Elizabeth Bedson Wehner was born in Nebraska and then moved to South Dakota and then Iowa. When she was 12 years old, they moved to Austin, Texas. Her family suffered during the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s]. Her father had a hard time keeping work. Her mother would water down the soup to make it last. Everyone was in the same situation, so Wehner never felt poor. Her father wanted to get his degree in engineering. Wehner started out at the University of Texas [Annotator's Note: now the University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas] so she could live at home. Her parents did not have enough money to let her go away for school. Then she went off to Purdue [Annotator's Note: Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana]. She majored in English and wanted to get a teaching certificate. Then she decided to switch to math. She went to Purdue by joining the Curtiss-Wright Program [Annotator's Note: the Curtiss-Wright Corporation paid for women's technical training at eight universities in the US from February 1943 to March 1945. The students were known as Curtiss-Wright Aeronautical Engineering Cadettes, or Curtiss-Wright Cadettes]. They paid for her school and gave her 10 dollars a week. Her parents were very supportive. Her mother wanted her to finish college.

Elizabeth Bedson Wehner went to Purdue [Annotator's Note: Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana]. She had to take classes she had never been in before. She did well in the math classes, but not in the others. The program [Annotator's Note: Curtiss-Wright Program; the Curtiss-Wright Corporation paid for women's technical training at eight universities in the US from February 1943 to March 1945. The students were known as Curtiss-Wright Aeronautical Engineering Cadettes, or Curtiss-Wright Cadettes] was about 10 months long. The program started in late January [Annotator's Note: January 1943] and went until December [Annotator's Note: December 1943]. She thought there was no way for them to make junior engineers out of them in that length of time. They went to school for eight hours a day. They were on the Curtiss-Wright payroll. They spent all afternoon in drafting class. She was not good at drafting. She could memorize enough to pass the tests, but never understood enough to take an approach. There were about 100 students in the program at Purdue. Some of the ones that did not cut it did not last long. The professors had to write the courses for them. Wehner did not have much interaction outside the cadettes. She graduated at the end of 1943. After classes she went home for two weeks then she went to Columbus [Annotator's Note: Columbus, Ohio] where they were going to work. Six of the cadettes lived together in house. They only had one bathroom. They managed nicely. They washed their laundry by hand in the bathtub.

Elizabeth Bedson Wehner started out in the drafting department at the plant [Annotator's Note: Curtiss-Wright Corporation, Airplane Division in Columbus, Ohio]. She hated drafting and had herself transferred to writing manuals. She went down and got the information from the people building the planes. She helped put the manual together. She could write and organize the information. When the war ended in 1945, her job ended. She went home. The work was a challenge. She was doing work she was not familiar with. When she went to talk to people on the line the people were condescending or flirty. Sometimes they would give the wrong information. The manual she wrote was for a training plane that was on the assembly line. Wehner got a good salary and was paid for over time. When she worked overtime, she had to find a ride home. One time she had to walk six blocks through the snow. In that time they could walk home at night and be safe. She does not think they completely finished the manual. They had all the material they needed but it was not in a form that could be published. Wehner got married while she was in Columbus. Her husband was serving overseas. After the war she went back to the University of Texas [Annotator's Note: now the University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas] for a semester. She thought that by 1946 her husband would be back from the war. The men came home and went to school on the GI Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment]. After a while she and her husband lived in the barracks. Wehner never returned to engineering. She taught math. She had five children.

World War 2 was when women entered the workforce in great numbers. Many women went back to the home after their husbands returned home. Elizabeth Bedson Wehner made wonderful friends [Annotator's Note: working for the Curtiss-Wright corporation] and they still get together. She had not been away from home until she went to Purdue [Annotator's Note: Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana], and it was a new broadening experience. She went to New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] a couple of times. She would like to think the war had some positive impacts. After the war Germany and Japan became close allies and trading with them opened up more. There was not a need for territory after the war. The balance of powers were changed by the war. The guys went back to school on the GI Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] and they were the backbone of America. The war did not spawn the drug use like the Vietnam War [Annotator's Note: Vietnam War, or Second Indochina War, 1 November 1955 to 30 April 1975] and the hatred like the other wars did. The war brought America together. The people at home managed to send out planes and other equipment quickly. The people gave up a lot for the cause. They had rationing stamps. They did not ask questions and did their part. It was a sad time and a happy time. The museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] moves her because she was part of it at the time. It is important to keep remembering the war. Now there is no sense of the American people pulling together. She had a good experience during the war. The work experience was good for her. It was a positive time in her life.