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Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Eleanor Josephine Danner Bilimoria 
May 13, 1985 
Cassette 5, Side 2 
 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  00:10 
In Rome, we'd left our trunks with the American Express to send onto Naples and then the rest of 
the way by ship to Bombay, and they were to-- they told us the boat that it would be put on, so 
we watched for its arrival. Just as a ship was coming into Bombay, we discovered that our trunks 
were still back in storage in Naples. Somebody goofed. So it took months and months and 
months before our trunks arrived [laughs]. Then Kathy was ready for fourth grade, and so she 
was beyond West Wind at that point. And there's no place in Bombay I wanted to send her, so I 
decided she should go to Kodaikanal. So she went up in January and was there two weeks, and 
then I-- Anne would be in first grade, and they wouldn't take her in boarding, no first graders in 
boarding. So I was going to take her up, and we would live there that year. So before Anne's first 
grade started, I got a notice from the principal that, "They were going to be short two teachers. 
Could I help?" So, I did. I had the ninth and tenth grade literature and the eighth grade social 
studies and then I said, "Well, might as well fill up my time. How about art?" They'd never had 
an arts class. So I had all the art students, and that was from kindergarten right through the senior 
high and a class of teachers and parents. Soli came up in May for the May holidays. The school 
year there in Kodai begins in January and runs to October, because the monsoon starts in 
November in South India, which is not the same as in Bombay. In May it's so very hot down on 
the plains that the parents come up to Kodai during May and school is out and it's a very festive 
time, full of picnics and the big May [?sail?] and the May play and, oh, it's just a great time.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  02:42 
How far is that from Bombay? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  02:45 
Well, it's quite a ways. It's below Madras. So when Soli came up, he brought a little German 
Shepherd puppy under his arm, carried it all away on the plane. So that became our Frisky, and 
we loved her for many years till we had to leave her when we came here. And that was the year 
of the climb of Everest and the year of Queen Elizabeth's coronation. And we heard it all by 
going to tea at the English club. Everybody gathered around the telly [they laugh]. No, we didn't 
have a television then. It was a radio. All we had. But the youngsters there were great fun 
because they knew their geography, they'd traveled, and they knew art. You could talk about 
Michelangelo's sculpture and they'd seen it, or you could talk about something in the Louvre and 
they'd seen that. Or you could talk about something in the Prado; they'd been there. Oh and Anne 
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got-- was playing with Frisky and held out the stick and he missed it and bit her, so she was laid 
up with a hand again. We spent two and a half years in Kodaikanal. During that time, I served on 
two annual sessions of the school council, which is their school board. I was a civilian 
representative. They always talked about the missionaries and the civilians, but I raised a lot of 
money for them through the business firms in Bombay. So he liked it. We gave the play. I 
remember Mama. I had a small part in that. The Federated Union of-- the Federated University 
Women of India had a branch in Kodaikanal and I was Vice President of that and Chair of the 
study group one year. And then when we'd go home for a vacation, I'd be traveling with the two 
little girls and the dog. And of course, the dog was getting bigger all the time, and they had a 
kennel in one of the other cars where the dog would be put. And the Indian trains, you can't go 
from one car to the next. You have to wait until we get to a station and get out and walk down. 
And our car had a shower in it, and it would be so long between stops at stations that I'd get so 
hot and so dirty, so I'd go in and get a shower and put on clean clothes, and then we'd come to a 
station. So I'd go to take Frisky out for a walk. She'd be dirty. She'd jump on me. I needed [they 
laugh]-- 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  06:12 
Back into the shower. 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  06:13 
Back into the shower. We moved to Juhu when we returned to-- oh, we went back to Bombay 
because Kathy had to have orthodontistry, and there was no place up there to get it, but there was 
a good orthodontist in Bombay. So we went back and we finally got a place to live out at Juhu, 
which is 18 miles out of Bombay, a beautiful white sandy beach right on the Arabian Sea. 
Although our house, it was an empty lot to the left of us, and we could look out to the sea, but 
right in front of us was a little shack where one of India's premier film directors lived, and of 
course, Kathy was film- crazy, so she felt that was great. She knew about all the film actors, 
actresses, and directors. We had a lovely, lovely little yard with banana trees and papaya trees, 
and we never picked the papayas until they were like watermelons here, and I just can't see these 
little things. They don't have the flavor at all. And bougainvillea and cacti. And then beyond our 
fence was a beautiful grove of coconut palms, so tall, and we had the loveliest view out the 
dining room window. Of course, the windows were open the year round, practically. And this 
lovely garden with these little shade trees and flowering baskets hanging from the trees. Had a 
vacant lot to our left, and there, there were cobras, and one of them almost got into the kitchen 
one day; it was practically level from the ground to the kitchen. So we had to be a little bit 
careful with the little girls. Anne had a turtle as a pet, Toby, and we'd be out in the garden having 
afternoon tea, and Toby would be out there, and we'd watch him, and he'd hardly move. And you 
could watch him for half an hour, and he'd be inches. You'd take your eyes off Toby, and he 
vanished. And one day he vanished, and we never saw him again. So that was heartbreaking. But 
we could go down on the beach. We swam a lot, and there were the snake charmers to watch and 
the acrobats, so there was something going on most of the time.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  09:18 
So exciting.  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  09:20 
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It was fun.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  09:21 
Yeah, a beautiful way to be raised. 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  09:27 
Then, in '58, we came back to Seattle, leaving Soli behind, thinking he'd get here in a year or so. 
And I went-- I tried to get a job at the Seattle Public Schools, and they said, "No," there wasn't 
any vacancy. So I signed up at the University to get my master's degree, and of course, then the 
next day they called me. But in the meantime, I'd been doing some substitute teaching, and the 
class that they wanted me for, I didn't think I would want to take. So I said, "No, I would only do 
substituting." Fortunately, I was able to live with my brother. He had an apartment in his 
basement, very nice one. Was a daylight basement, so that we walked right in and had windows 
and fireplace and all, and he made it very inexpensive for me. 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  10:40 
So I got my master's in education. Took a lot of television work, which I loved, at KCTS. Was a 
member of the National Association of Educational Broadcasters at that point, and had Professor 
Dvorak the second time. I'd had him in undergraduate work; had him then for statistics. So then 
the next year, because of my television work, I had become acquainted with one of the Assistant 
Superintendents at Bellevue, and through him, I got a job there. If we got the grant, I was to have 
the television for the Bellevue School, but we didn't get it, so I was put into a teaching position. 
Six classes of beginning Spanish-- or beginning in second tier. At that time, they were just 
coming in with language labs, and we had the labs, but we had no tapes. So I'd teach all day 
conversational Spanish, and then make tapes after school, and that's where I lost my voice. It was 
an occupational hazard. So I began teaching in 1959 with a magnificent sum of $5,850 a year. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  12:11 
[Laughs] Was that...?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  12:15 
That was the entrance salary with several years’ experience. 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  12:28 
Anne was in a seventh grader, and I put her into John-- Jane Addams, because she'd had a very 
good beginning in French at Kodaikanal and I thought if I-- she was ready for seventh grade, but 
it was a mistake. It was just too large and impersonal under the circumstances. And Kathy was at 
Roosevelt and babysat for the Crams, and that was how she got her encouragement, which won 
her a scholarship to Smith. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  13:04 
From the people there? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  13:06 
Mrs. Cram had been a Smith graduate. So in '60, Kathy was a senior and was a member of 
SPURS and she and Anne both went to Rimrock for summer camp, and then Soli came and I 
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called them home, and I should have let them finish out their term. Kathy graduated in '61 and 
won-- she won the University of Washington Faculty Women's-- or Faculty Club-- Faculty 
[?WiSE?] -- that what it was -- scholarship. But she told the men that if she got the one from 
Smith, she would take it. And they said, "Well, they needed somebody at the luncheon to present 
it to," so to come on. So she was presented that one, and then in about two days, turned it down. 
And Anne was missing her father so much that she went to India for a year, and then in April of 
the next year, I went to India to bring Anne back. Anne had gone out on a delivery flight of a 
Boeing plane for Air India, and then I had a chance to go out on a delivery flight in April of that 
next year. Excuse me [clears throat]. So, I got the letter one night that I could go, so the next 
morning, I was going to talk to the Principal, and I saw him just vanishing. No, it was after 
school. I hadn't been able to see him all day, and he started up the stairs after school, and I had 
this appointment with the Assistant Superintendent on another matter, so I didn't have time to 
chain-- chase the Principal upstairs and down again. So I went to this-- my meeting, and while 
there, I asked the Assistant Superintendent if I could go, that I... I don't know whether he asked 
me when I would come back or not. Anyhow, my idea was, with all that distance-- [?pop it?] 
[they laugh]. You can't [?bite that?] [laughs]. 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  16:08 
To make a long story short, I got permission from the Assistant Superintendent to go. The next 
day, I saw the Principal and told him that I was going to India and leaving in April. And he said, 
"When will you be back?" And I said, "The last of August." And he said, "What?" He had fits. 
He thought I would only be gone a short time. And I think the Assistant Superintendent also 
thought I'd be back in a weekend [they laugh]. So I was in Dutch with the Bellevue School 
System, particularly the Principal, who was very upset, although he got a man to take my place, 
and I think he was very happy about it. So I went out on the delivery flight, and Angie Dickinson 
was in the seat behind me. So Anne met us at the plane and got her autograph. And Soli was 
Director, at that time, of several companies in India and the Managing Director of his firm-- or 
the Manager of his firm. And so we were entertained, very much, very nicely entertained, in New 
Delhi, and got to go and see the Taj and everything for the second time. 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  17:43 
I had had lots of parties at Bellevue High, even if the Principal was mad at me, and lots of gifts 
from students and faculty. But when I got back, I'd been demoted to a junior high from the senior 
high [they laugh], but there wasn't nearly the pressure on the junior high, so I didn't mind. But I 
was surprised when there came Back to School Night and the parents came. For the first time, 
they were younger than I was, and it really threw me for a few minutes, when I looked out at this 
group of people. Anne was going to Lake Washington. We lived in Kirkland that time. Kathy 
had her junior year abroad at Geneva, University of Geneva and an international-- oh, dear, I 
meant to ask her the title of that. An international school there. She went to India for her 
vacations, and by that time, I'd finished my thesis and got my master's in education. Fortunately, 
my salary raise had not been held up for that [laughs]. But it took me a long time to write it. I had 
a long, long, long section on the political situation in India. And finally, to get it typed and 
finished, I cut that, and that was a mistake. I should not have done that, because that was easily 
the most important chapter as far as the school system was concerned. But they finally typed it 
for me to get to use it in their curriculum. 
 
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Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  19:34 
What was that [?now?] [inaudible]? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  19:37 
It was a study of India for high school students, a curriculum plan. And it dealt with the 
geography and the religion and the politics and business about India. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  19:57 
That was your entire thesis, or that was the part you cut?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  20:01 
No, I cut the political chapter.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  20:03 
Okay.  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  20:06 
Then Anne graduated from high school, and we had a chance to go out to Bombay again in 1964 
on a delivery flight, and so she missed graduation. But that time, I took a trunk out for the 
Assistant Superintendent. So I was back in their good graces [laughs]. He was going out later, 
and he couldn't take. It would have been very expensive for him to have taken the trunk, so he 
was glad to have me take it. And we stayed with Soli's parents at Cuffe Parade, and then later 
had time at Juhu. On the way back, we stopped at the Beirut airport to refuel, and while we were 
in having a lemonade in this hot day, they moved the plane further away. So a couple of 
attendants came and got us and were walking us along, and just as we were going behind a plane 
from the Sudan, the darn thing started up, and this exhaust from those jets came right at us, so we 
all started to run. I felt that my lungs were just being burned from the heat. I fell over and broke 
my foot. So they came rushing back to pick me up. I couldn't stand on it. So they had to carry me 
aboard. We had to cancel our Geneva flight stopover and our trip to Frankfurt and went straight 
through to London. And Soli had a cousin who had married a tea planter, and they were living in 
London. So they came to the airport and got us, and the next day, took me to the National Health 
Service, and they set it and gave me crutches and Air India gave us first class passage across the 
Atlantic to make up for this. If you ever want to go through customs in a hurry, go by wheelchair 
[laughs]. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  22:28 
Oh, really? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  22:29 
Yes, they whish you through. But the [?Tuckers?] were very, very nice to us. And I came back to 
school, and they had to give me a different place to teach. And instead of getting out of it in two 
weeks, I fell again and broke the other foot, and so I was two months on crutches. And by that 
time, I don't know whether-- I must have made arrangements before we left Kirkland, because 
then we had an upstairs flat instead of the one on the ground floor. I remember trying to enroll at 
the University in library school, and it was such hard work to go on crutches, I finally 
[inaudible]. In '65, Soli came back for a visit, and by that time Anne had married and was ready 
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to get a divorce. I went to Smith for Kay's graduation, and that was a was a lot of fun. We had 
several dinner parties. And I started library school, and I bought this house. Started looking for it 
after Halloween and moved in Christmastime. 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  24:14 
Kay was married in Unitarian Church over here, and Soli was back for that. We had lots of-- 
several trips that point around Vancouver. I was still going to summer school getting my library 
degree, and I had an operation for gallbladder. In '67, Anne was killed on December 9th. She was 
working at Dun & Bradstreet and had just been promoted, and she'd been trying to learn the new 
job and teach somebody else to do her job. And she had said to me before, she didn't know how 
this one woman had so much free time, the one whose place she was going to take. And then 
when she got to working on it, she could see that she had so much free time because she hadn't 
done the work; it was a lot of backlog. So Saturday morning, Anne decided that she would go 
down and work, and she got hit in the crosswalk.  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  25:48 
So Kay and Will were out-- Kay came out the next day and Will came up Christmas. Then they 
bought-- they were staying in Okemos, Michigan. Then they bought a house in East Lansing. 
And I went-- Soli had retired by this time and arrived at Thanksgiving, so I went back to have 
Thanksgiving with them and to meet him there. And the next summer, Kay and Liza were here 
for the summer. Kay had a scholarship to study Hindi at the University of Washington, and I 
think it was that summer. Anyhow, she was here the summer that the man landed on the moon, 
because I remember they were having a big party that night, and everybody was watching. And 
I'd had surgery that spring, so I couldn't carry Liza or watch for her, so that's why I put up the 
fence.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  27:06 
Really? Nice fence.  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  27:07 
Well, I'm ready to get rid of it, now.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  27:08 
Oh, you are?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  27:09 
I want to put up a hedge, now. So I got my library degree, and in May or June of '70, I got a 
library position in Bellevue, and it was very interesting going to Newport Senior High, because 
their half of the faculty was conservative, very conservative, and half were hippie. Soli tried 
many brokerage companies here, but he couldn't get in with any of them that he wanted to get 
into. Couldn't bring money out of India to buy into a firm. So he tried several businesses, timber 
importing with another man, and then going into shrimp importing, but that didn't work out 
either.  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  28:19 
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Well, I'd started going to the opera several years before, and I'd loved that. And, of course, after 
Anne's death, there were all these trials. There were probate court and then the trial over the 
negligent homicide trial. Then there was the one where I was suing for relief for Liza. The next 
few years, while I was working in the library, mostly parties and dinner parties and whatnot. Was 
active in the League of Women Voters at that time. In '71, one of Soli's cousins was here with 
Air India. So that was-- I never had really gotten acquainted with him before. He was quite a bit 
younger, but by this time, he was-- the age difference didn't matter anymore. He had such a 
charming wife and little girl, so that was great fun.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  30:00 
Who was that, Eleanor?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  30:02 
That was another Bilimoria, one of Soli's cousins. Then in 1971, I got interested in NOW and 
joined the NOW organization. Of course, we were working very hard to get the state ratification 
of the ERA. I had tried to have a Religion Task Force in NOW, because I could see this vast 
army of church women in the state who weren't particularly interested in any of the feminist 
movement at that time, and that if we could get them back of the Equal Rights Amendment, it 
should be a great help. But there weren't enough NOW women who were interested in religion, 
and Shirley Kaplan had- Shirley Kaplan knew some people, and we had a meeting down at the 
YWCA, and then someone said, "Well, we should get a hold of Jessie Kinnear, who worked with 
the Church Council of Greater Seattle. And Jessie is a real mover and sha-- 
 