Anna’s Story is the remarkable life story of Anna Burkardt McKay who was born in Germany before WWII and who moved to the United States as an American war bride in 1947 to raise a family on a small cattle ranch in Nevada. This is the story of her life as seen through her eyes.
Anna’s Story begins with her experiences as a little girl being raised mostly by her grandmother (Oma) in the Frankfurt suburb of Hochst in the years leading up to WWII. She recalls wonderful Christmas celebrations and holiday traditions. She also clearly remembers the horrors of Kristallnacht and the beginning of WWII. Her father, Alois, was drafted into the Wehrmacht; the war years and bombing of Frankfurt are very vividly depicted. Anna was a young teenager when she ran away from the Hitler youth work camp and hid in a bomb shelter to avoid the bombing raids. She desperately tried to get home to her family in Frankfurt only to discover her dad had been killed in action in France.
Anna, as a teenager, met an American soldier Richard (Dick) McKay, fell in love, married and came with him to the United States where they began their life together. They lived in rural Nevada with Dick’s family initially and soon moved to a small cattle ranch they purchased to start their family. Anna and Dick lived a modest life and raised three children on that ranch. The story talks about early life in Nevada and the history of the family and of Eureka.
The story concludes with Anna as a grandmother going back to Germany in 1980 to see her family for the first time in over thirty years. In 2014, Anna still lives independently in her own home in Eureka, Nevada, and has nine grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren.
Anna’s Story begins with her experiences as a little girl being raised mostly by her grandmother (Oma) in the Frankfurt suburb of Hochst in the years leading up to WWII. She recalls wonderful Christmas celebrations and holiday traditions. She also clearly remembers the horrors of Kristallnacht and the beginning of WWII. Her father, Alois, was drafted into the Wehrmacht; the war years and bombing of Frankfurt are very vividly depicted. Anna was a young teenager when she ran away from the Hitler youth work camp and hid in a bomb shelter to avoid the bombing raids. She desperately tried to get home to her family in Frankfurt only to discover her dad had been killed in action in France.
Anna, as a teenager, met an American soldier Richard (Dick) McKay, fell in love, married and came with him to the United States where they began their life together. They lived in rural Nevada with Dick’s family initially and soon moved to a small cattle ranch they purchased to start their family. Anna and Dick lived a modest life and raised three children on that ranch. The story talks about early life in Nevada and the history of the family and of Eureka.
The story concludes with Anna as a grandmother going back to Germany in 1980 to see her family for the first time in over thirty years. In 2014, Anna still lives independently in her own home in Eureka, Nevada, and has nine grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren.
