Lucile Saunders McDonald was born in 1898 in Portland, Oregon. She worked as a journalist in Oregon, Argentina, and New York before an eleven-year hiatus while living in Europe. At the start of World War II, she joined the staff of the Seattle Times and stayed there for 23 years.

In this interview with Lucile McDonald conducted by Lorraine McConaghy for the Life on the Homefront Oral History Project on April 6, 1985, Lucile McDonald talks of how Pearl Harbor changed her life. As a woman and a mother, it was expected that she volunteer – which inspired her to find paying newspaper work again. She started back on as a copy reader, the first female copy reader at the Seattle Times. She speaks of the rumors prevalent after Pearl Harbor, the difficulties of rationing, workplace strains because of gender, and moving from Seattle to Denny Park. McDonald reads from her letters from the era during this interview.

Copyright agreement: Yes
Digitized: Yes, from analog cassette to .wav files and to CD (.cda files)
Re-Digitized in 2025 from analog cassette to .wav file.
Transcript: Yes, scanned from original analog to .pdf (final); original hard copy of rough draft and final transcript in admin file.