Ella Lee Carley met Raymond Lamont Pierce (1923-1981) when the two of them were working at Gulf Shipbuilding Corp. in Chickasaw, Alabama, during World War II.
Ella Lee, as she was always called, joined the war workers flooding into Mobile from the rural areas of Mississippi and Alabama. The demand for workers at the city's shipyards and Brookley Army Air Force Base was so great that the city's population doubled almost overnight. Ella Lee moved from Electric Mills, Mississippi, and counted herself lucky because she had friends in Mobile who gave her a place to live. Housing was very scarce. So scarce in fact that many places rented beds for 8-hour shifts.
The above photo was taken in front of the Reservoir Inn. As you can tell by the sign, N.B. "Bonie" had switched from selling the Sinclair gasoline brand, which he sold when the business first opened, to the Cities Service brand.
Ella Lee, as she was always called, joined the war workers flooding into Mobile from the rural areas of Mississippi and Alabama. The demand for workers at the city's shipyards and Brookley Army Air Force Base was so great that the city's population doubled almost overnight. Ella Lee moved from Electric Mills, Mississippi, and counted herself lucky because she had friends in Mobile who gave her a place to live. Housing was very scarce. So scarce in fact that many places rented beds for 8-hour shifts.
The above photo was taken in front of the Reservoir Inn. As you can tell by the sign, N.B. "Bonie" had switched from selling the Sinclair gasoline brand, which he sold when the business first opened, to the Cities Service brand.
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