A Rural Iowa Town Supports the World War II Effort

The impact of America’s involvement in World War II was felt in communities across Iowa. In this segment of Iowa PBS’s "Picture Perfect: Iowa in the 1940s" documentary, an Iowan recounts how her small, rural community supported the war effort.

Narrator: The 1940s were dominated by World War II. Women were needed to replace men who had gone to the battlefield, and so the first great exodus of wives from the home to the workplace began. The war effort required a great deal of personal sacrifice, yet the people in Everett’s photographs say despite the hardships, there wasn’t any complaining, only people coming together.

Norma (Quill) Fisher, Ridgeway High School Alumna: They were very, very patriotic. The whole country was different than it has been since because everybody wanted to be included in the war work. There was never a time in our history when people were as patriotic and there was no complaining. We had rationing of shoes and food and gasoline, but I never heard anyone complaining about that we were suffering during the war, because our men were really in harm’s way.