Page 1 of 11 
 
Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Eleanor Josephine Danner Bilimoria 
April 14, 1985 
Cassette 1, Side 2 
 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  00:01 
So then I got put to work, and every Saturday, I cleaned the whole house. And there were three 
bedrooms upstairs, and a bath, and a large stairway, and downstairs there was a kitchen, and the 
dining room, and the living room, and another room, and I vacuumed, and I dusted, and I put 
everything in order. Sometimes it took me all day, but then I got into dancing class, and I love 
that. So then I could work a lot faster [they laugh], get it done in a half day. We had rather 
wealthy neighbors next door, and that was my first introduction to wealth and society. And there 
was a young girl, probably a year younger than I, and she had to have a Schoenhut doll too. So 
she got it for Christmas. Well, it made my dolly with all my clothes my mother made for it look 
like the not-so-wealthy neighbors. This doll came dressed in white satin bridal gown with veils 
and flowers and rhinestones. Oh, she was a gorgeous sight. Whenever we went to her house to 
play, I had to stay and pick up the toys. But when she came to my house, she always had to come 
home immediately, and I only had to pick up the toys. And so there were problems over that. 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  01:54 
Oh, our dancing class put on a big recital up on the lawn of the big house next to the... Oh dear, I 
don't know where Seattle Church is anymore. [?Up on?] Broadway. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  02:10 
[Inaudible?] 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  02:12 
Yes, next to that is a big house, large lawn. We danced up there for some women's club.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  02:22 
What kind of dance did you [inaudible]? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  02:24 
Well, this was Grecian and scarf. I was the scarf dancer in the class. I had a lovely, green floating 
scarf [inaudible] [laughs]. 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  02:38 
Page 2 of 11 
 
And I began to learn to cook, then. I could make a wonderful hamburger and macaroni casserole 
and I could bake cakes and cookies, and I don't remember cooking anything else. So for two 
years, I went to Ravenna School, fifth and sixth grade. And we had not had any sports at Vashon. 
We had just played out in the woods. And when I went to Ravenna, they knew how to play bas-- 
baseball and basketball and all of those things. And so I was way, way behind and became very 
shy and very embarrassed and reticent to do things. I loved my teacher, although she was pretty 
hard on me, getting me to open cupboards that I was-- couldn't get open. I remember one 
Valentine's Day, there was this one little boy that I felt was just perfect, and I wanted so much to 
give him a Valentine, but I was too shy to do it. And then it came Valentine's Day, and here we 
all were, desks covered with Valentines. This little boy didn't have one. Oh, I felt so badly. I 
thought I should have given him one anyhow. And then in the next grade, I got caught putting a 
tack on the boy's seat [laughs] that I thought was very special, and the teacher came back and sat 
down beside him, and she sat on the tack [laughs], so I was in the doghouse then, too. And I had 
long hair, and I loved to have it curled, but Mother had thought that was too much work, so I 
usually wore a braid with a curl at the end, about like that. So particularly if a little boy sat in 
back of me, he would dip my hair into the inkwell, but I learned that all I had to do was go this 
way and it would hit him right across the face [laughs]. Ah, they never did it but once [they 
laugh], until there was a new boy behind me. 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  04:59 
Then in the seventh grade, we moved over to Roosevelt Way. So in seventh and eighth grade, I 
went to Green Lake, and so by the time I got to high school, I knew lots of people around. There 
was-- another Eleanor lived across the street from us on Roosevelt Way, which was 10th Avenue 
Northeast then, it was not business property at that time. Her mother was a musician, so I started 
piano lessons. And there were four of we girls in the seventh and eighth grade who palled around 
together. We had sewing and cooking classes, and in the clothing class, we made dresses all 
alike, brown and white checked gingham with white collars and cuffs. So we were the Big Four. 
And I don't remember whether it was a Big Four that made up this quartet or not, but the music 
teacher had a quartet. I know that we two Eleanors were in it. I don't remember who the other 
two were. And I sang lead soprano, which I felt was pretty nifty, and my ambition then... I sort of 
dropped being a teacher for the time being, and I was going to be either a dancer or an opera star. 
My father said no daughter of his was going to be up on a stage without any clothes on. Of 
course, the clothes the dancers wore in those days were a lot more than they're wearing 
nowadays [laughs]. So that made it pretty difficult, and I was no longer having dancing lessons, 
but I started teaching, and I had a class, and my contemporaries came in and took dancing 
lessons and paid me 10¢ a day. And I got into Camp Fire there, and we had a wonderful group 
that lasted, well,we were together until college, practically. [Inaudible] and we had a wonderful 
leader who could make fudge and divinity. And we would-- she'd buy all the ingredients, and on 
Saturday afternoons -- a couple of times a year, this would happen -- we would gather at her 
house on Saturday afternoon, and she would make the candy, and we'd do all the cutting and the 
wrapping and the bagging, and we'd put eight pieces in a bag and sell it for 10 cents, and we 
were the wealthiest Camp Fire group in Seattle. 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  08:01 
Probably my good health at this point goes back to all the fresh air and the good food I had on 
Vashon Island when we lived on the farm. Oh, by the way, during the war, sugar was in short 
Page 3 of 11 
 
supply. Eggs were in short supply for most people. And I remember Mother making sugarless 
cakes, but we always had plenty of eggs and milk and vegetables. There was no shortage there. 
The other health factor were the health charts, I think, of the Camp Fire Girls. And the charts 
were made out for 30 or 31 days, and you could start anytime during the month, and you got a 
bead if you completed a month, and a leather honor if you completed a year. Well, I think it took 
me six months to get through the first month. I would start over and over and over. But once I 
got the first month, it was clear sailing, and I got my year. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  09:07 
What kind of health chart was it?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  09:08 
Ooh, you had to drink two glasses of water an hour before breakfast, and you had to eat properly, 
and you had to have so much exercise every day, and you had to bathe so often. It wasn't like on 
Vashon Island, where we bathed Saturday night once a week. And just all of the health factors. I 
tried to get one a couple of years ago for my granddaughter, because I think they're a terrific 
asset. They don't have them anymore. Lets you build health habits that way.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  09:48 
When you when you bathed in Vashon, would you-- would your mom have to heat up water?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  09:59 
Because you had to heat the water on the stove, on the wood stove, and the wash tub would be 
seated in the kitchen, on the floor, fill it with hot water, have your bath. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  10:18 
So each of you would take turns? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  10:22 
I think my mother always, or frequently, used the same water I had. Of course, the men was so 
dirty they had to-- from working out in the barn, in the fields, they had to have separate water. 
But it meant an awful lot of work heating that. 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  10:53 
Oh, at Green Lake, I got the idea of writing for the Green Lake paper, putting in the student 
news. So I went to the principal and asked him if I could try it, and he said yes. So then I went to 
the paper and asked if they'd take it and they said yes. So every week, I would trot over to the 
office with my copy of what we students were doing. 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  11:20 
I went through Camp Fire, all the different grades, and became a torch bearer and was assistant 
to a group back at Green Lake then when I went to Roosevelt. And Roosevelt, my first interest 
was art, but I started out in math. I was going to be a math major. And in my first algebra class, I 
was chosen the captain of one of the two teams, and we had a long competition that went on for 
weeks and weeks and weeks. My team won, because I saw to it that everybody knew what they 
were doing. If they were having trouble, I coached them. And then my-- our [?homeroom?], very 
Page 4 of 11 
 
first semester was a sewing class, and we won the scholarship ranking for that term, and I got 
chosen to go and make the acceptance speech at the assembly. I was panic-stricken. I was scared 
to death. Big height football president of the Student Council was making the presentation. I still 
can't get out in front of a group without going through 1000 deaths. I went through math pretty 
well until I got to second tier geometry, and then we had a student teacher. I couldn't understand 
anything, so I came out with a D, so I dropped that and majored in art the rest of the way. 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  13:23 
I never did anything very, very big in high school. I was sort of the second string. I'd take part in 
the dramatics, but not the big productions. I was on the stage crew. That I loved. We had such 
fun. And I went to my first all-night party. The teacher who was in charge of the stage crew had 
the New Year's Eve party at his home, and I sold tickets at the ticket office, and that was fun. 
And our senior year, we had quite a gang of people, and we had a party every Saturday night 
[they laugh] someplace, somebody's home. And that was a great year. We had-- [inaudible].  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  14:13 
Did you feel real close to your to your class? Did you feel like you fit in and were comfortable?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  14:27 
Oh, yes. And then I got the mumps graduation week. So everybody came by my house, my gang, 
on graduation night to show me what they were wearing, and all I could do was look out the 
dining room window. And they were having a party afterwards and a breakfast the next morning. 
Oh [laughs]. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  14:55 
What a loss. What a loss. 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  14:57 
I missed the big Valentine party, too, that year. I had a ruptured eardrum, and it was at Russell's 
house, and I wanted to go. So would you have any questions? I've rambled along here.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  15:14 
No, it's fantastic, everything you've said. 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  15:18 
So now I've graduated, and that's still not 25. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  15:21 
So you graduated when you were about 18?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  15:24 
Mm-hmm. Although I graduated when I was 17, because my birthday came early, just before 
graduation, I just made it [laughs]. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  15:39 
When you were living on Vashon, your mom was working hard every day? 
Page 5 of 11 
 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  15:47 
Every day, morning to-- dawn to dusk. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  15:51 
Dawn to dusk? Did you help her with things? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  15:56 
Not much. I don't remember doing anything. I'm more apt to remember when my soldier brother 
married just before he went off. And I remember his wife visiting, and one of her nieces was in 
my class at school and would come and stay overnight with me, and I can remember her serving 
us breakfast in bed.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  16:24 
Your mom? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  16:25 
No, my sister in law.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  16:27 
Oh, that's a treat.  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  16:30 
Yes, I thought that was the height of elegance.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  16:34 
On Vashon, did your dad just work on the farm, or did he did need a job? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  16:43 
No, that was all he did there. When we moved into Seattle, he started a real estate firm, which 
was down on 45th and Roosevelt Way-- or University Way, Hoover, [?MacDonald?], and 
Danner, and Hoover was related to the President.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  17:05 
Oh, really? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  17:07 
Yeah.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  17:09 
Was there many people in Vashon, then? Did you-- you said you went to school every day?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  17:15 
Oh, yes, there was-- 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  17:17 
Page 6 of 11 
 
There was enough people to...? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  17:18 
Grammar and high school at Vashon. It was a high school of [inaudible]. There was plenty of 
people there. There were plenty of people. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  17:28 
Did your parents get along good?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  17:31 
Oh, yeah. Well, what father said went [laughs]. There was no argument.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  17:38 
He laid down the law, huh?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  17:42 
He did. Well, he was an educated man. In fact, I think he married my mother after the eighth 
grade. I think she was in his eighth grade class back in Kansas, and that she married him so that 
she didn't have so much education, but he was very well read. And I always thought of him as an 
excellent conversationalist. I'm not sure now whether it was conversation or whether it was he 
was such a good storyteller, but I was brought up on that saying that children should be seen and 
not heard. So I never developed as a good conversationalist. Even to this day, I listen. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  18:49 
You seem very responsive and creative with conversation. 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  18:50 
Well, I'm glad you think so [they laugh]. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  18:51 
I think us Geminis have a shy streak in it.  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  19:01 
Do we?  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  19:02 
I think so, yeah. So when you graduated, you were living in Seattle, and what were your 
feelings? I mean, that's when-- were-- what were women doing, generally? What were your ideas 
and goals and what did your parents want you to do, versus what you felt? How did the world 
look to you? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  19:36 
Many, many times as I was growing up, I heard the saying, "A child in America can be anything 
he wants to be. He can be President. Any child in America can be President." And somewhere 
along in high school or college, and I don't know where, it dawned on me, they didn't mean me. 
They meant the boys. So that was a pretty big disappointment, not that I ever aspired to be 
Page 7 of 11 
 
President, but I liked the possibility. And we did have Mayor Bertha Landes in there someplace. 
There must have been some other women inspiring. My music teacher took us to see Pavlova 
dance when she was here, so I knew that women could be dancers, and that was a big moment in 
my life. There was also Madame Schumann-Heink, so I knew women could be opera stars. And 
then there wasn't-- in my immediate life, there were only the teachers, the nurses, the 
stenographers. But as-- during my high school and college years, there was this very strong 
feeling for being a career girl. And we all had this idea that we could do something. At the same 
time, there was this pull that you don't want to be an old maid, you don't want to be a spinster, 
that there was this saying that "the old maids just prayed that they wouldn't die not knowing 
about It."  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  21:49 
Oh [laughs], really? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  21:52 
Yes.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  21:52 
So being an old maid, it meant that you didn't know what-- you hadn't experienced It. 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  21:58 
You didn't know. No, in the movies in those days, they never even showed a man and woman in 
bed together, ever. One funny thing. When I was in high school, Mother went back East to visit 
her family, and while she was gone, my father took me to a burlesque down on First Avenue. I 
was pretty shocked. And I'd certainly like to know why he did it [laughs]. Ah, never found out.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  22:38 
What do you think? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  22:47 
I don't know whether he thought that was an education, an eye opener for me, or whether he just 
wanted to go and he couldn't leave me home alone. Maybe I wasn't in high school, maybe I 
was... It was--  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  22:58 
Younger? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  22:59 
--was when we lived on Roosevelt Way, so would come in with-- within that period of six years.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  23:05 
So you realized that women could be burlesque dancers there [they laugh]. 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  23:12 
But not his daughter. 
 
Page 8 of 11 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  23:14 
Did-- you know, times... That was basically, then, in the '20s and '30s, because you were around 
18-- 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  23:27 
Before the '30s. It would have been between— 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  23:30 
'20s and '30s. 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  23:33 
--'22 and '27. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  23:35 
Was that a time when... Did you sense that there were more restrictions on your life than there 
were on men's? Did it seem like men's options were--? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  23:50 
Oh, yeah. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  23:52 
Did-- were men arrogant about that fact? Or did it make women angry, or...? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  23:58 
I probably heard 1000 times, "There's never been a woman Michelangelo. There's never been a 
woman Beethoven. Women just don't have it." 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  24:12 
So it's not only that women couldn't, it's that they-- they're not-- you're not allowed to, but you 
couldn't? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  24:22 
"Women didn't have the capability." 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  24:24 
And how did you how did you feel about that?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  24:28 
Well, I was very angry about it, but I didn't know what to say. I didn't know how to refute it. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  24:37 
What would you say today?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  24:39 
Oh, boy [they laugh].  
 
Page 9 of 11 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  24:41 
Without attacking first? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  24:43 
[Laughs] Oh, it would be too long. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  24:47 
Did you hear about women in the suffrage movement, what women were doing and banding 
together, or--?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  25:06 
No, I don't think I did.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  25:07 
Why didn't-- do you think that was more on the East Coast, or do you think the news-- what 
women were doing was not just newsworthy? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  25:13 
Well, certainly was more on the East Coast than here. Just as if-- as this modern feminist 
movement was on the East Coast almost 10 years before it got out here, and in the computer 
field, I'm finding out that things have been in existence for 10 years that I'm just hearing about 
now. I don't know it's funny, because by the time I got to college, I could vote, and I voted for 
Norman Thomas. And I was brought up in a Republican family, and I felt the Republicans were 
the aristocrats of this nation. And I went to college and I got to be 21 and I voted for Norman 
Thomas [laughs].  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  26:06 
Who was Democrat? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  26:08 
Socialist. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  26:09 
Socialist. How-- that's amazing. So you didn't like aristocratic. You felt that that would-- 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  26:39 
Oh, I liked it. None of this blue collar stuff for me at that point. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  26:41 
So was Socialist aristocratic?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  26:43 
No, no, they were taking care of the people. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  26:44 
How did you get such an independent personality, character? 
Page 10 of 11 
 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  26:47 
Well, my father always urged me to do something. Urged me to read and to do things. Albert had 
a little college education. Delbert did not, Inez did not, and then Earl did. Of course, I was going 
to follow in Earl's footsteps. Anything that he did I was going to do because he was my guiding 
star. So at the university, I started right out with a major in art and education, and one of my 
friends from Roosevelt was also an art student, and she had the only car of any student I knew at 
the beginning, first couple of years. So that made it great, taking back and forth all these big 
easels and portfolios and paints and stuff that we had to carry. And at that time, the Art 
Department was on the third floor. Walked up [laughs] two and three times a day. Ah. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  28:09 
Had you heard of Cunningham?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  28:12 
No. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  28:13 
Cunningham-- 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  28:14 
If I did, I don't remember it. I heard of Asahel Curtis.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  28:21 
The-- 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  28:22 
Photographer. No, I don't think so. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  28:28 
I forgot her first name, Cunningham-- 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  28:34 
Imogen, Imogen.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  28:35 
Imogen, right.  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  28:36 
Though the first women photographers I think I was aware of were Margaret Bourke-White and 
Maggie Higgins [inaudible], World War II.  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  29:00 
So in university, I had one terrific prof for writing composition the first year. I used to get double 
As on my composition. Everybody wanted to borrow them. And then he left at the end of the 
term, and that really was a turning point in my life, because I think I would have developed into 
Page 11 of 11 
 
a writer if he'd stayed, but he went back to take on the editorship of one of the big magazines, 
Harper's or-- forgot what it was. I took a course in civil law, 300 or 400 students. There were 
about two girls in the class. I didn't understand much of what was going on. I used to argue and 
argue with my professor that just because it was precedent, if the precedent was wrong, there was 
no reason for following the precedent. And of course, I only got a D in the course, and he told 
me very frankly that I only got that because I'd done so much extra work. And I know that one 
day I was called on to stand up and talk, I made a miserable job of it. Oh, it was tragic. So one 
law class. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  29:27 
How did that feel to be in a class of all men? Did-- were you friends with the other woman for 
support or did--? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  29:51 
Just too dumb to do it, I think, was his feeling.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  30:03 
Too challenging to him, too.  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  30:05 
I don't think anybody liked my being in that class [laughs]. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  30:12 
Was the professor, then, resentful that you were taking this class? Or did he just think you were 
too--  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  30:29 
No, I don't think we saw each other that much. No support anywhere that I remember from that 
class. 
 