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Oral history interview with Mildred E. Haffey

 Collection
Identifier: SR 11174

Scope and Contents

This oral history interview with Mildred E. Haffey was conducted by Taylor Bailey in three sessions, from June 29 to July 27, 2016, in Portland, Oregon. The interview was conducted for the Oregon Labor Oral History Program, which collects oral histories of individuals who have advocated for working people of Oregon, including public figures, union members, and workers. Accompanying the audio recording is a color photograph, taken at the time of the interview, of Haffey and four others, three of whom are identified as Bailey, Jim Strassmaier, and Shirley Block. The fifth person in the photograph is unidentified.

In this interview, Haffey discusses her family background and early life, and talks about moving to the Pacific Northwest in 1943. She speaks about her marriage to and divorce from Donald E. Hall, and about her marriage to Vic Haffey in 1967. She discusses working as a bus driver for the David Douglas School District and for Portland Stages in Gresham. She then speaks extensively about working as a bus driver in Portland from 1967 to 1992, first for the Rose City Transportation Company in 1967, then for local transportation agency TriMet, after TriMet took over Rose City Transit's operations in 1969. She discusses the benfits she earned as a member of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757, and describes her experience as a woman bus driver at a time when women were uncommon in the profession.

Dates

  • Creation: 2016 June 29-July 27

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society. Use is allowed according to the following statement: Creative Commons - BY-NC-SA, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Biographical note

Mildred Emma Haffey, nee Rosenblad, was born in Elmhurst, Illinois, in 1929. She grew up in Iowa and in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 1943, she moved with her family to the Pacific Northwest, living in Vancouver, Washington, and Canby, Oregon. She graduated from Canby High School in 1947. The next year she married Donald Eugene Hall, and the couple moved to Portland, Oregon. She raised six children and was a homemaker for 15 years. After she and Hall divorced in 1963, she worked as a part-time bus driver for the David Douglas School District, and later as a regular bus driver for Portland Stages in Gresham. In 1967, she remarried to Victor Phillip Haffey, who was also divorced, and had five children. That same year, she began working as a bus driver for Rose City Transit Company in Portland. She was still working for Rose City Transit when, facing bankruptcy, the company turned over its operations to the newly formed Tri-County Metropolitan Transit District of Oregon (TriMet) in 1969. Mildred Haffey was one of the first women hired as a bus driver in Portland, and continued working as a driver until 1992, when she retired. Haffey died in 2024.

Sources: Vital records on Ancestry.com; information provided by Haffey in her interview; Haffey’s obituary on the Mt. Scott Funeral Home website (accessed October 7, 2025), https://www.mtsfh.com/obituaries/Mildred-Emma-Haffey?obId=33527598; "The TriMet Story," TriMet website (accessed October 2025), https://trimet.org/history/trimetstory.htm

Extent

0.1 Cubic Feet (5 audiocassettes (3 hr., 36 min., 42 sec.) + 1 photograph (color))

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

Oral history interview with Mildred E. Haffey, conducted by Taylor Bailey in three sessions, from June 29 to July 27, 2016, for the Oregon Labor Oral History Program. Haffey discusses her marriage history and family life and speaks extensively about her career as a bus driver from 1963 to 1992, particularly for TriMet in Portland, Oregon.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association, October 2017 (Lib. Acc. 29137).

General

Forms part of the Oregon Labor Oral History Program.

General

An incomplete transcript (64 pages) and a typescript index (3 pages) are available for in-person use at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.

Title
Guide to the oral history interview with Mildred E. Haffey
Status
Completed
Author
Sarah Stroman
Date
2025
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid is written in English.

Repository Details

Part of the Oregon Historical Society Research Library Repository

Contact:
1200 SW Park Ave.
Portland OR 97205 United States
5033065204
5033065240