Harriet Root Article – September 3, 1968 – Part 2

Here’s Part 2 of the article about Harriet Root that ran in the Journal on September 3, 1968. It includes her reminisces about the Lorain Tornado of 1924.

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She Did Her Duty
Harriet Root:
A Lorain Asset – Part 2
By RICH BLOOM
Staff Writer

AFTER THE WAR, she returned to Lorain where she became engaged in Red Cross work and later was appointed secretary of the local unit.

Her work during the 1924 Lorain tornado has been termed “outstanding” and thinking back to that humid June day she recalls her first inkling of the upcoming storm.

“I was driving over the East Erie bridge after having closed up the Red Cross office, and suddenly I noticed the strangest yellowish color in the northwest sky. I did not know about the tornado until later when a family member came over and told the family.”

Later appointed to the national disaster staff of the Red Cross, she served in a number of disaster areas: the Mississippi floods, southern Illinois tornado, Florida hurricanes, the California dam tragedy and the Kentucky floods.

Modesty is probably her most outstanding feature and when she was given The Journal’s “Best Citizen Award” in 1931 due to her work during the Depression, she didn’t think she deserved it.

New Deal leaders in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration had had their eye on the energetic Lorain woman and in 1934 she was approached by a group of the president’s representatives who asked her to be the first director of the U.S. Government Information Service.

“I didn’t know much about the work, but the gentlemen were so persuasive that I couldn’t refuse,” she said. “The information office was formed in 1934 in a few upstairs rooms, but grew so rapidly that a whole building was constructed to house it.”

DURING THE Second World War Miss Root again packed her bags and set out for Australia and New Zealand to establish United States Information libraries which would help the natives understand her country better.

She remained in Australia for three years helping Jewish refugee families find new homes when the war ended.

Most people after such exhaustive work would call for a breather, but Miss Root, upon her return to Lorain, jumped right again into civic activities. She was an active member of the Community Chest, United Appeal, Salvation Army, to which she was named a life board member in 1963, and YMCA work.

In 1967 she was honored by Lorain’s Quota Club as being named its “Woman of the Year.”

The attractive Lorain woman who spends much of her time reading and entertaining visitors has kept well abreast of the news and has her own ideas in issues of the day.

ON TODAY’S YOUTH – “The youth are not so much different now. I can’t say I like hippies or ones that let their hair hang in their eyes, but they’re such a small percentage of the whole."

ON RACIAL PROBLEM – “I firmly believe in judging a person as an individual and not the color of his skin. I feel everyone has the perfect right to live and go where he pleases.”

ON VIETNAM – “We’re in it and we’ve got to stop it. I hope the next administration finds a way to stop it.”

ON POLITICS – “I don’t think Rockefeller could have been nominated. Nebraska didn’t like him.”

The spark that prompted her to begin that first civic project more than 50 years ago still glows strongly with Miss Harriet Root. Her home is open to any and all who need help or just want to talk.

She likes to know what others are thinking.