The Mother Road's Leading Ladies: Tales from Route 66

Arnold00:00:00

We've all heard of Route 66, but did you ever stop to think of all the women who worked along the 2,448 mile length of the most famous highway in the world?Just in time for this year's 100th anniversary of the iconic Mother Road, Arthur Cheryl Eicher Jett examines the myriad roles women played at the crossroads of Route 66 and women's history on St. Louis in Tune.Welcome to St. Louis in tune and thank you for joining us for fresh perspectives on issues and events with experts, community leaders and everyday people who make a difference in shaping our society and world. I'm Arnold Stricker along with co host Mark Langston. A good greeting to you this morning, Mr. Mark.

Mark00:00:54

You're all chipper and everything.

Arnold00:00:56

Hey, good morning.

Mark00:00:57

Good to see that.

Arnold00:00:58

Yes, it is good.

Mark00:00:59

Good morning, good day.

Arnold00:01:00

Yes. Good afternoon, good afternoon, good evening.

Mark00:01:03

Yes. All of that all wrapped up in one. Whenever you're listening.

Arnold00:01:06

Good night.

Mark00:01:07

Yes. And a good night. Johnny.

Arnold00:01:10

We're not signing off.

Mark00:01:11

Yeah, no, not yet. But hey, it's good to see you. Good to be seen.

Arnold00:01:14

Good to be seen. We're glad that you've joined us today, folks. We want to thank our sponsor, Better Rate Mortgage, for their support of the show.You can listen to previous shows@stlntune.com where you can follow us and even leave a review. Our thought to ponder today is by a very important gentleman in the literary realm. Highway 66 is the main migrant road.66 Is the path of a people in flight. 66 Is the mother road, the road of flight. He's the one who coined the phrase mother road for Route 66. None other than. Drum roll. John Steinbeck.

Mark00:01:57

Oh, really?

Arnold00:01:58

Yes. And that actually was the. I don't want to say the foundation, but it was an inspiration for him writing the Grapes of Wrath.

Mark00:02:07

Oh, really?

Arnold00:02:08

Yes.

Mark00:02:09

Wow. So I learned things on this show all the time.

Arnold00:02:12

We do, too.

Mark00:02:13

I know. That's. Wow.

Arnold00:02:15

Isn't that cool? I never knew that he coined the phrase the mother road. And that was from the Grapes of Wrath. John Steinbeck. She's gone been through a lot.Grapes of Wrath herself, I'm sure.But our author, Cheryl Iker Jett, is an American author, playwright and journalist with seven previous books, including Route 66 in Illinois and hundreds of published articles. She's known for her Route 66 in travel writing for Arcadia Publications and Root magazine. She earned a graduate degree in history from siue.And she's traced for a long time the crossroads of women's history with Route 66. And directed two productions of her stage play based on that research. Welcome to St. Louis in Tune, Cheryl.

Cheryl00:02:55

Thank you. Thank you so much. It's nice to be here.

Arnold00:02:57

Now, did the book come out of the play that you wrote? Is that how this kind of all came about?

Cheryl00:03:04

Actually, it didn't. And that's a good assumption because the play came before the book.

Arnold00:03:09

Aha.

Cheryl00:03:09

But the play did not. The book did not evolve from the play.

Arnold00:03:14

Okay, so what was the play about?

Cheryl00:03:16

The play is about the same topic. I actually started researching this topic about 10 years ago.

Arnold00:03:22

Okay.

Cheryl00:03:23

And I was busy doing an awful lot of travel writing, and so my books was in fits and starts. So I spent a lot of time doing magazine articles and presentations using this material and various groups of women.And I was at a low point with the book where I thought, oh, I'm never going to get around to getting this done. And I just woke up one morning and I just had this.Not a vision, because I'm not sure I believe in visions, but I could envision these women stepping forward on a stage and telling their own stories.

Arnold00:03:59

One thing Mark and I were talking about was that it's a great perspective and it's a different perspective on Route 66. And from my perspective that you. You just didn't cover Missouri.You covered all the way from Chicago to la, and you have stories of Illinois women in here. Missouri, Oklahoma. You go down Arizona, New Mexico, California. And it's nice to galen history around that, too.

Mark00:04:26

And Cheryl, just for context, what's the root of Route 66? Where does it start and where does it end? Just for those that may not.

Cheryl00:04:34

The eastern terminus, the original eastern terminus is Jackson and Boulevard. That intersection, that's the Art Institute intersection in Chicago.And then in 1937, it was moved out just a little way onto the new Lakeshore Drive.

Mark00:04:49

Okay.

Cheryl00:04:50

And the original western terminus is downtown Los Angeles at 7th and Broadway. But then that was extended, too, although it's never been looked at as official. But it became the thing to go as far as Santa Monica pier.So that 2,448 miles is the number that the National Park Service gives us. They said that is the most accurate average that we can come up with.

Mark00:05:17

How long does it take someone. I'm sorry, I just. So much swimming around in my head. How long does it take to maybe drive that? I'm sure there's about.

Cheryl00:05:26

That's something that's often underestimated. People think, I've got a week off. I'll drive to Chicago to Los Angeles.And the thing is, as a U.S. highway 66 was one contiguous road, although it was built on a series of generally pre made roads. But once the route was decommissioned in 1985, it was fully decommissioned.So in other words, in 1985, US Highway 66 was simply removed from the federal highway system. And then different parts of the highway reverted back to either what they were before or they became something else.So they were either surface streets with the city's administration and maintenance, or a state road, a county road, a township road. Some almost became parts of driveways, not quite, but it was just about to that point. So it's not this contiguous thing.It's signed in each state along the various alignments. But sorry, getting back to you, that's good. It really needs three, four weeks if you're going to really see everything.Because if you go shorter than that, what you find you're doing is you're driving the interstate and then you're popping off on this exit and that exit to see something that you want to see and then you're popping back on the interstate again. So you're not really getting the experience.

Mark00:06:56

Gotcha. Okay.

Cheryl00:06:57

So the longer the better.

Mark00:06:59

Okay. Fascinating. Yeah, fascinating.

Arnold00:07:01

And your description in Aprons Away, which is the name of the book, Aprons Away, women's work on Route 66, describes a variety of what I would call vocations and places, people, places and things along the way.

Cheryl00:07:17

Absolutely.

Arnold00:07:18

How did you determine which people, which places and which things to include in your book?

Cheryl00:07:23

I'm always so afraid people are going to ask me what my criteria was. I did have some loose criteria. I preferred that it was women that had passed, women that were not still living.However, I violated that rule right away because there were several locations, particularly some vintage motels, vintage businesses where several generations of women had operated it. So it seemed really unfair to tell the oldest woman's story and then leave readers hanging. Well, who came next?There are several instances where there are living women that are described as. But it's this heritage sort of thing that was one primary thing. I tried to give a good variety of creative pursuits work roles.I tried to make it approximately half and half mix of what I call the visible women on Route 66.And of course those were the ones that served the traveling public, the ones that were a waitress or a restaurant operator or owned a souvenir shop, that sort of thing. And then the other kind of 50% or so of the women were doing jobs, businesses, creative pursuits, vocations that you don't associate with Route 66.But they were there behind the scenes, and they kind.

Arnold00:08:47

They were where people would go to, like, hotels or. You have architects in here. You talk.

Cheryl00:08:55

Exactly.

Arnold00:08:55

You have the gas station gals, an apron and a coffee pot. Public service artists. And your research on this, I know you've been doing this for 10 years, but it's like, holy smokes.When I found out that William Randolph Hearst's father came from Missouri.

Mark00:09:14

Yes, I did.

Arnold00:09:15

I didn't know that.

Mark00:09:16

Really?

Cheryl00:09:16

No, I didn't know it before I started searching the book because I had never done research specifically on the Hearst family.

Arnold00:09:22

And specifically, was it, if I recall, St. Clair or Cuba?

Cheryl00:09:26

St. Clair.

Arnold00:09:26

St. Claire.

Cheryl00:09:27

I think it was St. Clair.

Arnold00:09:28

Isn't it crazy?

Mark00:09:29

That is.

Cheryl00:09:29

Yeah, it really, really was. And he had made a couple trips to California, and he was one of the few that actually struck gold.

Mark00:09:37

Oh, no.

Cheryl00:09:38

He went. That sort of legendary thing that people pursued that most didn't accomplish.He went to California and found gold, made money, came back, got married. They went back out there. And then the connection with, of course, architect Julia Morgan was incredible.And she is basically known because she is architect of the Hearst for the Hearst family. She also the designer of the Los Angeles Herald examiner newspaper in downtown Los Angeles, which was originally a Hearst newspaper.But that's what helped to put her on or near Route 66.

Mark00:10:16

Mark.

Arnold00:10:16

One of the things I really enjoyed about this was black history and women's history are often left out of general history. This really fills in a lot of gaps. It provides not only what I would say. There's black women in this book, too, and I'm glad you did that.There's Native American women in this book who contributed to all along Route 66.

Cheryl00:10:36

And Latina. There's some Latina women in here as well.

Arnold00:10:39

So it's a really good. You call it a history book of not only the highway, but of women and their contributions in the United States during a time of.What would you say the highway would have been like the mid-30s to maybe the mid-50s?

Cheryl00:11:00

It was designated 1926.

Arnold00:11:02

Okay.

Cheryl00:11:03

So of course, we're experiencing the centennial this year.But one of the things that I always look at Route 66 as, particularly in the earlier decades that you mentioned, it's just a microcosm of American history history, because 20s, you've got that roaring 20s thing, the prohibition, which. With Al Capone in the gangster thing in Chicago, we're really familiar with that here. But in Oklahoma, that was Missouri, that was a thing too.And then the 30s at the Great Depression and the Dust bowl immigrants. That Dust bowl situation hit Arkansas and Oklahoma. Not that Arkansas is part of Route 66, but I mean adjacent to Oma, the Great Plains.And so we saw those people heading toward California forties, World War II affected the whole country, affected all of Route 66. And that's where the, our four lane highways, particularly on Route 66, really got initiated.Because you couldn't take military traffic on a little narrow, two lane, winding, curvy highway. So that was a part of it.But when I talk about the Dust bowl, immigrants going to California, we've always had this westward movement, Manifest Destiny to go farther and let's make more states out of this Native American country. And so that's just such a symbol of Route 66 is that westward movement.Of course, those of us that are simply tourists, we've got to turn around and come back again. But the Western movement is the symbol of it.And during my research I found the funniest quote, and I can't say it verbatim, but from Frank Lloyd Wright, because Frank Lloyd Wright also traveled Route 66.

Arnold00:12:49

Interesting.

Cheryl00:12:51

And he knew that the, he knew the direction that people were going, whether they were Dust bowl immigrants or they were attracted by the drive your automobile, everything. The car culture in California. Frank Lloyd Wright said every now and then the continent tips a little bit and more things slide to California.

Arnold00:13:12

Then if the San Andreas fault goes.

Cheryl00:13:15

To the ocean, yeah, it tip a little farther. But I love that quote. And there again, it's not word for word, but I just think it's such a great quote. And it so sums up because I'm old enough.I remember going to California in the backseat of dad and mom at the wheel and heading from Illinois to California because you were going to Disneyland and you were going to Marine land of the Pacific. And my dad as a young man had been to Hollywood where he worked a while, so of course he wanted to see Hollywood again. And it's just a trope.It's just this thing where you had to go to California.

Mark00:13:49

Yeah. Wow.

Arnold00:13:52

Yeah. Your big, your biggest surprise in researching this and other than William Randolph Hearst's father, but.Or either in a category or for a person or for one of the States.

Cheryl00:14:11

I guess it shouldn't have been a surprise, but I found the category of artistic pursuits mainly in California. And there again just what we were talking about.So I guess it shouldn't have been a surprise, but it was because I had this chart while I was working on the book and I had Two sides to the chart. And one was how many women in each category of pursuit or vocation, and then how many people are in each state?Because I didn't want it to be terribly lopsided. I was conscious of that from Illinois. I thought, I don't want to put all Illinois stories in here if it's supposed to be root.But then I ended up with Mary Coulter, Southwest in California, Architect Julia Morgan, primarily in California. Harriet Tapp Burns, that was a designer at Disney California. And then I thought, I guess that's. It's the way it is. Yeah.And the surprise that I have found, really, after I finished the book is I was surprised readers are at, you know, this woman did this at their pursuits or at. And really there. Again, that shouldn't be a surprise. Women were working at all these things all along. But.

Arnold00:15:34

But is it a surprise because we just haven't heard about it?

Cheryl00:15:37

Yeah, yeah. But I. I think that. Yeah. And there's another little piece of that, too, because some of these women are not, like, they're not well known.Mary Coulter's pretty well known, Julia Morgan, at least in architectural circles. But so many of these women and painters, artists, they're not associated with Route 66. That's been what the surprise has been for everybody.Oh, I didn't know she worked on Route 66.

Arnold00:16:03

But you tied them into Route 66, because maybe one of the buildings that they built was a block away and people flocked there. Or there was a restaurant right there that was very popular and people flocked there.

Cheryl00:16:14

Yeah, exactly.

Arnold00:16:15

Okay.

Cheryl00:16:15

Exactly. I was surprised by that sort of process of.

Arnold00:16:21

So in.

Mark00:16:23

I'm kind of sad they decommissioned the. The road. I think they should have kept it as a historical road for our country. I think it's. It's got quite a history.

Cheryl00:16:32

Some of the states. It's become a scenic byway, an official scenic bywell.

Mark00:16:37

But like you say, it's choppy. You have to come off. And I know it goes through, like, Staunton, Illinois. You have to.

Arnold00:16:42

That's the pink elephant antique.

Mark00:16:44

Yeah. It's a bit off the highway if you want to go and enjoy that. And I think Paul McCartney tried to. Attempted to drive.

Cheryl00:16:52

Paul McCartney drove, I think, just about all of it.

Mark00:16:54

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Cheryl00:16:56

See, but there's a lot of people that agree with that. The real purists of the road and the car folks are. Will never get over it. It was decommissioned. And I get it.

Mark00:17:06

I do, too.

Arnold00:17:07

Was like Americana.

Mark00:17:08

Yeah. It's really a part of our. The thread of Our history here. And it's such a.

Cheryl00:17:13

Absolutely.

Mark00:17:13

Maybe the next president will do that, put somebody aside and redo it.

Arnold00:17:18

Where did that come from?

Mark00:17:19

I don't know.

Cheryl00:17:22

You never know.

Mark00:17:23

You never know. That's. I like the never know.

Arnold00:17:25

This is Arnold Strickland, Mark Langston of St. Louis in tune also, aka you never know or you're gonna find out something that you've never known before here on the show.

Mark00:17:34

This happens when you get older.

Arnold00:17:36

We're more seasoned. We're talking to Cheryl Iker Jett about her latest book, Aprons Women's work on Route 66 and the title, Throw Them Aprons off Ladies.

Cheryl00:17:49

Absolutely. You got it.

Mark00:17:52

But the women contributed more. I guess sometimes they. I. Some people think that during the wartime, women really stepped up and did a lot of work.But these women were like all the time. Didn't matter if it was wartime or not. They were there contributing.

Cheryl00:18:07

And historians, particularly women historians, have argued for years over whether The World War II years were a watershed moment or not for women going to work. And most conclude that it was not because either the jobs they did were no longer needed after the war and.Or other men folk came home and took the jobs back.But the other argument to that is that those women gained jobs, work experience in very specific trades, and they gain confidence that they could do those jobs. So I would like to argue that it certainly wasn't a total waste and.

Arnold00:18:46

It also seemed applicable to other kinds of aspects of a profession. Maybe you were running a hotel and. But hey, if I've done that, I can run this other business here.

Cheryl00:18:55

Absolutely. They gained skills that were transferable.

Mark00:18:59

And I might say, Cheryl, I love your earrings.

Cheryl00:19:01

Oh, thank you.

Mark00:19:02

She has Route 66 earrings on. Just notice that you can't see it on radio, but they are Route 66. The sign. They're the federal sign shape.

Arnold00:19:12

Do you have a favorite woman in here or women. And it could be several.

Cheryl00:19:18

Yeah, there's several.I've been art and architecture fans all my life, so I can't help just love Mary Coulter and Julia Morgan and some of the visual artists that some of the mural artists in here. That really struck me. There were other women, just odd stories that I just really loved. One is in St. James, Missouri, the first female mayor.And you probably can expound that I love her saying, yes, absolutely. So she took advantage of the fact that women had gained the vote because when they moved to St. James, she was.They didn't have children and she thought, oh, this town could use some cleaning up. So she Ran for mayor the first time in 1921, and the women were able to come out and vote, so that was great.And she served three more terms, and she did a lot to clean up the town, and I think she slanted the seeds for public utilities, that sort of thing. But my favorite thing, of course, is she had signs made.So when you entered St. James and when you left St. James, it would say something like, please drive slow and enjoy our beautiful city. Drive fast and see our beautiful jail.

Mark00:20:31

I love it. Yeah, we need more of those sights.

Arnold00:20:34

Yeah, exactly.

Cheryl00:20:35

She just had that sass. She just had that sass about her. And then there was a woman in Groome, Texas, that just had that same sense about her. Her name was Ruby Denton.She came from super average, probably poor family. She worked in restaurants, waitressing and cooking, and she was known as a fabulous cook.When the fellow retired from the restaurant that she was currently working at, she wanted to buy it, and she went to the bank, and they told her flatly, we don't loan money to divorced women. So she had a network of friends and distant relatives that somehow came up with the money. And she was. Ruby was a really sassy person.And there's some funny stories about her.I was lucky to interview one of her daughters, and getting to know the daughter, I think the daughter was really a chip off the old block, because when she'd tell the Ruby stories, you know, her mom's stories, it was just like, wow, this sounds really authentic. But anyway, she. She was feisty, and they all knew her as that. And one day, there were a group of men that came in off the road.There was parking there, and they pulled in, came in the restaurant, and one of them either went back out to the car to get something or went in the restroom or something, but he disappeared for a minute. And think Ruby just had that sense as a waiting on people.You know, how many people there are to take care of, or there are three people or five people or whatever. And this guy copped up behind her when he came from wherever he was, and she jumped. It startled her, and she jumped.And I think it messed up her mental count of how many people she had there. And she had an attitude toward this group until they finally left. And she said, I wonder who those people were.And somebody in the restaurant said, ruby, that was the Oak Ridge Boys. But it just demonstrated she was pretty feisty with people. She had a good heart and she liked people, but she was feisty with them.So I just thought that those two stories are just so Fun and the edge maybe that those women needed to have at the time.

Mark00:22:46

Arnold sings Elvira all the time. Oak Ridge boy song.

Arnold00:22:53

He had to clarify. I know.

Mark00:22:55

Come on. You can do it all the time. It's that low note. I don't know how you do it.

Arnold00:23:00

The I was in. Yeah. You got me speechless here. I was amazed at the. Especially in.And maybe I shouldn't be amazed in Southern California how some of the women were accepted especially in the architectural area in the early 20s and they were going to the San Francisco School of Architecture. That might not be the name of it but for lack of better words that's what I'm calling it. And then they became.They got on firms right away and then they were designing buildings and that are like prominent buildings and they had their own firms. And it was for that to happen that early that was a real significant thing. And for them to be my words allowed to.Because you just mentioned that story about this. She wants to go buy this place and she. They're not going to give her a loan because she was divorced.

Cheryl00:23:45

Yeah. Yeah. And then they also. Besides telling her that they were divorced, she was also told that she got rid of a good Christian man.

Mark00:23:54

Oh. Oh.

Cheryl00:23:55

You know they were pretty down on Ruby. So you can understand why she ended up with an attitude.But these women that you speak of with the architects now I will say Julia Morgan had a mentor, a Bernard Maybeck who was a. Well at the time a really well known architect and he was a male architect. Safe think that assisted her to get started.

Arnold00:24:19

But everybody has some kind of mentor that really helps. And then you have to perform.

Cheryl00:24:24

You have to perform.

Arnold00:24:26

Show your work.

Cheryl00:24:27

Yes.

Arnold00:24:27

And that it has to be something that people like otherwise you're not around anymore.

Cheryl00:24:31

Exactly. Julia Morgan had over 700 buildings built from her designs.

Mark00:24:37

Holy moly.

Cheryl00:24:38

Which is I mean crazy. I don't know how many designs on average modern a living now architect would turn out but 700 seems like an awful lot to me.

Arnold00:24:49

Let's talk about your other love which is the art end of that. Miriam McKinney. I'm very fond of and know her. I don't know her. She's obviously passed but I know her work.

Cheryl00:24:58

Yes.

Arnold00:24:58

And I didn't know that she had done some murals over at the Edwardsville Library.

Cheryl00:25:02

Absolutely.

Arnold00:25:03

But and also didn't know she was up in Minnesota and then down. She ended up here in. In Arkansas and in the metropolitan area. Talk about her a little bit.

Cheryl00:25:13

She was really. She started out as a just normal family. Normal but she did have art influence from her family.She had father, grandfather, I think there was an uncle, too, that were not necessarily artists, but they were appreciative of art and perhaps did smart collecting. So they did move around a little bit. When her father died, they moved to Edwardsville because they had some relatives there.And they lived in the most interesting house in Edwardsville. They lived in a house that was built by an associate of Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Burleigh Griffin, who was in Frank Lloyd Wright's office.And Walter Burleigh Griffin designed this house in Edwardsville, which is actually across the intersection from our West End Service Station, Route 66 welcome Center.

Arnold00:26:04

Oh, wow.

Cheryl00:26:06

And so Walter Burley Griffin designed this house for his brother. And they didn't live in the house very long. So when Miriam McKinney was young, her family moved there. So just all these weird connections.Yeah, just connections everywhere.So there was one particular artist and art instructor whose name escapes me at the moment, but she followed him from art school to art school, and then at one point, he passed away. Within a short period of time, he had passed away and her father had passed away.And she felt like she was making these start overs, you know, new starts all the time. So eventually she was without family, she was without anyone, and she decided to move back to Edwardsville. And then she did marry a man.And Edwardsville lived there for a while before she started teaching a lot in St. Louis and then ended up in Arkansas.But the first two murals that she did for the Edwardsville Public Library were part of that 1930s New Deal thing where artists and writers were being supported somewhat with federal funds. And one mural about industry, and then she did one that was about nature and crops.But the Edwardsville Library suffered a severe fire and those murals were lost. So she came back later and she painted two more murals. This time she painted children's murals. They're like fairy tales, that sort of thing.And they're still there. They're still there in our children's department in the Edwardsville library.

Arnold00:27:37

I think one of the interesting things for me, because I always liked when we would drive as a kid and you'd go to a quote, unquote, filling station.

Cheryl00:27:45

Yes.

Arnold00:27:46

And there's a picture in here. I think gas is what, 12 cents or 15 cents a gallon? They obviously didn't have any problems back then.

Mark00:27:55

No. With Iran?

Arnold00:27:55

No. But how. How many of those. If you're driving down 44, Interstate 44, you do see these remnants of these old filling stations.They're just like a Little stone cottage that's maybe a one or two room. And then you got the overhang where the pumps would be and you would pull in there.But some of the stories you have in here where the women were the driving force behind these things, or they took over the gas station gals. Yeah, gas station gals, yeah.

Cheryl00:28:28

And that was often the situation, not just with gas stations, but with other businesses along the route. They were mom and Pop Enterprises, but Pop wasn't there anymore.Either they were divorced or he just drove away, or he died and mom was left and mom could sink or swim.

Arnold00:28:46

You also include stories about how other people took over other people's businesses, like Gay Mason and Lela Mason. And then Lena Turner took over the business and carried on and I guess cleaned up the shop or whatever.And it's not right on 66 anymore, but it's there. But it's highway, interstate's there. Talk about those stories there.

Cheryl00:29:07

People have to be looking for those places because otherwise they could sit there and nobody would ever come by. And sometimes, as we know in Illinois and a lot of Missouri, the new road and the interstate is real close to. To the old road.You can see it, or it'll at an exit, it'll say old Route 66. You could get off at that exit and see it. But there's some places where that wasn't the case.And Gary Turner's Gay Perita station was one of those where it was quite a ways off the interstate. So you would need to know that it was there and wanted to see it.But that's a wonderful example of four different women that have helped either help to preside or did preside over that station. And of course, there's a living woman there now because Lena Cole Turner's daughter Barbara, and her partner has a.

Arnold00:30:02

Have a carrying on.

Cheryl00:30:03

Yeah, they're carrying on.

Arnold00:30:04

Isn't that great?

Cheryl00:30:04

And they're one of my favorite places in Missouri to stay. You could not find more hospitality than you find they have added to the kind of little complex there. And they've got a covered patio sort of thing.And when you drive in there, her partner George is right there and he says, can I get you a Coke? How about a slice of watermelon?

Mark00:30:26

Oh, yeah. Okay, I'll take both.

Cheryl00:30:29

Exactly. And Barbara is just one of the sweetest women I have ever met. And. And so that was one of the instances where I had to tell about all the women.And the story with the one that's there now, living and breathing and doing a fabulous job.

Arnold00:30:44

In more context of history, you mentioned the Green Book, which I'm very appreciative of, and the ranch out in. Where is it? Out near la.

Cheryl00:30:53

Apple. Apple Valley, Yeah.

Arnold00:30:54

Apple Valley Ranch. Yeah. Talk about that. Entice the listeners to get the book and to come see you at your signings.Because we're going to talk about the signings here in a minute. But yeah, you got a few signings.

Cheryl00:31:07

This couple had lived in Los Angeles and they moved out there and were able to buy some property in an area in around Apple Valley that was friendly to black folks buying property and living there, of course, which was the first hurdle.And their original idea was to start a youth ranch because they knew that there were, you know, youth in the environs of Los Angeles that needed some help. And so that was the original idea. But they couldn't make a living doing that.And at that time there weren't any programs or enough programs to sell support it. So they said, I guess we'll just make it a dude ranch.It was known afterwards as the only Negro dude ranch, what it was called, not that we use that term anymore, but being historically accurate, that's what it was called. So they had that for quite a while. It was very popular. She had bad health, which was part of why they got out of Los Angeles proper to begin with.And she wasn't real young, but she wasn't real old either when she passed away. And then he gave it up and it went through a couple different owners and then it was eventually owned by, I'm blank, Pearl Bailey. Pearl Bailey, yes.Thank you. I'm glad you just read that. And I think of various things. Times were changing.Some of the black owned business stories that I read, the owners were, sorry we got civil rights, but now the blacks don't have to do business with us. So we're losing our business. And the ranch is long gone.

Arnold00:32:41

But along grocery stores along the way, gas stations along the way places, hotels, et cetera, along the way where you had to find a place to stay. And these were advertised in the Green book and I'm glad you included that.We're going to take a brief break and we're going to come back because we're going to talk about something that famously sat on the riverfront in St. Louis that was designed by a woman who's mentioned in this book. This is Arnold Stricker with Mark Langston of St. Louis in Tune. Don't go away. As strange as it may sound at better rate mortgage.We love talking to people about mortgages. Everyone in St. Louis promises a better mortgage rate. But what you really need to turn that perfect house into your dream home is a better mortgage.At Better Rate Mortgage, we open the door to so much more. So where are you in the home buying process? Researching, maybe wondering how much you can afford? House hunting.Get a pre approval from Better Rate Mortgage Ready to buy. Our team is ready to make your mortgage process fast and easy.Whether you're purchasing your first home or taking cash out to make your dream home even dreamier. Our door is open. Come on in and get started. Today. We'll show you how.Call Sean directly at 314-375-3293 or online@betterratemortgage.com Remember, at Better Rate Mortgage, a better rate is just the beginning. Betterratemortgage.com MLS Hot each 40135 and equal. Welcome back to St. Louis in Tune. This is Arnold Stricker with Mark Langston.We're talking to Cheryl Eicher Jett about her book Aprons, women's work on Route 66, and this particular woman. I was just floored because Mark and I have both been on the Admiral before, the SS Admiral.And folks, if you're not familiar with that, you can goggle it and find out what it was about. And also didn't only design the Admiral, but also designed another ship. Talk about Maisie. Georgiana Krebs.

Cheryl00:34:42

I love Maisie's story that she should go back in what we talked about a while ago. My favorite women. I love this woman's story. Mazie grew up in a vaudeville family here in St. Louis. She was a vaudeville brat.And when she wasn't on the road performing with her family, she attended public school here in St. Louis. And she was very creative, very artistically creative.And she went through high school here and won a scholarship to Washington University School of Art.

Arnold00:35:13

She went to Cleveland High School, folks.

Cheryl00:35:15

Yeah.

Mark00:35:15

Crazy. This is crazy talk. Wow.

Arnold00:35:20

Keep going.

Mark00:35:20

Sorry.

Cheryl00:35:21

No problem. I know it's a thing that St. Louis is more high school oriented. I'm an Illinois girl, so I don't know if we do that or not.I guess maybe we do, but anyhow. So Maisie went to art school, but the scholarship didn't pay for everything. And her family was out doing what vaudevillians do on the road.And she found she taught, had to earn some money. So she taught dancing and she just got tired of doing everything. The way she put it in an interview, she said I had to do everything.It was too much Work. I was going to school and I was drawing and I was teaching dance. And so she quit school. She had a scholarship, but she quit school.But she had enough art training and enough talent that she talked her way into the Famous Bar Company back when people actually drew fashion ads for the newspaper advertising. And so that's what she did. She drew fashion ads for Famous Bar. Then she worked out of an ad agency, also in St. Louis.And her ad agency, and I believe she did some of the work for a ship or boat company up in Alton Dreff's Steamer Company. So then she took a little jaunt up to Chicago, where she worked on exhibits for the World's Fair, 1931, 1932 World's Fair.And while she was up there, representative from the Stretchfast Steamer Company came to him, came to her. This story is documented, but it sounds so contrived to me that.Okay, I'm not sure, but the story as it's been written and researched before me is that this captain from the Stretfa Steamer Company came up to Chicago, or maybe he was already there visiting the fair, but talked to Maisie and said, you know that ad agency in St. Louis that you used to work for? She said. He said, I've got a steamer, the president, that I'd like them to do some work on. Maybe they could do some design work for me.Of course, Maisie submitted her own designs and she got hired. And then when it came time to do the Admiral, then she was called back.And the training and the work that she had done in Chicago made her very aware of the sort of newfangled art deco design. And she loved that. And this Captain Stratfus was really wanting to do something different.He wanted to go the exact opposite direction from the old time, gingerbread, calliope playing, type of steamboat that something to take us into the future.And so that really, I think, it's my opinion, but I think that's one of the biggest reasons that Maisie got that job, because she was equipped to handle that style. And style she did. Everything was just elaborate and beautiful.

Mark00:38:24

What an iconic book that was.

Cheryl00:38:26

I read that back in those days that a woman didn't feel like she'd had a good time on the Admiral unless she had visited every one of the ladies restrooms because they were all styled differently and so very beautiful.

Mark00:38:40

Is that right?

Arnold00:38:41

I didn't.

Mark00:38:41

I've never been in the women's restrooms in the end roll.

Arnold00:38:44

I would hope not.

Mark00:38:45

I know.

Arnold00:38:48

What are you saying, Mark? I don't know, we're on the air here.

Mark00:38:50

I enjoyed being on the Admiral a lot, but I never knew that.

Cheryl00:38:53

I think he's explaining why you didn't know that. I'm throwing you around.

Mark00:38:59

I found that. Okay.

Arnold00:39:01

That along with every one of these things, just, like, constantly blowing my mind. The documentarians.

Cheryl00:39:08

Oh, aren't they wonderful?

Arnold00:39:09

It just goes on and on. Your research of this and the people that you've selected for this, just outstanding.

Cheryl00:39:15

Thank you. Thank you very much. And along those lines, I had to cut so many of the stories that I had collected that I have enough for second volume.

Arnold00:39:28

I was going to say, is there a part two coming?

Mark00:39:30

I knew it.

Cheryl00:39:31

It's. That's not official.

Arnold00:39:32

The unabridged version.

Cheryl00:39:35

That's a thought in my head at this point, but I would say, physically, there. There is enough material for a second volume.

Arnold00:39:43

So. Speaking about material, the book is published by Reedy Press. It can.It can be purchased@reedypress readypress.com and also, if you wanted to meet Cheryl, she has some presentations and book signings. Now, I'll post this on the podcast page, but write these down, unless you're driving. Okay. So Saturday, June 6th.

Mark00:40:03

Why not? Who cares?

Arnold00:40:05

In Edwardsville, Illinois, at the west end Service Station. June 11th at.

Mark00:40:10

Wait, wait, you're gonna be at a service station?

Arnold00:40:12

Yeah, it's.

Mark00:40:13

It's along route like a gas station.

Arnold00:40:14

It's the visitor center for.

Mark00:40:16

Yeah, okay. Okay. All right. Sorry. The feeling, it's really great.

Cheryl00:40:19

Filling station restored into a visitor center.

Mark00:40:22

Okay. All right. I Love it.

Arnold00:40:24

Thursday, June 11th at Six Mile Regional Library in Granite City. June 13th at the.

Cheryl00:40:30

Oh, I've got. I didn't. That. That has been moved to later in the year. So.

Mark00:40:35

Okay.

Arnold00:40:35

Tell people to be determined. Okay. All right, so cancel that one, folks. We're going to go back.

Cheryl00:40:42

That one's been moved to a different.

Arnold00:40:43

There's A book signing June 13 in Edwardsville City Park. June 14 at the Old Courthouse here in St. Louis. June 17 at the White Oak Library in Lockport, Illinois.A book signing June 20 at the Litchfield Museum in Litchfield, Illinois. June, July 23 in Alton at the Haner Public Library. 9 August at the Litchfield Museum.13 August at the National Museum of Transportation on Barrett Station Road. There you go.We'll post those so you can get those and make sure if you want to get the book, you can get it there or you can see her and have it signed. Are you going to. I know. It's a presentation. What do they do at a presentation. Do they go, here's your book. Is that what they do?

Cheryl00:41:30

It seems so. There's a lot of words that float around that are somewhat interchangeable. Program, presentation, book, talk, lecture.And some people use one term and some use another. And I think it's all but exactly a presentation. It seems like somebody should get a book or an award.

Mark00:41:48

Yeah.

Cheryl00:41:49

I might add that there are quite a few more events that are not on the list that you got, but they are on my website.

Arnold00:41:55

And your website is.

Cheryl00:41:56

Cheryl ikerjet.com okay, I'll post that at.

Arnold00:42:01

C H E R Y L E I C H A R J T T dot com.

Cheryl00:42:09

Yes.

Arnold00:42:09

And I'll post that on the website.

Mark00:42:11

Also, I have a crazy question. I'm sorry. We're talking about words from the guy.

Arnold00:42:15

That go has never been in the women's bathrooms on the ad. Only admits it.

Mark00:42:19

Where words mean so many different things. Do you prefer root or route?

Cheryl00:42:24

Oh, that's a funny question.

Mark00:42:27

Come from a funny man. I'm a root guy.

Cheryl00:42:32

Some people say route, some people say route.Our own tourism bureau across the big muddy Mississippi is great rivers and routes, but they handle Route 66, the route things got implanted in Bobby Troup's song. And since then, even if people normally say route, they usually say route.So if you look it up, then it talks about British pronunciation and English. And then are you using it for this purpose and that purpose? So say what you want, but generally for this highway, it's root.

Arnold00:43:08

I can't see Nat King Cole and the trio singing get your kicks on Route 66.

Cheryl00:43:16

Can't do it.

Mark00:43:17

Goes back to my broadcast days in school.

Arnold00:43:20

Absolutely.

Mark00:43:21

It was a big conversation. Root and route.

Arnold00:43:23

Okay.

Mark00:43:24

And I think root is supposed to be the way, but route has developed.

Cheryl00:43:28

Yeah, that's a good question.

Mark00:43:30

It's a fun question to figure out how people like it. Yeah.

Arnold00:43:33

Folks, if you have more questions for Cheryl, you can meet her at one of those places. But you need to get her book aprons. Woman's work on Route 66. Cheryl Eicher. Jett, thanks for coming in today.

Cheryl00:43:44

Thank you so much for having me. It was really a lot of fun.

Arnold00:43:47

Thank you. We're going to take a brief break. And Cheryl, you're allowed to stay here if you want. We're going to wrap things up.This is Arnold Stricker with Mark Langston of St. Louis. Tune Catch up some more mental floss about Route 66 in just a moment.Everyone in St. Louis promises a better mortgage rate, but what you really need to turn that perfect house into your dream home is a better mortgage. At Better Rate Mortgage, we open the door to so much more.Whether you're purchasing your first home or taking cash out to make your dream home even dreamier, our door is open. Come on in and get started. Today. We'll show you how.Call Sean directly at 314-375-3293 or online@betterratemortgage.com Remember, at Better Rate Mortgage, a better rate is just the beginning.Betterratemortgage.com and MLS ID 2401335 an equal housing lender this is Arnold Stricker of St. Louis in tune on behalf of the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation. In 1857, the Dred Scott decision was a major legal event and catalyst that contributed to the Civil War.The decision declared that Dred Scott could not be free because he was not a citizen.The 14th Amendment, also called the Dred Scott Amendment, granted citizenship to all born or naturalized here in our country and was intended to overturn the US Supreme Court decision on July 9, 1868.The Dred Scott Heritage foundation is requesting a commemorative stamp to be issued from the US Postal Service to recognize and remember the heritage of this amendment by issuing a stamp with the likeness of the man Dred Scott. But we need your support and the support of thousands of people who would like to see this happen.To achieve this goal, we ask you to download, sign and share the one page petition with others. To find the petition, please go to dredscottlives.org and click on the Dred Scott Petition drive on the right side of the page.On behalf of the Dred Scott Heritage foundation, this has been Arnold Stricker of St. Louis in tunes. Welcome back to St. Louis in June. This is Arnold Stricker with Mark Langston. Thank you for joining us.Aprons away A Woman's work on Route 66 Cheryl Iker Jett Gotta catch that book folks. Very good. Great paperback fun. Read about the 2,448 mile journey. So some mental flaws here.Mark about Route 66 In 1928, promoters held a foot race across Route 66. Now not just going the width, this is the length.Charles Pyle spearheaded an ambitious promotional plan for the new highway, a race from LA to New York City, which was not the end of Chicago was the end. The only catch. The race would happen entirely on foot.He dubbed it the Transcontinental Foot Race, though some skeptical newspaper reporters soon began referring to it as the Bunyan Derby.

Mark00:46:39

Yeah.

Arnold00:46:40

The prize was 25 grand. Nearly 300 runners set out to sprint across the country.The first 2,400 miles of the 3,400 mile race followed Route 66, with checkpoints in towns that had agreed to finance. Ultimately, Cherokee citizen Andy Payne took home the title.If you drive through Oklahoma on Route 66 today, you can still find his statue and take a moment to consider how lucky you are to reach your final destination on wheels. And in fewer than 573 hours.

Mark00:47:11

Wow. Wow. Where did they sleep along the way? They just stop and jump in a ditch.

Arnold00:47:20

Crazy.

Cheryl00:47:20

Anywhere they could.

Arnold00:47:22

So I mentioned about John Steinbeck earlier.

Mark00:47:25

Yes, I remember.

Arnold00:47:26

And he nicknamed Route 66 the Mother Road. It's gone by many names since its 1926 inception, including America's Main street, but Steinbeck's the Mother Road.In his Depression era novel, the Grapes of Wrath, he tells story of the poor family who flees Oklahoma for California during the Badus Bowl. They travel along Route 66 with thousands of fellow migrants. He said 66 is the path of people in flight. 66 Is the mother Road, the mother of Flight.

Mark00:47:55

Wow, that's great.

Arnold00:47:57

There's a couple other things. The Great Depression spurred thousands to head west, which we just kind of found out. The New Deal helped finish Route 66.Oh, I has a long military history. It crosses how many states?

Mark00:48:11

I'm going to have to think about that. Let me see.

Arnold00:48:13

Eight states, 2400 paved miles ran from the Great Lakes to the edge of the Pacific. So we have Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Arizona and New Mexico before arriving in Southern California.The longest stretch drivable is in Oklahoma.

Mark00:48:30

Wow. Okay. Who knew? We're gonna have to find that drum roll for you.

Arnold00:48:34

Yeah.

Mark00:48:35

I'm not sure where it went. I think the drums are.

Arnold00:48:38

The snare's been turned off.

Mark00:48:39

They're working on the drum somewhere over there. Oh, wait. I think we found it. Okay, next time. Okay.

Arnold00:48:46

You have any day? Is it Route 66 day?

Mark00:48:48

No, it should be. It's American Indian Citizenship Day.

Arnold00:48:52

Well, that works too.

Mark00:48:53

Yeah.

Arnold00:48:53

Doesn't that?

Mark00:48:53

It's close to what with what's been happening here. National Bubba Day.

Arnold00:49:01

Oh, that's every day, isn't it?

Mark00:49:04

No, it's not.

Arnold00:49:06

Depends on who you meet that day.

Mark00:49:07

I know it. Let's see. National First Ladies Day.

Arnold00:49:11

Okay.

Mark00:49:12

I don't know. My wife was a First lady when I was a mayor. She was the first lady of Maplewood.

Arnold00:49:17

Yeah.

Mark00:49:18

She even has a shirt says First Lady. She hated it. Okay, National. I love my dentist. Day. This is your favorite day, isn't it? Arnold's had more work.

Arnold00:49:33

He had more work in the dentist chair. I can sleep in the dentist chair.

Mark00:49:36

It seems like every time his kid is going to college, you have a.

Arnold00:49:39

Lot of work or he needs a car painting. That's what I said. One time I went into the oral surgeon. You got to pay for your kitchen.

Mark00:49:47

I believe it. National Rocky Road Day. Do you like Rocky Road, anybody? No. You're not a Rocky Road.

Arnold00:49:56

I'll eat it.

Mark00:49:57

Well, yeah. Yeah, okay.

Arnold00:49:58

I'll eat all ice cream.

Mark00:49:59

Yeah. Let's see. Republic Day in Italy. If you. I have a friend going.

Arnold00:50:04

Republic Day. Which. Which government are they on now?

Mark00:50:07

Who knows? I know.

Arnold00:50:08

513Th, and this is for everybody.

Mark00:50:10

National leave work early day is today. So we're going now. We're not going to finish the last 10 minutes. We're done. We're out of here. Sorry. Okay. Just going to go quiet.

Arnold00:50:25

We don't have any fun on this show.

Mark00:50:26

It's going to go quiet all of a sudden. And that's just a few of the many things that Congress has passed because they're doing that instead of the important.

Arnold00:50:35

Things of life for us.

Mark00:50:36

National Best Friends Day. How about that? That's coming up. National Best Friends Day.

Arnold00:50:40

Okay.

Mark00:50:41

World Bicycle Day.

Arnold00:50:42

Yeah.

Mark00:50:42

Are you still riding your electric bike?

Arnold00:50:44

Yes, I am.

Mark00:50:45

There's a big thing about those lately.

Arnold00:50:47

I love them.

Mark00:50:48

About the young kids, the youngsters.

Arnold00:50:50

They're all riding them too now.

Mark00:50:51

Yeah. Running people off.

Arnold00:50:53

They don't pedal.

Mark00:50:55

They just.

Arnold00:50:55

Just turn the throttle on.

Mark00:50:57

I was just looking at one the other day going, gosh, if I had that when I was a kid, I probably would have been in a lot of trouble.

Arnold00:51:02

Yeah.

Mark00:51:02

Or run into a lot of things or.

Arnold00:51:05

Yeah, that's why I have a bell. I want a truck horn.

Mark00:51:09

Oh, yeah. You need one of those. Yeah. You need a train horn?

Arnold00:51:11

Yeah, that would be great.

Mark00:51:15

Okay.

Arnold00:51:16

All right. Mark, do you know if mediums can communicate with the dead? Just imagine what a large can do.

Mark00:51:27

It's gonna get worse, Cheryl. You know, I got this for you.

Arnold00:51:30

Guy got pulled over by a police officer and said, a speeding ticket. What am I supposed to do with this? Police officer said, you can collect them, and when you get five, you get a bicycle.So don't laugh too hard about this one. In their first biochemistry class, medical students were standing around a table with a urine sample.The professor dipped his finger into the sample and then tasted it. He then asked the students to do the same. They felt uncomfortable but after some time, all of them followed his example and tasted it.After everyone finished, the professor said, this is really important, folks. I'm serious. The most important skill is observation. I dipped my middle finger, but I tasted my index finger. Today you learned how to pay attention.

Mark00:52:15

Oh, my gosh. That's good.

Arnold00:52:22

Goodness.

Mark00:52:22

A tough room. It's a very tough room.

Arnold00:52:27

Okay, so you're playing the Oregon Trail, and you run into a man named Terry. You laugh at him and say, that's a girly name. Terry shoots you. You have died from dysentery.

Mark00:52:42

Wow, Arnold.

Arnold00:52:44

And a tourist was admiring the necklace worn by a local Native American. What is it made of? She asked. Alligators. Teeth, he replied. She said in a patronizing manner, that they mean as much to you as pearls do to us.Oh, no, he objected. Anyone can open an oyster.

Mark00:53:06

Wow. Kiss your wife with that mouth.

Arnold00:53:11

And lastly, I was the best man at my brother's wedding in Paris. At the reception, I raised my champagne glass and said, egg, cinnamon bread and maple syrup. It was a French toast.

Cheryl00:53:27

Take a bow.

Mark00:53:30

Oh, my God.

Arnold00:53:32

That's all for this hour, folks. Thank you for joining us.If you've enjoyed this episode, you can listen to more episodes@stlintune.com where you can leave a review and also follow us. We want to thank Bob Berthisel for our theme music, our guest, Cheryl Eicher Jett, and co host Mark Langston.And we thank you for being a part of our community of Curious Minds. St. Louis and Tune is a production of Motif Media Group and the U.S. radio Network.Don't forget, keep listening, keep learning, walk worthy, and let your light shine. For Saint Lucian tune, I'm Arnold Stricker.

Mark00:54:23

Sam.