Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Elaine Clary Stanley Interview
Narrators: Elaine Clary Stanley
Interviewer: Richard Potashin
Location: Independence, California
Date: August 21, 2010
Densho ID: denshovh-selaine-01-0001

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RP: This is an oral history for the Manzanar National Historic Site. This afternoon we're talking with Elaine Stanley. Our interview is taking place in the library of the Manzanar National Historic Site office. The date of the interview is August 21, 2010. Our videographer is Kirk Peterson, interviewer is Richard Postashin. And Elaine will be sharing some of her experiences as a physical education teacher here at Manzanar between 1943 and 1944. Our interview will be archived in the Park's library and, Elaine, do I have permission to go ahead and conduct our interview?

ES: Yes, you surely do.

RP: Thank you so much.

KP: Can you mention the other person in the room please?

RP: Oh yes, with us also today for the interview is Elaine's daughter Mary.

ES: My youngest daughter.

RP: Youngest daughter, okay. And thank you both for coming down today.

ES: We're happy to be here.

RP: We're going to talk a little bit about your family history, first of all yourself. When were you born and what year?

ES: I was born in April 5, 1920, in a little town called Union Town, Kansas.

RP: And how little was Union Town?

ES: I don't think there were more than two or three hundred people in the town. It must have been a farming town.

RP: And do you recall what your father did?

ES: My father was a barber who also liked to play baseball and he was a great pool shark.

RP: And what was his name?

ES: Earl Clary.

RP: And can you give us a little background on his ethnicity? Where did his family hail from?

ES: Well, I believe the Clarys came from Illinois, I don't know what year, and settled there in Kansas. I believe my grandfather was one of about eight children.

RP: And your mother, her name?

ES: My mother was Francis Clary, her maiden name was Blaha, Francis Blaha, and she was born in... at that time it would have been Moravia. After World War I it became Czechoslovakia and she came over here as a baby and she was born in 1891.

RP: What can you tell us about your mom?

ES: Well, my mother taught her family how to speak English and she was taught by a little playmate when she was about four years old. Went to school there in East Jordan, Michigan, and went onto normal school, and then taught in Michigan and spent her summers as a waitress at some of the hotels in Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park. And it was while she was there she met my dad who had homesteaded in Montana but lost his homestead because I don't think he could really hardly pound a nail. He was a barber not a carpenter. So after they were married after World War I he had been drafted and had spent his time as a litter bearer in France. He came back then to Montana and they were married in 1919 and moved to Union Town, Kansas.

RP: And you were the first child?

ES: I'm the only child.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright &copy; 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.