to] went to Woodland School for about a year while we were building our present building.  
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Where was Woodland School?  
MRS. ELLINGSON:  Where it is now. What is that on?  Manhattan? 
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Yeah, I guess so.  I thought that was a newer building than I thought. Well there was an old Woodland, this has been remodeled. 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  Well, it’s been remodeled several times, I think.
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Did you go to the ORCMA [Oak Ridge Civic Music Association] when you first were here?  
MRS. ELLINGSON:  No, I didn’t and I can’t even remember when that started.  Do you have record of that?  
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Well, it was early.
MRS. ELLINGSON:  I know it was early, and I know Waldo Cohn was instrumental in starting the symphony. Now, we did go to the Playhouse.  And I think the first play we saw there, which I believe is going to be on again, was “Arsenic and Old Lace”.  I think that was the first play we saw.  Now, I don’t know whether that was first play they put on.
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Was that before you were married then? 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  I don’t remember.  I do remember that Jane Bridges Randolph and a lot of several of the old-timers that probably other people would remember.  But I, Bob even tried out for a play and he wasn’t accepted. So he never did try out again.  But of course, we had activities.  
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Did you have a lot of dinner parties and more social life than maybe we have now? 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  Oh, yeah. There was a lot of social life.  Well, that’s what we should mention, how many children there were because everybody that came here to work, most everybody was young and there were a lot of couples that I could name that met here like we did. Then they had children. So we had a lot of children.  I think at one time on the average age 27, I think age 27.  Lot of children and the young couples had a lot of activities.  We had a lot of bridge parties, couples and we had various and sundry babysitters.  I know I had an old woman, an elderly woman I should say, lived across the street that babysat for me and I had some high school girls but we did. Oh and another thing was the plant the different divisions and departments in the plants had a lot of parties.  We had a lot of parties like that and everybody went and danced and had a good time.  I don’t remember... 
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Where did they have those?  
MRS. ELLINGSON:  Well, they had most of those at Grove Center. 
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Oak Terrace? 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  Oak Terrace and Ridge Hall.  See Ridge Hall had a big room for entertaining. 
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Was that below the Library or was the Library in Ridge Hall then?  
MRS. ELLINGSON:  No, no it was above the Library. 
MRS. CAMPBELL:  That’s right the Library was below. 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  The Library was down where the Portrait Studio is now.  The Library was down and had a sidewalk that came out to Kentucky Avenue, you know.  And then upstairs was the Recreation Hall.  I think that’s what the official name is, the Ridge Recreation Hall. 
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Did you go to the Alexander at all? 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  Oh yeah, yeah there were lots of things at the Alexander and we ate there a lot. Of course they had a dining room, so we ate there and it was a very delightful atmosphere because nearly everybody knew everybody to an extent, or you knew who they were, you know.  And so it was and one thing everybody lived in Oak Ridge, all the key officials and other just the regular workers all lived in Oak Ridge, and that is one thing that’s happened to Oak Ridge, which has been a detriment, I think, because so many of your key officials now do not live in Oak Ridge.  They are not a part of the city. So that’s one bad thing, but at that time everybody more or less had to live in Oak Ridge and the gates, well the gates were opened in ’49, but in that first few years… 
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Did you have a car when you first came here or did Bob?  
MRS. ELLINGSON:  Bob had a car.  Well he didn’t have a car when he first got here, but then he bought one soon after.  And so we had a good time. It was quite an atmosphere, and I tell everybody or anybody that will listen, there’s not many folks in the world that have been able to build a city and a church.  
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Very good. 
MRS. ELLINGSON:  Yeah.   
MRS. CAMPBELL:  Well, I imagine that’s probably about it.

[End of Audio]

Transcribed: May 2006 by LB
Edited: April 2013, by JRH