Polson, Lois

Oral History Program

Lois Polson discusses growing up in Farr West and, particularly, her nursing career during World War II at the Thomas Dee Memorial Hospital. She reviews medical practices, rationing and other wartime conditions, as well as memories of seeing POWs at the DDO. She also recalls (apparently) interred Japanese-Americans living in shacks on “Tokyo Road” near Willard Bay. She also discusses resentment toward Japanese-American medical personnel working at the hospital during the war. Life in Ogden before, during, and after the war is also of interest, including 25th Street and its clubs, prostitution, etc. She also recalls problems with soldiers on leave, prohibitions against nurses dating them, and a Belgian doctor who performed abortions at the Hotel Ben Lomond, and a local young man who faked being a second lieutenant and a lab technician. The interview took place on August 4, 1972.

Interviewee