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DG: Okay. Well, thank you for doing this today, Mary.

MW: You're welcome.

DG: We'll start off, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background, where you were born, where you grew up?

MW: Okay. Actually, well, I grew up here on Bainbridge, spent my whole life here, but I was born in Washington, D.C. My folks were back there for a year. And, but I grew up here, went to island schools, graduated from Bainbridge High School. Then when my husband I were married, we made our home here.

[Interruption]

DG: And tell me about your family, your siblings.

MW: I have two older sisters, one, Carolyn, who was born in 1940, and Midge, Mildred, Midge, was born in '44. Three girls.

DG: And the whole family was here most of their lives?

MW: Uh-huh.

DG: And did you ever leave the island or have you lived...

MW: Yes. And it's Washington, D.C. again. My husband was back there when we were first married in 1970, he was working back there, and we lived there for a year, and then he did some graduate work with the University of Southern California in Washington, D.C., he was working with HUD. And so we spent another year there. But other than that...

DG: You've been here most of your life. And how about your parents? Tell me about where they were born and where they grew up.

MW: Okay. My mother was born on Bainbridge, her parents and two sets of grandparents had sort of a compound in Rolling Bay around the turn of the century, and she was born, most of her siblings were born on the island as well. They didn't live here full time. My grandfather did something in wheat in Eastern Washington, I've never been quite clear what that was. So they summered here, and my mother actually graduated from Roosevelt High School, but she grew up here. And there is actually a little road named after my grandma here on the island. And all of her siblings settled on the island, so growing up it was great. All the aunts and uncles and cousins, and Christmas was a really fun time.

DG: And what's your... your maiden name is?

MW: Woodward.

DG: Woodward, and...

MW: Pratt.

DG: And Pratt's your married name. So what's your grandmother's name?

MW: Logg, L-O-G-G. It's a little short road.

DG: And how about your father?

MW: My father was born and grew up in Seattle. His parents came from Vermont. And actually, his... let's see, his grandfather was, I guess, a conductor on the Underground Railroad, so he was involved in that, in the mid-nineteenth century he was doing that. And his father came out to be a physician in Seattle, and my grandmother, who I always thought was very proper, and just when I learned this, couldn't imagine, but she actually got on, as an engaged woman, got on a train and came all the way out to Washington. It was a state by that time, but it was, people had images of being the wild west. I can't imagine her doing that, but maybe she changed over the years. And they were married in Seattle and lived there the whole life, and he graduated from Broadway High School, which is no more. Both my parents went to the University of Washington. My mother was graduated in what was then called Oriental Studies, and she studied with Dr. Herbert Gowen, is fluent in Japanese, reading and writing Japanese, and graduated with honors. My father wasn't such a good student, but he was in pre-med, I think, trying to please his father maybe, because he always had an interest in journalism from high school on, he was always involved in the paper, or at the university he was involved in the paper as well. Actually volunteered as a reporter, worked without pay for the Seattle Times for a while after graduation. And then I've never talked to them independently as to why they ended up there, but they actually met in Juneau, Alaska. My mother was teaching school, and my father was working for the Juneau Empire or something like that. He was working for the newspaper and a radio station there and that's how they met. They came back to Seattle and got married and stayed.

DG: And when did they come to Bainbridge Island?

MW: They came... let's see, they were married in '35, they came about that time. And my father commuted to the Seattle Times for a while, Mother was a teacher at Bainbridge High School. And I've talked with a number of people over the last few months who had her as a teacher, and it's interesting to hear how they describe her and what she did. So she was working at the high school and he was commuting to the Seattle Times. And in, I think, 1940, they purchased the Review with another couple. And the other couple decided after about a year that they really didn't want to do that, and so they bought them out. And it was just in 1941, in the fall of '41 that they were doing it full time. He quit at the Seattle Times and so it was in the fall of '41 that they really committed themselves to the Review as their, what they were going to do. But it was a small town paper, I don't know if you've read any of the back issues, but it's just a kick to read. "Jimmy Smith is recovering from pneumonia and really wants to thank people for all the cards." "There was a very nice tea that Mrs. James Jones" -- women never had first names -- it was just fun to read, very gossipy. When they bought it, they made some changes.

DG: How long had the Review been in existence before they bought it, do you know?

MW: 1925 I think is when it started. And a man and a woman owned it and he died, Mr. Niemeyer died, and she was continuing it but she was getting older and was wanting to retire, so it was an easy move for her to shift it over to somebody else. But they didn't know -- I mean, they didn't have any background in running a newspaper.

DG: The previous owners?

MW: No, my parents. They, my father had experience in reporting and some editing with college and high school, but not as a business. They really were neophytes.

DG: But it was a fairly well-established newspaper when they purchased it.

MW: Right, yeah.

DG: I'm curious -- well, tell me, to back up, you mentioned people talked about what it was like to have your mom as a teacher. Share some of those stories.

MW: Oh. [Laughs] Let's see. Kay Nakao said she was a lovely lady with her hair in a French roll, she remembered that. And others I asked, "Was she strict?" "Oh, no, she was very nice, very nice." Very general comments, but they seemed to... another person said that she was one that you looked up to. She was interested in students and would take the time, but she was one that you looked up to.

DG: And did your mom continue teaching while your dad ran the paper?

MW: No. They both, they both stopped doing their other jobs and committed full time. Of course, at this time, they also had an infant child. Their daughter turned two in March of '42.

DG: And do you know how they split up the work or what type of things they did?

MW: I don't think my mother ran the press, but I think she did just about everything else. And it was so different from what it is now, the production of the paper. To get a line of type, they had to sit at this big linotype machine that always scared me growing up. It was big and there was this melting, pig iron that was melting lead, and it was hot and steamy and dirty, but that's how you set the type. And so they both operated that, and they both set up with... I have some actual type here, I don't know if you want to see it now. But they all mocked up the pages and they proofread. Mother did most of the bills, I think, kept that end up. And actual printing of the paper was one person stood on a raised platform, this huge drum of a press and had to hand flip each page which turned out to be four pages, but had to hand flip each one into the... and then they'd get stuck and they'd have to stop. That was hard, it was hard work keeping the machines going.

DG: And did they do the writing as well?

MW: Oh, yes, they wrote everything. And initially, of course, they had a very... didn't have much of a staff. Later, Aunt Eve and Uncle Fred, my mother's sister and her husband joined them and were involved.

[Interruption]

DG: And so who... so now it's a family affair, and aunt and uncle are there. And do you know other employees that eventually were hired on?

MW: Well, the only other one -- well, there were... the only other one that I'm really aware of at that time was Paul Ohtaki, who was a student at the high school, who came in, I think he was a senior. He came in after press night and cleaned up the mess, and he was sort of their janitor. Mother would talk about how he was such a pleasant person to have there because he was, he was so happy he would whistle all the time, whistle the "Stars and Stripes" and marches like that.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.