I just knew when I was a freshman in high school and opened up a Latin I book for the first time and saw the chart of a Latin noun being declined of all its forms, I just thought, “That’s fantastic, it’s so logical, it’s so organized and you can tell by the spelling what the word is doing in the sentence. This is marvelous.”
Elaine Francis Willy Bloom was born in 1947. Bloom, a member of the baby boom generation, was born in Worcester, Massachusetts and raised in Barre, Massachusetts where she has lived her entire life except for higher education. She graduated from high school in 1965, went to undergraduate school at the University of Vermont, and graduate school at University of Cincinnati. She taught for thirty-three years, spending the first half of her career in the classics department at the University of Cincinnati and the second half working in the history department at Ohio State University. Throughout her career, Elaine always made her husband a priority along with her teachings. She was married to her husband, Donald, who was also a teacher, and they knew each other for sixteen years before they got married at the age of 44 and 50. Elaine is a widow, her husband died due to heart disease. They had no children or grandchildren, but Elaine considers her sister’s children as her grandchildren. In her interview, Elaine discusses what it was like as a teacher who taught subjects such as Latin, ancient history, and English. Bloom has been retired since 2008 at the age of 61. Elaine’s interview includes many facets for understanding the recent history of women in America: family, career, and community.