In the early morning hours of July 19, 1922, Mrs. Mable and John Stenger welcomed two identical twins into the world. John Emerson, born at 7:10 A.M. at the People’s Hospital of Akron, Ohio, was followed by his brother Charles, just ten minutes later. Both had been preceded by three older sisters, Kathryn, Margery, and Dorothy, making the Stenger brothers the last to enter their Kenyon Street home.

On October 29, 1929, the United States stock market collapsed. At the height of the Great Depression Akron peaked at a sixty percent unemployment rate. The Stenger’s family found themselves at the center of the economic shockwave in “blue-collar” territory. John Stenger wrote in his memoir “Survival during those depression days was difficult for parents who worried about sufficient food and avoiding mortgage foreclosure.” Through a diet of soup, Sauerkraut, and tuna fish, along with sheer grit, the Stengers persevered. John Stenger noted, “The fact is that Charles and I were not fully aware of how bad it was for our parents. Besides everybody around us were equally poor.” 

It was while John Stenger attended South Akron High that he met his future wartime sweetheart, wife, and “love of his life,” Ms. Ayleen Miller. Born on February 3, 1925, in La Follette, Tennessee, Ayleen had moved to Akron as a child when her father sought job opportunities in Akron’s numerous rubber factories during the Great Depression. It was at South Akron High that she became the valedictorian of her class. In 1942, John and Charles Stenger jointly bought a “brand new bright red Plymouth convertible.” With his new purchase, John Stenger noted that “Mother was the envy of her senior high classmates when we started dating.”  

Following John and Charles’ high school graduation in June of 1940, the twins attended the University of Akron in September. Having both entered as chemistry majors, John pursued a track studying rubber chemistry. Charles eventually switched to education. While studying rubber chemistry, John Stenger met Dr. George S. Whitby, a pioneer in the field.

On December 7, 1941, an early Sunday morning, that the Japanese struck a blow against United States forces stationed in Hawaii. By the end of 1941, the United States was facing Axis Japan, Italy, and Germany. Following the United States’ entry into the war, John Stenger’s life and the world he knew would become irrevocably transformed. John’s relationship with Ayleen would undergo the hardships of war, but never once falter.

Additional Resource:

The Smithsonian has the only live news report from the attack Pearl Harbor.