Interview of Laura Lutes Waters on her experience with American Red Cross during WWI Female 1: This is, this Laura Waters, who went overseas during World War I. [00:12] Could you tell me… Laura Waters: [inaudible 00:14] Female 1: [00:15] Can you tell me why you went overseas and with whom? Laura Waters: Because, why I went? Because my brother was a so-, soldier over there. I had argued him into going and got him, uh, into the marines. And then we came here to Washington to, when we knew he was going overseas and, so, [inaudible 00:40]. I gotta keep on talkin,’ don’t I? Female 1: [00:48] How did you happen to go? Laura Waters: [inaudible 00:51] Female 1: With the hospital. Laura Waters: When I went to work in Columbia Hospital? Female 1: [00:56] Yeah. Laura Waters: I don’t have to tell the funny part of the story, or should I? Female 1: [00:59] Oh, anything, sure! Laura Waters: Really? Female 1: [1:00] Sure! Sure, tell it. Laura Waters: I went to Red Cross to find out how I could jo-, uh, how I could get overseas. They introduced me to the employment room or whoever, or wherever they were doing volunteers. I said yes, I could volunteer. My father was sitting outside when I did it. [inaudible 1:18] and there was nothing but a city of mud down there, you know? So we couldn’t even stay anywhere near it, so we drove back to stay at the hotel here in Washington. So, when I went to the Red Cross, I found my brother was going to go over shortly, you know, within a week after that. And [inaudible 1:39] when she talked to me. She said, “Well, if you want to be a nurse,” she said, “the best way for you to be one is where you can go.” She said, “They are taking girls who have had some nurse’s training and the best thing is to go to the Foundation [inaudible 1:54] because that was what you would need if you went overseas in any, in a nursing capacity.” So, she said, “Columbia Hospital, and you can go there and train and then maybe whenever they’re calling for aides then [someone to go with, we’d approve of your going.” “We would,” meaning the, uh, whole establishment would. Well, I did that and got in [inaudible 2:21], which would be around July. [inaudible 2:25] early July, I guess, at that time. Because my brother went over later in the month and, uh, then we never got to see him again after that time we went down in that sea of mud and saw him. He went over. Now, from there on, I came out and told my father, I said, “Well, I really need to go now into nursing [inaudible 2:52] hospital and train to go.” Well, he didn’t like the idea, of course, but still, what could he do about it? He had brought me to see my brother and he was, that’s all he had was my, my brother and me. My mother had already died. So, I went in training and, uh, when it came time that I thought I should go overseas, Miss [inaudible 3:20] said no, didn’t think I should but she, when I went down to the Red Cross and saw her, she said, “Well, you shouldn’t go in.” And I said, “Why?” She said, uh, it’s illogic-, illogical for every nurse who’s trained a few months or whatever it may be to go overseas. Well, this was in July, [inaudible 3:44] that was in July [inaudible 3:47]. And so I went in Columbia Hospital because I said, I was glad to get in, I said I’ll play it from here then, [trying to see where this girl’s name and wind up in Pennsylvania 4:56] [inaudible 4:02] Female 1: [4:04] Uh-huh. Laura Waters: Because they didn’t, [they did make me the head of it 4:09], to the point of where when the [inaudible 4:16]. Female 1: [4:17] Yeah. Laura Waters: After saying goodbye to my father, I, my home was the hospital. Just like I have no home now. Female 2: [4:27] How long was it before you went overseas? Laura Waters: Hm? Female 2: [4:31] How long before you went overseas? Laura Waters: So, I went in training as a [probation 4:37] [inaudible 4:38] and, uh, in those days, they trained us in first aid to work in the, with the colored ward. When I came up north, I didn’t even know any colored people and I thought I was [inaudible: 4:56] but I got in and got to learn all the little tricks that you have to learn, not only with white people, or go to a college and learn it out of a book if you can. [laughter] That’s what they’re doing now, it seems. Female: [laughter] Laura Waters: Everybody [inaudible 5:12]. [inaudible 5:14] throwing the bedpan out [to us 5:16] [inaudible 5:17]. And I had passed the tests on the, that they, uh [inaudible 5:27] what they call 1st grade, you might say. Female 1: [5:32] Mm-hm. Laura Waters: And then, I was in the 2nd and I was up on the 2nd floor or 3rd floor and [inaudible 5:40] and got to even take care of white babies, that was part of it, too. And so, I was still training in the hospital. That’s all I knew; I had to have some nurse’s training. And then, I, I went to [Middleton 6:04] to the Red Cross to see if I could go in as a nurse. Female 1: [6:06] Mm-hm Laura Waters: I’d been there about a year and she said, “No, they won’t take training, they won’t take training, um, nurses out of training now because we’re depleting the hospitals everyplace.” Everybody wanted to go overseas. They were just mad to go to war. And, I felt really badly about that. So, I did ask a question or two that made her kind of angry at me, so she said no, that she would not approve of me. If I quit and did something else and then went over, she would not approve of it. So I knew then I just had to do something else, so, I quit, and I went to work down in the government. I passed the government exam and went to work. I became [laughter] head of the, of the, uh, office, of the library for the war paper down in the old [war trade board 7:04] building. The board said yes [inaudible 7:07]. Female 1: [7:13] Mm-hm. Laura Waters: And, uh, I worked in that library and then I got unhappy about it because I wasn’t getting anywhere. I had to do something else, so, when I found I couldn’t, I said, “Well, I’ll go to New York [inaudible 7:28] here anymore and I’ll go up to New York. I went to New York cold, you might say, [inaudible 7:33]. I walked into the Red Cross and, into the YMCA, rather, because one of those 4 girls had gone over and her father [inaudible 7:45]. I really should have gone through her father’s help. And then, so, I didn’t know what she went over as but I knew she went to war. I was going to tell you her name, but it slips me this minute. It’ll come to me in just a minute, rather. [inaudible 8:07] [laughter] Sorry. Female 1: [8:11] It doesn’t matter about her name. Laura Waters: Hm? Female 1: [8:13] It doesn’t matter about her name, just go ahead. Laura Waters: Oh, I see. Wait now, just a minute. Female 1: [8:20] You went to Red Cross in New York? Laura Waters: Mm-hm. I was living [inaudible 8:24] YMCA. Female 1: [8:26] Oh yeah. Laura Waters: And the YMCA said, “Well, they would take you over as a canteen worker,” but with a story like that so I told’m why I wanted to be a nurse, but they wouldn’t let me. Female 1: [8:39] Mm. Laura Waters: And so this girl, the woman by the name of Johnson, was the one that the Red Cross, I believe it was, because she said – this woman that I was talking to was with the, uh, YMCA. And she said, “Well, after nurse’s training, if you’ve had a year’s training, you should go over. You should go with the Red Cross – it’s nurses they need! They can get canteen workers around pretty well [inaudible 9:07] taking a month because, after all, it didn’t cost’m anything except just eating and sleeping, as you might say. Female 1: Mm. Mm. Laura Waters: So, I, uh, the, the woman who was giving interviews at the YMCA said, “Well, if you had as much training as that, I’d like to have you wherever it would be [inaudible 9:33], I want to call the Red Cross.” So, she did. She called the Red Cross and then said to tell her a little bit about me and they said, yes, come ov-, send me over. So I went over and this woman interviewed me and she said, “If your story is true, if that’s the only reason that the Red Cross won’t take you from Washington, why, I think we can take you here, from here.” Female 1: [9:58] Mm-hm. Laura Waters: She said, “If you’re telling me the truth.” She picked up the telephone and she dialed and she called Columbia Hospital. I was scared to death! I was afraid they get very negative [inaudible 10:06]. And asked her [inaudible 10:09] yet. They said, “No, we’d like to know something about her record because she was in here applying for a position to go overseas,” and said, “We just want to find out what her record was down there. They said, “Her record was all right.” “What was her record to work?” “Her work was A1. Well, why? What happened?” Well, there was a mix-up with the, the real superintendent of the, of the Columbia Hospital. They want volunteer work at the Red Cross and [inaudible 10:43] story is true. They wouldn’t let her go because she’s a nurse out of training because she voluntarily [gave up 10:53].” And she said, “That’s true, [inaudible 10:56] disrupting Ms. [inaudible 10:57],” the name of the woman who got, had that. And, yes, it was true that I was disruptive. Everybody wanted to quit and go to France. [laughter] So, anyway, we headed into the Red Cross if that was the case, thank you. [inaudible 11:16].” “You can go over with them on the next assignment.” And the next assignment was in about 2 or 3 weeks. And so, I enlisted. I had to, uh, be medically examined again by a doctor in New York, though, and he sent me down [laughter] to a hospital [inaudible 11:39] big hospital down there, that great big hospital down [inaudible 11:45]. Female 1: [11:48] Washington General? Washington General? Laura Waters: No, no. Female 1: [11:51] Walter Reed? Laura Waters: Who? Female 1: [11:52] Walter Reed. Laura Waters: Maybe. I don’t know, [inaudible 11:54]. I was examined at this particular hospital, which everybody went to those days, you see? Female 1: [12:05] Mm-hm. Laura Waters: And everybody, an older person, would all remember that, too. Female 1: [12:09] Okay. Laura Waters: And then, so, in the meantime, I was taking French lessons and then within a week or two, I was on my way to France. My father had come from down in Kingsport, Tennessee. And the other thing that I meant to tell you about, the doctor, when he was going to examine me, I said [laughter], “If you found any infection that would be in the urine, why, it’s because I just had gotten out of bed having flu. They didn’t call it flu those days – what did they call it? Female 1: [12:49] Mm. Cold? Pneumonia? Laura Waters: Hm? Female 1: [12:54] Oh, it doesn’t matter. Laura Waters: [inaudible 12:56] I, I even told the doctor that so, he knew it. Well, I went overseas and, when you’re overseas, you get all [inaudible 13:07] and we got in the boat. The boat was a [Candidate 13:18], the name of the ship, and we went out that night. We, no one on the sh-, [inaudible 13:28] white troops and white officers and black troops and, uh, after, uh, they had [inaudible [13:36] on the river. We, around the upper deck, we girls went down and saw all of these colored people and beautiful singing and all that sort of thing. Female 1: [13:45] Mm-hm. Laura Waters: It was a wonderful outgoing. In the morning, we woke up and were all back, tied up at the dock. Female 1: [13:54] Why? Laura Waters: Well, they found out [inaudible 13:56] all sorts of stories. One said there was a bomb that they’d found… Female 1: [14:03] Mm. Laura Waters: … [inaudible 14:04] wasn’t going [inaudible 14:06] got off the ship while we girls walked across the pier, got off the pier, [throat clearing] and got on the [inaudible 14:17]. And then, they found out later on that, they never did find out the truth. Whatever they said it was, it’s true that they, that they were afraid to send a small number of white girls… Female 1: [14:35] Mm. Laura Waters: …over on a ship. Female 1: [14:37] Is that right? Laura Waters: Yep, yep. Oh yeah. And we were out just about a day and a half and, a Miss, that was an Edith Mary, Edith Mary, I think was her name, a Boston girl from up in New England, was given charge of us. She was the head Red Cross girl. [inaudible 15:02] she did all this [other story, too 15:04]. She got seasick the first day out and so when the doctor sent downstairs for help from nurses, there were no nurses. So, he said, the doctor [to see what the women were going to do 15:17] and Miss Edith Mary was in her mood war [laughter], as you might say, on the ship [inaudible 15:29], which is a good-sized ship, a big one, and there was a, but I don’t think there were any other troops, no other women troops [inaudible 15:41] … Female 1: [15:41] Oh. Laura Waters: …but there were all kinds of, uh, all men because all the white officers… Female 1: [15:47] Uh-huh. Laura Waters: We had some colored people, but we didn’t have the troops, all of them. Female 1: [15:50] Yeah. Laura Waters: And then we were out the second or third day, a slow crossing, the second or third day. We got there, and Miss Mary said to me, she said, would I go up and see what the doctor wanted. And I did. And, of course, the doctor began cussing. An American cuss, using American cuss words, talking about but he was out of the army and sending a bunch of women, all supposed to be, not a woman, not a nurse among the whole crowd and I said [inaudible 16:27], I said I had had some training. How much did I have? I said, “A year or so,” and when he said, “You got a uniform?” and said yes, he said, “Put it on!” [laughter] [inaudible 1639] but a girl from up in the, in the, [inaudible 16:45], Virginia, but anyway, [inaudible 17:00] was the, was the other girl, I, because she had had some training, but not enough to amount to anything, and I was the only one that had had nurse’s, any kind of nurse’s, the others were all canteen who were ordered to do whatever work they were supposed to do. Female 1: [17:13] Mm-hm, in the canteen. Laura Waters: And, uh, so when [inaudible 17:22] the next day off or the second day after that, we two found ourselves out in the hospital of the ship and we worked in the hospital and, by the time they got overseas, every birth was given in the hospital and we two girls, our meals were served [inaudible 17:39] all the way over. The two of us. I’ll never forget that [inaudible 17:46] of the trip. Female 1: [17:48] No. Laura Waters: [Get it off of me, please 17:53]. Female 1: Laura Lutes Waters, born in Minneapol-, Minnesota, was in World War I. She was loved by both the D.C. and the Tampa Bay Women's Overseas Service League Units. She died on 18 June 1983, in her third, uh, 93rd year. [throat clearing] This oral record was made with difficulty due to her shortness of breath and other ailments. It was never completed because of her poor condition and ensuing death. However, Laura’s life and accomplishments were so outstanding that even this partial history becomes precious. After a year’s nursing training in Washington, D.C., in 1917, Laura went to France with the American Red Cross, serving in hospitals and canteens. She recalled handing out bowls of soup to the wounded in dugouts, helping her crutch-club boys near Bordeaux, and later distributing bread to war refugees. On her return from Europe, Laura established an import business in New York City. In 1929, she returned to D.C., and founded the Waters Travel Service, which she operated until she sold it in 1964. It still carries her name. A lengthy article appearing in the Washington Star in 1938 named Laura as the only woman to own and operate a travel bureau in the capitol and added that Mrs. William Howard Taft was her first important customer. She had conducted her first tour to Europe in 1929. Known as the lady with the little red hat, she always included one in her travel wardrobe so that her clients would be able to follow her. In 1930, she took an 18-car train to carry, uh, about 4,000 of her tourist group to the Century of Progress International Exposition, the Chicago World’s Fair. She later took groups to the coronation of Britain’s King George and Elizabeth, [too 21:34]. [throat clearing] Laura Lutes was the first white child to enter Alaska when taken there by her family in 1898, at the peak of the gold rush. Other firsts included: she was the first woman elected a director of the American Society of Travel Agents. She also set a first in 1950, when she became the first American woman to preside over a national travel convention in her capacity as chairwoman of the first ASTA Washington Conference (that’s American Society of Travel Agents). A magazine writer, lecturer, and active clubwoman, Laura was a former member of the, uh, president of the Washington Chapter of the Business and Professional Women’s Club. Also, she was a founding member and vice president of the Soroptimist Club and the Women’s City Club. For years, she was active in the Women's Overseas Service League. She was an early member of the Society of Women Geographers and formed the Wanderlust Club. Laura was the first president of the National Parks Club of America and she also conducted lectures and tours throughout properties of the National Park Service. Laura was decorated by the President of Mexico in 1949. She was presented with a plaque in Paris in 1951 for “outstanding contributions to travel.” Indeed, she was noted throughout Europe for her efforts to help rebuild Europe through tourism after World War II. [throat clearing] Years later, Laura continued to conduct periodic pilgrimages to Alaska, where she had gone as a child. [throat clearing] Typical of her sense of humor and imagination is the ending statement in her travel brochure for the travel service that she operated. It was as follows: “1998 – The first 100 years are the hardest. Laura Waters organizes and conducts, personally, her first tour to the rocket to the moon, by the rocket to the moon.” A close friend of hers writes, “Countless people scattered throughout the world who shared Laura’s close memories with her and to whom she had extended a helping hand or whose lives she touched through kindness, generosity, or friendship – all of us who were Laura Waters’ fans were deeply enriched by knowing her and sharing her friendship. Even after death, Laura wanted to be able to say thank you to those who kept in touch, to those whose friendship meant so much to her, to those who needed a lift. Laura was rich in memories and friends. She had an instant recall for people, places, and events, and loved to share them with others. Those of us who loved her will never forget her. Our lives are richer for having known her. /ab