Phyllis Lenhard was born in August 1919 in Lorain, Ohio. Her only brother was a goalie on the Red Wings [Annotator's Note: professional ice hockey team based in Detroit, Michigan] who died in an automobile accident when he was 21. She worked nights during her mid-teens, and when she graduated high school she went out on her own, and lived in a rooming house. Lenhard said she "wanted to find and climb the ladder." Whenever she had the chance she spent time in the library because she had an interest in engineering, and her education on the subject was furthered when she took a job with Livernois Engineering in Dearborn, Michigan. Lenhard was about 22 years old when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and she remembers learning about it through people who were talking about it. Her living improved when she went to work for the War Department and began earning 55 dollars per week, which was good money back then. She commented that D-Day was on her birthday.

During the early 1940s, the War Department took over Hudson Motors [Annotator's Note: Hudson Motor Car Company in Detroit, Michigan], and Phyllis Lenhard remembers they sidelined their automobile business and started building bombers. Although she had no training, she was checking parts, taking work home, and educating herself on the business. She said she was employed by the government to inspect parts and tools, and record the amount of time spent on each job by contractors. One Saturday she was roaming around Greenfield Village [Annotator's Note: an historic village established by industrialist Henry Ford in 1933] when she stumbled upon Henry Ford and chatted with him for "a couple hours" about the war and the building of cars. During the early war years she was approached by someone from the "front office" and asked if she would sell war bonds. She sold over 2,000, and also helped out with the blood bank. She is proud of having convinced a "full blooded Indian" to donate. There were no women working in the same field at the time, and she said the men she worked with were nice people. She knew through the newspapers and library materials that she was doing essential work, and helping with the war effort.

Phyllis Lenhard grew up in the Detroit area, and she noticed that it changed during the war. The population increased, and there were restrictions. Prompted, she remembered that there were riots, rationing, and shortages. Lenhard worked in a busy environment, and followed current events through the conversations around her. She said everyone was sad when President Franklin Roosevelt died, and the news of the atomic bombs frightened many people. Lenhard recalls there were partial blackouts in Detroit, and that police patrolled the streets. The plant she worked in [Annotator's Note: Lenhard was an employee of the Hudson Motor Car Company in Detroit, Michigan] erupted into joyful noise when word came of the war's end; Lenhard said men were "banging on stuff" and screaming. Personally, she was happy, and went to see guys she knew at the Veterans Hospital, where she had been keeping company with the soldiers as a volunteer. She enjoyed working and being out among people, and when the war was over she continued her employment with a clothing shop and at the Detroit Times, doing administrative jobs.

Asked about her most memorable experience during the war, Phyllis Lenhard said she was impressed with the people she worked with; they were very kind and considerate, and they were knowledgeable. Some of the people she worked with went off to fight in the war, but the majority stayed behind to work on the production of bombers. She thought the airplanes they were building were beautiful aircraft, and marveled at how many were produced. Lenhard found it interesting how women were brought in to fill men's jobs, and she said women were happy to learn that type of work. Women did it to save the country, she professed. Lenhard does not remember seeing an unhappy person where she worked. Her life was changed by the war in that she became thoughtful, and thankful for the sacrifices the soldiers and their families made for freedom. Her work for the War Department and volunteer hours at the Veterans Hospital was meaningful, she believes, because it was needed at the time.

It is important, according to Phyllis Lenhard, for institutions like The National WWII Museum to teach future generations about the contributions of workers on the home front because those people were involved in crucial projects and worked at some risk. Lenhard was single during the war, and really enjoyed being among the people who were helping one another.