Ellen Magnin Newman was a star high school student in San Francisco in 1945 when world leaders came to her city to negotiate the United Nations Charter. They needed translators and she was fluent in Spanish. So, at the age of 16 she took a job with the San Francisco Conference.

Today, June 26 2015, marks the 70th anniversary of the signing. Mrs. Magnin Newman will be at City Hall for an event to mark the occasion with Ban Ki Moon and other civic and international leaders.

She is one of the few living links back to the original conference that created the United Nations and I caught up with her in her downtown San Francisco office. In the clips below, she tells the story of how she got the amazing gig, reflects on the historic nature of the event, and recalls a tender compliment she received from Harry Truman.

Direct link to podcast: https://soundcloud.com/globaldispatchespodcast/ellen-magnin-newman-was-a-translator-at-the-original-un-conference-70-years-ago

See: UN Dispatch

Subscribe to the translation news daily digest here. See more translation news.