History 21 The Podcast - 5.13 The Personal Side of the “Booth Girls”
Author and oral historian Kim Heikkila delves into her deeply personal and thought-provoking book, “Booth Girls: Pregnancy, Adoption, and the Secrets We Kept.” This powerful narrative intertwines memoir and oral history, offering a window into Kim’s captivating journey filled with emotions, challenges, and profound revelations.
This episode is a portion of Kim’s presentation at the 2025 ACHS Annual Meeting held May 18, 2025 at the Circle Pines City Hall.
Hosts Sara Given, ACHS Volunteer Coordinator, and Rebecca Desens, ACHS Executive Director.
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Booth Girls
Kim Heikkila’s mother had a secret: in 1961, two years before her marriage, she became pregnant. After several months hidden in her parents’ attic bedroom, she gave birth to a daughter at the Salvation Army’s Booth Memorial Hospital, a home for unwed mothers in St. Paul, and surrendered her for adoption.
Kim’s older sister reunited with her birth family in the 1990s. Kim’s mother wrote about these experiences, but after she died, Kim still had questions. Using careful research and sensitive interviews with other “Booth girls,” she tells the stories of the Booth hospital and the women who passed through it—and she learned more about her own experience as an adoptive mother.