Homefront Hero.

Amelia Mrvos Bozovich
interviewed by Jane C. Viehman.

"One front and one battle where everyone in the United States--every man, woman and child--is in action. That front is right here at home in our daily lives." US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt April, 1942.

Amelia "Millie" Mrvos Bozovich.
Amelia "Millie" Mrvos Bozovich was a wife and mother of two small sons when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. Her husband, Al, normally at home with the family on weekends, was at work that day. Money was tight for the young couple back then and Al, an employee of Crucible Steel in the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, jumped at any chance to pull a double shift or work overtime at the plant. Even with their limited budget, Millie would typically prepare a lavish meal on Sundays--roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, vegetables, and one of her homemade pies, famous for the flaky, melt-in-your-mouth crusts she'd perfected. Meal preparation wasn't foremost on Millie's mind that day, though. Instead, she served her family luncheon meat--Isaly's chipped ham sandwiches (still a Pittsburgh staple), potato salad and a piece of the apple cobbler she'd been given earlier by the older Polish woman who also lived on Plumber Street. Millie had spent a good portion of December 7, 1941 with her neighborhood friends discussing how the bombs dropped that morning might change their lives and clearly lamenting the fact that they all must have been pretty poor students of geography. No one had the faintest idea where Pearl Harbor was!

It wasn't long before Millie and almost everyone she knew purchased world maps. They would hang the maps on their kitchen or living room walls and place tacks on the names of the faraway countries where their loved ones were stationed after enlisting or being drafted to fight in World War II. Millie and Al bid brothers and buddies goodbye at the Pennsylvania Railroad Station, "The Pennsy," as they left Pittsburgh destined for places such as Germany, Italy, New Guinea, North Africa, Australia and the Philippines, places that up until then, they'd only read about in books. By the grace of God, as Millie says, their brothers who fought in the Battle of the Ardennes and the Normandy invasion, returned at war's end. Sadly, two family friends she knew as a child growing up in the Pittsburgh suburb of Bower Hill, did not. Ralph Sundy and Robert Kovach died in the war. Millie says that after fifty years she may not be able to recollect all the names of the people she met or the stores where she shopped while living in Lawrenceville in the 1940s. The names of her friends who gave their lives in World War II, however, are forever etched in her memory.

Millie considered herself lucky that she never had to say goodbye to Al down at "The Pennsy" like so many other Pittsburgh wives. Her husband, however, initially resented the fact that because his job was considered "essential to the war effort," he was exempt from military service. He desperately wanted to join his brothers and buddies who were off fighting the Germans and Japanese. As time passed, however, he realized the valuable roles he and his fellow steelworkers played in the war effort. Crucible Steel was producing specialty alloy steels used in the production of war materials such as aircraft, naval shells and submarine periscope tubes. He was quite proud when representatives of the Army and Navy came to "his" Parks Plant of Crucible in Lawrenceville to present Crucible Steel with the Army/Navy E Medal for Excellence in the Production of Wartime Materials in the Spring of 1944.

Besides, at that time, Millie was pregnant again and Al was glad he would be in Pittsburgh to see his third child born. When their daughter arrived in June of 1944, they named her Eileen at the urging of his brother, Mike, who was stationed "somewhere in France." They later learned that he had participated in the Normandy invasion. Millie and Al had a flag with two stars on it placed in their window to represent Mike and Stanley Bozovich's wartime participation. Millie reports that it seemed as if almost every other house in Lawrenceville had a flag placed in the window.

Millie's daily routine changed as a result of the war. She spent several hours each day shopping. She would walk to the butcher shop, Pittsburgh Provision, which was close to her home, and stand in line, often for hours, waiting to be admitted. Only a certain number of customers were allowed in the store at a time. Quite often she would be permitted to enter, only to discover that the item she was hoping to purchase was not available that day. Undeterred, she'd simply return the next day and try again. "If you wanted to eat, you had to stand in line. You got used to it," she said. Out of necessity, she learned to prepare "just enough" for each meal. They were fortunate to own a refrigerator, but it was small and unable to accommodate much more than a few days' worth of food. Food was available, but you just couldn't get what you wanted WHEN you wanted it, she remembers. Her lavish Sunday dinners of roast beef and all the trimmings were infrequent during the war. Roasts gave way to the many creative ways she learned to prepare Spam. She says Spam tasted "darned good" when you were hungry, but admits she hasn't tasted it in years. "Meatless Tuesdays" were instituted in Pittsburgh during the war which meant meat wasn't available for purchase in butcher shops, grocery stores or served in restaurants. Millie thought it was a good idea--"anything to support the United States in their struggle to save democracy."

Patriotism was the order of the day and Millie, along with her fellow Pittsburghers, participated fully. She saved aluminum cans, tin foil, newspapers and knitted scarves for soldiers at a local church-sponsored event called "Knittin' for Britain." She stopped making homemade jellies and using sugar in her coffee to conserve sugar, a rationed item. Her father had a "Victory Garden" near her childhood home in Bower Hill, a garden plot which was provided to him as an employee of the James B. Sipes Paint Company. He gave Millie and Al lots of fresh vegetables from his garden so she rarely used her canned vegetable ration coupons, instead distributing them among her friends and neighbors who might be in need.

The one luxury she afforded herself was a trip to "the picture show." She'd board the trolley in Lawrenceville and head downtown to her favorite theatre, the Loew's Penn, where she saw at least one movie each week. Afterwards, she would often walk across the street to Rosenbaum's Department store for some window shopping. Her memory of the films she saw is phenomenal. Films such as Mrs. Miniver, For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Meet Me in St. Louis, Anchors Away, Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca are just a few of the multitude of films from that era which she vividly remembers seeing on her trips to downtown Pittsburgh. Hollywood made a myriad of "patriotic" films during the 1940s and cashed in on the "patriotic propaganda" which many of them contained. One of Millie's favorite films, Mrs. Miniver, about a middle-class British family coping with World War II, was such an unabashed propaganda that FDR urged its early release. Pittsburghers flocked to theatres in record numbers to see the war-related films of the 1940s.

Millie was an ardent admirer of the President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Millie says she loved him and swears that everyone else did too. She would listen intently to his speeches, which she heard broadcast on Pittsburgh's own, KDKA radio station, then a 50,000-watt station. She says she felt safe just knowing that FDR was in charge.

An avid soap opera fan, she also listened to soap operas such as Guiding Light, Ma Perkins, and Lorenzo Jones. She remembers that for days after FDR's death, the local radio stations played only classical music. She found it extremely comforting and didn't mind in the least that her beloved soaps weren't being broadcast. "We all needed time to adjust," she said.

Millie and her late husband, Al, typify the many behind-the-scenes contributions made by Pittsburghers in World War II. Millie and countless Pittsburgh homemakers willingly abided by their hometown's self-imposed "Meatless Tuesdays" rule. They posted with pride the flags which represented their loved ones fighting on the front lines. They stood in line, mostly patiently, while shopkeepers and customers alike, were forced to adjust to the restrictions placed upon them by their local and national governments. Pittsburghers, men and women alike, homemakers such as Millie, Rosie the Riveters, and steelworkers like Al, contributed to the war effort. They all had a part in the vital role of their city's steelmaking industry. Pittsburgh's production of wartime materials, and the hard work and sacrifices of its residents, helped facilitate the Allied victory and bring about an end to World War II.

Last Updated: 21 May 2001.