The Personal and Historic Importance of Memoir

Michelle: 00:35

Hello, fellow declutterers, and welcome to another episode of Decluttering 55 Plus with Michelle Passlov. Today we have the pleasure of having as our guest, author, journalist, and educator, Pia Marie Winters Jordan. We’re going to be talking about the importance of recording life memories from a personal perspective and an historical perspective. Planning to prepare a memoir is on the decluttering 55 Plus with Michelle Passov’s agenda because it’s something many 55 plusers will agree can be a benefit to our children, grandchildren, and even the world at large. However, more often than not, the notion of preserving our life story with all its experiences and lessons gets swept under the carpet and put off another day or forever. How do you get such an undertaking accomplished? It’s daunting and therefore becomes clutter because the notion of sharing your life story becomes buried in the background where it stands to never see the light of day. Many of us don’t think it’s within our grasp. We hope that today we can change all that and encourage you out there to capture your life story in one form or another, one way or another, because it matters. After all, how many times have you wanted more to know more about your mom’s, your dads, and your grandparents’ stories? Lucky for us, Pia not only had the inspiration to tell her mom’s story, but she had the know-how. After earning an undergraduate degree in journalism and spending many years as a television reporter, producer, and director, Pia re-entered academia as a professor of global journalism and communication at Morgan State University in Baltimore. One thing leading to another, Pia wrote and published the book called Memories of a Tuskegee Airman Nurse and Her Military Sisters, a book not only about her mother’s experience as first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps at Tuskegee Army Airfields, it’s tricky to say during World War II, but a story of historical importance on so many levels. Pia is not only working worked on the book, but also a documentary. Let’s talk and find out about Pia’s journey and hopefully it will inspire your own. Pia, how first of all, tell us how you started this project.

Pia Marie Winters Jordan: 02:58

Okay, I’ll tell you how. But first of all, University Mail and College Park church, that’s my undergraduate. My graduate degree was at American You, so I have to give my little cheer from them. Uh, because without them, I would not have had the foundation to do this. Okay, now what was your question again?

Michelle: 03:16

Uh, how did you start a project um documenting uh the Tuskegee Airmen nurse journey?

Pia Marie Winters Jordan: 03:24

Well, actually, my mother um she became ill. Um, she was a widow. She had moved from her single family home into a um uh apartment, you know, independent apartment. And she became ill. She went from independent to a nursing home. So I was going through her things. I’m her only child. I was going her through her things to close up her apartment, and I came across this um scrapbook. I vaguely remember seeing the scrapbook before, but you know, it’d been a while, probably since when I was a little girl or something. So I was going through it and I’m like, oh my goodness, my mother was with the Tuskegee Airmen. And since I was familiar with the Tuskegee Airmen and seeing her with airmen and uh with a group of nurses, I said, Oh my goodness, I never did anything at all. And I’m a journalist. And so I was like, how could this be? In the meantime, I had started.

Michelle: 04:31

Let me just sit up there for a minute, Pia. Can you can you give us a short definition of Tuskegee Airmen? Airmen, air, the Tuskegee Airmen.

Pia Marie Winters Jordan: 04:43

The Tuskegee Airmen. Actually, in the 40s, during World War II, they were pilot cadets. It was part of an experience. Excuse me, I gotta it was part of an experience to determine whether African American men were smart enough to fly military planes. That was the time it was in. Um we’re talking about Jim Crow laws. However, after a push lobbying by a lot of groups, and because it was still segregation, they built an army base just to train African-American pilot cadets, who later became known as the Tuskegee Airmen in the 1950s. So at that time they were learning to fly planes. So that’s how the name uh came about and how they came about because it was an first they were calling it an experiment, but not to confuse it with a different experiment, but the experience was really a test to see if black men African-American community men could fly military planes.

Michelle: 05:51

Now the nurses were also black, and were um how did how did that come about?

Pia Marie Winters Jordan: 05:58

Well, the Army Nurse Corps, that’s where the nurses were in the Army Air, because there was no air force.

Pia Marie Winters Jordan: 06:06

If you were black, you couldn’t get in. That was if you were black, you couldn’t get in the army nurse corps.

Pia Marie Winters Jordan: 06:15

The Red Cross was the recruiting arm of the Army Nurse Corps. You had to be uh a member of the uh Red Cross. So if you couldn’t get in the Red Cross, you couldn’t get in the Army Nurse Corps, however, and then too, let me just explain this to be in the um Army Nurse Corps or to be in the uh American Red Cross, you had to have graduated from nursing school. You had to be a registered nurse, you had to be a member of uh an or a national organization of nursing, you had to be prepared. So one of the nurses, her name was Della Rainey, she wrote a letter after they told her she couldn’t come in because she was black. She wrote a letter to the person in charge of the American Red Cross explaining, I want to serve my country. And you know what? They sent her a uh an enrollment form. They sent her her card to become a member. She was she was a member once she got in. She was the first African-American woman in the Army nurse corps. Once she got in, that opened the door for others to come in. So that’s how they got in.

Michelle: 07:25

For your mother to be a part of this unit of nurses, was an historical moment. And I’m wondering why she you never were aware of this until um you were well into your adulthood and she never spoke about it when you were a kid. You didn’t grow up with the pride of knowing um the unique position that she had in history?

Pia Marie Winters Jordan: 07:46

No, because my mother, when she was um in the army, nurse corps, she was I wasn’t, she wasn’t married, she was I wasn’t born. We came, uh, all that came like 12 years later, 10 to 12 years later. She stayed in the military until uh 1952. So from 1943 to 1952, she was in the military. So there was no husband, no child. That was it. So I guess after she went into civilian life as a civilian nurse and got married, had children, it just never really, it wasn’t something where my mother would put me on my knee and say, you know what? I used to do this. I would see, I would hear her talk to different people, and I would ask, are you on the phone with someone from nursing school or when you were in the military? But that was it. She did not sit me down and on her knee or whatever and say, I’m gonna tell you some stories. No, that never happened.

Michelle: 08:42

No. So you discovered it when she was well into her 80s and moving into um, you know, the later years of her life, and when you had this um awareness that she was who she was, not only in terms of her own life, but in um, you know, breaking new ground as a woman in the military, in nursing, being uh African American, what did you say to yourself?

Pia Marie Winters Jordan: 09:09

I had started teaching at Morgan State University in Baltimore, and I was talking to a um one of my new colleagues, you know, someone I just met, because I’d never taught I’ve done like lectures in academia, but I’d never been, you know, the person who was there who was actually gonna be teaching. Um, and so I told her, you know what, and because this was in 2008, I said, I one of my regrets is I found out my mother was one of the Tuskegee Army nurses, and I never did anything. And if she hadn’t said, well, why don’t you start now? And you know what you have to do. And I said, I have to get the interviews because they’re like in their late 80s, 90s. So from that moment on, um, she kind of pushed me. And by 2009, I was flying around uh trying to go into archives, uh, interviewing airmen and the nurses who were still living. Um, and that’s how that started. So I was um, I guess I was in my 50s when I finally got around to doing something.

Michelle: 10:19

Well, she was the one that uh pushed you, even if it was um a little late, you at least you got around to it. Right now, um, when you your book is not really so much a memoir as it is almost an accounting who were these women, where did they go to school, where did they work, what were their positions in the military, when did they die? Um uh where were they buried? So, what was the importance to you of going beyond the parameters of your mother’s own life to include the entire core? There were only 28 nurses, is that correct?

Pia Marie Winters Jordan: 10:55

They were stationed there. There. So even even later, like my mother, um, they were reassigned to other locations, and some of the nurses um they left. They didn’t um stay in the military, but for those who stayed, they went on to other bases. The 28 nurses, I wanted to tell not only my mother’s story, because I could say but so much about my mother, you know, and I was saying, well, she was one of many. So I thought, why not let me just research what I know about the old. There’s really many. There were only 28 of them, so at that at who were stationed at that base. And actually, at any one time, there were only 20 nurses. So, you know, nurses were coming in, going out, reassigned to other locations. So um there were total basically at any one time, just 20. But a total of 28. So, but I thought, you know, I couldn’t find a lot on all of them, but I could find maybe a piece on each one. Some of them you’ll see, I have pages.

Michelle: 12:04

What you what was the importance? Okay, you you not only had that these were African American women in the military, in nursing, all of those in and of themselves stand out as uh pivotal moments in history. Was there anything else about them that um is noteworthy that we should all be aware of?

Pia Marie Winters Jordan: 12:26

I’m glad you asked. When you went into the Army Nurse Corps, you went in as a second lieutenant. That’s an officer. When my mother left, she had been raised to a first lieutenant. But keep in mind the Tuskegee Airmen, the men who would become known as Tuskegee Airmen, they were pilot cadets. They had no rank, they saluted the nurses. And I got a lot of stories. Uh people have to get the book to read all the stories, but I got stories. So wait, this is uh copying the book here.

Michelle: 13:01

Okay. Yeah. Um it’s Memories of a Tuskegee Airman. Oh, here we go. Um yes, so uh this will take an account of the history. Where now you went on to work on a documentary about this unique unit at this unique period of time. What is what is your documentary project, and why did you choose to not only do the book but move into another expression of the media?

Pia Marie Winters Jordan: 13:27

Well, I went backwards. I started this project for a documentary, so I was going around the country getting video uh interviews and all. A book was not my first choice. I didn’t even think I was gonna do it, but because my background is in like broadcast journalism. And so I was into the visual. And so I was going around doing the research, doing this because I wanted to do a documentary. Now, right now we’re in the beginning stages of the documentary. I’m working with a producer, so we haven’t developed yet how are we gonna approach this. But in the meantime, I just thought, let me do a book. Um, you know, let’s see if anybody’s interested in a book. So, you know, I did a book proposal, sent it to this one, and I I I researched who was interested in like history, especially Tuskegee Airman history. So I approached them. It was on New South Books. They were interested. So I said, uh, give me a year to write it. See, I wasn’t, I was going into the documentary. I wasn’t gonna write a book. So I said, okay, give me a year to write it. I wrote it. They published it. Actually, then they merged with the University of Georgia Press. So they’re an imprint. New South Books is an imprint of the University of Georgia Press. And so after I guess a year or two, once you know, everything that had to be taken care of, I signed with them and um the book came out in 2023.

Michelle: 15:07

So now, what was it like for you to go on that journey? Um, you were you were willing to pivot from working on the documentary to working on the book, but the point is you were working on something which was an eye-opener for you, not only about your mom’s life, but um a moment in history that was very important. What has that journey been like for you?

Pia Marie Winters Jordan: 15:26

Oh goodness. I started in 2008, really, 2009. So all my efforts had been into, you know, going wherever I could find the archives, talking to people, whatever. But it was it was like once the book came, you know, someone wanted the book, that switched my direction because I was under contract and certain things were expected of me. And so I had to accomplish that. So then over you know, the past, I guess, up until 20, oh 2022, 2021, I was just pulling stuff together for the documentary. But what happened is so if I have sound bites, interviews, I turn them into quotations for the book. So on the one hand, working on the documentary didn’t hurt doing the book because I had that kind of it has to take some kind of stick toitiveness.

Michelle: 16:33

Can you speak to that? Like what what did it take for you not to say, you know what, why me? Energy. I don’t know, I don’t have the time for it. I’m doing something else.

Pia Marie Winters Jordan: 16:44

It took energy, but being a part in an environment of academia, some of my students became my interns who helped me with certain parts of the project. Other faculty member, this one faculty member, um uh in another whole different area, he told me about uh these people at the Smithsonian who did display design. Because my book is not just about my book, I it’s multimedia. So I have a tabletop display, I have a PowerPoint presentation, I have a life-size statue of the nurses, and I learned about these from the Smithsonian. They showed me different things because they the the scrapbook I had, they said you can’t you can’t take that around. So all these different steps, but it took time. And see, I was teaching and I was new to teaching, and that took a lot of time.

Michelle: 17:45

So it wasn’t the only thing you had to do in your life. What advice would you give to people who don’t have the resources that you did, uh students and interns to help guide you? What advice would you give to other people if they want to take on uh a project like you did? Get your relatives, talk to your relatives, get your relatives involved. That’s a good one. Like especially in other words, you don’t think you have to do it on your own? No, yeah to tell that story.

Pia Marie Winters Jordan: 18:10

Yeah, what you do is first of all, um holidays, vacations, record. Record your family members, especially the older ones, but also the younger ones, because after a while they will be part of history. When the future comes, their story needs to be told. So, you know, these cameras, get the camera, uh it also has uh audio on most of these smart cameras and uh record, just even ask everybody, get their permission, put it on the table at Thanksgiving or any other holiday, and just talk, just talk. Let some one of your family members is a good typist. Let that person transcribe everything. And then you have another that person who she does the or he does the um reunions. So at the reunion, you might say, okay, we want Aunt So and so to record, talk about this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Today we’re in multimedia, so everything doesn’t have to be in a book. It could it could be other forms of media that also will tell the story. What do you think is the importance of doing that? Because if you don’t do it, you’re gonna lose it. What I always said and I always share um if you don’t know your history, there’s a danger in that. It’s simple, like if you didn’t know you came from a family who had diabetes. So if you know that, health issues, but there are issues in families that that they don’t talk about, good, bad, and different. There are things that you might not talk about, but you need to talk about and understand. So I was thinking about this uh recently. John Wilkes booth allegedly shocked the assassinated uh Abraham Lincoln, right? I went, I lived near one of the locations he stopped at. And I I think I stopped by to look at it, and that was interesting history because even though he may be looked at a certain way, and he’s somebody’s relative, it’s it’s good to know certain things that happened in your family, even if it’s to say, well, gee, what kind of politics was he into that he would do that? And then that might get you thinking, like, you know what, maybe I better take a look at this. Sometimes history, history, history, history is important for everybody that you know not only your own history, but understand how your history uh can uh be part of someone else’s history and how you can prevent certain damage or certain things in your own family because you’ve learned your history.

Michelle: 21:06

You’re aware of it. And that’s an important message here from the author of this book called Memories of a Tuskegee Aman Nurse. So um, if you we we don’t have much time, any more time today to go into the importance of your experience or um the advice we would give to other people’s experience, but we will continue this conversation because it’s important. Thank you so much for joining us today and uh sharing the importance of producing, uh recording our memories and our journey. And congratulations to you for the success and the ongoing effort that you make to not only bring your family’s history um to light for you and your family, but the historical importance that they live through. If you pay a visit to the website to Skeegee, it’s hard to say, even difficult to spell, but. Make an effort. Tuskegee Arminurses.com. You will be able to get information about P is Project.info INFO. Oh shoot.info. You will be able to get information about P’s Project where uh she’s speaking and how you can get a copy of her book. I hope you’re inspired and prepare your memoir because doing so will be of great benefit. Before we sign off today, I want to invite you to go to our website, which is www.decluttering55plus.com and go to the Let’s Connect buttons to sign up for notifications and other activities in our neck of the woods. We talk about all kinds of topics here that will invigorate your life and help you create a legacy, not a mess, from health to technology, memoirs to social relationships, deciding where you’re going to live and what you’re going to do in retirement and even your final arrangements. And let’s not forget getting your financial house and legal papers in order. We aim to prompt you to get in action and get things done. Also, pick up a copy of Decluttering 55 Plus Wisdoms to Create a Legacy, Not a Mess, at Amazon or www.layitflat.com. It’s a spiral tabletop book that will support you to stay in action and invigorate your life. Once again, I thank you for joining us today, listening and watching and learning. Have a clutter free day!