<Begin Segment 6>

AL: What can you tell us about Miss Stuart's background? Give us her full name and what, what all you know about her.

AS: It's Wilma, W-I-L-M-A, and then C, stands for Clark, and then Stuart, S-T-U-A-R-T. She was a schoolteacher for many years and she lived, she took care of her elderly mother. And then she brought in, took in foster kids. And she had a heart for the Japanese people 'cause she would visit the sick people in the county, in the ward. And she stored some of their furniture in her garage when they went to camp. So, she was very strict. She had to be because she had all these kids with her and she had to be accountable for them. So she was really strict with us and didn't allow us to go to other people's homes.

AL: Do you know about what year she was born?

AS: She was born in 1900. December the fourth, 1900.

AL: Okay. So she would have been in her mid-forties?

AS: Correct. Yeah, she would have been in '45.

AL: Was she married?

AS: No, she never married.

AL: Okay. And how many, how many foster kids did she have when you went to live with her?

AS: Seven. [Laughs]

AL: Do you know when and why she started taking in foster kids?

AS: Well, probably... I'm not too sure why she took 'em in except that she felt sorry for these kids 'cause a lot of them, their parents abandoned them. The mother couldn't take care of 'em so the county asked her to, to be a foster mother. And she, of course, she could not adopt any of them because in those days they did not allow unmarried people to adopt kids.

AL: Do you think she would have adopted if she could have?

AS: She would have, yes. Not all seven of us, but she would have adopted probably myself.

AL: What do you recall about the other kids? Boys, girls, ages?

AS: All girls. And I remember one was a blonde and one had red hair and freckles. One was Hispanic, and Celeste and, and some of the others were like Hawaiian, different mixtures.

AL: And what ages, what age range were the other children?

AS: They were from like ages twelve, some of 'em were fourteen, fourteen down to us which was three years old. I was the youngest.

AL: Okay. So, but in 1945 you would be six.

AS: Yes.

AL: Right. Okay.

AS: Six and a half, uh-huh.

AL: Six and a half years old. Do you remember any of the other children's names or what became of them?

AS: Marlene was the oldest, the blonde. And I believe... they had parents too but for some reason they couldn't take care of 'em. They, I think she went to live with her mother and there was another one, Viviane, well, she was killed in a car accident. And then, and then there was one, Patricia, red hair and freckles, I still communicate with her once in a while. She lives like in Escondido. And then Terry was the younger one, too, and I still communicated with her. She lives in Huntington Beach. We exchange Christmas cards.

AL: And I know from your other interview that you lived with Miss Stuart through the rest of your childhood. Did those other children stay there or did they go back to their families? Do you recall?

AS: Most of 'em went back to their families. Celeste went to live with a, several foster children, with the families that she mentions.

AL: Okay.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.