A v»
Local college students
study in Japan, France
H o m e at O ra l H u ll
After a lifetime of travel, woman at home in Sandy
by PAULA BURNS
Alice Bankston, 88, has worked
and traveled throughout the world,
but she has a fondness for the quiet
weekends she spends at the
beautiful and secluded grounds at
the Oral Hull Foundation for the
Blind, where she stays in her
privately owned trailer with her
seeing-eye dog, Dixie.
Bankston, who looks 20 years
younger than her age, talks with
pride about her accomplishments
She was born and raised in
Brooklyn, N .Y ., and after a brief
m a rria g e , moved to southern
California and purchased a home in
E l Monte, which she owned from
1923 to 1986 "However I traveled
all over the United State* in bet
ween," she said
One of her Jobs took her to the
East Coast where she worked for
four months for Reader’s Digest
magazine as a training supervisor
for 109 women She returned to
southern California and said she
"tried to get in uniform when the
second world war started." She had
some fam iliarity with the govern
m e n t. h a v in g w o rked as a
secretary for the domestic trade
department in Los Angeles from
1928 to 1934
Bankston said getting into
uniform did not materialize. Even
though she passed all written ex
am s, she failed the physical
because of retinitis pigmentosa, a
progressive degenerative disease
of the eye. which would eventually
cause total blindness
“ When 1 was 18, they discovered I
had it," she said
A fter failing the physical, Bankston
was still determined to work for the
government in some capacity. "So
1 got a Job with the war department
as a civilian," she said
She was sent to the war depart
ment in San Francisco, which was
responsible for employing workers
for Venecia Arsenol, a branch of
the arm y Her Job consisted of
analyzing various Jobs, writing job
descriptions and assigning ap
propriate grade numbers to each
Job Little did she know that her Job
experience would prepare her to
travel overseas at a later date, per
forming similar tasks.
Bankston resigned 2'» years later
because of a reduction in force, and
returned to her home in El Monte,
where she took flying lessons She
BORING - Two L in fM d College
students from this community are
studying overseas this fall as par
ticipants in L in field 's semester
s broad program
received a pilot's license, but her
eye disease prevented her from
realizing a goal of getting a com
mercial license, and as a result, she
was restricted to flying alone. **I
could not take anyone but myself
and I certainly did have a delightful
tim e,” she said
While she was having fun flying,
the personnel officer she had work
ed for at Venecia Arsenol. who was
with the Department of Defense in
Washington, D.C., recommended
her for a Job in Okinawa, where he
was being transferred "So I went
as head of the classification branch
of civilian personnel." she said
H er Job involvea w ritin g jo b
classifications and assigning grade
numbers to them
After working about three years
in Okinawa. Bankston said, " I got
bored with being on the island and
resigned "
She decided to tour the Orient,
and included Athens. Italy, Paris
and Germany in her travels While
she was touring Wiesbaden. G er
many, she was offered a Job with
the Air Force She wrote job
d e s c rip tio n s fo r a ll c iv ilia n
employees of the command level of
the A ir Force, including NATO
employee*
One year later the headquarters
were moved from Wiesbaden to
Paris " I did the same work all over
Europe," she said. "That was very
interesting work There were all
kinds of Jobs Jobs you’d never
guess about ”
In 1953. she resigned, returned to
California, "and played for three
years.” she said. "Then I decided
I'd better do some more work in my
life because I was running out of
money."
She then applied for another
government job and was sent to San
Diego writing Job descriptions for
the Bureau of Yards and Dock, an
engineering arm of the U S . Navy
About two years later she was
transferred to the head office in
Washington. D.C., and stayed there
until she retired in 1 *4
During the years she worked her
eyesight progressively worsened.
Bankston said But it did not ad
vance into the final stages until
after she retired and moved to Seat
tle . She tra v e le d throughout
Washington and got people in
terested in forming an organization
called Washington Council of the
Blind, an affiliate of the American
Anne Lindberg is studying in
Japan, while Lisa Lind is in France
The students left Oregon Aug- 1 and
w ill return home in i
In the Japan pro
w ill be studying.
Japanese culture snd society snd
Japanese political and economic in
stitutions at Kanto Gakuin Uaiverei-
Z 7 Z
i
Council of the Blind Bankston said
the p rim a ry function of the
organization was to develop means
of assisting blind individuals to live
as independently as possible
Bankston also wrote for the
Braille Reporter, a newspaper for
the Wind. One article she wrote was
about the beauty of the park main
tained by the Oral Hull Foundation
for the Blind in Sandy
She said because she knew about
the beauty of Oral Hull, and after
researching it for the article, she
decided to move to Sandy and has
lived there on weekends from spr
D a v id B u r g h a r d t
J o h n S c h u ld h e is s
Navy Seaman David A. Burghardt
has completed a Russian language
course at the Defense Language In
stitute at the Presidio base in
Monterey. Calif
Classes, which consist of six to
eight students, offer six hours of in
tensive spoken language instruction
daily.
He is the son of Adam and
Charlotte Burghardt of 40977 S.E
Wildcat Mountain Drive.
A ir F o rc e 2nd L t. John J.
Schuldheiss has arrived for duty with
the 2021st In fo rm atio n Systems
Squadron. Tyndall A ir Force Base.
He is the son of Iris Harris of 21965
S.E. McCabe Road, Sandy: and
grandson of John Steiner, 49550 S.E.
Coalman Road. Sandy.
3
CUSTOM HOMEBUILDING
J a m e s S o rre ls
Country Cut-ups
offer lessons
BORING - The Country Cut ups, a
Boring-based square dance group, is
offering lessons beginning Sept 11.
T h e lessons a re o ffe re d on
Thursdays from 7:30 to 9:30 p m at
the Boring Bam , one-fourth mile
south of Highway 212 on Southeast
Richey Road Don Young is the caller
and instructor for the classes Cost is
84 per couple per less«’., but the first
session is free
For additional information, call
781 2493. 863-3102. or 655-1775
ing to fall for about 13 years She
also has an apartment in Sandy
Currently Bankston is a coor
dinator of volunteers for Oral Hull
She is also a spokeswoman for Oral
Hull and has often spoken on televi
sion and in front of groups at
various clubs. “ I give talks to
various organizations, accom
panied by slides," she said.
Even though Bankston refers to
her life now as being “lazy” com
pared to her past, overall she feels
she has led an exciting life. ‘‘I've
had fun I've had a delightful time
living," she said.
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CUJTOSf# StWCf
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chiton rum
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confuti ob
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ad Dixie
Alice I
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He is an a ir traffic control officer.
SOUS «JlCSS
ty in Yokohama.
Thia month, she snd the other i l
Linfield students visiting Japan are
participating in an orientation pro
gram with emphasis on intensive
“ s u rv iv a l” Japanese lan g u age
•studies snd field trips to acquaint
them with Japanese culture.
In Paris, France, Lind and 13 other
Linfield students will be studying
French language. French a rt and
literature and contemporary French
society this fill The students in
France also are involved in an orien
tation program this month.
/
In the military
James S. Sorrels Jr has enlisted in
the U S Army and will leave for his
assignm ent as a food service
specialist at Fort Bragg, N.C., on
Nov 19.
Sorrels is married to Sandra Lyn
Sorrels of Seaside He is the son of
James Sorrels Sr of Sandy and Wan
da Sorrels of Seaside
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