Anne (Mifsud) White

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Biography

I was born in 1939 in England of Canadian parents. My father’s mother Mabel Morley immigrated from London to Vancouver. My father later went to England for employment opportunity and brought my mother there for their wedding in 1938. When World War II broke out they returned with me to Vancouver the following year. I n 1947 when I was 8 we immigrated to San Francisco where my father became a furniture salesman. So I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, attending Sequoia High School in Redwood City and graduating from University of California Berkeley in 1961. My ancestry on my dad’s side is English and Maltese. My grandfather Vincent Mifsud immigrated from Malta to Canada age 23 and married Mabel Morley in Vancouver where my dad was born. My grandfather was quite well educated, literate in three languages. He spent his work years as a clerk with the Canadian Pacific Railway, served in the Canadian Army in World War I, and died at age 100. On my mother’s side I am Scottish Irish, and English with some French history. My mother’s father William Roach was an engineer pattern maker born in Bow London who married my grandmother Annie Stewart in Saskatchewan where she was in his employ as a stenographer. William Roach’s mother was Elizabeth Doree whose family of Huguenot silk weavers left France to settle in London in the 1600’s. My grandmother Annie Stewart’s father was Donald Stewart’ a rancher and stockbreeder born in Ontario of Scottish parents. Her mother Mary Booth was also born in Ontario, of Irish descent. In San Francisco in the 1940’s my parents enjoyed a wide range of interests. As an only child I participated with them in the many opportunities in the arts, music and travel available in a widening locale. We developed a varied new circle of friends and my father continued to build his stamp collection of British North America which he was later invited to exhibit at the EXPO World’s Fair in Vancouver in 1986. From an early age I loved to travel and majored in language at UC Berkeley. After graduation I took a civilian GS5 job with the U S Army in Korea and worked in the Service Club system at 7th Infantry Division Camp Casey. There I met my husband army officer Lt Richard White, and we married in California in 1964. We lived in Los Angeles where he started some college but then made a decision to volunteer for combat in Viet Nam. Following this tour of duty there he was awarded a silver star. He was raised in an army family and made it his career. We were stationed at Fort Campbell Kentucky, Fort Polk Louisiana, Eglin Air Force Base Florida, Fort Benning Georgia and Schofield Barracks for five years in Hawaii before returning to California. Previously when we lived in Los Angeles I was hired by the county as a social case worker at the Bureau of Public Assistance downtown. It was the only fairly well paying job I could find available at the time. Actually I had no idea what the job title entailed. However I soon became fascinated by the welfare system and the families it served, and found my calling there. It was a unique experience in terms of timing as the first of the Watts riots broke out there the following summer of 1965. I remember getting ready in the morning and my husband telling me I couldn’t go to work that day. I turned ion the TV and saw the troops and fires at my workplace. We were off work for one day and returned with of course many new challenges giving new meaning to my future career choice. Just before my husband left for Viet Nam our first daughter was born in Los Angeles. After he returned our next duty station was Eglin Air Force Base where he was an instructor at the Army Ranger Camp where we lived. Our second daughter was born there in Florida before we left for Hawaii. When the girls got older I wanted to work again but the job market there was limited, especially for military dependents. I ended up taking some courses at the University of Hawaii in preparation for a master’s degree at San Jose State University when we returned to California. When I finished my MSW it took awhile to find full time work but I was eventually hired by the Kaiser hospital system in San Jose and on staff there for about ten years. During this time my husband and I separated and he moved to the Presidio of San Francisco where he was able to keep contact with our daughters. When they became older I decided to pursue my travel ambitions and was able to work in contract positions with military branches overseas which had been my goal,. I feel so fortunate to have enjoyed these opportunities and the resulting life experience. I worked with the military Family Advocacy Programs for about ten years in Kaneohe Hawaii, Azores Portugal, Aviano Italy and Grafenwoehr and Ramstein Germany. During my last posting I began to experience dizzy spells eventually identified as Meniere’s , causing hearing loss and vertigo attacks. My Stewart grandmother and other family members have also been affected. I urge anyone with these symptoms to seek specialized treatment. Medication has been very effective for me, enabling some stability within the limitations of the condition, Continued

Sources

• First-hand information. Entered by Anne Mifsud at registration.

Birth Certificate England & Wales Civil Registration Birth Index 1916-2007 California Marriage Index 1960-1985 California Divorce Index 1966-1984 U S Border Crossings from Canada to U S 1895-1956 U S Naturalization Record Indexes 1791-1992 U S Index to Alien Arrivals at Canadian and Pacific Seaports 1904-1944 U S Departing Passenger and Crew Lists 1914-1966 U S School Yearbooks 1900-1999