Clarie is an 85 year old white female who was born on May 4th, 1906. She was the youngest child in her family and had seven older brothers and sisters. There was a fifteen year age span between Claire and her eldest sibling. Her father, who was orphaned at age fourteen, worked for the C&O Railroad as a foreman for the car cleaners. Her mother was a housewife who stayed home to care for their eight children. Claire's parents were immigrants from Germany who came over on the same boat. She never knew any of her grandparents because they stayed in Germany and her parents did not speak of them very often.

My subject was raised in Covington, Kentucky in a predominately German/Catholic neighborhood. It was a working class community with many people employed in factories. Claire reported that her neighborhood was considered middle-class where everybody went to church on Sundays and most people attended the same parish school. Her neighbors all worked and it was expected tha...