Justine Godchaux McCarthy (b. 1909) [b. April 8, 1909, New Orleans, LA; d. April 25, 2004, Metairie, LA]
Interviewed by Dorothy Schlesinger, April 6, 1998 [Time: 45 minutes]

Describes her early years on St. Charles Ave. in uptown New Orleans.

Recounts her early childhood education at Allen and Isidore Newman schools.

Recalls that her grandmother ran the household; her mother was very social.

Recalls that her father took her to the plantation when the river was high and remembers prisoners piling sandbags atop the levee.

Discusses her fluency in French and Spanish. She translated the Favrot papers at the Louisiana State Museum, including a description of the day that Andrew Jackson's statue went up in the Square.

Notes that she was not the usual conforming student. She attended the University of Wisconsin.

Recalls her friendship with Doris Zemurray Stone.

Recalls a solo trip to Europe during the 1930s. She met interesting people and traveled with a professor and his wife. She drove them and became the professor's secretary when he was at the Hague. She came home just before World War II began.

Discusses her realization that being Jewish mattered; she was not invited to carnival balls and other parties.

Discusses her marriage to Richard McCarthy and speaks about their three sons.

Describes their travels after the children grew up and their collection of Pre-Columbian art and artifacts.

Describes a trip to Mexico and speaks briefly of William Spratling and Natalie Scott in Taxco.

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6/30/1999--we; dates of birth and death updated from information provided by her son, 4/28/2008, iw