Woman whose plight defined Great Depression warns tragedy will happen again

Katherine McIntosh was four in 1936 when a photographer recording the victims of America's economic collapse snapped a picture of them as they travelled through California looking for farm work.

The image, in which she and a sibling buried their faces in the shoulders of their careworn mother, Florence Owens Thompson, has haunted the family ever since, she said.

Now 76, Mrs McIntosh told CNN that the shame of having to live with her seven children out of a car or tent instilled in her mother a fierce determination to strive for a better life.

If there was a lesson to be learnt from the hardship of her childhood, it was the importance of saving money and not over-extending yourself, she said.

"People live from pay cheque to pay cheque, even people making good money," she said.

"Do your best to make sure it doesn't happen again. Elect the people you think are going to do you good."

Mrs McIntosh now cleans houses in Modesto, California. "I wanted to make sure I never lived like that again. We all worked hard and we all had good jobs and we all stayed with it. When we got a home, we stayed with it," she said.