<Begin Segment 12>

TI: Let's talk about the relationship between you and Mrs. Duveneck because in the book she talks very fondly about you, "Jeanie," is, she used in the book and how impressed she was with you as this very cute little girl. What was the relationship like between you and her?

JG: It was very good, when my... she took me out to gather eggs, she in the morning when I was reluctant to eat oatmeal she would say things like, "Oh, there's a great picture at the bottom of the bowl, you should eat more and see what the picture is." [Laughs] She took me to, and my mother... maybe I've told you this I don't know if I have but... to Los Altos School to the PTA meeting before school started and she said, "This is June, my mother whose husband is in Italy now fighting for the Americans, who's fighting just like your husband. And her daughter, Jean, Jeanie, is going to be coming to Los Altos School." There was only elementary school in Las Altos at that time. "And we want her transition to be a good one." So that's how our relationship was. She was always looking out for me. And the other thing is when my mother went back to the house, to open the house in Oakland and to start working for the Board of Education again, there was a period of three months where my aunt took care of me but Mrs. D was the one who read to me in the evening and put me to bed. And she read stories like "Jack the Giant Killer" and the tailor who got, you know, what was it seven and one? [Laughs] Yeah, she was really nice to me. I felt so comfortable with her when she asked me to sweep the front porch for a nickel I told her no. I don't think if I were afraid of her I would have said no.

TI: Did she ever talk about social justice issues with you?

JG: No, she just did it.

TI: So really by example, not by just talking about it?

JG: She never talked about it, she just did it. I mean, there were people visiting, there were conversations... could you imagine being privy to the conversations at mealtime?

TI: How would she react when she saw injustice? I mean, if maybe something on the street or just if someone maybe said a racist comment or anything, how would she react to something like that?

JG: I don't know. I don't know. I would figure out that she would... what she did was she tried to... what I saw that she did was she would do things like the camps, she would try to... it's like healthcare, like the idea that you will take care of it before it develops. She would try to work at it on the level of not saying you're wrong but trying to get in there... it's just like with the Japanese there. She's get in there and help the people who were suffering and then try to get the mindset started early with young children rather than going in from the other side. She'd start as a pre-learning nurturing kind of tact.

TI: So she was very thoughtful in that way because even when you think about going to the PTA meeting before school started, thinking if she did these steps beforehand it would prevent things later on down the road that... so she had a lot of foresight in that way.

JG: Exactly. And she would see things that were wrong and she would help the people who were going through that. And like the planning for the boycotts, she provided that place so it could be planned.

TI: So it wouldn't be done in a really haphazard way but to actually give them the time and the space to do that. That's interesting.

JG I don't think it was haphazard.

TI: No, to prevent that she would give them the planning time.

JG: Because could you imagine like she saw, let's say here's a problem, the American Indians are having this problem. She goes and visits, sees the conditions, then tries to say okay what can we do to help them? So we can empower them by maybe the Indian council, she was nurturing that Indian council early -- did you read that in the book?

SF: No.

JG: You'll just have to read it again. [Laughs]

SF: I will.

JG: But I mean that's the way she did it.

TI: And how was she personality-wise? How would you describe her in terms of personality?

JG: Well, I talked to David Duveneck and he said, "She's not that way with me." [Laughs] She was normal. She was a doer and Frank Duveneck, her husband, was a very kind, supportive person who encouraged and really helped the wife.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.