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1943 radio broadcast stuns World War II sailor at sea
By Mark J. Price
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Monday, Dec 01, 2008
World War II sailor Dick Snader was tired and homesick.
The 20-year-old Akron radioman worked the midnight shift aboard the oil tanker M.S. Brunswick, sending and receiving messages in a tiny room filled with electronic equipment. The giant ship had just dropped off a load of Venezuelan oil in Portland, Maine, and was traveling down the Atlantic coast toward New York in December 1943.
Sunrise signaled the end of Snader's shift as the tanker cruised about 75 miles offshore. After the morning crew arrived at 8 a.m., Snader took off his headset and wandered over to the galley in search of hot coffee.
At first, he didn't notice the small radio playing softly on a wooden shelf in the galley. It was picking up a live broadcast from Manhattan, but no one was paying much attention.
''I heard this woman on there,'' recalled Snader, a Fairlawn resident who is now 85. ''It was just on in the background. I heard her saying something about 'Mrs. Snader.' I went, 'What the hell is that?' I turned it up a little bit and listened to it.''
The commentator was Adelaide Hawley, whose NBC program attracted an audience of 3 million people. The pleasant-sounding Hawley, a broadcasting pioneer, was destined to become a cultural icon as television's original Betty Crocker in commercials from 1949 to 1964.
Snader's jaw dropped when Hawley introduced a special guest at the WEAF studio in New York. The visitor's voice was unmistakable.
''She was interviewing my mom,'' he said.
Mary Snader, age 46, a mother of five and grandmother of two, entered the national spotlight that week for her contributions to the U.S. war effort.
An airplane tire builder at Firestone in Akron, Mrs. Snader was one of six women honored on Dec. 9, 1943, at the War Congress of American Industry sponsored by the National Association of Manufacturers. Each ''Rosie the Riveter'' represented a vital industry in the war effort: aircraft, chemistry, steel, shipbuilding, transportation and rubber.
The radio show bewildered Snader, who couldn't believe his mother was in New York.
''My mom had never been out of Akron,'' he said. ''What's she doing here? It was completely out of the world for me.''
Mrs. Snader told the interviewer that she had a boy in the Navy, but she didn't know where he was. He had enlisted in January 1943 and she hadn't heard from him in a while.
''Some of the other sailors gathered around,'' Snader said. ''They were laughing and joking.''
Harvey Firestone Jr. selected Mrs. Snader to represent his company and the rubber industry. The small, bubbly, blue-eyed woman had a compelling story.
Mrs. Snader, the former Mary Rininger, was raised on a farm in Greentown, the eldest of 12 children. At age 16, she went to work at the Hoover plant in North Canton, but quit to take care of her siblings when a fire destroyed the family home.
After high school, she married Roy Snader and moved to South Akron. The couple raised five children — Irene, Margaret, Lois, Dick and Bill — in a tiny home on Hillcrest Street. A sixth child, Robert, died in youth.
When a 1929 industrial accident seriously injured Roy Snader, his wife became the breadwinner during the Great Depression. She turned out to be very resourceful at making money, Dick Snader remembered.
''My mom would bake doughnuts in the kitchen, put them in bags, and we would go out and try to sell them door to door,'' he said.
Then one day, she saw a newspaper ad that Old Dutch Cleanser was hiring a saleswoman to imitate the Dutch girl pictured on the container.
''They gave her one of those Dutch cleanser dresses, and she'd go door to door dressed as a Dutch cleanser girl,'' he said.
In 1934, Mrs. Snader found a steady job in Firestone's tire division. She made miniature tires for wheelbarrows and gardening equipment, and eventually became the first female supervisor in the department. When the war began, she moved to the midnight shift — seven days a week — and became the first woman to build airplane tires.
''It is a great satisfaction to know that the tires I build make possible the operation in war zones of a wide variety of planes, from the Grumman 'Hell Cat' fighter to medium and heavy bombers,'' she noted at the time.
Mrs. Snader never was tardy in 14 years on the job as a tire builder. After Pearl Harbor, she labored for an entire year while taking only two days off.
New York Mirror columnist Emily Cheney sized up the Akron worker in a 1943 profile: ''Her littleness might be deceptive: More than anything else Mrs. Mary Snader is square, square-faced, square standing. And she has tough, square hands that grip yours in a handshake that almost hurts.''
Mrs. Snader took the train to New York for the National Association of Manufacturers forum. More than 1,500 industrialists attended a banquet at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
Radio announcer Jim Backus, future star of television's Gilligan's Island and Mr. Magoo, served as the emcee.
''It gives me great pleasure to present Mrs. Mary Snader from the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. in Akron, Ohio,'' Backus told the crowd. ''Mrs. Snader has nine years of continuous service with Firestone — three of them as an expert airplane tire builder. You will want to know that she supports her invalid husband and three of her five children by working the graveyard shift.''
Backus hailed her as ''American womanhood at its finest.''
The next day, Mrs. Snader was interviewed on NBC radio, and that's when her sailor son tuned in offshore. She mentioned that she was staying at the Shelton Hotel in New York.
''The ship got in probably about 3 o'clock in the afternoon,'' Snader said. ''I got off right away and I shot over to that hotel.''
His mother hadn't returned, so he sat down in a lobby chair and fell asleep. When the sailor awoke, it was dark outside. He jumped to his feet and raced upstairs to Mrs. Snader's room.
''I was just getting ready to knock, and she came out,'' he said.
Now it was his mother's turn to react with disbelief. A look of joy washed over her face as she recognized the man in uniform. She had experienced many wonderful moments during her trip, but reuniting with her son was the happiest of all.
''She was tickled to death,'' Snader said. ''She never expected to see me, naturally.''
The six honorees were leaving for dinner in the Hawaiian Room of the Lexington Hotel, and they invited Snader. He couldn't stay long because the ship was in dry dock, but he grabbed a few bites and caught up on current events before hugging his mother goodbye and running back to the tanker.
After the war, Mary Snader bid farewell to Rosie the Riveter. She quit Firestone, got a real-estate license and worked for Sanders Home Corp., which is where she retired. She was 96 when she died in 1993.
Dick Snader returned home from the Navy in January 1946. He married Pauline Marhevsky, worked as a taxi driver, served as an Akron firefighter and won election as a Fairlawn councilman. Today, he is a Realtor for Ederer Real Estate.
It has been 65 years since that remarkable morning when he heard his mother on the radio. A friendly voice soared across the waves and comforted a tired, homesick sailor on a giant ship.
''It surprised the hell out of me, I'll tell you that,'' Snader said.
Mark J. Price is a Beacon Journal copy editor. He can be reached at 330-996-3850 or send e-mail to mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.
World War II sailor Dick Snader was tired and homesick.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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WADSWORTH, OH
Posted 04:28 AM, 12/01/2008
Now thats a really cool story!
Posted 11:25 AM, 12/01/2008
What a great story!
Akron, oh
Posted 12:13 PM, 12/01/2008
Does any one at ABJ care that almost every Google story tag is the same. Just wonder when Akron gets its interweb up to speed?
Thinking About Thanksgiving During a Time of Financial Crisis: Is There Always Something to Be Grateful For? No Bucking this Trend: Cavs Win - Cavs v. Bucks Postgame Quick Hits Should We Bail Out The Big Three Automakers ?
Akron, oh
Posted 12:13 PM, 12/01/2008
Don't forget
Thinking About Thanksgiving During a Time of Financial Crisis: Is There Always Something to Be Grateful For? No Bucking this Trend: Cavs Win - Cavs v. Bucks Postgame Quick Hits Should We Bail Out The Big Three Automakers ?
Akron, oh
Posted 12:14 PM, 12/01/2008
OR
Thinking About Thanksgiving During a Time of Financial Crisis: Is There Always Something to Be Grateful For? No Bucking this Trend: Cavs Win - Cavs v. Bucks Postgame Quick Hits Should We Bail Out The Big Three Automakers ?
akron, oh
Posted 12:17 PM, 12/01/2008
What a great memory and story you have. Thank you so much for sharing it with us.
Akron, OH
Posted 12:45 PM, 12/01/2008
Mark J. Price deserves a Christmas Bonus. Best writer/researcher remaining.
Fairlawn, OH
Posted 12:55 PM, 12/01/2008
Another good one, Mr. Price.
And Dick, thank you for your service to your country! Merry Christmas.
