In the meantime, my mother and I were in San Jose, working in the canneries. When we finished our work at the cannery, we moved to San Quentin. One Christmas or New Year, they had a little party, and that’s how I met Nolan, my husband. He was six – foot something, and I was a little short thing. They used to call us “the long and short of it.”

At first, I didn’t want to get married. I wanted to be free to go to school where I liked, to work where I liked. We moved up to San Quentin, but I didn’t like it very much. They had little house is there for all the employees.

“Why Can’t We Get Married at San Quentin?”

I wanted a big wedding, but my husband said: “no, we can’t have a big wedding.”

I asked him why, and he said: “everyone who comes into the prison gate has to be examined. We can’t be examining all of those young girls. That’s shameful!”

So, we married outside of the prison.

From the first time he saw me, my husband always said that I had beautiful Auburn hair. He told me I had beautiful eyes, he kept complimenting me.

We got married, and my first child was born in Marin County, and baptized at the church there.

My husband was a prizefighter when he was young. He knocked out Tony Abbott, one of the big fighters of the time.

That victory made my husband famous. They gave him a lot of money, and a big new car. This all took place in Petaluma.

After leaving San Quentin, we moved to San Jose, where my husband took a job in the police force. He used to train the guards in self defense.

We lived in a house with a beautiful little patch of fruit trees. It was a little cottage; it wasn’t anything big. We were very happy. We had fruit from the trees.