Viewfinder; Los Braceros; Judge Rolleen - Bracero Statue

Oh. 600 now we decided Bob should go first. Oh. Are you trying to get suckered.

OK my name is Riley in R O L L E N McIlrath m c capital i l w r t age. I got to know her because I went to a book review of Maya Angelou's books and I happened to be the one that she wrote not her first one but one of her second ones. It was a theory. I met her at a reception after there was a book review of her daughter Maya Angelus I think was her second or third book. All God's children got to have shoes and I had gone to a reception for Maya Angelou in the Bay Area when she wrote. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and I had really fallen in

love with her writing. So at this reception someone said what do you want to meet her mother. And I said I was by her mother's here. And then that's when I learned that Vivian Baxter had retired as a sea merchant seaman and moved to Stockton. And so when I introduced myself to her she was always so warm and so pleasant and she so we have to get together more often. And she was just delightful and from that point on we used to meet once a week with a group of other women that I knew here in Stockton who were fascinated by the fact that Vivian was my as mother and lived here. So that's how I met her. She well she retired here I think probably nineteen eighty is when she retired to Stockton and that was a great story because she became a merchant seaman when they told her that she could never become one because she was a woman. And the union would never allow

women to be in the union. So of course she saw it the way she tells it she put her foot in the door and then finally she got her hip through her elbow and she was in. And then she stayed as a merchant seaman and when she retired there were Asian women Hispanic women and African-American women who had this big retirement party for her and they were all merchant seaman because of Vivian Baxter. So. When I first met her I was an attorney here in Stockton. But. She was a very generous giving intelligent a wonderful human being. She had her own kind of way of giving charity she would donate to charities donate money to charities. But the thing that I think Bob Haley will tell you Reverend Haley will tell you too is

that she was so giving of herself individually on a personal basis of somebody was hungry. She would take a meal over to that person's house. Or if somebody needed clothing she would do that and one of the things that was her pet charity was her. She called her Vivienne Baxter robe charity and what she would do is she would find out what kids couldn't afford to have robes when they graduated from high school because in Stockton even in the public schools you have to purchase your own robe. It's yours after that but you have to purchase it. And they were back then I think you know right around a hundred dollars and she would always find out which kids could not have a robe couldn't purchase one so that she would buy them one so that when they graduated they had robes just like everybody else. Why why not. You know she is just somebody who if you knew her you could

understand but I mean she she always would very gently give you advice if you asked for it. But it wasn't a criticism of what you were doing and I can remember when I read somewhere when Maya discovered that she was pregnant at the age of 16 what Vivian asked her was. She said Well do you love the man in my eyes said no. I think Vivian's question was Do you love the boy because they were very young and Maya said no and she said does the boy love you. And Maya said no and she said well I guess we're going to raise us a baby. But she she never criticized or was Judge Mental about anything that you did or anything that you felt or anything that you said. She was always very very gentle about suggestions on for example how to raise your kids. She helped me a lot with my kids. And she was always interested in helping somebody else

resolve a problem. Yes. Well I think I got other people to write letters to. You could ask Reverend Haley. I think we got a petition of people to sign to go with the letter. And I probably wrote the cover letter. But what happens is they have a committee within the Stockton city council district to look for names for streets and parks. And so all these new parks in our charter in the city it says you have to have so many parks within so many hundreds of yards but it's sort of like each subdivision has to have its mandated You must have a part which I think is a great idea for a city to have. And so there were all these parks coming up. And so I got interested in

wanting one named for her because she had devoted so much individual time and money to the city of Stockton. Oh. She says Well several that come to mind right now. One night she invited a whole group of us over for a lobster that she had flown in from Maine because my it was visiting and I think it was that night that I just almost fell off my chair because Maya sat on Vivien's lap. Now I remember Vivian was what five four and a half. My it was six feet tall but she was so excited about her mother had been flying in this lobster live lobster for a made for her dinner and she was a wonderful cook. So my I just went over and plopped right on her mom's lap.

And there he and patted her and said my baby. And that was it was a great night. Other times I used to do crossword puzzles with Vivian and we would always do the ones in the Stockton record because they were easier than the ones in the San Francisco Chronicle we could get through them more quickly. So I go over to her house and we'd sit there working on the same crossword puzzle and the thing that I noticed she really liked a challenge but she really liked to be the one who knew the word. If I called a word out and started to write it in I sensed how she sort of withdrew. And so that I got so I just wait longer so that she would think of the word because every time it was a cloud would sort of go over everything and I got the word first. But we still kept it up. It's just it's it's oh she was at the party.

It's hard. No they just they selected the part you didn't have a selection in the park. Whichever one they wanted to name that would be it. The think the process after she was given that part and she was named was even harder though because at that point the city of Stockton decided they didn't have money to fund landscaping in the parks they weren't going to do anything. So we got Maia to come to Stockton and help dedicate the park. And then she stayed on their backs and a number of us did too. So that part really is a part today and it's adjacent to a school which really helped us get the grass and the trees and everything looking very nice because the school was right adjacent So that sort of gave us one up on the other parks that didn't have the schools nearby.

But. Now. Yes. I know. Stylish but not only that she expected perfection in style and other people and other things she had dresses that you just wouldn't believe. They were just wonderful beautiful. They'd sparkle. They either had sequins or sparkly stuff on them very shapely she had a great shape. And I remember she was going to be given this award at one of the. Public facilities that we have in Stockton and I forget which organization was giving it to her. But they had a dinner before she would be given the award and Maya flew back for that. So there were about five or six of us that went with them

to this dinner and we got there. And Vivian knew that she was supposed to get this big prestigious award by this organization and I can't remember the organization but it was at Venetian bridges. I remember that facility we got in there and first thing was it was a cafeteria line for the dinner which really upset Vivian and Maya. But they went through that as we were going up to get the food. The thing that really did her in was they had paper plates kaputt stick cups and Vivienne just turned and swished and would ride out the door. And of course my it was just sitting there. We were all sticking there and we thought oh dear. But my I said you know what she hates paper plates. This is not the thing to do to my mother when you're going to give her an award. So we all left we didn't eat. She didn't except the whore that we were just out of there that she was

a perfectionist in that way. So. I think it does very well like we have a Maya Angelou a library and the Vivian Baxter part and Bob and I worked on another one. For one of our. The relatives of a local attorney who had been a really good community leader in that park was they made after him. It was a hairy core and I think so I think they're very good about listening to the people and doing what people would like to have in their community. Very responsive. Yes. Will we have a Martin Luther King Plaza downtown.

And then the hairy Koren par. I'm probably I'm just not thinking. But we have several after leaders. You know that's what's really kind of set I don't think that they do. And I think I tried to find some more articles later articles on Vivian Baxter because I know there have been a couple more in the newspaper. But people really don't know. The thing is we always call her Lady B. In fact that was her license plate. And so I think they were going to put Vivian lady Baxter but they just put Vivian Baxter part on the nameplate. But there should be some sort of historical plaque there to

explain what she has done for the community in who she was. That would be nice. You know she had several professions. She was a nurse. She was a beautician a cosmetologist a barber and. And she was a gambler. She made a lot of money for her family gambling took risks and then she was a merchant seaman just an incredible woman. I think we all should look back. We were talking earlier you know we need to know our roots but we need to know from whence we came. As far as communities are concerned. And I think when people learn about role models of the past it enables them to plan for their futures keeping in mind these are people who have done these things. And it's especially important for us as women because we have so many

leaders that aren't in the history books and we need to have them in the history books as role models. So it helps us too. If they did it then we can do to. It. I just wish I could remember more things about her it was just such a pleasure knowing her. I never heard her upset at an individual because who that individual was. She was never critical about somebody or judge mental. She'd be upset about their behavior and that was the message that she carried which was a good message for those of us raising kids you never criticize the kids for who they are. You criticize the behavior and you can tell them the feelings that you have about their behavior and that's something that I think I learned from Vivian was a good lesson served me well so you should.

Know that her daughter what she did. I think Vivian's responsible for a lot of what's happened with my aunt mean she's always been there she helped her become the first woman conductor on the bus system in San Francisco. She always gave her a leg up on everything that she did so that she always had somebody back there pushing her forward. And I think that Maya realizes that and has written very eloquently about her mother. Her poem phenomenal woman. And in her book she's interspersed throughout. Thank you for that.