Oral History Interview with Joy Taylor, August 16, 2005

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Joy (Cheatham) Taylor. Taylor begins with a summary of her siblings and provides details about an older brother who served in the Navy during World War II aboard the USS Saratoga (CV-3). Taylor reflects on rationing items like gasoline. She also mentions corresponding with her two older brothers in the Navy. Taylor's father died in 1943 and she and her mother went to live on the farm with Taylor's grandparents in Coryell County, Texas. She recalls several aspects of farm living during World War II. Taylor also mentions housing for soldiers near Fort Hood, Texas as well as gardening and canning vegetables. She talks about her having to wear homemade clothes made from feed sacks, which she disliked. Taylor recalls the end of the war and ringing the church bell all night in town. After the war, she helped her brother run a cafe in Abilene before she met her husband, Paul Taylor, and got married