Mrs. Cox and the Bomb

The hidden treasure of Mrs. Darlene Cox

What 95-year old Mrs. Cox did not know; she says she did not know, was while she was working for the Government in 1943; she was working at the only site in the world making weapons grade nuclear plutonium.

Mrs. Cox arrived in rural Washington from Iowa in 1939; her baby sister was with multiple children’s and Mrs. Cox, being the oldest, always felt obligated helping the younger siblings. We knew this was normal folklore of the family; what we found out in our Story Catcher research is the location Mrs. Cox worked at was the Hanford Site:

Hanford Nuclear Reservation or HNR. Established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project in the town of Hanford in south-central Washington, the site was home to the B Reactor, the first full-scale plutonium production reactor in the world. Plutonium manufactured at the site was used in the first nuclear bomb, tested at the Trinity site, and in Fat Man, the bomb detonated over Nagasaki, Japan. Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Our Story Tellers were also able to uncover more information: Mrs. Cox was hired for her fast typing skills.

“My Words per Minute was right about the same as my bowling average — and I was a great bowler.” — Mrs. Darlene Cox

In 1943, when someone needed a computer they were really requesting a typist who could do mathematical calculations; many of these women were educated and asked to take specific math classes. The family asked us to not disclose the exact role Mrs. Cox contributed to the War effort for this article; though they are grateful for the information given by our Story Catchers.

Likewise, Mrs. Cox is proud of her work in Washington State; she is also a little close-lipped about what she might have seen typing 86 WPM; opting to explain she was a usually preoccupied.

“I never paid much attention to what I was typing; I was usually too busy flirting with the men. It was war-time and men were scarce.”

Priorities remain the same across all generations.

- Brad Johns, Story Catcher — Texas

Originally published at thestorycatchers.tumblr.com.