[Annotator's Note: The interview begins with the interviewer explaining to Marie Rankart how the interview will take place.] Marie Rankart was born in Newark, New Jersey. Her father died when she was about 11 years old but fortunately he had signed up for an insurance annuity which provided money for the family until Rankart turned 16. When Rankart turned 15 her mother enrolled her in Drake's Business College. It was an expensive school but her mother was able to pay for it using the insurance money. Rankart dropped out of high school and started at the school. She graduated from the executive secretarial program at the age of 16 and a half. The school provided referrals and Rankart was referred to General Motors where she was interviewed, tested, and was hired. This was in December 1940. She was supposed to be 18 at the time so she lied about her age and got the job. She was paid five dollars per day working as a clerk in the material department ordering parts for automobiles. The attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December [Annotator's Note: 7 December 1941] was very upsetting. On 8 December the President declared war on Japan then on 11 or 12 December the United States declared war on Germany and Italy. On 11 December the government ordered that the automobile manufacturers curtail automobile production. It was chaos. The production manager had a male secretary at the time when Rankart was working in the material department. It was decided that, on a temporary basis, that the male secretary would be transferred to the executive office for special assignments and Rankart would be transferred to the production office. She did not have any prior experience but the production manager decided that she should stay and she did.

Even though she was young, Marie Rankart paid attention to world events. At the time, young people had more of an awareness of what was going on in the world. Young people went to work at a younger age. After Rankart's father died, her mother was not able to engage with the outside world. She was born in Italy and could not speak English so she enlisted Rankart, who was only 11 at the time, as a counterpart to help her work on the figures and let her know what had to be paid out of the money they had. The environment was different for young people back then. As a young girl, Rankart did not worry much about the possibility that the United States would become involved in a war. There was the feeling that they would be taken care of. At the time, some of Rankart's friends had the opportunity to go to high school and their lives were different and more social than hers. In the few months following the attack on Pearl Harbor there was shock and fear in the community. There were also a lot of negative feelings about the Japanese. People were stirred up. There was chaos at the plant [Annotator's Note: at the General Motors Company plant in Newark, New Jersey where Rankart worked] because on 11 December [Annotator's Note: 11 December 1941] the government curtailed their automobile production. There were 4,000 people who worked for the plant who wondered what they would do if they could not build automobiles.

The factory's [Annotator's Note: the General Motors Company plant in Newark, New Jersey where Marie Rankart worked] shift over to war production was rapid. Working in the office, Marie Rankart was aware of the shift but it was not public information at the time. There were 4,000 employees who needed to be put to work. A representative from the plant went to Washington to try to drum up work but the reception was a negative one. The representative was in Washington at an opportune time. At that time a plant was needed to produce the Wildcat F4F [Annotator's Note: Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter aircraft]. At the time, the pant was already in discussions to manufacture another plane that was still on the drawing board. There was a lot of chaos and confusion. Finally, the plant received a letter of intent from the Navy and was awarded a contract to build the Wildcat fighters. Rankart is amazed at the short amount of time between production runs. The order to cease production of cars came on 11 December [Annotator's Note: 11 December 1941] and there were a large number of unfinished cars filling the back lot that were waiting for parts to come in. In less than a month and a half they had received the letter of intent from the Navy and were scheduled to begin producing the Wildcats. The change over from producing automobiles to producing aircraft was rapid. General Motors established a division called Eastern Aircraft. In doing so, they were able to get funding in order to prepare the plant for aircraft manufacturing. The present plant was not sufficient to produce planes. Standard Oil owned some property across the street that the General Motors Eastern Aircraft Division purchased. Trucks were brought in to empty out the plant. Some things were removed and other things were retained. A building was constructed to work in where the items that were retained were placed. Grumman had been producing the Wildcats. Grumman was a small company that was hand tooling all of the aircraft. All of the foremen from General Motors were sent to Grumman to learn to produce the F4Fs. Parts lists were needed as well as engineering specifications which Grumman did not have. Grumman was making the planes to order whereas General Motors was tooling up to mass produce them on a production line. It was a very difficult process for General Motors and very aggravating for Grumman. Grumman made one plane and gave it to General Motors. The engineers and parts people were forced to reverse engineer the plane. The General Motors facility produced Wildcats until 1945. Rankart worked there until 1949.

[Annotator's Note: From December 1940 until 1949, Marie Rankart worked for the General Motors Company facility in Newark, New Jersey. During World War 2, Rankart worked for the production manager at a special division of General Motors, Eastern Aircraft Division, which manufactured Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter aircraft.] During the war, the United States out produced every country in the world and supplied every Allied country in the world. That change and ability gave the work force such a sense of accomplishment. It was around August [Annotator's Note: August 1942] when the plane was first sent across the street. Part of the property General Motors had was turned into an airfield. Their test pilots were former Flying Tigers [Annotator's Note: former members of the American Volunteer Group, or AVG]. Rankart and the other employees watched as the plane was taken up for the test flight. Rankart cannot describe the feeling of watching that plane go up for the first time. Rankart worked for the production manager at the aircraft facility. There were many occasions where she would have to go out onto the main production line looking for her manager when he was needed for some urgent matter. When she did, she was able to see the planes being produced first hand. The only thing that bothered her was that some of the workmen would whistle at the females who walked through the plant. At this time she was about 17 and a half, even though the administrative offices thought she was 18. Rankart lived at home with her mother until she got married in 1946. While walking through the plant one day Rankart encountered a young man walking out of the men's room. Rankart turned to her friend and told her that the young man was going to be cute when he grew up. Rankart later married him. He was a General Motors student at the General Motors Institute in Flint before the war then later became a naval aviator and flew the Hellcat [Annotator's Note: Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter aircraft].

Marie Rankart did not smoke but her sister did. Her sister would ask her to get her cigarettes when she came across them being sold. With rationing in place they were sometimes difficult to obtain. Rankart also had an aunt who baked cookies all the time so she would give her aunt all of her sugar stamps. There was a great sense of cohesiveness and commitment. Rankart does not recall ever hearing anyone complain. She does recall wanting shoes but they were not easily available except on the black market. Things that are easily obtained today were not readily available during that time. At the time, all of the girls would write to the boys going overseas as a way to boost morale. Rankart lost a cousin during the war who was a bombardier on a B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber]. He survived being shot down over Germany but was brutally tortured and killed when he hit the ground. Rankart did not have boyfriends. Before her cousin went overseas she gave him a sterling silver bracelet and that is how they later identified his remains. The girls at the time would have a lot of guys to write to because they could not say no when a serviceman asked them to write to them. Rankart had a difficult time writing to all of the guys she agreed to write to so she hooked one of her girl friends up with a guy to write to. Her girlfriend later married the guy. Rankart saw the letter writing she and the other girls did as a commitment.

Marie Rankart was at a dress shop in Elizabeth, New Jersey buying a dress when she heard the news that the war was over. Rankart was in the booth trying on the dress when one of the sales women came in yelling the news. They all went out of the store and there were people everywhere. There were many people crying. There was a lot of embracing. There was also a lot of pain for those who did not come back. Additionally, there was also a questioning sense of where they would go from there. Rankart's cousin had been listed as missing in action. Every night at 11 they listened to a news program during which the names of those listed as missing in action who had been found were given. Rankart's cousin was missing in action for a long time. The government was somewhat hesitant to give her family the news that he had been found and that he was dead. He had been brutally tortured. During the Nuremburg Trials after the war, two of the men involved in her cousin's torture and murder were executed. His loss was hard on the family because he was her aunt's first born son. His remains were eventually brought back to New Jersey. His name was Hector V. Scala but they called him Eddie. Rankart still has the V Mail letters he wrote. He had been shot down during the Kassel mission. Rankart believes that the Kassel mission lost more planes than any other mission during World War 2. He was killed on 27 September 1944. For many years Eddie has been in her life. She did not have boyfriends so if she wanted to go places she would have Eddie take her. About two years prior to this interview Rankart's nephew, who was interested in what Eddie did during the war, looked on the internet and learned the name of Eddie's pilot, Mr. Baynham. [Annotator's Note: James Baynham. Baynham's oral history is also available on The Digital Collections of the National WWII Museum website.] It was during this time that Rankart lost her husband of more than 60 years. One day Rankart decided to call Baynham. They talked for some time about Eddie. By that time Baynham, who lived in Dallas, had lost his wife. After the initial phone call, Baynham would send Rankart things about Eddie. At one point Baynham told Rankart that he wanted to meet her. Rankart and Baynham had a lot in common. The only person Rankart told about Baynham wanting to meet her was her oldest son who told her that she should. Finally Rankart decided that she would meet him. On the agreed day, Baynham arrived at Rankart's home in Atlanta and the two have been together ever since.

Marie Rankart believes that museums like The National WWII Museum are important in many ways. The Museum represents such a standard. It is a model for what they did and how they did it. They can show that anything is possible. They stopped making automobiles and immediately went to making planes. Things are not the same today. It is with a great deal of pride that Rankart looks at American servicemen. They need to be identified for their service and should be recognized. The World War 2 generation did a lot and should be recognized for their contributions to the country. As a message to future generations Rankart says that if she lived in the New Orleans area, she would do anything she could to volunteer at The National WWII Museum and doing so would feed her soul.