Cora Lee Johnson, Springville, Utah: an interview by Becky B. Lloyd, March 6, 2002: Saving the legacy tape no. 433 and 434

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CORA LEE JOHNSON MARCH 6, 2002 COR: Uh-huh. But their ties were longer and their suits had been tailored. But anyway, they were there with the Rudy Vallee band. And Rudy Vallee at that time was married to the movie actress Jane Greer. So we'd all just line up in the chow line and eat with the crew and then they'd bring us back at night. That went on for about two, two­and- a-half weeks. So we never got in on the cleaning. But one day the roster said they were bringing the SPARs in, right in at that time. Sixteen SPARs was to go to San Diego, California. And my name was on that list. I had been assigned to the post office, so see my records followed me. And when I got there I had relieved a man, his name was Simmons, he was the postmaster there. And I had relieved him for sea duty. And I was the first girl to go on that base that relieved a man for sea duty. So you can imagine they were pretty skeptical with these sixteen SPARs in there. At that time, we lived out on Park and University and it was a residential hotel there, it was the Embassy Hotel. Just four blocks from the San Diego park zoo, the big zoo? BEC: Uh-huh. COR: We used to ride bicycles down there with the huaraches and all. That's where it was, right on the intersection of Park and University and they would bus us into San Diego, into my base. So I went in and there was two men working in that post office and one of them was a banker from Los Angeles and the other one was a mail carrier, again, out of St. Louis. Ray Adams was his name. He had a beautiful tenor singing voice. So he was secure and I came in and I passed out mail, memorized the names, new ones coming in, memorized the names, memorize the first initial first and then the name. Then Lieutenant Cannon would come in, he was on that base, and he would come in and he would hold an audit every month or three or four weeks and Ray 36