Kuhner, Helen Culloty
- Object Type
- Oral history
- Object ID
- 15324
- Date
- December 26 2006
- Description
- Helen Kuhner (1918- ) grew up in Brooklyn in the Prospect Heights neighborhood. She lived in North Carolina working as a secretary at Fort Bragg when her husband went into service. After he shipped out, she came to live in Brooklyn with her mother and began working at the Brooklyn Navy Yard as a stenographer. Kuhner left the Navy Yard when her husband returned. The family moved to Staten Island and then Long Island. Kuhner now lives in Florida and has five grandchildren and six great grandchildren. In her interview, Helen Kuhner (1918- ) discusses her work as a stenographer at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and life as a mother during WWII while her husband was at war. She talks about interactions between men and women working at the Yard and how she dealt with the whistles and attention from the men. Kuhner tells a story about staying home sick and remembers someone from the Navy Yard coming to check and make sure she was at home. She also remembers a woman who would check the bathroom stalls to make sure workers were not smoking or resting while on the job. Her interview brings up working conditions for women, her Irish-American background, and being a working mother.
- Related Collection
- Brooklyn Navy Yard Oral History Project
- Subjects
- Labor and Yard Workers, Women
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