Interview of Mrs. Rebecca Hardaway King

Interviewer: Forrest Parker

Faculty Facilitator: Ms. Sonya Boyd, Mr. Phil Linn

Date of Interview: 3-10-06

Mrs. Rebecca Hardaway King was born in Columbus on May 27, 1927, the youngest of three children; Ben was her older brother, and Sarah, her older sister, later married Jack Hughston, founder of Hughston Clinic. Her father, Benjamin Hardaway, was the chairman of the Hardaway Construction Company, which had been founded by her grandfather.

In 1941, Mrs. King was 14 years old and a freshman at Columbus High School.. Prior to that , she had attended Wynnton Elementary School and 16 th Street Elementary. Because her family did not live in the city, when the school at Wynnton had too many students, she and others who lived out in the county were transferred to 16 th Street Elementary. After her sophomore year at Columbus, she attended Ogontz, a preparatory school in Philadelphia. Mrs. King admitted she was a precocious child, and had many adventures and misadventures during the war years.

She recalls her father returning from a business trip to Puerto Rico before the war, where his company had a construction project. He told his family and friends then that the Japanese were buying huge quantities of scrap metal, and he felt then that war was not far away. When it came, Ms. King and her friends were playing badminton with friends at the Hardaway house in Midland. They had been to church that Sunday, eaten lunch, and had not been listening to the radio. The news was delivered by friends. “We were in shock,” she remembers.

Living out in the country, recreational activities were limited, especially with the restrictions of gas rationing. Ms. King recalls Morrison’s Cafeteria as a popular eating place, along with Spano’s Restaurant. Teens enjoyed the Goo Goo Drive-In, across from Linwood Cemetary. Her favorite was the fried steak sandwiches served there. The Empire Café was a popular eating place, especially late at night after dances. There were two major theaters downtown at the time--, the Grand, which later was the site of the Bradley Theater, was the best one, while the Rialto was less preferred—“you didn’t go there unless you were really desperate”. She recalls that the Royal Theater, which was later the Three Arts, was also available, showing mostly cowboy movies. Although there was an active social life during that time, she was too young to take part in many of the activities, although she did attend dances occasionally at Ft. Benning.. Her favorite singer was Frank Sinatra.

Gas rationing affected people at all levels. Ms. King remembers an embarrassing incident that happened to her mother. Evidently, cars had to have stickers according to the category of gas rationing they qualified for. Because her own car was short of gas on this particular occasion, her mother used Mr. Hardaway’s official business car to attend a club meeting. During the meeting, a policeman cited several cars which were not being used for their intended purposes, and the names of the owners appeared in the paper the next day. Mr. Hardaway was not happy, and “that was the last time that happened, I can tell you!”

At Ogontz later in the war, Ms. King remembers that there was a strict dress code for girls going out after school. Despite the rationing of silk/nylon material, which was used for parachutes, girls at the school were required to wear silk stockings. If they didn’t wear them, they were sent back to their rooms. Leg make-up and drawing a line down the back of the leg with an eyebrow pencil to imitate a seam, which worked back in Columbus, was not sufficient.

Ms. King started drinking coffee while at Ogontz, and because sugar was rationed, she always drank it black, a habit she continues to this day. Tires were rationed as well, and she recalls that the retreads that were sold were the cause of many blowouts. Billboards advertising Lucky Strike cigarettes reported that the characteristic green package used by the company had been changed to white, with the slogan “Lucky Strike green has gone to war” Even after the war, there was a shortage of meat. Ms. King said that her father was in New York City on business, and was eating dinner in the Starlight Room of the Waldorf Astoria. Upon ordering steak, which was on the menu, the waiter reportedly told him, “If you want steak, you should have ridden it up here”—“Daddy was furious”, she said.

Although Ms. King did not work at the USO during the war, she did help serve punch at the canteen set up for soldiers at St. Paul’s Church at 3d Avenue and 13 th Street. Evidently, there was no dancing allowed, but it was a place where soldiers could come for a drink, eat a snack, and have some conversation with Christian young ladies. Contact with the soldiers was strictly monitored—the woman who was the chaperone was “the meanest old lady in Columbus”, according to Mrs. King.

The mention of Phenix City brought a matter-of-fact response from Mrs. King. All sorts of people went to Phenix City—not just soldiers. “ Columbus was a quiet place”, she explained, and in Phenix City, “there was music, entertainment, and whiskey”.

Mrs. King had numerous anecdotes about her life during the war which demonstrate what conditions were like at the time, and the fact that she was forever “getting into trouble”. Traveling to Ogontz in Philadelphia involved an overnight train trip with a transfer in Atlanta. Unless one had a private sleeping compartment, which was both expensive and difficult to obtain during the war, overnight travelers used sleeping cars with bunk beds and curtains for privacy—it was not very private. Returning to Columbus during one school break, Mrs. King related that after conversing with friends in the lounge car, she went back to her seat in the passenger coach only to find that the train had already stopped, disconnected her car, and continued on. Luckily, she was able to get off at the next stop and catch another train back to Atlanta, where another passenger from Columbus was kind enough to provide her with transportation to Columbus.

Returning to Columbus when school was out, Mrs. King did find time occasionally to date some young officers training at Fort Benning. The family had close connections to the military, not only through Mr. Hardaway’s business contacts, but also through her uncle, General Manton Eddy, who commanded the 9 th Infantry Division in WWII. These connections once led to a date with John Eisenhower, the son of General Dwight Eisenhower. A cadet at the time, John and Rebecca did not hit it off—“he was the most unattractive man I ever met” was her comment. Another date with a cadet led to her being banned from the Military Academy at West Point. At Ogontz, a blind date had been arranged for her at West Point, where she found out that an acquaintance who was on his way overseas would be passing through. After her date with the cadet, she snuck out of her boarding house to bid farewell to her friend. Returning from Bear Mountain, she was caught and ultimately informed that she was no longer welcome at the Academy.

While still at Columbus High, she and a friend decided to play hooky one day. At the time, the school was ruled with an iron fist by Mr. B. F. Kendrick, feared and respected by all the students. Feigning illness, they departed the school and caught a bus or trolley downtown, where they decided to see a movie at the Rialto Theater. Enjoying the movie up in the balcony, she was startled when the movie was interrupted by the announcement “If Rebecca Hardaway is in the theater, please come to the box office immediately”. Thinking she was about to come face to face with Mr. Kendrick, she found to her relief it was her father’s chauffeur, who took her home from school in the afternoons. He had gone to pick her up at school, and then searched the town for her. This was the last place that he thought she might be. Fearful of being reported to Mr. Kendrick, she tearfully admitted everything to her mother when she got home. She promised her that she had never been so scared in her life and that she would never do something like that again.

Mr Hardaway owned a yacht, which at the beginning of the war was moored in Miami. All yacht owners were told to remove their boats from the coastal areas. Mr. Hardaway took the girls with him to sail the boat up the intercoastal, through Lake Okeechobee, and then on to Pensacola. Near Fort Lauderdale, sailing at night, Mr. Hardaway had his boat running lights on. A coastal watcher mistook the bobbing lights for an attempt to send a signal to the enemy submarines, and the yacht was stopped and Mr. Hardaway was required to appear in court to explain his actions. He was able to do so, and the yacht was allowed to continue its journey to Pensacola.

The death of President Roosevelt in April 1945 came when she was at school in Ogontz. Mrs. King had met FDR during one of his trips to Warm Springs. She was surprised at the reaction of some of her classmates at the school, whose families obviously were upper-crust Republicans. They were running around and clapping at the news.

In the summer of 1945, Rebecca Hardaway married Buford King, who was a friend of her brother, Ben. One of five sons whose family owned the King Grocery Company, Lieutenant King had seen action in Africa, Italy, and France. Wounded after the D-Day invasion in action around St. Lo, he received a Silver Star for his actions.