Off to See the Wizard

Southern Railway's mighty "Tennessean"

On or about August 2, 1944, Claudy F. Osborn left Colbert County, Alabama, determined to find her Oz. 

Claudy Osborn,
1944 Senior Picture,
Colbert County High School.

Earlier that summer Claudy had graduated from High School and was eagerly looking for a job. She was lucky and she knew it. In ordinary times good jobs for young women were hard to find. But these were not ordinary times. The country was at war and most of the young men were now in uniform serving in the army or navy, including at least three of her brothers, Gilbert, Randolph and Ellis. All kinds of job positions usually done by men were now being filled by women.

CEW newspaper ad 

for electricians, 

The Anniston Star,

Anniston, Alabama, 

26 June 1944.

Somehow, possibly through a newspaper ad similar to the one at left, Claudy learned that a company called Clinton Engineer Works (CEW) was hiring new workers for a war related project in Tennessee. The best part was that they seemed especially interested in hiring young women who were recent high school graduates from rural communities in Tennessee and Alabama. The pay they offered was good too, better than anything she could get in Colbert County. The curious thing though was that the job recruiters wouldn't tell anyone exactly what the jobs were about. They only said that it was important work for the war effort that would help bring all the soldiers and sailors back home. That was good enough for Claudy. But first she had to get there.

Claudy had never been as far away as Knoxville, Tennessee, before, although she had been to Chattanooga once when she was fifteen. Now, in the dark early hours of August 2, 1944, Claudy Osborn found herself in the Tuscumbia Railroad Depot waiting for the 2:40 AM arrival of "The Tennessean", the shiny emerald train that would carry her to Knoxville. She brought with her a single small suitcase that contained all that she owned. It would take "The Tennessean" ten hours to reach Knoxville. The first stop would be in Decatur. Alabama at 3:46 AM. After picking up passengers the train would leave the Decatur Railroad Depot at 3:56 AM and immediately cross the Norfolk Southern Bridge over the Tennessee River. Claudy could clearly see the full moon reflected in the waters below. It would be almost another hour before the train briefly stopped in Hunstville, then pushed on through the darkness towards Scottsboro, Stevenson, and ultimately Chattanooga. At 7:28 AM the rising sun would allow Claudy to view the green rolling hills of north Alabama and southern Tennessee, as the cotton fields of Colbert County receded further and further into the distance. Crossing the mighty Tennessee River once again at Tenbridge, the train arrived at Chattanooga's Terminal Station at 8:30 AM.

Terminal Station, Chattanooga, Tennessee

The stop in Chattanooga would last over an hour, giving passengers time to walk around a bit and explore beautiful Terminal Station. Opened in 1909 and Terminal Station was owned and operated by Southern Railway. It was designed by architect Donn Barber, in the Beaux Arts style. With its arched main entrance and eighty-two foot high ceiling dome with skylight it was undoubtedly the grandest building Claudy had ever seen.

Southern Railway Terminal, Knoxville

I'm sure Claudy would have liked to venture down Market Street towards downtown Chattanooga but there would not be time for that. With mixed feelings of excitement and fear of the unknown she boarded the train in time for its 9:50 AM departure for Knoxville. It would take almost three hours to make the trip as the train passed through Cleveland, Athens, Sweetwater, London, and Lenoir City before finally arriving at the Southern Railway station in Knoxville at 12:40 PM. She had been told to report to a certain address in Knoxville when she arrived. She would then be given transportation to "the site", that is, to Oz itself.

Brief YouTube video homage to "The Tennessean"

Route of "The Tennessean" from Tuscumbia/Sheffield to Knoxville

Chattanooga Choo Choo

Chattanooga Choo Choo clip
from Sun Valley Serenade

On May 17, 1941, a new passenger train called "The Tennessean", jointly-operated by the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W) and the Southern Railway (SR), went into service. The route ran all the way from Washington, DC, to Memphis passing through many towns and cities along the way, including Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Sheffield/Tuscumbia, Alabama. The "Tennessean" was a "streamliner" designed by industrial designer Otto Kuhler and featured stainless steel clad Pullman coaches. It was an instant success.

That same year the Glenn Miller Orchestra recorded an arrangement of a song by Harry Warren (music) and Mack Gordon (lyrics) which was featured in the film Sun Valley Serenade and released on August 21. The film was a big hit, as was the song, which received an Academy Award nomination.

I was introduced to swing music at an early age. In fact, for the first few years of my life it was the only form of music I knew existed. It flowed out of our radio every day like water from a spring. My mom's favorite band leaders were Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey. Our next door neighbor Jim Cole, a trumpet player from Brooklin, New York, favored Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Woody Herman, and Artie Shaw.

Among my possessions is a small torn photograph of my mother with the inscription "1941" on the upper left hand corner. On the back, written in my mother's hand are the words "Claudia, Chattanooga, age 15". In the photo she is wearing a light, summer weight blouse embroidered with Mexican imagery including a man in a very large sombrero.

I cannot prove it, but I think it is very likely that my mother made the trip to Chattanooga in 1941 inspired, at least in part, by the inauguration of the new "Tennessean" train service to Chattanooga as romanticized by her favorite swing band. After viewing the "Chattanooga Choo Choo" segment from the film, what young girl with a hankering to see the world wouldn't want to take a ride in a gleaming Pullman coach and see what lay beyond the cotton fields of home.

The Little Rock Nine

How nine men in black robes, one U. S. president, a flock of screaming eagles, and a handful of brave high school students in Arkansas changed America forever.

United States Supreme Court

On May 17, 1954 the United States Supreme Court ruled in the case of "Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas" that racial segregation in the public schools violated the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution which, among other things, forbids states from denying any person of "life, liberty or property, without due process of law" or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Gov. Orval Faubus

At that time, racial segregation in the South was not only common, it was the law of the land. In September of 1957 one southern governor, Orval Faubus of Arkansas, decided that he would defy the Supreme Court ruling. When nine African American students tried to attend the all-white Little Rock Central High School the governor called up the Arkansas National Guard to surround the school and block the students from entering.

Arkansas National Guard
blocking a colored students
from entering the school

I was only ten years old at the time and just starting the fourth grade. I remember seeing the shocking images on television of the governor's troops preventing the students from going to school. I was confused. I thought American soldiers were good guys whose job was to protect us. What had these students done wrong? The answer was simple, they had done nothing wrong at all.

The President of the United States at the time was a former soldier named Dwight David Eisenhower. When he entered the armed forces as a young man, and again when he took the oath of office as President of the United States, he swore to "defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic". It was an oath he took seriously.

Dwight David Eisenhower

During World War II as Supreme Allied Commander, General Eisenhower helped defeat the forces of Nazi Germany in their attempt to subjugate Europe and North Africa. Now as President of the United States he saw Governor Faubus' act for what it was, an assault upon the Constitution of the United States and an affront to the principals of fairness and equality that our country stood for.

When Faubus refused to withdraw the Arkansas National Guard from the school President Eisenhower federalized the entire Arkansas National Guard, effectively removing it from the Governor's authority and transferring it to his. But he didn't stop there. He ordered the US Army's 101st Airborne Division to Arkansas from their base in Kentucky. The paratroopers acted swiftly and decisively.

101st Airborne Division Insignia
The "Screaming Eagles"

Upon receiving orders from the President, the commander of the Division dispatched 1000 paratroopers from the 327th Infantry, 1st Airborne Battle Group to Little Rock. They wasted no time in getting there. When the sun rose over Arkansas the following morning the citizens of Little Rock woke to find paratroopers with "screaming eagle" patches on their uniforms and fixed bayonets deployed around the school. An angry crowd yelling threats and racist slurs began to move toward the soldiers. As they did so an officer ordered the soldiers to assume the "guard" position, left feet forward, bodies leaning slightly forward with the point of the bayonets aimed straight at their opponents. Then the soldiers began moving steadily towards the mob, their left feet stomping the ground loudly in unison as they advanced. It was clear to everyone that they meant business. The mob backed off.

In the meantime a small detachment of soldiers who had been dispatched to pick up the nine students arrived on the scene and escorted them through the crowd to the front doors of the school. The Arkansas sun shone down brightly on the nine teenagers as they quietly entered the building ready for their first day of class. As they did so they taught us all a lesson in courage.

The Little Rock Nine

Morehouse College Glee Club, Morehouse College, Atlanta, GA.

Brief documentary about the "Little Rock Nine" by Marquette University.

President Bill Clinton reflects on his childhood memories of the event.

One of the original nine students remembers the 101st Airborne.

An officer of the 101st Airborne remembers the morning when they confronted the angry mobs.

"Little Rock Nine" students face-to-face with their former tormentors on Oprah.

Remembering the 101st Airborne Division in World War Two.

Pictured above is General Dwight David Eisenhower speaking to paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division shortly before their jump into France in the dark morning hours of D-Day. This short video tribute contains no scenes of violence.

Mrs. Harris and the Red, Red Robin

I don't remember very much about my first day back at Woodland Elementary for the 1957/1958 school year. I was ten years old, almost eleven really, and was now entering the Fourth Grade. My best guess is that I wasn't too happy about being there. For me, the first days of school had always been a mixture of excitement and dread. The excitement came from the idea of being with my classmates again. The dread came from not knowing what complicated and confusing tasks the teachers would impose on us. All too often my difficulty with school assignments left me feeling stupid and humiliated in front of my classmates.

When I walked into my Fourth Grade classroom I immediately spotted something different. It was something that none of my previous classrooms had. Sitting right next to the teacher's desk was a great big piano. Huh? Did that mean our teacher could play the piano? What would it sound like? I quickly got an answer to my question when our teacher, Mrs. Erma Harris, an older lady with white hair, big glasses and a kind expression sat down at the piano and launched right in to a peppy version of "When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along". It was her way of welcoming us all back to school and giving us a taste of what the school year in her class would be like. The singer Doris Day had recorded a hit record of the song a couple of years before and I remembered hearing it on the radio.

OK, our Mrs. Harris was no Doris Day, but she was pretty darn good. Actually, she was great! As I looked around the classroom I saw that the other kids liked the music as much as I did. Everyone was smiling and having fun. Some of my friends from last year were there, and I was glad to see them. I spied some pretty girls too! As I sat back in my chair gazing out the window at the robins hopping around on the playground I thought to myself, "Maybe the Fourth Grade won't be so bad after all".



Not all American students had such a pleasant first day back at school as I did. In Little Rock Arkansas nine young African American students were turned away when they tried to enroll in Little Rock Central High School. What happened next would change America forever. I tell their story in my post entitled The Little Rock Nine.

Some great songs that really rang my bell in the Fourth Grade

Factoid: The Everly Brothers lived briefly in Knoxville and attended West High School in 1955.