Profile: Betty Shoemaker
I’ve never been traditional in the way I live. I’ve always been sort of on the edge, in a certain sense of the word. So when people say ‘Oh yeah, I know how you must feel …’, I tell them ‘you know what it was like to be 30, ‘cause you’ve been 30 before. But you don’t know what it’s like to be 82.’ |
Herstory description:
Subject: Betty Shoemaker
Date of Birth: 1919 Place of Birth: New Jersey Age at Interview: 83 Death: 2002 Date of Interview: January 2001 Interviewer: Arden Eversmeyer Place of Interview: Santa Barbara, CA Transcriber: Maryellen Lex Length of Transcript: original, 50 pages; OCR text, 44 pages; ~ 12,400 word; lots of blanks throughout the transcript Contract: Unconditional; contract with OLOC Contract Dated: 01/08/2001 Support documents: 19 pages; copies of photos, certificates, emails, poems Abstract: Raised during the depression in a very strict household where physical abuse was a given, Betty had a hard start in life. Her interest in girls was very clear by the time she was in high school. After graduation, she took one of the few jobs available to woman – she worked as a telephone operator. Betty worked her way through college and at one point, ended up briefly married a gay man. She had one child, a daughter with breathing problems, and moved west for a better climate. Late in her life, Betty owned and operated a women's bookstore in California. She remained active as she aged, starting a new relationship in her early 70s. She was active in OLOC and served on their Steering Committee. |
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