Mary Jane Roach Masters Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Q. What were your childhood surroundings like?
A. Oh, I was an apartment child. (Chuckle) Very happy. I'm sorry to say I have no tragedies to
recall in my childhood.( Chuckle)
Q. Do you have fond memories of anything in particular? Chicago in the fifth grade?
A. (Chuckle) Yes, that was fun. That was lots of fun. We moved to Chicago for a year and a
half when I was ten and I loved it because I was old enough to have a certain amount of freedom.
I was having my teeth straightened and I had to go down into 'the Loop' alone, and my mother
permitted me to go on the elevated alone. She must have died a thousand deaths but I was never
disturbed or worried at all about it. Anyway, we didn't know many people so we drove around a
great deal, and to this day I know my way around Chicago better than I know my way around St.
Louis which, of course, is an 18th Century city whereas Chicago is a 20th century city built on the
grid.
Q. Tell us something about St. Louis a little bit. Through this paper you wrote. .
A. Well, of course, it has a very long and interesting history because it really coincides with the
Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase, and its been under several countries' control;
the Spaniards and the French, the English and the Americans. Four flags, I believe, have gone up
over St. Louis, but it finally became an American city in the 18th Century and in the 19th Century
it was very interesting in that it had a tremendous immigration, not only from the Irish but also the
Germans, and it became a really quite Teutonic city and later they were very active in the
Unitarian Church also so that it was a combination with the Bostonian thing; the Unitarian is the
Eliot family, for example plus the wonderful South St. Louis Germans who supported
Washington University and the Unitarian Church. Of course, there was also St. Louis University
in the city with which I never had any connection until years later when I was working with the
Humanities at the SIU Medical School and took a Literature and Medicine course from a very
bright professor, a night school thing at St. Louis University. It was my discovery of St. Louis
University which is the oldest Catholic University west of the Mississippi. But these were
separate worlds.
Q. I'm surprised you didn't become a historian rather than an English major.
A. Well you learn a great deal about history through literature and it's always been a part of my
interests in life. And I took languages as well.
Q. Were you a reader and inquisitive?
A. Yes, a voracious reader. My father was always very pleased about this but said, "Don't be a
bookworm, go out and exercise." (Chuckle)