Denise Kiernan
Denise Kiernan, author of “The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II,” will speak at Lunch with the League on Tuesday.
The program begins at noon Tuesday in the Social Hall of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church at 1500 Oak Ridge Turnpike.
“The Girls of Atomic City†is the true story of the young women during World War II who lived and worked in Oak Ridge, one of the Manhattan Project’s secret cities. Through their efforts were crucial to the development of the world’s first atomic bomb, the vast majority of Oak Ridge residents did not know what they were working on until the atomic bomb known as “Little Boy†detonated above Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945.
“The Girls of Atomic City,” published in March 2013, became a New York Times best seller in its first week of publication.
Kiernan was working on another project when she came across Ed Wescott’s famous photo of the calutron girls on stools at control panels. “I wanted to find out more about the place,†she said. At the time she lived in Ashville, N.C.
She spent weeks interviewing local women, many of whom you know, and conducting research in Oak Ridge, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. The results is a lively, entertaining book that’s hard to put down, a press release said.
The Museum Discovery Shop will have copies of Kiernan’s book for sale at this lunch.
Lunch with the League is co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge, and it is open to the public. There is no cost to attend and reservations are not needed. Box lunches will be available starting at 11:30 a.m. on a first-come, first-served basis for $7, or you may bring your own. Coffee and tea are provided.
For more information about LWVOR, visit the website at lwvoakridge.org.
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