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Title
Oral History of Betsy Andresen
Contributing Institution
Mill Valley Public Library
Collection
Mill Valley History Online
Rights Information
Please contact the contributing institution for more information regarding the copyright status of this object.
Description
Betsy Andresen, nee Betsy Anne Brown, begins her oral history with the story of her parents meeting and recounts her family uprooting and sailing from Seattle to San Francisco in 1918, one year after her birth. Betsy describes a move in 1924 to San Anselmo, and fondly recalls how during the family's three-year stint in Marin they would take the electric train from San Anselmo's Lansdale Station to Sausalito, and then the ferry into "The City." The family moved back to San Francisco in 1927, and Betsy later graduated with an elementary teaching credential from San Francisco State College. Betty describes meeting her future husband, Bob Andresen, while he was at Hasting Law School. The two were married in 1940. After living in San Francisco, the Andresens moved to Seattle, where Bob was in Army Intelligence for the duration of World War II. They moved to Mill Valley after the war ended, finding a lot on Magee Avenue where they built a house. Betty describes the process of finding the builders and materials for the house, and then the work they themselves did on it. She also discusses their subsequent move to a house "in the flats," and later to another house in the Strawberry area. She recalls neighbors that lived around them in all three locations, and then goes on to discuss a busy life in Mill Valley with her husband and two children. Betsy became active in the PTA, Tennis Club, Outdoor Art Club (as president in 1977), Community Church and Rotary Auxiliary, and once again became a teacher. Finally, Betty discusses the changes she has seen over the years since she moved to Mill Valley in 1946.
Identifier
271B1EF4-CCD4-4392-9256-431636719779
2016.072.001
Subject
Andresen, Bob
Andresen, Eric
Andresen, Margaret Rose
Breeze, Richard
Canepa, Frank
Community Church
Falley, Will
Ferries
Ford, Onslow
Green Frog Food Center
Ing, Elsie
Jenkins, Bob
McWaters, Thomas
Mill Valley changes
Mill Valley Lumber Yard
Mill Valley Market
Mill Valley Rotary Club
Mill Valley Tennis Club
MV history - Baby boom years (1950s and early 1960s)
Oral history - Volunteerism, activism
Organizations
Organizations & Clubs
Outdoor Art Club
Parent-Teacher Association
Semsen, Aubra
Stilton, Virginia
Teachers
World War II
Zisser, Bea

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