Mary Lue McCune - An Eventful Year

(This is part 3 in a series. Be sure to read part 1 and part 2.)

Mary Lue taught kindergarten from the fall of 1945 until the spring of 1946. As much as she enjoyed her teaching job, she wanted to try something new. “I yearned for a little adventure, to break out,” she later reflected. She had recently begun to date a young man named Ralph Collett and things had gotten serious between them. However, Mary Lue was unsure about things, and felt she needed to “analyze [her] relationship with Ralph and learn independence.” She wrote, “Ralph and I knew that I had to try my wings now or never. Try my wings—that is exactly what I did. I rode out to the airport one day and had an interview with Dale Peck of United Airlines.”

She inquired about a position as an airline stewardess. At that time stewardesses were required to have a college degree and to be unmarried. Having met the requirements and passed several tests, she was hired. She was requested to report to the United Airlines stewardess training in Chicago on Monday, April 15, 1946.

The Sunday evening prior to her departure, Mary Lue attended an LDS youth fireside held by the Bonneville Ward. It was at this gathering that she met Keith McCune, a young man whose family also lived in the Bonneville Ward but who had been away for several years on a mission and in military service in Argentina and Panama respectively. Keith had returned home for a short visit and was to return to Panama a few days later. He recounted the events of that evening:

It was a Sunday evening and the Bonneville Ward in which we lived, both Mary Lue and her family and my parents and their family, was having a fireside that evening. So I said to my sister Elaine, “How about going with me to the fireside and let me look the situation over there.” The fireside was held at the home of Milton Backman, which was a nice home on Yale Avenue, about a half a block West of the Knell place. We sat around the perimeter of their rather large living room as the lesson was presented and across the living room from me was Mary Lue and a friend named Joyce Robinson [Poulson]. After the lesson period was over, when they were preparing the refreshments and everybody was just sitting around gabbing, they saw me sitting alone over there. I think Elaine was over visiting some friends of hers and they said, “Why don’t you come over and talk to us.” So I scooted over and sat down and started talking to them. Something about Mary Lue just really struck me even at that time as I first met her. We talked a while and then had the refreshments. I learned from Mary Lue that she had graduated from the University of Utah in elementary education and she was teaching school but had decided that she wanted something more adventuresome in life. She had applied for a job as a stewardess with the United Airlines and she said, of all things, “I’m leaving this weekend to go to Chicago to go to the airline stewardess school,” and I said, “I’m leaving this weekend to return to Panama.” I think we both talked about how we were going, which was by train.

After the fireside, Elaine and I walked home, we were just around the block. We were walking up the street and it so happens that Mary Lue and her friend Joyce were walking right ahead of us. As we walked up the street, we talked some more and my mother told me later that she could tell when I came home that night that there was really kind of a spark in my feelings and attitudes towards this new girl I had met.

Friday, April 12 was Mary Lue’s last day teaching. She wrote in her journal, “Eventful day! Last day of teaching—first day of a new adventure. The teachers at Emerson gave me a white slip as a going away present. I boarded the train at 5:30 p.m. and Met Bonnie Griffiths. This is my first night in a Pullman Sleeper.”

The next morning she arrived in Denver. Bonnie was the mutual friend of both Mary Lue and of Keith’s sister Elaine and was on her way to Chicago for stewardess training as well. The two arrived in Denver the next morning at 8:30.

Meanwhile, Keith had also departed that Friday evening by train from Salt Lake for Brownsville, Texas, where he would depart for Panama. He stopped to change trains in Denver and while waiting to store his luggage for the layover, he heard a voice behind him say, “Hey, what are you doing in Denver?” “I turned around and it was Mary Lue and her friend,” Keith recalled. “I said to them, ‘Well, I have about an eight hour layover.’ They did too. I said, ‘We might as well go around town together if you like, and we’ll do some sight-seeing,’ and so we did. We spent the day together and did a lot of sight-seeing. I didn’t have camera with me, but Mary Lue had a little box Kodak camera and so we took pictures.”
 In her diary Mary Lue wrote, “Bonnie, Keith and I saw high spots of Denver’s scenery. We visited the museum—saw the Tabor relics and climbed to the dome of the gold-topped Capitol building.”

Keith’s train left at 3:30 that afternoon. They said their goodbyes and exchanged addresses so they could keep in touch. Keith had Mary Lue send him the negatives of the pictures they had taken in Denver and he made several 8x10 prints, which he sent to Mary Lue. Mary Lue and Bonnie boarded the Zephyr bound for Chicago at 4:01 and had dinner on the train before retiring for the night.

Mary Lue arrived at Union Station in Chicago the next morning, April 14, and began her training. The classes continued until May 10 when the final exams were completed. The following selections from her diary offer a glimpse into her activities during that busy month:

April 14: Arrived in the big city—Union Station. Took car along lake to Southmoor hotel. Muriel, Mary, Bonnie and I have a cozy little 2x4. Bonnie’s brother Dick came to hotel. Mr. Decker (United Airlines Rep.) talked to us on the mezzanine. Went into town to dinner on Illinois Central. Saw Frankie Carl and his orchestra at the Hotel Sherman. Back to hotel and bed.

April 15: First day of school at Chicago airport, 7:00am. 70 girls in class from all over U.S. Met Marian in town—ate dinner at Harding’s with Bonnie, Dick, and Bob. Looked for navy blue shoes. Got back to hotel at 10—studied for test.

April 16: Seems as if we have been here a month. Sat in same seat for two days!!! Heaven knows how much longer. Fitted for hats. Another test tomorrow. Egad! We aren’t seeing much of Chicago itself.

April 20: Had our pictures taken for United Airlines. Went to town. Shopped at Marshall Fielding—Drove along Lake Shore—saw place where ’33 Fair had been. Women’s hats are unusually queer in this place.

April 21: Easter. Went to Evanston Ward with Bonnie, Dick, Bob, Marian, Virginia, Lynn. Had Smorgasbord at Bit of Sweden. Walked on Lake Shore—Easter bonnets were a pill. Took a tour on Chicago bus. Saw nothing but Negro section and South Shore. Gee my feet are sore.

April 22: Four more lectures today. It seems more like summer than spring here.

April 23: Not an unusual day—This evening Muriel, Bonnie, and I went bicycle riding in Jackson Park. The sunset was beautiful and the lake was calm—it seemed like we were in another world. We should know our domiciles this week—“keep your pages crossed.”

April 25: Denver here I come! Heaven only knows what the future holds there. Muriel, Bonnie and Mary all stationed in San Francisco. Called the folks.

April 26: Had our suits fitted at Harp Shaffner Marks. Saw inside of C54. Had a miserable test. Saw “Up in Central Park.” It was really something.

April 27: My first mainliner trip at 5:30 to Cleveland.

April 28: Slept until noon. Went to art exhibit. Saw Sigmund Romberg Concert.—a real thrill. Ate dinner at Old Heidelberg Café.

May 3: Tests! Three of the darn things. After school I ate at the famous Palmer House with Jean, Muriel, Virginia and Bonnie. Then we saw “The Day Before Spring” with Irene Manning and Bill Johnson.

May 4: Shopped with Marian to a find a nightgown for Joyce. Met Dick and Bonnie. Ate at the Terrace Room. Went Bowling. Saw Kay Francis and Roger Pryor in Windy Hill. Chicago is almost ready for a blackout. The bright lights of Chicago just aren’t. This coal strike appears desperate.

May 10: Graduation Day! Seneca Hotel—Gardenias, daiquiris, diplomas.

Upon her graduation from training, Mary Lue was assigned to Denver as her base city. The Salt Lake Tribune reported, “A new career in the sky has opened for Miss Mary Lue Knell who recently graduated from Airline stewardess school in Chicago. Miss Knell has been assigned to United Air Lines’ Western division.”

She arrived at the Denver airport early May 13 and received her schedule. Her first on duty flight was to be the following morning. Mary Lue recorded the details of the nightmarish experience in her diary, “8am—first flight. Denver to Salt Lake on a very choppy flight. About 11 sick passengers and myself. I tried to serve a continental breakfast. Almost impossible. A Navy flier knocked over the food trays. Cranberry jelly, eggs, and corn flakes were all over me and the floor.”

Despite that disastrous first flight, Mary Lue enjoyed her work as a stewardess. She was able to fly to Salt Lake frequently to visit with her family. Her assignment to the Denver home base was counted as a blessing because her brother Jim was stationed at Denver’s Fitzsimmons’ Hospital with the army and the two had occasion to visit regularly and, at times, to attend Church together. Jim recalled, “I saw her quite a few times while I was in Denver. One night they had a flight from Denver up to Fort Collins and back and she invited me to go along with her on the flight. So, I went down to the airport with her and flew up and back and was able to look into the cockpit and talk to the pilot.”

Mary Lue looked forward to the time they spent together and one evening after dinner and a long visit, she wrote, “I hated to say goodbye tonight.”

As a stewardess, Mary Lue had the opportunity to travel to many major western American cities (San Francisco, Denver, Portland, etc.) and to mingle with people from all walks of life. She was even invited to dinner by gentlemen passengers, which offers she occasionally accepted. During one flight from Denver to Salt Lake, Mary Lue had a conversation with an elderly woman who was intently observing the southern Wyoming landscape below. The woman said, “The last time I crossed this area I was in a covered wagon.”

While Mary Lue had completed requirements for graduation from the University after summer quarter 1945, the commencement exercises for her class were not held until June 4, 1946. She had arranged to be home for the ceremony but was called away on June 2 on an “emergency flight to Portland. Attending graduation from the University seemed impossible.”

 To her relief, dispatch found her a flight to Salt Lake the following day. However, the lead stewardess on the flight got sick and it appeared as though Mary Lue would have to continue from Salt Lake to Denver. Fortunately, the stewardess recovered and she was able to participate in graduation after all. On the day of the event, Mary Lue recorded, “The day I’ve waited for all my life—graduation. Marie and I got to march and sit together. Dr. Rappard, from Geneva, spoke to 400 graduates. Ralph, Marie, Golden, and I went to Graduation dinner dance—it was good to see everyone.”

Rarely was a stay in Salt Lake complete without a date with Ralph Collett and the two continued to date regularly during the summer. On June 12, they attended her friend Joyce Robinson’s wedding to Bill Poulson and along with several other friends, “found Joyce’s and Bill’s cabin at Utah Motor Park and really fixed it!!!”

 On another occasion, Ralph took the morning off work and they “went looking for nasturtiums.”
 As the weeks passed, Mary Lue’s fondness for Ralph increased. On May 11, she journalized, “Ralph hmmm—he’s nice.” After spending the 4th of July with Ralph at the Tooele Rodeo and Saltair, she wrote, “I’m beginning to think Ralph’s the one.”

Later in the summer, Keith McCune returned to the United States from his military assignment in Panama. He landed in Maryland and drove across country to Salt Lake. Having corresponded with Mary Lue by mail from time to time, he thought he would pay her a surprise visit in Denver along the way but was disappointed to find that she was away on a flight. Upon his return home, he began dating a young lady named Ethel Hogue. Ethel also worked for United Airlines at their offices in the Salt Lake airport. One day, while waiting for Ethel outside her office, Mary Lue walked by in her stewardess uniform. Keith stopped her and they chatted for a moment. He said, “If we’re going to keep bumping into each other, I better find out what your schedule is.” He discovered that she was going to be in town for the weekend. That Saturday, the McCune family had planned a family outing to the picnic area behind Mt. Nebo near Nephi. Keith invited Ethel but Friday night came and she was unable to find someone to work her shift for her. Keith thought of Mary Lue. He later reminisced:

Early Saturday morning, about 8 o’clock I went over to Mary Lue’s house and knocked on the door. I said, “I know it’s kind of early but we’re having a family outing and I was just wondering if Mary Lue got in and if she’d be interested in going with me.” Her mother said, “Well, I don’t know, she just got in about 5:30 this morning from her flight. You’d better let me go check with her. She’s asleep right now.” So, she went and checked with her and came back and said, “Yes, she’d like to go.” So, she got out of bed after a couple of hours rest and we had a great day with the family down there picnicking and so forth. Coming home, I drove her up in front of the house and she said, “Would you might me letting off a couple doors away from my home?” She’d already explained to me she had a date that night with this fellow named Ralph. So, I dropped her off and said goodnight and I went on home.

Keith later learned that Ralph “had a ring for her and that he wanted to get engaged that night” but that she “decided to hold off a little.”

Keith continued to call on Mary Lue that fall and they began to date regularly. They often wondered what the neighbors thought when they saw Keith “pick her up with her little overnight bag and then bring her back a few days later. Ward members and close friends knew she was a stewardess, but there were those who didn't know what was going on.”

 Mary Lue and Ralph drifted apart, as did Keith and Ethel. Eventually Keith and Mary Lue were engaged. Keith reflected, “We got engaged, although she claimed I never did formally ask her to marry me. It was just one of those kind of things we worked in to. She gave me a bad time about that for years. But we were engaged and committed and felt like that was the thing to be. Of course, as we looked back over the way we met each other and how our paths kept crossing, we felt like there was a hand in it that was bringing us together.”

1 Mary Lue McCune, Personal History—1, 5.
2 Mary Lue McCune, Diary 1946, entry for 15 April 1946.
3 Keith N. McCune, Interview—1, 2.
4 Mary Lue McCune, Diary 1946, entry for 12 April 1946.
5 Ibid., entry for 13 April 1946.
6 Keith N. McCune, Interview—1, 2-3.
7 Mary Lue McCune, Diary 1946, entry for 13 April 1946.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid., entries for 14-16, 20-23, 25-28 April and 3, 4, 10 May 1946.
10 Notice in Salt Lake Tribune, qtd. in Mary Lue McCune, Book of Remembrance.
11 Mary Lue McCune, Diary 1946, entry for 14 May 1946.
12 James K. Knell, Interview, 2.
13 Mary Lue McCune, Diary 1946, entry for 15 May 1946.
14 Keith N. McCune, Interview—2, 1.
15 Mary Lue McCune, Diary 1946, entry for 2 June 1946.
16 Ibid., entries for 3, 4 June 1946.
17 Ibid., entry for 12 June 1946.
18 Ibid., entry for 17 May 1946.
19 Ibid., entry for 4 July 1946.
20 Keith N. McCune, Interview—1, 3-4.
21 Ibid.
22 Darcy McBride, Reminiscence, 2.

23 Keith N. McCune, Interview—1, 4.

Mary Lue McCune - Coming of Age

(This is part 2 in a series. Part 1 is here.)

The Knells arrived at their new apartment on Westminster Ave., unloaded their furniture, and began their new life. Mary Lue recorded her impressions, “And so, a new start, a new school. Life in a small town is quite uncomplicated, and arriving in the ‘Big City’ was slightly overwhelming to say the least. I was to start in Irving Jr. High to school, a country girl facing a city’s ways. I couldn’t imagine so many people in one school and I didn’t know one. I found young people were just as willing to get acquainted, and warm and very friendly classmates soon made me feel at home.”1 Jim attended Garfield Elementary School.

Karl began his work at the new Petty Motor location, which was located on the northeast corner of 900 East and 2100 South. The dealership was brand new and state-of-the-art for that time.2 After only three months, the family moved to another apartment at 1624 South 1500 East. Of this home Mary Lue remembered, “Right in front of our house was the smelly street car that took us on its tracks to town for 10 cents—the thing I like about that was I could watch the people. The trains were commonly used to get to resorts—Saltair, Lagoon. We didn’t worry about getting rides anywhere.”3 Jim recalled, “The trolley used to run up and it stopped right at 1700 S. and 1500 E. and we would go out and change the seats around.”4

In 1937, during Mary Lue’s second year of Jr. High, the family finally purchased a home. The house, located at 1660 Yale Avenue, would be the family home for half a century. It was there that Mary Lue and Jim lived the remainder of their youth; there that Karl Knell would eventually pass away; and there that Mary Knell would spend most of the rest of her life. Mary Lue’s room was the back bedroom, located in the southwest corner on the main floor of the house.

Upon the move, she transferred from Irving to Roosevelt Jr. High where she completed her Junior High experience in 1939. During those years, she manifested a typical teenage anxiety over school grades and a general lack of enthusiasm for school. One winter afternoon she remarked, “Rained all day but school was dry as ever.”5 On one occasion she journalized, “Took report cards around. Boy am I scared.”6 To her relief, she discovered her “report card marks were pretty good.”7

She was active in the Church, participating frequently in mutual activities and speaking in church meetings. A journal entry from the time reads, “In Mutual we had a lesson on charm and how to be popular. Boy, how I need it!”8 In addition to school and mutual, Mary Lue babysat for several families in the neighborhood and was paid 10 cents per hour. She also took music lessons every Sunday evening for several years, developing her skill at the piano. Of her talent as a musician, her brother Jim recalled, “Mary Lue played piano very well. I can remember at one time she was playing a beautiful, beautiful piece on the piano. I kept asking her to play it over and over and finally I said I’ll do the dishes for a week if you’ll play that beautiful piece on the piano.”9

During her teenage years, she was very close to her family, particularly her mother and brother. She wrote, “At home I always felt safe in a mother’s love.”10 Jim remarked, “Mary Lue’s relationship with grandma Knell was of the highest order. Their mother-daughter relationship was supreme.”11 Keith remembered that Mary Lue “used to like to talk about her closeness to her mother and her love for her and she’d always refer on how beautiful she was as a younger woman. She used to think she was the most beautiful woman she knew and that was right from her heart too.”12

When Mary Lue’s grandfather Smith became to old to care for himself in Cedar City, he came to live in the Knell’s basement and was cared for by the family.13 Mary Lue commented: “Mary Knell was so good to him. She is a very unselfish person—always glad to give anything she has. I imagine she was this way because of her mother and father’s example.”14

Although they were involved with different groups of friends, Mary Lue and Jim continued to get along remarkably well as siblings. Jim recalled only one confrontation with his older sister. “We were having a little battle and some words flew back and forth. I stood up and took the bottle of chili sauce and poured it on her head. I would have been probably about ten and Mary Lue would have been about thirteen.”15
During her teenage years, her mother worked. “Mary Knell was quite a high spirited wife and when we moved to Salt Lake she decided to go to work at Auerbach’s in the hanky department. She had one check for 13 cents in all the years she worked there because she kept charging things for us to look nice in our school and work.”16

In the autumn of 1939, she began attending East High School. Perhaps the most important development of her high school years, was the formation of a tight knit group of friends that would remain close over the years. “She was the kind of person that made, not just casual friends but deep lasting friends and friendships,” stated Keith. “The kind of friendships that all of us really cherish.”17 Mary Lue remembered:

I had wonderful friends during my East High School days—the best thing to keep me close to the Church. The nucleus of our group was Marie Taylor, Joyce Robinson, E. Ann Stevens, Marian Pyatt, Mary Jean Backman, Jackie Barrett, Marge Marshall, and Ida Marie Hewlett. We shared many experiences together: the non-winning team in P.E., summers at Bear Lake, and first jobs at Kresser’s five and dime store. I worked in stationary and school supplies. Next we all went to ZCMI part time and Saturdays. ZCMI and Auerbach’s were the only large stores in the valley.…As it eventually turned out over half of the group became school teachers.18

Jim recalled an incident that occurred during one of those summers at Bear Lake. “My mother, Grandma Knell, and another lady took this group of young ladies up to Bear Lake and we camped out. I remembered how nervous I was when a group of boys came over and spent time talking to them late into the night and I felt like I had to be some sort of a knight in armor to go out there and rescue the girls from these boys. I’m sure they didn’t enjoy me coming out and disturbing them when they had found some girls but I remember that very well.”19 A few years later that protective little brother would become Student Body President of East High School.

As a shy teenager, Mary Lue benefited from a close friendship with her cousins Jack and Bob Wright. “Bob was sweet and handsome,” wrote Mary Lue. “He knew I was bashful with boys, so he would take me places with him—I was always very proud. At high school graduation dance he bought me a beautiful gardenia corsage—even got my best friend Marie Taylor a date with his best friend. We double-dated in style.”20

On May 22, 1941, she graduated from the East High Seminary and a few weeks later, on June 5, she became a member of the 49th graduating class of East High School. Commencement exercises were held at Kingsbury Hall on the University of Utah campus.21 She had enrolled at the university that spring, and began to attend to her freshman coursework there in September 1941.22

Like many high school students, Mary Lue had struggled to decide what course of study to pursue in college. At sixteen, she decided she wanted to become a nurse. However, she was cured of this idea during her first year at the University of Utah. She wrote that her “courses of Chemistry, Physics, and Biology were mind boggling.”23 She further explained, “One morning while I became very nauseated by dissecting my first frog I decided I must find another major subject to study.”24 Other courses that she took during her freshman and sophomore years included required courses on personal hygiene, physical education, economics, speech, typing, philosophy, psychology, personality development, and masterpieces of English literature.25

Her indecision about a course of study continued through her two years of required lower division studies at the U. By the close of the 1942-1943 school year, Mary Lue had completed her lower division requirements.26 The time came for her to declare her major. Her first choice was that of home economics, and during the fall quarter of 1943, she took five classes in that area. She then changed courses abruptly that winter and decided to seek an English degree in hopes of becoming an English teacher.27 However, she remarked, “Those huge English literature books did nothing but build my muscles. I didn’t like to take the pleasure of reading and break it down to meters, innuendos, intentions of purpose.”28

During this critical period, on November 8, 1943, she received her Patriarchal Blessing from Patriarch Gaskell Romney of the Bonneville Stake. She later commented, “The most driving spiritual guide I had through these years was my Patriarchal Blessing.”29 It was to her blessing that she turned for guidance on the matter of choosing a course of study:

The labor which you are called to do in the Church will add to your usefulness and contribute to the development of the young and rising generation, for among them you will be called to labor and you shall be a leader in their midst and cast an influence for good upon their lives, even that they shall refrain from the evils of the world and cleave unto that which is good.30

She later commented, “Going to my Patriarchal blessing I found the answer: teaching children. Why couldn’t I see this before? I had a natural feeling all the way through Elementary School training. What a satisfaction to surround myself with [the] sweetness of children.”31 As Keith indicated, the choice was a natural fit: “Her great love was always the little children, the children of primary age.”32

In the fall quarter of 1944, she began pursuit of her Elementary Education Diploma, with required courses in teaching method, child psychology, curriculum design, history, literature, art, reading, health, and administration. She had clearly discovered one of her great passions in life, and her grades improved markedly over those she had received in her dreaded chemistry and biology classes. She also signaled her intention to teach young children when she took a course specifically on teaching Kindergarten and First Grade.33

In addition to her university studies, she attended the Institute of Religion, which met in the old chapel across the street to the west and north of President’s Circle.34

It was at the University that she began to date regularly. “My first year of college I really believe I came out of my shell,” she remarked. “I dated quite a lot—fell in love every other week—didn’t get very great marks but I surely had fun.”35 In all her dating she kept temple marriage her goal. Her patriarchal blessing was of help in this area as well. “I was, as most young people, slightly confused, [and] many times [my blessing] brought me back to my great goal of being married in the Temple.”36 Her blessing counseled her to “take upon yourself the responsibilities of motherhood and fulfill that first great command which our Father gave to our first parents in the Garden of Eden, and the privilege shall be yours to enter into this union, even the eternal covenant of marriage, in the House of the Lord that your posterity may be yours through the endless ages of eternity.”37

In addition to dating several boys, she enrolled at the institute, and rushed the Greek sororities. While she was accepted as a pledge, several of her close friends were not. Ever the loyal friend, she declined to join.38

In 1939, World War II had broken out in Europe and the Pacific. “Commodities were starting to dwindle. People would wait in line to get sheets, nylons, pans. All of these shortages became more controlled as we moved into War days.”39 On December 4, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States were drawn into the war. Mary Lue never forgot the day her friends and cousins departed for military service. “We stood on the plaza at U. of U. in front of the Park Building as army trucks drove around the road and stopped to load in our ‘cream of the crop’ young men. I often thought of this picture in the next years—boys holding onto the hands of their parents and sweethearts—many, many lost their lives in battle.” Speaking of this overcast day she later commented, “It still is hard to get out my year books and remember the great numbers of friends lost.”40 Among those who served the United States in the War were her Wright cousins, Jack and Bob. Her dear cousin Bob died while engaged in a routine training flight at the Cherry Point airfield in North Carolina. She lamented, “I know I could not have loved my own brother more.”41

Meanwhile, Mary Lue continued school and enjoyed the company of her group of friends. “I depended on my friends to fill and strengthen me during those days,” she wrote. “The only dates were considered 4-E, not marriage material. They had to be in pretty bad shape in order to stay out of the draft….Marie waited for Golden Langren, Joyce waited for Bill Polson, Jackie waited for Fred Tadje, Mary Jean waited for her husband Jack Alley….We called ourselves the ‘Spinsters Club’—assuming the worst.”42 Every member of the group eventually married in the Temple.

Mary Lue later related the following concerning her and her group’s efforts to help in the war effort:

We decided, as a group of citizens to go work at the Ogden Arsenal packing 50 caliber machine bullets. We took turns driving 80 miles a day—linking bullets together for aircraft machine guns. We would gather our gas ration stamps together and take little trips to Bear Lake, Oakley—summer home of E. Anne Stevens.

Many days we didn’t have the ammunition to work with so they sent us all out on the railroad tracks to pick up debris with sticks with points on the end. The menu for lunch was ‘Spam sandwich.’ We did make good money that summer and when we got back to school we kept working Saturdays (at ZCMI).43

In 1943, Italy surrendered to the Allies, and Italian prisoners of war, though required to remain in the United States until the close of the war, were given the opportunity to work alongside American volunteers in assisting with the home front effort. Thousands of these Italians were housed in Ogden near the arsenal. Mary Lue recalled:

At the arsenal we got acquainted with Italian prisoners of war…. They were still under guard but had quite a good life. One of those unforgettable Christmases, we took to those young men—we knew little of their language but could sing the same Christmas songs. They knew we wished them well and couldn’t do enough for us—Italian cooking. My special friend was Anzio Rumolo. I wrote to him and his brother in Naples for some time.44

Mary Lue completed her graduation requirements with four courses during the summer term in 1945, though she wouldn’t attend an official graduation ceremony until the following summer. In addition to receiving her Bachelor of Science degree, she was also awarded a teaching certificate allowing her “to teach in the public elementary schools of Utah without further examination as to scholarship for a period of five years.”45 With this certificate in hand she applied to the Salt Lake City school board for a position. “I signed my first contract with Salt Lake—Kindergarten—61 students,” she wrote. “It was overwhelming good and bad.”46 She would teach at Emerson Elementary on 1017 E. Harrison Ave.

1 Mary Lue McCune, Personal History—1, 3.
2 James K. Knell, Interview, 1.
3 Mary Lue McCune, Personal History—1, 3.
4 James K. Knell, Interview, 1.
5 Mary Lue Knell (McCune), Diary 1939, entry for 5 January 1939.
6 Ibid., entry for 18 January 1939.
7 Ibid., entry for 19 January 1939.
8 Ibid., entry for 10 January 1939.
9 James K. Knell, Interview, 2.
10 Mary Lue McCune, Personal History—1, 5.
11 James K. Knell, Interview, 4.
12 Keith N. McCune, Interview, 17.
13 Mary Lue McCune, Personal History—1, 5.
14 Ibid.
15 James K. Knell, Interview, 5.
16 Mary Lue McCune, Personal History—1, 5.
17 Keith N. McCune, Interview, 18-19.
18 Mary Lue McCune, Personal History—1, 3.
19 James K. Knell, Interview, 2.
20 Mary Lue McCune, Personal History—1, 3.
21 East High School Diploma, Mary Lue Knell (McCune).
22 University of Utah Student Transcript, Mary Lue Knell (McCune), 1.
23 Mary Lue McCune, Personal History—1, 4.
24 Ibid.
25 University of Utah Student Transcript, Mary Lue Knell (McCune), 1.
26 Mary Lue Knell (McCune), Lower Division Certificate. The certificate explains:

Summary of Requirements: Ninety-three quarter hours of approved work, including Freshman English, Hygiene, Physical Education or Military Science and Tactics, and at least twelve quarter hours in (1) the Biological Science group, (2) the Physical Science group, (3) the Language and Literature group, and (4) the Social Science group. To enter the Upper Division school of the University, the holder must meet the requirements of the school as explained in the University catalogue.

27 University of Utah Student Transcript, Mary Lue Knell (McCune), 1.
28 Mary Lue McCune, Personal History—1, 4.
29 Mary Lue McCune, Personal History—2, 1.
30 Gaskell Romney, Patriarchal Blessing for Mary Lue Knell (McCune). See Appendix.31 Mary Lue McCune, Personal History—1, 5.
32 Keith N. McCune, Interview, 19.
33 University of Utah Student Transcript, Mary Lue Knell (McCune), 1.
34 Darcy McBride, Reminiscences, 2.
35 Mary Lue McCune, Personal History—1, 3.
36 Mary Lue McCune, Personal History—2, 1.
37 Gaskell Romney, Patriarchal Blessing for Mary Lue Knell (McCune).
38 Darcy McBride, Reminiscences, 1-2.
39 Mary Lue McCune, Personal History—1, 3.
40 Mary Lue McCune, Personal History—1, 4.
41 Mary Lue McCune, Personal History—1, 3.
42 Ibid.
43 Ibid., 4.
44 Ibid.
45 Mary Lue Knell (McCune), Elementary School Teacher’s Diploma, in Mary Lue McCune, Book of Remembrance.
46 Mary Lue McCune, Personal History—1, 5.