<Begin Segment 13>

LT: As you talked about Gordon, I noticed that you call him Gordy, and I think he called you Ellie?

ED: Oh, yeah, that's what he did.

LT: Were those college names, or were those names just that you two had for each other?

ED: College. I don't...

LT: Did other college students call him Gordy, too?

ED: I don't think I heard anybody else. But then he called me Ellie, and nobody else called me Ellie. [Laughs] So even on that, and then just... we had a good time with Gordy, and I'm sorry we never did know the kids, or Esther for that matter, I guess. It would have been impossible. The kids were all going to school somewhere else, and difficult for them as well. I don't know whether any other family members got into inviting kids to live with them, I've never heard that. I'd think it might seem a reasonable thing to do with that crowd. And the Quakers are usually well-spread around the world. You could pack one kid off to someplace else, and one to another place.

LT: But clearly you and Gordon --

ED: What?

LT: Clearly you and Gordon Hirabayashi were good friends who maintained your friendship --

ED: How did we get acquainted?

LT: No, I said clearly you were good friends who maintained your friendship throughout the many, many years.

ED: I'm sure I don't understand your question.

LT: Okay, I was saying you and Gordon Hirabayashi continued to be good friends throughout your life.

ED: Oh, yes.

LT: Is there anything else that you would like to add that you remember?

ED: About him? There's one thing I can think that baffled me, but probably I don't even remember it now. Well, he was always kind, but he always had a nice sense of humor, and he cooked. [Laughs]

LT: What did he like to cook?

ED: Asian food. If he was coming to our place, he would stop on the way and buy the food and then cook when he got there.

LT: Was there a specialty?

ED: What?

LT: Was there something special he prepared that you really liked?

ED: No, not that I can tell you, I don't remember. I'm sure there was something American that he liked, but I don't remember what it was. We were visiting them in Edmonton, and I think I told you an arrangement got made to meet Barbara, the older girl, was her name. We made, Gordy suggested that since were going down through Canada and so forth, that we could stop and see him, and she could fix dinner. That sounded fine and dandy, so we drove down there, and the deal had to be that we would meet them right after dinner or right before dinner, and somehow that whole thing blew up. I cannot... I know, we were supposed to meet them at their house after dinner or before dinner, and it didn't work. They were not there, and the arrangement had been that she would be out walking the dog and we'd meet them at home. Well, they never got home with the dog in what seemed a reasonable time to us. Eventually we just felt we had to leave, and we left. I took time to get my hair done, Charlie read the paper, of course, and they were still not there. So we never met them, which I think is really sad.

LT: That's unfortunate. Well, I'll have to tell you that Lane Hirabayashi, Gordon's nephew, met you in July, and he told me that you're an amazing person.

ED: Oh, my.

LT: And he says you're so ahead of your time in many ways, he was really struck by your independent spirit. And just to recount, you helped form Oregon's Council for Women's Equality in 1971, you played a key role in our state's ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1973, you served on a number of state task forces, including the task force on Sex Discrimination in Education, and in 1974 you were a paid field representative of the Civil Rights Division of the Oregon Bureau of Labor.

ED: Yeah.

LT: So you've always been a volunteer for women's equality and social justice.

ED: I guess.

LT: So I'm thinking, in some ways, your life and Gordon's life have paralleled, except you haven't been in jail.

ED: [Laughs] Right, just as well. Well, I appreciate your comment, and his comment for that matter. I'm sad that we've never actually met yet. We'll have to do something about that. We aren't so terribly far apart. We almost made it... the group that was working on... they seem to be trying to pull the [inaudible] together in a military fashion, it strikes me as that, and he was called up here to meet with, meeting here in the building. And I was somewhere nearby, but somehow we never got together. So we've had one or two missives about that, and seem to haven't made it yet. And this isn't very close to where he lives, so I don't know whether it will ever happen.

LT: I hope so. Thank you very much for your time.

ED: Well, it's been interesting to meet you. Thank you.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2014 Densho. All Rights Reserved.