Waneta had been on the Public Information (PI) staff at the AA General Service Office in New York and with GSO for four years at the time of this talk. She was a singer whose opera career was interrupted by WWII. She sang in the clubs in New York and married an alcoholic in show businesses. Their spiral downward led her to the rooms.
This recording is from a reel-to-reel - the earliest of a set of recordings of the Georgia State Assembly (Area 16).
When I heard her name I spelled it Juanita but could find no reference to her on the web. In the archives room at the GSSA office in Macon days later I picked up one pamphlet just for fun. It was the program from the AA International in Toronto in 1965. The first page I looked at had her name spelled Waneta. From there I found a reference and quote from her in the AA History classic Not God by Ernie Kurtz where he reports she chaired the 1971 General Service Conference - the first one after Bill Wilson's death.
The quality is excellent. The story interesting and beautiful.
(58 min) (20 MB) (id#556)