Julia Child
| Julia Child | ||
 1978 publicity portrait of Julia Child in her kitchen | ||
| Background information | ||
| Born as: | Julia Carolyn McWilliams | |
| Born | Aug 15, 1912 Pasadena, California, U.S. | |
| Died | Aug 13, 2004 Montecito, California, U.S. | |
| Buried: | Neptune Memorial Reef, Florida | |
| Spouse(s): | Paul Cushing Child (1946 - 1994) d. | |
| Years active | 1935–2004 | |
Click here for World War II History category page |
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and the development of shark repellent. See: Julia Child on Wikipedia |
Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; ✦August 15, 1912 – †August 13, 2004) was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef, which premiered in 1963.
Career
Second World War
Child joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)[Note 1] in 1942 after finding that she was too tall to enlist in the Women's Army Corps (WACs) or in the U.S. Navy's WAVES. She began her OSS career as a typist at its headquarters in Washington, D.C., but, because of her education and experience, soon was given a more responsible position as a top-secret researcher working directly for the head of OSS, General William J. Donovan.
As a research assistant in the Secret Intelligence division, Child typed over 10,000 names on white note cards to keep track of officers. For a year, she worked at the OSS Emergency Sea Rescue Equipment Section (ESRES) in Washington, D.C. as a file clerk and then as an assistant to developers of a shark repellent needed to ensure that sharks would not explode ordnance targeting German U-boats. When Child was asked to solve the problem of too many OSS underwater explosives being set off by curious sharks, "Child's solution was to experiment with cooking various concoctions as a shark repellent," which were sprinkled in the water near the explosives and repelled sharks. Still in use today, the experimental shark repellent "marked Child's first foray into the world of cooking."
During 1944–1945, Child was posted to Kandy, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where her responsibilities included "registering, cataloging and channeling a great volume of highly classified communications" for the OSS's clandestine stations in Asia. She was later posted to Kunming, China, where she received the Emblem of Meritorious Civilian Service as head of the Registry of the OSS Secretariat.
For her service, Child received an award that cited her many virtues, including her "drive and inherent cheerfulness". As with other OSS records, her file was declassified in 2008. Unlike other files, Child's complete file is available online.
While in Kandy, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) she met Paul Cushing Child, also an OSS employee, and the two were married on September 1, 1946, in Lumberville, Pennsylvania, later moving to Washington, D.C. Paul, a New Jersey native who had lived in Paris as an artist and poet, was known for his sophisticated palate, and introduced his wife to fine cuisine. He joined the United States Foreign Service, and, in 1948, the couple moved to Paris after the State Department assigned Paul there as an exhibits officer with the United States Information Agency.
The couple had no children.
Notes
- ↑ The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branches of the United States Armed Forces. Other OSS functions included the use of propaganda, subversion, and post-war planning. The OSS was dissolved a month after the end of the war. Intelligence tasks were shortly later resumed and carried over by its successors, the Department of State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) and the independent Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
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