Roberta Cogswell


As Interviewed by Elliott Sorensen, March 16, 2019

Roberta Cogswell: In Her Own Words

I'm an old lady. I'm ninety-six years old. I was born on July eleventh, 1922, in New Britain, Connecticut ... and oh I graduated from high school in 1940 and I was trained to be a secretary so I went to work at Stanley Tools, which is a very large - well I guess it was the biggest toolmaker at that time in the world because New Britain was the hardware city of the world for a long time because it has a lot of factories. And I went to work for a man named Mr.Fletcher, and I worked for him for four years as his secretary and he was in charge of all the business that Stanley tools did with our government in washington D.C.

He was a best friend of my cousin who lived in Hartford, and my cousin was marrying this girl and um he my cousin had invited to be to his wedding and I met him there because I was a bridesmaid ... Right away I liked him very much ... He had a nice grey convertible car.

They needed help they so badly, needed help Stanley tools made tools to make tools if you know what I mean, and they had a little gadget or something that had to be polished and I could do them really good because I was left handed and I used to turn those out fast and I got paid for that, too, it was extra time.

Anybody who wanted to serve their country would sign up! And our company that we worked for had every week had a drawing and for a quarter you could buy a ticket on a war bond. In New York City they had a celebration that the Japs had surrendered and it was mad oh it was nothing like I had ever been in before the crowd and the celebration and the excitement more than that.