Description
Mary Ann Probert was born in Milan, Italy in 1921 and moved to the coal mining town of Benld, Illinois with her parents when she was five months old. She worked for the WPA before moving to Richmond, California in 1941 and taking a factory job making railway torpedoes for Chemurgic. After an explosion at the Chemurgic plant, Probert left the company and went to work as an expediter at the shipyards in Richmond. In this interview, Probert discusses her childhood in a mining town during the Depression, working at the Richmond shipyards, having to prove her citizenship, attitudes toward Italians and Japanese Americans during the war, thoughts on war in Iraq, working after the war, healthcare, and religion.