Mrs. PAINE. It is just a private farm; yes.
Mr. JENNER. I thought it was an activity, and it arose out of the fact
that the word "World" instead of "Wolfe" was furnished to me.
Mrs. PAINE. Oh, no.
Mr. JENNER. Mr. Wolfe's Truck Farm?
Mrs. PAINE. It was. This was a group of girls and all from Columbus,
Ohio, all from the school I was just entering at that time, and at a
time when labor was very hard to find, just at the end of the war.
Mr. JENNER. You say entering a school at that time.
Mrs. PAINE. I was about to enter high school.
Mr. JENNER. That was high school?
Mrs. PAINE. And we earned a small amount for our work there, and we
felt patriotic in helping to supply labor where it was needed, because
so many of the young men were away at war, or in the Army.
Mr. JENNER. Do you recall that in 1947 you served as a teacher in the
Friends Vacation Bible School?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Tell us a little bit about that.
Mrs. PAINE. This is the same summer when I was first introduced to
Friends activities, and I was asked to be a leader, a teacher with
a traveling Bible school. We went to three different small towns in
Indiana and Ohio, and taught young children. I led songs and games and
read stories.
Mr. JENNER. So at this time you were 15 years old, 14 or 15, right in
there?
Mrs. PAINE. That is right.
Mr. JENNER. In 1948 you served as a leader in craftwork at the
Presbyterian Bible School in Columbus, Ohio?
Mrs. PAINE. That is right.
Mr. JENNER. Tell us a little bit more about that activity.
Mrs. PAINE. It was similar to what I had done the year before. I had
enjoyed it the previous summer and looked for Bible school work then in
Columbus. You have described it entirely. It was working with crafts
and----
Mr. JENNER. Excuse me. Did I interrupt you?
Mrs. PAINE. Working with children in crafts with them.
Mr. JENNER. Also in 1948 you were an assistant in children's physical
education work at the Universal School, Columbus, Ohio?
Mrs. PAINE. University.
Mr. JENNER. University, was it?
Mrs. PAINE. This was the school I attended.
Mr. JENNER. That was your high school?
Mrs. PAINE. This was the high school.
Mr. JENNER. But you also served as assistant in the children's physical
education activities?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; I did.
Mr. JENNER. Do you recall that in 1949 you were a leader and counselor
to underprivileged children, a children's club group in Columbus, Ohio?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; I was.
Mr. JENNER. Would you describe that more fully and also what the
particular group was?
Mrs. PAINE. It was exactly as you have described it, a group of
underprivileged children. We were without an agency in particular, and
no particular place to meet, but we met in the homes of the families.
This was basically sponsored by the families.
Mr. JENNER. By the families themselves?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; and I had volunteered to a friend of mine who had
worked with these families previously, to lead a weekly club group
meeting, and, again, the activities were songs and dancing and
craftwork. I guess not dancing--more likely stories.
Mr. JENNER. Were these quite young children?
Mrs. PAINE. They ranged in age from, perhaps, 7 or 8 to 13. I had a
helper who was 13.
Mr. JENNER. Did you do some teaching at Pendle Hill eventually?
Mrs. PAINE. No; I did not.
Mr. JENNER. You did not?
Mrs. PAINE. You have not mentioned one time when I attended. I attended
in the----
Mr. JENNER. I meant to ask you if I had left out anything.
Mrs. PAINE. I attended Pendle Hill first in the fall of 1950, for the
fall term.
Mr. JENNER. That ran over a little bit into 1951, didn't it?
Mrs. PAINE. No; it closed with the Christmas holidays.
Mr. JENNER. Did you return to the Friends School or Pendle Hill and do
some work in 1956?
Mrs. PAINE. You are talking about Pendle Hill? I don't recall; no. I
may have occasionally attended a lecture, but that is different.
Mr. JENNER. I think we might help this way. You were married to Michael
R. Paine on the 28th of December, 1957?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. In what activity were you engaged at that time?
Mrs. PAINE. I was teaching school at the Germantown Friends School.
Germantown is a section of Philadelphia.
Mr. JENNER. When had you commenced that activity, that is, teaching at
Germantown Friends School?
Mrs. PAINE. I began in the fall of 1956, worked there 1956 to 1957 and
1957 to 1958 school years.
Mr. JENNER. What did you do? What was your work?
Mrs. PAINE. I was the playground director and rhythm and dance teacher
for grades 1 through 6.
Mr. JENNER. During all of that period?
Mrs. PAINE. During those 2 years.
Mr. JENNER. Did the Germantown Friends School have anything to do with
Pendle Hill?
Mrs. PAINE. No.
Mr. JENNER. I see. That is where my confusion arose.
Mrs. PAINE. No.
Mr. JENNER. You have already mentioned you attended various Friends
conferences over this period of years, did you not?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; I did.
Mr. JENNER. And you maintained a lively interest in the activities of
the Friends Conferences, especially the young people's groups?
Mrs. PAINE. That is right.
Mr. JENNER. You already mentioned or made some reference to a Friends
Conference at Quaker Haven, Ind., September 1955, I believe in your
testimony, have you not?
Mrs. PAINE. I think it would have been August.
Mr. JENNER. August 1955?
Mrs. PAINE. It has to have been before school started.
Mr. JENNER. Was it with respect to this conference that you mentioned
the Young Friends of North America meetings, and that you were active
in that group, and that group was interested in easing the tensions
between the east and the west?
Mrs. PAINE. It was a subcommittee of that group that had that
particular interest.
Mr. JENNER. And out of this interest and activity arose the Russian pen
pal activity and bringing of some Russian students over to America to
see and observe America?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. I won't go into that. I think we covered it enough
yesterday.
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Would you say that was your initial interest in the Russian
language or at least the pursuit of the study of the Russian language
arose about that time?
Mrs. PAINE. My interest arose about that time. Pursuit didn't begin
until later.
Mr. JENNER. In some of the materials I have seen there is mention of
a Young Friends meeting or conference at Earlham College in Richmond,
Ind. I think you made some reference to that yesterday, did you not?
Mrs. PAINE. There was a conference, a Young Friends Conference at
Earlham in 1947. That was the first one I ever attended. Is that----
Mr. JENNER. No; well, I don't wish to say that isn't so, but you did
attend another one in 1954-55, along in that time, didn't you?
Mrs. PAINE. There are a great many meetings for the Young Friends
Committee of North America, and they were commonly held at Earlham
College, but they were not conferences.
Mr. JENNER. I see. I am using the wrong terminology.
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; these were committee meetings and there were a number
of them.
Mr. JENNER. This was in further pursuit of the exchange of the interest
by pen pal letters and otherwise between young people in America and
young people in Russia?
Mrs. PAINE. This would have been one of the subjects of the committee
meeting.
Mr. JENNER. Is there, or was there a Russian Friends group in
Wallingford, in Philadelphia?
Mrs. PAINE. You mean people who were both Russian and Quakers?
Mr. JENNER. I am not too sure just what I do mean, because my
information is so limited.
Mrs. PAINE. It brings nothing to my mind.
Mr. JENNER. It does not?
Mrs. PAINE. No.
Mr. JENNER. It would appear that this was, my notes are a little
garbled, I see, that the three Soviet students to whom you made
reference yesterday came over here in 1958. Is that correct?
Mrs. PAINE. That fits with my memory of it.
Mr. JENNER. And it was the Young Friends group in which you were
interested which stimulated, in cooperation with the State Department,
as I recall it, the bringing of these three young Soviet students over
here?
Mrs. PAINE. We sought advice from the State Department; yes; and from
the American Friends Service Committee, also.
Mr. JENNER. And we covered that yesterday so we needn't trouble you
with it again. Your only participation or contact with these three
Soviet students, I understand from your testimony, was you attended
one meeting--was it a dinner--and you had no other contacts with them,
either before or after?
Mrs. PAINE. That is correct.
Mr. JENNER. They went on from--where was this, in Philadelphia?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. And they went on from there to see other parts of America?
Mrs. PAINE. That is right.
Mr. JENNER. Have you ever met knowingly, that is, that you knew, any
native Russian people other than these three Russian students and
Marina, that is to say up to November 22----
Mrs. PAINE. You mean people who had been born there?
Mr. JENNER. Yes. Well, of course, your golden age group. There were
some who had been born in Russia.
Mrs. PAINE. A great many. I am not certain where Mrs. Gravitis was
born. I think she was born in Latvia. Any such contact was certainly in
very brief passing, as, for instance, I met a group that had come to
Dallas to play chamber music. They were all from Soviet Armenia, and
talked with these people. That was a year ago. But if there were any
other contacts they were of that sort.
Mr. JENNER. Have you, in these long tedious days that we have had
with you, pretty well exhausted all of your contacts with any native
Russians or any Russians who were naturalized Americans, and indicated
the character of your contacts with them?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; I believe so.
Mr. JENNER. You are perfectly free to add any others, if you wish.
Mrs. PAINE. I don't think of any particular contact.
Mr. JENNER. Would it be a fair summary on my part to say that your
contact with these people had been largely either in connection with
your interest in the Quaker Friends groups and their activities, and
your work in furthering their activities, your avid interest in the
study of and improvement of your command of the Russian language and
then your contacts with Marina Oswald and Lee Oswald?
Mrs. PAINE. I would say it was mostly the latter. I met very few native
Russians through my interest in Friends, but through being interested
in Russian there were a good many native Russians at the Middlebury
College, for instance, and the Berlitz teachers have to speak natively
whether or not they were born in Russia, so that these would be my
contacts.
Mr. JENNER. Your pen pal correspondent in Russia, at least the second
one, was Nina Atarina?
Mrs. PAINE. Aparina, A-p-a-r-i-n-a.
Mr. JENNER. And she is the school teacher?
Mrs. PAINE. She is.
Mr. JENNER. And you haven't heard from her in, did you say, 6 or 8
months?
Mrs. PAINE. It would be a year, I am quite certain.
Mr. JENNER. Mrs. Paine, in your own words would you tell us something
about your father and mother, your family generally, their interests?
Put it in your own words. We are just trying to supply a background.
Mrs. PAINE. I can start most easily with their present activities. My
mother has just completed work for a bachelor of divinity from Oberlin
College in Ohio. She has already been ordained as a minister of the
Unitarian Church. She hopes to do work as a chaplain in a hospital,
and toward that end has 6 more weeks training to complete in inservice
training in a hospital. My father is working for a Nationwide Insurance
Co. He has been on special assignment from them to--I am not certain of
the name of the organization--to cooperative alliance in Europe.
Mr. JENNER. That is a cooperative alliance of insurance companies?
Mrs. PAINE. Having to do with insurance; yes.
Mr. JENNER. Insurance companies?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; that is my understanding.
Mr. JENNER. This is a commercial activity, isn't it?