[♪♪♪] SUZANNE: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's main building is one of the most recognized buildings in Pittsburgh.

And I think one of the most beautiful.

We have about five million items in our collection.

And just opening a drawer and finding a folder, it tells a wonderful story.

NARRATOR: Very few people do know the story in this folder.

It probably hasn't been opened in decades.

- This is from July 1940.

NARRATOR: Inside, there isn't much, just a few clippings about a woman named Elizabeth Black.

And the only reason anyone's looking now is because of this man.

JOHN: I'm the son of Elizabeth Black.

NARRATOR: And what he discovered.

JOHN: A footlocker arrived that contained tremendous artifacts and memorabilia about my mother.

MICHAEL: The Black collection walked in our door, and it was amazing.

NARRATOR: Elizabeth Black was an up and coming artist in the 1930s.

KATHY: She obviously had a talent that was recognized by many people.

NARRATOR: Prominent people commissioned her work.

She did portraits, murals, exhibits, showcased her talent.

- The body of work that she did is just astounding.

NARRATOR: Elizabeth Black was on her way.

[BOMB EXPLOSION] JOHN: The war interrupted a lot of careers.

NARRATOR: But World War II would also bring out her best.

- Elizabeth Black really symbolized the Red Cross spirit.

NARRATOR: She drew up a unique plan to serve her country, traveling through war zones in Europe .

YVONNE: Those soldiers' portraits have an intensity.

NARRATOR: Sketching more than a thousand soldiers for the folks back home .

JOHN: So there she was with an easel, sketchpad... - And I was standing there watching her.

YVONNE: The soldiers looking on.

I think they're having a good time.

- And just seeing a female meant a lot to them.

BILL GORGA: From the turmoil and anxiety to "Gee, this is heaven."

NARRATOR: Now, John Black is on a journey through his mother's life.

Meeting those she touched, researching an art career that disappeared.

It's a mission turned mystery.

SHEILA: This is the only picture that we've been able to find.

NARRATOR: As he tries to uncover her celebrated portraits of literary masters.

Are they hidden behind these library walls?

- Yeah, there's somethin' there!

I see some writing.

NARRATOR: H e also hopes to find those soldiers who e still with us.

- October 17th... - That's it, that's me.

- 1944.

NARRATOR: And make sure long-lost sketches are in appreciative hands .

- Mom, here ya go.

Been waiting 60, 65 years for this, so... open it up.

It took a long time for this sketch to find its home.

YVONNE: These portraits were a tremendous gift to the parents and the wives.

NARRATOR: This is the story of Elizabeth Black and her "Portraits For The Home Front" - that meant so much to so many Americans.

FRED: She was a wonderful, patriotic woman to do the things that she did.

- This is my dad, and it means the world to me.

[TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS] JOHN: As a little girl, she would see the sky light up like fire and it was from the steel mills.

NARRATOR: S oot, smoke and steel.

The mills meant money and jobs.

This was the bustling Pittsburgh of the early 1900s, the city where Elizabeth Black grew up and grew to love.

JOHN: She was proud of her hometown.

KAY: It's beautiful, look at all these bridges.

JOHN: Yeah, three rivers.

NARRATOR: Today Elizabeth's son, John, and his wife Kay, are getting a far better view of Pittsburgh.

They've come from their home in Germantown, Tennessee, to learn more about the city of his mother's early years.

- Well, it's just immeasurable getting to know his mom all over again.

JOHN: This was her life for what, 28 years.

NARRATOR: The year was 1912 when Elizabeth Black was born into one of Pittsburgh's notable families.

Her grandfather, John Wesley Black, founded the Pittsburgh Bulletin which covered social life and the arts during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

His son, also named John Wesley Black, and his wife Lillian, would have four children, Sarah Elizabeth, and her three brothers.

- So by the time she t to be a teenager, the Depression had set in.

And she'd told me times were very tough for her family during that period.

But she was just fortunately born with a tremendous talent that started coming out as she got to be a teenager.

NARRATOR: Everyone called her Betty then.

And at Carrick High School, they were already calling her an artist.

Betty Black made headlines in the school paper when her airplane poster design won a national contest.

The prize?

Fifteen dollars.

- And that propelled her to devote even more time to that talent.

NARRATOR: Betty won a scholarship to the Ad-Art Studio School where one of her teachers was renowned Pittsburgh artist Raymond Simboli.

She took classes at Carnegie Tech - now Carnegie Mellon, then landed a spot at the prestigious Art Students League of New York.

- So, she got tremendous training there.

NARRATOR: A nd more recognition.

But young Betty Black was getting less support at home.

Money was tight.

A woman actually selling her art was unlikely.

JOHN: I don't think she got a lot of encouragement from her parents.

And maybe at the time, it was one of those things where you need to go out and get a real job, Betty, artists can't make any money.

- As a woman artist of that time period... she seems to me, to have been very brave and bold.

Because it's still a man's world in the art world, I think, and back then, it was so much more.

NARRATOR: Yvonne Kozlina has been a working artist in Pittsburgh for more than 40 years.

Her specialty is portraits, and she got a recent look at the portraits of Elizabeth Black.

YVONNE: I think her work was just beautiful.

She knew how to reer a face, and she knew how to use her materials.

NARRATOR: And the people who knew art in Pittsburgh saw it, too.

By the late 1930s, Elizabeth was getting jobs.

Wealthy Pittsburgh families commissioned her work.

The Mellons, the Shaws, for whom the community of Glenshaw was named.

YVONNE: People are looking for the be.

They can afford the best, so they woulcertainly hire the best.

I see that she can capture children very well.

She gets the face shape, the proportions right, and she gets a beautiful portrait from the child.

Word spread among the influential women: of Pittsburgh's Junior League.

When it was time for their children to sit for portraits, they would sit for Elizabeth Black.

- My mother said, wear your yellow dress, and I sat down and away she went, you know, very quickly.

NARRATOR: At her home in Greenwich, Connecticut, Kathy Knight is many miles and memories away from her Pittsburgh childhood.

Kathy's father was George Liggett Craig Jr., prominent in the oil business.

Kathy's mother, Kathleen Casey Craig, better known as Honey, was a respected patron of the Pittsburgh arts community .

KATHLEEN: Mummy was very dazzling.

She had a wonderful personality.

NARRATOR: And she knew a good artist when she saw one .

KATHLEEN: Oh, very definitely.

She knew Elizabeth Black, and she wanted my portrait to be painted by her, and I think I was nine years old.

She really had a knack of getting a likeness of somebody, so I probably looked just like that.

Too fat.

Too seriou NARRATOR: Kathy jokes about it now, but her fleeting experience with Elizabeth Black was a pleasant one.

KATHY: I liked her immediately, and she was very nice to me, treated me like a grown-up, and just went about her business of painting.

She smiled a lot, and she was lovely-looking.

NARRATOR: That sitting decades ago left Kathy Knight with a family keepsake and a brush with a woman who was making early strides in a male dominated field.

KATHY: Oh, I think she was probably ahead of her time.

No doubt, her gift of portraiture probably launched her.

JOHN: She was getting acclaim.

She was getting showings.

KATHY: She obviously had a talent that was recognized by many people in Pittsburgh.

- She was at that level, the highest level.

- She was getting commissions, making a living.

NARRATOR: And wanted to make sure other artists made a living too.

At the age of 24, Elizabeth made news by opening a gallery for young artists in downtown Pittsburgh.

The exhibit space was in the Bessemer Building which stood at the corner of Sixth Street and Fort Duquesne Boulevard.

Her goal, attracting new talent that wasn't yet welcome at me professional galleries.

- She realized what she went through to have to get there, and she wanted to make it easier on other artists to be able to earn a living and to receive the acclaim that they might deserve if they truly had talent.

NARRATOR: T hey set modest prices but Elizabeth was quoted as saying "I don't want anyone to think this is a five-and-ten store."

KAY: Somewhat blunt, didn't hedge her words, very personable, very engaging.

NARRATOR: Elizabeth's daughter-in-law Kay is also an artist and a partner in John's research on his mother's work .

- She was trained at a time when people really learned how to paint realistically.

She actually starts out in the old masters' style, builds up upon it.

JOHN: But like all artists, like all people of great talent, they are always second guessing themselves, and saying "I'm not good enough, I'm not good enough."

But that was probably something else that drove her forward and made her even try harder to succeed.

NARRATOR: Before it became the North Side of Pittsburgh, Allegheny City was a city of its own, in fact, the third largest city in Pennsylvania.

It was thriving with industry and culture.

What it still needed, according to Andrew Carnegie, was a library .

SHEILA: Mr. Carnegie made an arrangement with the City of Allegheny to provide them a library.

NARRATOR: The building opened in 1890, and was the second Carnegie Library in the United States.

Sheila Jackson has worked at the main branch in open, for 40 years.

But as a young girl, she spent a lot of time at the North Side location .

SHEILA: And I went there to do my homework signments, so I spent many hours in that library.

NARRATOR: The building was impressive, with beautiful architecture, reading rooms and fireplaces.

But in the main gallery, something was missing .

JOHN: There happened to be some niches in that library, that had been there for many years and even had the names of famous American authors printed on those niches, but never anything filled in for those niches.

NARRATOR: The niches stayed empty pr for half a century,s, but around 1940, the library decided to fill them, thanks to Roosevelt's new deal.

NEWSREEL VOICE: Painters too contribute their best to making the Works Program a real and permanent accomplishment.

NARRATOR: The Works Progress Administration, or WPA, was digging America out of the Depression, putting thousands to work, including people in the art world.

NEWSREEL VOICE: Some of this work is done on canvas but much of it is created on the walls of our schools, libraries and other public buildings... NARRATOR: Elizabeth Black got the coveted job at the Carnegie Library.

- She was selected to actually paint the authors into those niches, and she did 25 of them larger-than-life portraits in those niches, which was a gargantuan achievement.

NARRATOR: Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, James Russell Lowell... - Hawthorne, Whittier, Henry David Thoreau... JOHN: She did a 3-D mock-up, scale model, of what it was going to look like.

SHEILA: Now here we have a shot of her on a ladder, and that's pretty far from the ground.

JOHN: And she's up on the top one or two rungs, in heels.

NARRATOR: C reating the portraits would take nearly two years.

She poured over 2,000 photographs of her subjects.

And when photos didn't exist, like in the case of Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth relied on the author's own description of herself.

The results were impressive.

The renowned J. Gillespie Gallery then located in Kaufmann's department store exhibited the portraits before they were finally mounted in the Carnegie Library.

- They were big and they were colorful and they, you know, they just sort of surrounded you.

My memory of those portraits is that they were hung there to inspire readers to read the best of American literature.

NARRATOR: Newspapers covered the story, and the city celebrated the artist and her work.

SHEILA: At that period of time, there weren't a lot of women artists of great prominence, and I think that it was probably a big coup for her to be able to paint something and have those works hung in such a prominent city landmark.

NEWSREEL VOICE: The sweat and iron of Detroit and Pittsburgh came the wreckage of [indistinct].

- This war was agony, fear.

NEWSREEL VOICE: We lost more than jeeps and halftracks , tires and shells, tanks and guns.

We lost men.

- I used to pray that I wouldn't have to kill nobody, and nobody would have to kill me.

And when you absolutely think you're gonna die, you're not afraid.

NARRATOR: In Warren, Ohio, Bill Gorga finds peace here.

He's 88 now, and like so many others his age, Bill says this may be the last year he'll put in a garden.

But he likes the work and the quiet times when old memories surface.

BILL: I was a kid who was overseas and growing up to be a man.

Yeah, no more kid.

NARRATOR: Bill was a machine gunner with the army during World War II.

He was at Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge, the Hurtgen Forest, and he was once reported Missing In Action.

Among his wartime memories, sending his men on dangerous missions, losing some of his comrades.

- And while I was at Luxembourg, I met Elizabeth Black.

NARRATOR: All these years later, Bill has to reach way back to remember Elizabeth Black.

But they did meet during the war when he had a short leave from combat.

Elizabeth was with the Red Cross and drew Bill's portrait.

He in turn signed her autograph book, and is now seeing what he wrote, for the first time in nearly 70 years .

- Very vaguely I remember writing that down.

But that's me.

[READING] "Thanks a lot, from a youthful GI."

And that was our feelings.

I mean, just...just to get away from the war for three days.

NARRATOR: During World War II, the American Red Cross mobilized.

The organization enrolled more than 100,000 nurses for military service.

Millions of Red Cross packages went to American and Allied troops.

Blood drives saved countless lives.

Volunteers gave their time on ships, trains, and in the field.

And wanting to be a part of it was artist Elizabeth Black .

- When World War II came, it was right at the peak of when she was doing her best work in Pittsburgh.

The war interrupted a lot of careers.

She felt like she should do something for the war effort.

- Okay, we were able to find a photo of your mother; this is from England, 1944.

NARRATOR: John Black's travels to learn more about his mother would take him to the American Red Cross Headquarters in Washington, DC.

Susan Robbins Watson is the archivist.

SUSAN: The women who went over there were breaking barriers.

And they wanted to contribute to the war; this was a huge adventure for many of them.

NARRATOR: Service records show that Sarah Elizabeth Black signed on as a Red Cross trainee in June of 1943.

She was assigned to an extension of the Club Program, essentially clubs and other buildings set up to provide recreation and entertainment for the troops.

- But they needed a way to reach the military that was stationed further out in remote areas.

NARRATOR: And so began the clubmobile... staffed and often driven by women of the American Red Cross.

The first vehicles were remodeled green line buses in Great Britain.

Later, about 170 trucks were converted into clubmobiles.

They hit the beach in Normandy and spread out over the continent, making their way to airfields, docks, bases and camps.

When a clubmobile arrived, so did a little bit of home.

There was usually a victrola playing popular records of the day.

Some early clubmobiles had lounge areas where troops could relax.

The women passed out cigarettes, candy and gum.

JOHN: There were dances, and they danced with the soldiers.

- Oh, I think it meant a lot to the men.

They really appreciated the fact that the Red Cross was there, that the American people were thinking of them.

- It brought a little bit of civilization to a place without civilization.

NARRATOR: S erved out of the clubmobile kitchens, cup after cup of hot coffee, and most popular of all, freshly made doughnuts.

It's estimated that across Europe, Red Cross women were handing out 400 donuts every minute.

In all, 1.6 billion during the war.

As expected, the clubmobiles drew a crowd with long lines of hungry soldiers.

Local children might wander in, hoping for a treat.

And the treat for many of the men wasn't always a donut.

SUSAN: Just seeing a female, seeing an American female, meant a lot to 'em.

- I could talk to people and actually to see a girl; we were living man-to-man in a hole.

NARRATOR: But not just any woman was a clubmobile candidate.

The Red Cross required some college and work experience.

Applicants couldn't be younger than 25 or older than 35.

- They were expected to look like women.

They had to keep their lipstick on, they had to keep their hair done, their pants had to have a side zipper, not a front zipper, and they could not be mistaken for a man.

NARRATOR: Living conditions were basic at best.

The women cooked for themselves, did their laundry outside, and handled any numb of emergencies along the way.

To avoid being targets, the women draped their clubmobiles with camouflage netting .

SUSAN: They knew there was an element of danger.

They were close to the frontlines.

BILL: Just the fact that a woman would be there where it was nothing but men and danger, was quite amazing.

JOHN: Nothing prepared her for suddenly being in a war zone... [BOMB EXPLOSION] ...where bombs were going off at night.

And naturally, it scared her tremendous.

She knew that she wasn't in Pittsburgh anymore.

NARRATOR: Fifty-two Red Cross women gave their lives during the war.

All of them gave the gift of friendship.

SUSAN: Well, you had to be outgoing, you had to be willing to reach out and talk to people, and also be a good listener.

They spent a lot of time listening.

They were just young men, you know, many of them 18 and 19, who had been sent over there, and they were a long way from home and they needed, you know, somebody to talk to.

- They wanted you to forget about the horrors of war; they wanted you to feel like you was back home.

It was like being normal again.

NARRATOR: Caught up in the excitement of Red Cross service was ElizabetBlack .

JOHN: We have pictures of her passing out coffee and donuts, but I believe that she got bored very quickly with that.

Not to minimize what the others were doing, but she did have this talent.

NARRATOR: And she wanted to use it.

In a hand-written business plan, Elizabeth pitched that talent to a high-ranking Red Cross official in Washington.

WOMAN'S VOICE READING: "Dear Mister Momand, "I've tried to write clear and concise ideas on how to best present to the portrait service."

NARRATOR: Her proposal ?

To travel with the clubmobile, but instead of serving coffee and doughnuts, Elizabeth would sketch the troops.

The Red Cross would send the portraits home to loved ones in the US.

- And her proposal was very well thought out, and very detailed.

- She tried to think of everything, the logistics of the operation.

She needed paper, and she needed crayons and drawing materials.

And they needed to be moved around from place to place.

NARRATOR: In May of 1944, Elizabeth's plan was accepted.

Clubmobile captains throughout Europe were notified by Washington that Elizabeth Black was on special mission and should be given their every cooperation.

SUSAN: The sketch program was absolutely a success.

JOHN: She would do sometimes a dozen a day.

And, she's always got a smile on her face while she's doing it.

BILL: I can recall a guy standing in line and admiring her work, and how fast s was doing it with so many people there.

YVONNE: You're doing a quick sketch, you have an audience, and it has to be done in a few minutes... under these crazy circumstances!

JOHN: And I think as they probably watched it, they were pretty well amazed that what this artist was doing was very good.

NARRATOR: She sketched her way through England, and then crossed the English Channel after D-Day.

As the Allies pushed their way through Europe, Elizabeth Black did too.

France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland, Germany.

Most often, she set up in field camps where troops rested between combat.

A lottery decided which men stood before the easel.

JOHN: A lot of these men had been to the front.

They had seen battle.

They'd maybe seen some of their comrades fall.

Now they were back for a little bit of rest.

- When you look at the men gathered around Miss Black, I see men that are happy.

took their minds off the war for a while.

JOHN: They're smiling, they're relaxed, they've let go a little bit.

NARRAT : And there was no forgetting, this portrait artist was a woman .

BILL: Of course, in this world of all men, it's nice to see somebody like her.

That made my day at R&R.

NARRATOR: Bill Gorga was sketched in Luxembourg, November 27th, 1944 .

BILL: She just has that pleasant quality that she brings smiles to your face.

NARRATOR: The army and navy most often she focused on the men in the trenches.

She did portraits of men in segregated units.

Two years, more than a thousand drawings .

YVONNE: And she can capture somebody with a minimum amount of lines.

I just think that's a mark of excellence.

JOHN: We've gotten letters back from the parents who received them who would say, "It looks just like him!"

NARRATOR: Elizabeth Black signed every sketch, noting the date and where she drew it.

Then the American Red Cross sent them home with a message from every man .

- She has their expression, their emotions; you feel something when you look at it.

I think she captured the feelings that they were all going through and that she was going through.

JOHN: This was a very high time for her in her life.

Being in a war zone, doing these portraits, making this contribution.

KAY: Those sketches just say everything about what she did, and her talent.

YVONNE: It had to be very emotional for her knowing that some of these boys weren't going to go home.

NEWSREEL VOICE: The Battle of Paris has been won.

And the victorious end of the Battle of Europe is at hand.

JOHN: She went over ere to do her job.

I don't think she went over there to find her future husband.

But it happened!

NARRATOR: In Cherbourg, France, Elizabeth Black of Pittsburgh met Julian Black, a dashing naval officer from Chattanooga, Tennessee .

They shared a laugh about having the same last name.

He signed her autograph book, drawing three musical notes and the title of a popular wartime song, "I'll be seeing you."

JOHN: A fairly quick romance but a very passionate one, as near as I can tell, because the war would have a tendency to create that sort of passion.

NARRATOR: They married at the American Cathedral in Paris... honeymooned at The Ritz.

Over the next six months, Elizabeth finished up her sketch project.

The war was ending, and in June of 1945, the newlyweds were on a ship back to the US and Mrs. Julian Black was sailing into a very different future.

JOHN: They arrive back at the States.

And eventually: settled in Waynesboro, They arrive Virginia.he States.

Elizabeth would not live in her hometown of Pittsburgh again .

- Suddenly she was back in a small town in Virginia, with one child, and then 14 months later, I showed up.

NARRATOR: Elizabeth's husband was an attorney, who would go on to start a soft drink bottling company.

JOHN: And even though that was working out just fine for him, and that's what he wanted to do, I'm not so sure that it worked out the way she would've liked to have had it.

KAY: She had two children to raise and to help her husband start a business, and I think women were not encouraged as much to make it their career.

- And this wonderful art career slowed tremendously.

NARRATOR: There was little demand for a portrait artist in Waynesboro.

Elizabeth busied herself with family, and as the wife of Julian Black, she was active in the city's socialcene .

JOHN: She became depressed during that period, and I would have to think that a lot of it had to do with the fact that she felt unfulfilled.

NARRATOR: Then in 1956, Julian died of a heart attack at the age of 48.

As the years passed, times would get tougher, emotionally and financially.

But John remembers how his mother brightened when talking about her years with the Red Cross .

JOHN: That was the most exciting time of her life, and she would repeat it from time to time and tell us about it.

NARRATOR: But her sons were only half listening.

John and George were growing into teenagers of the Baby Boom.

Everyone's parents had stories about the war.

Elizabeth packed her art career into a military footlocker, and closed the lid .

[♪♪♪] JOHN: At that point, a lot of people were discovering sunny California.

NARRATOR: Wi her sons now grown and hoping to re-establish her art caer, Elizabeth headed west to the trendy city of Berkeley, California, then later Portland, Oregon.

She was painting again, made new friends in the art community, but kept her work to herself.

JOHN: Her artistic endeavors were very private and personal to her, and not for the outside world.

She never got back to the momentum that she was creating in Pittsburgh before the war.

NARRATOR: Commissions, exhibitions, and newspaper stories about her success were a thing of the past.

In 1983, Elizabeth Black was at home alone in Portland, when she had a heart attack, and died at the age of 71.

- When I got the footlocker, I realized what a treasure that was.

NARRATOR: S he'd kept it all.

Clippings, portraits, photographs, scrapbooks, carefully tucked into her husband's footlocker from World War II.

JOHN: It had to be a burden to carry that around for all those years and all those travels.

NARRATOR: And travel it did.

From her war years in Europe, the trunk crossed the Atlantic to her homes in Staunton and then Waynesboro, Virginia.

Later, when Elizabeth moved to Berkeley, then Portland, the trunk moved, too.

After her death, it went to her son, George, in Redwood City, California, and was stored in a garage for nearly 30 years, before finally coming to her son, John, in Germantown, Tennessee, in 2010.

- The only reason she was keeping up with all this memorabilia, I think, was in hopes that one day, one of her two sons would grasp the significance of what was in it.

What a great downtown.

NARRATOR: Now, with the memorabilia in their van, John and his wife Kay are in his mother's hometown.

They're planning several stops.

One of the first, the now-closed Carnegie Library on Pittsburgh's North Side, where Elizabeth Black hung her portraits of literary legends.

SHEILA: Well, this has been an adventure for me trying to locate some information about this.

NARRATOR: Carnegie Library supervisor Sheila Jackson has only been able to find one photograph of the portraits in their niches.

Shortly after this photo was taken, the building closed for a late 60s renovation.

Ornate was out , contemporary in.

- When I went back into that library in the 1970s after it was remodeled, that was the first thing I noticed that had changed, that they weren't there anymore.

NARRATOR: And nobody has seen the portraits since .

KAY: Here we go!

NARRATOR: John and Kay got permission to go inside to look for themselves .

JOHN: When I walked in, my heart sunk because it looked like the renovations that had occurred in that library over the years were gonna prevent us from finding anything.

HENRY: This could be the area.

KAY: Surely this is not a drop ceiling.

You see, this looks like that's the opening, right there.

JO: Every minute that we were there seemed to be a little bit better.

- These seem to be much closer together.

- And then you have this column.

Sounds hollow.

NARRATOR: The search would turn up nothing while John and Kay were there, except to confirm the location of the niches, about 14 feet from the floor, and now covered by a new wall.

JOHN: It just gives me chills to think that we could be that close to these magnificent portraits that my mother did 70 years ago.

We'll know as soon as we crack that wall.

NARRATOR: Pittsburgh City workers would crack that wall ... hoping to find the portraits.

CRAIG: Yeah, there's something there.

I see some writing.

NARRATOR: The authors' names finally uncovered.

But the rest of the news was not good.

CRAIG: You can see where the paintings were, but they're not there anymore, ey must've been taken down.

NARRATOR: For now, the library and the city don't know what happened to the portraits.

Twenty-five authors and poets, larger than life, missing since around 1970.

SHEILA: If I had to guess where those portraits are, I think they're probably rolled up, in a barrel, in a warehouse, somewhere in a basement in the city.

- My name is Michael Kraus, I'm the curator at Soldiers and Sailors in Pittsburgh.

My job is to oversee the collection; we have a great collection that started almost as soon as the building was opened in 1910.

NARRATOR: Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Pittsburgh.

The landmark building houses military artifacts dating back to the Civil War.

And it's the next stop for John Black and his mother's footlocker.

- This is her, this is her essence here.

Here I was, staring at this pile of portrait drawings, and a mountain of paperwork that just looked like it said, look at me!

Read me!

Interpret me!

I want to say something!

NARRATOR: What's laid out before curator Michael Kraus is the meticulous collection of Elizabeth Black.

It was painstakingly preserved by a woman who knew that someday, someone would care.

MICHAEL: What was apparent was Ms. Black was a record keeper.

She was neat, she was organized, she was intelligent.

You could just tell all those things by her system, her handwriting, the way she kept her books.

So we knew we were going to see something really, really incredible.

JOHN: The crown jewel, I would say, are these sketches.

- And her signature, is it on all of them?

- Oh yes, and the dates.

NARRATOR: Copies of 100 portraits remain in the collection.

At some point during the war, Elizabeth decided to keep a record of her own work.

She kept these photographs of the sketches before the original sketches were mailed to families in the United States.

- We've had a number of artifacts from women who have served but never a collection of drawings like this.

We look through Ms. Black's eyes at these soldiers, and that's why it's so unique and so powerful.

One of the things that I was drawn to was a book that she actually carried with her while she drew the portraits, waand she had eache actuindividual soldierher sign the book to her.

NARRATOR: Some are carefully scripted, others barely legible, these are personal notes from all the men who posed for portraits.

Every gnature, and every turn of the page, tells another story.

MICHAEL: It seemed like most of the men were very respectful and appreciative of her work.

MALE VOICEOVER: "It was a cloudy, dark day, but you were out there on our windswept field sketching the boys and myself.

You were like a tonic to us."

JOHN: Some of the men flirted with her.

MALE VOICEOVER: "It was a pleasure to pose, and I want you to know the subject had something very nice to look at."

MICHAEL: They were sweet.

Thank you, you're swell, we wish you luck, see you home.

JOHN: They were relaxed, they let go a little bit.

MICHAEL: That's great, his face is red, he's a little embarrassed.

JOHN: He did a pretty good job.

- That looks just like her in these pictures.

NARRATOR: The soldiers drew cartoons, sometimes they wrote poems.

MALE VOICEOVER: "Elizabeth Black is a Red Cross gal.

A real good-looker and a real good pal.

She sketched my picture one sunny morn.

Gave me a smile, my spirit was reborn."

NARRATOR: Some wrote their regiment numbers, leaving clues as to where the men had been or were about to go.

- Oh, here's a patch.

Oh, that patch is the 29th Division.

Now that division landed at D-Day and the 116th Infantry was almost slaughtered entirely at the landing, they were one of the first out of the boats.

But each man had really thought about what he wanted to say to her, and had written it down.

That was her collection, her payment really, for doing these portraits of those young men.

MALE VOICEOVER: "Jack Kennedy, Grove City, Pennsylvania, near good old Pittsburgh!"

MALE VOICEOVER: "Staff sergeant Robert Davis, Charleston, West Virginia."

MALE VOICEOVER: "Robert Baldi, Cleveland, Ohio."

MALE VOICEOVER: "Richard Autry, Saint Louis, Missouri."

MALE VOICEOVER: "James Gates, San Antonio, Texas.

MALE VOICEOVER: "Corporal James Stenhouse, Simsbury, Connecticut."

MALE VOICEOVER: "Staff Sergeant Murray Carl, Bronx, New York."

MALE VOICEOVER: "Master Sgt.

Robert Bayham, Dayton, Ohio."

- I think we've a lot of relative information on here.

- You might want to add Howard Fairley to that list, he passed away in '02.

- I thought we found his wife... NARRATOR: Nearly seven decades after Elizabeth Black sketched hundreds of American troops, the search is on to find them.

BRIAN: From West Virginia, correct?

- Yeah.

- Did you try contacting his nephew?

NARRATOR: These interns from Pittsburgh colleges are working with WQED.

They're using the autograph books provided by Elizabeth's son, John... Making spreadsheets... Searching on-line...

Hoping to find the soldiers or their families.

It hasn't been easy.

- A lot of the addresses have changed.

NARRATOR: When the men signed the books in 1944 and '45, many were still teenagers living with parents .

BRIAN: They wouldn't have any kind of forwarding address, so a lot of times it would hit a snag there.

Another problem was just the commonality of some of the names.

NARRATOR: And perhaps the greatest challenge... almost eryone on the list is dead.

The VA estimates that nearly 650 World War II veterans die every day.

- Once I'd got to the obituaries, the next thing I would look for would be their next of kin... - But it was finding their connections, like finding their spouses, and then their children.

NARRATOR: Who would be found, and where?

How many portraits made it back to the States?

How many still exist?

BETTY: All of a sudden, he was gone.

And I missed him; I missed him quite a bit.

NARRATOR: One of the first to be found was Betty Koppel Houston.

She was only seven years old in 1945 and worried about her father.

The family lived in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Crafton Heights.

They knew Leo Koppel was fighting somewhere in Europe, but hadn't seen him in more than a year.

- We didn't know how long he was going to be away, we didn't know if he would ever really come home.

NARRATOR: Leo had just come through the Battle of the Bulge, and was on leave in Holland, when he was among those chosen to have his portrait done by Elizabeth Black.

He signed it to his wife, Betty... and the Red Cross sent the sketch to the home front .

- We were quite surprised when we got it in the mail.

Of course, me, I was excited because I was daddy's little girl.

My mom framed it right away, and hung it on the living room wall.

NARRATOR: As they grew old together, Leo Koppel and his wife kept the portrait on display, until they died.

It now hangs proudly in the home of Leo's daughter Betty.

BETTY: It's a very good likeness of him, I think.

When I look at this picture, I see the love shining out of his eyes.

Just all the love that I feel for him.

And it means the world to me.

NARRATOR: One of John Black's goals is making sure portraits that never got home, finally do.

His mother kept copies of about 100 sketches.

One of them was of Joseph Nemetz, originally from Pittston, Pennsylvania.

- How we tracked down Mr. Nemetz, we found an obituary for him on the Internet.

- We can contact them and see if they know anything.

NARRATOR: But finding the family took detective work.

The 2010 obituary did name Joe Nemetz's widow and three children.

turned up nothing on them.Is But the obit also named his grand-daughter, Christine and her husband, Wesley Heyser.

Turns out, Wesley is a firefighter who'd been mentioned in a news article about a fire in Gettysburg.

A call to the Gettysburg Fire Department led Wesley.

Who called his father-in-law, Joe Netz Jr., the late veteran's son.

Joe Jr. lives in a Philadelphia suburb .

- I really wondered whether it was a scam or not, 'cause it was something that happened 70 years ago.

NARRATOR: As it turns out, the metz family never received the wartime portrait of Joe Sr. And his widow, Lucy, was still alive.

LUCY: All I can say is time is marching on for me too.

So I just have the happy memories and I look at the pictures every day.

NARRATOR: Joe Nemetz married Lucy when he was 25.

They raised a family, enjoyed their grandchildren.

Like other men of his era, Joe never talked about his time in the navy.

- I never pressed my father for any answers, I just didn't know if he'd be very sensitive to it.

LUCY: I wish I could have seen him in uniform.

But he never even had his uniform, I don't know what he did with it.

NARRATOR : Because Joe's family never got the sketch during the war, John Black had it delivered all these years later.

Lucy, her son and daughter are about to see it for the first time.

- Mom, here ya go.

Been waiting 60, 65 years for this, so... open it up.

ALL: Aw!

- Look at that.

- "Love, Joe."

That's his writing right there.

NARRATOR: They all agree, the likeness is a good one, right down to the wave in his hair.

They also get a look at what Joe wrote in Elizabeth's autograph book.

A flirtatious note that reads in part - "your attractive smile more than anything made me want to be sketched by you."

- He knew how the sling... sling, you know... ha-ha...

The bull.

- He was 18, he was hitting on the sketch artist, Ma!

[ALL LAUGH] Her looks, her eyes, and her smile, that's my father.

He always had something nice to say about other people.

- I'm Kathleen, hi, thank you so much... NARRATOR: In a Skype conversation, the family reaches out to John Black in Tennessee, to get more details about the sketch.

- ...and it's in beautiful condition.

JOE: Yes, it is.

- Yes, it is.

- How many sketches did you recover?

NARRATOR: The family wants to know more about John's mother, and to thank him for the portrait .

JOE: It took a long time to find home.

It's finally home.

I'll put it up in the living room.LUCY: I have these pictures in the living room, so I get to see him every day.

NARRATOR: It'll go right next to her wedding photo.

For Lucy Nemetz, one look at the sketch says it all.

- Well, he's my Joe.

- Watch your step.

NARRATOR: Frank and Eva Clark have walked through life together for 71 years .

FRANK: She put up with me all this time.

NARRATOR: They're in their 90s now, living in an apartment for seniors in Beaver, Pennsylvania, and they're about to get a visitor.

JOHN: This will be the first time that I have actually met one of the soldiers who was sketched.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing him and see if he remembers anything about it.

- Hello there.

- Mr. Clark?

- Yes, how you doing?

- I'm John Black.

- Well, nice to meet you, Mr. Black.

Come right on in.

NARRATOR: Corporal Frank L. Clark of Midland, Pennsylvania, signed the autogph book in October 1944, the day he posed for Elizabeth Black, in France.

Frank hadn't seen Eva in two years.

FRANK: Miss my wife?

Oh, you bet I did.

NARRATOR: And he was proud to send the sketch home.

But somehow, the original got lost.

Today, Frank and Eva are joined at their kitchen table by Elizabeth Black's son .

John delivers a copy of the portrait created seven decades earlier.

- October 17th... - That's it, that's me.

- ...1944.

NARRATOR: The Clarks take a few minutes to admire the sketch.

Eva's memory isn't what it used to be, but she's brightened by the gift.

And John's gift in all of this, are a soldier's memories of his mother.

FRANK: Took time with us, you know.

- Oh, did she, talk to you and...?

- Talk to us, and had us laughing.

Well, it means a lot, and I'm glad to be able to get this copy.

And I'll have it for the rest of my life.

Alwaysours... Frank.

JOHN: If anytime she was worn out, and she must've been...

FEMALE VOICEOVER: "Dear friend, I received the charcoal portrait you drew of my son..." JOHN: It must've been tremendously encouraging to her to get these letters.

FEMALE VOICEOVER: "I appreciate it very much.

I was very worried about him."

NARRATOR: The letters came by the dozens ...

FEMALE VOICEOVER: "Dear Miss Black..." NARRATOR: Somehow finding their way to Elizabeth Black as she traveled from camp to camp in Europe.

FEMALE VOICEOVER: "Thank you ever so much for the sketch of my husband.

You can't imagine how much it means to me to have something so realistic of the expression so dear and familiar to me."

FEMALE VOICEOVER: "We haven't heard from Pete in over six months.

He must be a changed fellow by now."

FEMALE VOICEOVER: "The work the Red Cross is doing is great.

May you all be able to carry on and success be with you all."

NARRATOR: They arrived from all over the United States.

Letters of concern, thanks, and suppt.

JOHN: Lifting her up and saying, you're doing a great job, keep going.

NARRATOR: Lifting the spirits of Elizabeth Black... and sometimes, breaking her heart.

FEMALE VCEOVER: "For some time I've been meaning to write and tell you that the sketch of my husband arrived all right... and was viewed rather sorrowfully by his relatives.

Shortly after it arrived, I received word that he was killed in action, December 27th, a month after the sketch.

I am having the sketch framed so his nine-month-old son may have it.

The son he never saw.

I hope a word of appreciation from the States is not amiss..." - "...Very truly yours, Helen O.

Harper."

NARRATOR: That nine-month-old son is now 69-year-old Fred Harper Jr. We found him living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

He's never seen this letter.

FRED: It's difficult for me to read.

NARRATOR: And was just a baby when his mother wrote to Elizabeth Black to say thanks, while still grieving for a husband who wasn't coming home.

Helen and Fred Harper were only married a few years when he went off to war.

Fred was with Battery C of the 400th Armored Field Artillery Battalion that advanced through France, Luxembourg, and finally Germany, and into the Battle of the Bulge.

FRED: He was killed actually after the Americans had turned the tide.

We were actually winning the battle when he lost his life.

Mother never, never spoke of it.

I suspect it was just heart-wrenching.

NARRATOR: Fred Jr. grew up in Hurlock, Maryland, knowing his father only through pictures.

He too joined the military, and served in the navy during the Cold War.

Eventually, Fred's mother gave him the sketch drawn by Elizabeth Black .

FRED: Well, I have to tell you it's not my favorite picture of my father.

But I like it because it's the last real, good picture I have of him.

NARRATOR: Fred spent years wondering, "Who was Elizabeth Black?"

But his searches turned up nothing .

- And then I got your phone call and I though, ah, providence!

- Fred Harper Jr.?

- That's him.

- John Black.

- Good to meet you, sir.

- Good to meet you.

NARRATOR: They chose an appropriate meeting place: the World War II Memorial in Washington, DC.

The family of the late Fred Harper meets the family of the late Elizabeth Black.

JOHN: And the fact that they kept that portrait all those years, it was a very important part of their life.

NARRATOR: John shows his mother's autograph book.

Inside is a note from Fred's father, thanking Elizabeth for sketching him, wishing her luck, and a quick trip home.

FRED: This whole thing here is very moving.

TREY: My dad tends to be a bit stoic.

But I know he is very proud of his father's service.

And I know that he is very sad that he didn't grow up with a dad.

NARRATOR: But the legacy of Fred Jackson Harper is now gathered here.

Three generations near a memorial to those who fought during the Battle of the Bulge.

- You know what you're looking at?

In the last couple days, my dad has seen a couple of things that he's never seen before.

NARRATOR: His mother's tragic wartime letter and a bittersweet message from his dad.

But Fred has also made new friends, brought together by one sketch from Elibeth Black.

- There were thousands and thousands of kids like me that lost their fathers in the war.

And it's still going on today for that matter.

TREY: When my son is old enough to understand it, I'll show him the sketch of his great grandfather and he'll be able to understand it like I do now.

- Ready.

Face.

Present arms.

NARRATOR: There are 400,000 graves at Arlington National Cemetery.

On one of the tombstones is the ne Sarah Elizabeth Black .

JOHN: And that's a very special place for us.

NARRATOR: Ironically, she earned a place here, not for service to her country, but for her role as a military wife to Commander Julian Black .

JOHN: Her contribution was every bit in its own way as significant as whatever he did.

She was far more than just a spouse of a military officer.

KAY: Yeah, it's great that she kept all of this.

NARRATOR: Elizabeth was indeed much more.

Her son knows it now and learns more every day, through his travels and by exploring her treasured collection .

JOHN: I thought this was a unique story that I hadn't seen anything like this before, and lo and behold, it was my own mother.

KAY: It's almost like Liz has been with us, showing us her life.

NARRATOR: Today, in her hometown of Pittsburgh, there's barely a trace of Elizabeth Black.

Just those clippings in a long-buried library file.

The building that housed her art gallery is now a parking garage.

The family's home, an empty lot.

And her paintings of literary legends are perhaps lost forever.

But her wartime sketches are NOT forgotten, especially by those they touched .

- I think she gave everything she had to make those portraits.

NARRATOR: Elizabeth Black sketched her way into the hearts of brave, sometimes frightened and lonely American troops .

SUSAN: To these men, it was an opportunity to reach back home.

NARRATOR: She was a woman who gave hundreds of families peace of mind at a time they needed it most.

- It just meant a lot to me to get that picture.

NARRATOR: A nd the fine lines of these faces DO live on.

In homes all across America .

- And they're cherished pieces of art that'll be handed down from generation to generation.

JOHN: I'm proud of her.

I want to tell her story.

MICHAEL: This becomes part of American history, and her legacy.

NARRATOR: For more information on this program , and to see the Elizabeth Black Portrait Gallery, visit wqed.org/elizabethblack.

MALE ANNOUNCER: This program was made possible by: [♪♪♪]