UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #1316
ROBERTS, BETTY L.

ROBERTS, BETTY (1933 - )
Nurse, UW Hospital; Undergraduate Student
At UW: 1955-1969

Interviewed: 	2013 
Interviewer: 	Troy Reeves
Index by: 	Troy Reeves
Length: 	40 minutes
Series:		

Abstract: In her April 2013 interview with Troy Reeves, Betty Roberts detailed her thoughts and memories as a nurse and student on the UW-Madison campus. Roberts spoke of the time period from 1950s through 1970s and on the following topics: UW-Madison, Sterling Hall Bombing, and the Vietnam Era on UW-Madison’s campus. This interview was conducted for inclusion into the UW-Madison Oral History Program.

Key Words: UW-Madison; Madison, WI; nursing; University of Wisconsin Hospital; child care and home life; assassination of John F. Kennedy; Sterling Hall Bombing; Vietnam Conflict and protests; Veterans Affairs (VA) Hospital, Madison.

Interview Session (April 8, 2013): Digital File

Time	Keywords

00:00:00	Start of Interview/Interviewer’s Introduction. 

00:00:39	Question: Why UW-Madison? Answer: Betty Roberts (BR) met her future husband while she went to school in Chicago. They eloped in 1955 and moved to Madison because her husband wanted to go to school at UW-Madison. They lived on Langdon Street, near the current location of the Wisconsin Alumni Association. 

00:03:06	Question: Bachelor’s degree? Answer: As a family, they ran low on funds, so her husband got a job in Baltimore, so they moved there for a couple of years. They did not enjoy their time there and moved back. When they returned, she applied to the school of Nursing to get a bachelor’s degree. When asked about location of classes, she took classes all over, particularly because she needed to take some general education course to get the general studies component of her bachelor’s degree. Also, she noted that the school of Nursing, then, was located on University Avenue near the hospital. 

00:06:06	Question: Still working at hospital while going to school? Answer: Roberts began talking about the her work in the emergency room at UW Hospital during the student protests during the Vietnam Era and about how it disrupted her work in the ER and her classwork. 

00:10:30	Question: Housing? Answer: They lived on Brook Street off of Johnson Avenue. She had a child (girl) by that time, so she talked about how they managed child care. They worked with other young families, rotating babysitting with them. She returned to her thoughts about the student protests of the 1960s, saying she never understood the protesters rationale. 

00:13:03	Question: JFK assassination? Answer: She recalled that day. She picked up her son at a friend’s house; the friend made her come inside to watch the aftermath of the event. Her friend’s apartment stood across the street from the, then, Hilldale Mall. So whenever she has driven past that mall she has recalled that event. 

00:14:57	Question: Recollections of students protesters while working at hospital? Answer: She worked, primarily, the 3 to 11p shift. She saw lot of tear gas burns and lung issues, as well as cuts and bruises. She returned to the idea that these protests disrupted the normality, if any, from working the emergency room, specifically because the hospital sat close to Bascom. 

00:17:45	Question: Left UW-Hospital in 1970? Answer: Roberts had a scholarship, which required her to intern at another hospital. So, she went to work at Madison General and eventually got a full-time there, working there for over two decades. 

00:20:04	Question: Recollections of the Sterling Hall bombing? Answer: She didn’t specifically re-member it, but called the Hospital afterward (noting the location and impact of the bombing).

00:20:58	Question: Classes during protest? Answer: While experiencing it, she had questions: Would she be able to finish? Why is this happening now? It was a tough time to take classes, even for a nursing student. 

00:23:49	Question: Did she get tear-gassed? Answer: She ended up, indirectly, getting tear-gassed. She never received any injuries while navigating the classroom and her work. She never helped students injured outside of her time in the emergency room. These thoughts led her to recall her graduation in June 1969 in Camp Randall. 

00:29:08	Question: Where did her family live? Answer: They finally bought a house off University Ave, near Shorewood Hills. They lived there for awhile before moving near Sequoia Library. 

00:31:47	Question: Any incidents at 1969 graduation? Answer: She recalled none. She then spoke of doing a portion of her clinical, undergraduate class at the VA. She worked with many returning Vietnam vets; she compared them to her other clients there, WWII and Korean War vets. When asked for more about her work at the VA, she recalled how thankful the Vietnam vets felt to be at a hospital closer to home. According to BR a fair number of them grew up in northern Wisconsin, so their Madison VA time allowed friends and family to visit. 

00:36:03	Question: How long was BR at VA? Answer: A couple of days during one semester. She returned to this time period, calling it troubling and finding herself in the middle. She explained why she felt that way. She considered herself apolitical during that period; she compared Vietnam to the current war in Afghanistan. BR and the interviewer talked about her “place” at that time, treating students in UW-Hospital and wounded vets at the VA. When asked for her final thoughts, she used the word, “confusion.” She thought the students that protested did affect campus attitudes, directions, and policies.   
  
00:40:05	End of Interview Session

End of Oral History #1316