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LT: This is an interview with Eleanor Davis on October 23, 2014, at Holladay Park Plaza where she resides. Let me begin, Eleanor, by telling you that Professor Roger Daniels and Tom Ikeda from Densho in Seattle are very appreciative of your consenting to this interview. They believe that you are now the only person who as an adult had meaningful contact with Gordon Hirabayashi both before and after his trial. And you continued to know him and keep in touch with him long after that. So you're thus an important witness for all of us, and countless others will be able to hear from your stories and your experiences. So thank you so much for agreeing to join us. I also will mention that in your own right, you also played a key role in Oregon's ratifying its Equal Rights Amendment in 1973, so you've been an outspoken advocate for women's rights, and a leader in your own. So one other comment is, we were talking about the top that you're wearing today. Can you tell us about that?

ED: About the what?

LT: About the top that you're wearing? Your blouse?

ED: The crowd?

LT: The blouse that you're wearing?

ED: Oh, yes. It was purchased by Gordon Hirabayashi in Southeast Asia, and he brought it home. He brought home, I think, two of them, gave one to somebody else, and one to me. And I made this out of the one he gave me.

LT: So he bought the fabric and gave you the fabric?

ED: Yes.

LT: Well, thanks for wearing that today, that has special significance. Let's begin with your personal life. Where were you born?

ED: Seattle, Washington.

LT: Okay. And what was the date?

ED: November 17, 1922.

LT: So you're ninety-two years old?

ED: What?

LT: So you're ninety-two years old?

ED: A little more than that.

LT: Almost ninety-three. And what was your full name when you were born?

ED: Winifred Eleanor Ring, is that right? [Laughs]

LT: We know you as Eleanor. How did that happen?

ED: How did what?

LT: We know you as Eleanor. How did that happen?

ED: Well, I changed my name when I was in fourth grade, I think it was, because my name at that time was Winifred Eleanor, and... Winifred Eleanor. There's some connection there. When I ran home from school, the boys started teasing me, and I didn't like it a bit, so I decided I would change my name to my middle name, and my parents agreed that was all right. So I had to notify the teachers and notify the principal and so forth that I had a different name. And they were quite astonished and stopped the teasing, and that was good.

LT: So as a fourth grader you took matters into your own hands and became a problem solver?

ED: Apparently so.

LT: Okay.

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