Betty Smith discusses growing up and living in Clark County for most of her life. Interview topics include discussions about entertainment opportunities and games when she was growing up, Main Street businesses, restaurants, and socializing in Winchester, as well as many comments on Clark County industry and economic trends.
Betty Isaacs discusses growing up and living in Clark County for most her life. Interview topics include discussions about changes in healthcare, education, and entertainment, housing, and access to good jobs.
Charles Vanhuss discusses growing up in Ravenna, Estill County, Kentucky. Interview topics include discussions about his family history and his father's involvement with the L&N Railroad, the education system and churches, his interest in politics, which began in 5th grade, and the major changes in the Ravenna economy through time. Vanhuss also…
Eugene and Jamie Bush discuss growing up in Ravenna, Estill County, Kentucky. The interview includes discussions about Ravenna businesses and entertainment, Estill County industry, including railroads and oil boom years, the county education system, school discipline, and churches and church history.
Joe Estes discusses his experiences while growing up and living in both Estill and Madison County. Interview topics include farming and farm life, local oil, timber, and coal booms, and an extended conversation over living and working near the Kentucky River. Other topics include his education, changes in healthcare, and a 627 page monograph he…
Billy Cooper discusses his experiences while growing up in Estill County on a mountain farm. Interview topics include extended conversations about mountain life, including home remedies, farming, raising hogs, gardening, canning, logging, preserving meat, and the social importance of fairs and festivals. The remainder of the interview addresses the…
Frances Moore discusses her upbringing in Madison County, and her experiences while living in Berea. Interview topics include discussions over her home life, family history, and education, Berea churches and church life, and the distinct East versus West divide in Berea. Moore also comments extensively on her education, and the decision makers,…
Roberta Cornelison discusses growing up in Bobtown, Madison County, Kentucky. Interview topics include discussions about Berea, segregation, race relations, and, her home life and education. She also comments extensively on the Bobtown community, and its inhabitants, grocery stores, churches, and services.
Marie McCoy discusses her experiences while growing up in Powell County. Interview topics include her education, recreation on her family farm, her family's work history, which included sawmill work and farming, and the role that churches played in the community when she was young. In general, McCoy views materialism and drugs as the greatest…
Maudie Tyra discusses her upbringing in Breathitt County. Tyra comments extensively on her childhood and how losing her mother at a young age presented many challenges. Other interview topics include discussions about demographic change in the foothills of Appalachia through time, home remedies, railroads, neighborliness, and her WWII work in "big…
John Parks shares his experiences of growing up on a farm in Madison County. Interviews topics include discussions about farm life, churches, home remedies, raising livestock, education, discipline, crime rates, and the excitements he felt when attending Court Days, festivals, and fairs.
Mattie Mastin, born in Crystal, Kentucky discusses growing up in the Estill/Madison County area. Mastin comments extensively on her family history and the major changes in transportation, education, and healthcare that she has witnessed in her lifetime.
Martha Neely discusses growing up as the daughter of a sawmill owner in Madison County. Neely comments on her education, common discipline practices, community activities that have changed through time, her marriage and the years she has spent as a widow. Additional interview topics include discussions over the Berea Community, its churches, and…
Douglas Browning discusses his eventful life after being raised in Mount Sterling, Montgomery County, Kentucky. Browning concludes that after leaving Montgomery County, where his family had resided for over 14 generations, he traveled the country and worked at approximately 45 jobs and moved 40 times. Other interview topics include his education…
Mary Elizabeth Clay discusses growing up and living in Berea as an African American in the early 20th Century. Clay comments extensively on her home life, education and career as a maid, and Berea College's overall influence on the area. She also details the current needs of senior citizens.
Edward Drake discusses growing up in Irvine, Kentucky as the son of a railroad worker. Drake details his early childhood and his eventual employment in the same line of work as his father. Drake comments extensively on his education and work history, as well as relevant changes and the constants in Irvine, such as high unemployment rates. He…
Elsie Marie Skinner discusses growing up in Clark County as the youngest in a large African American family. She comments extensively on how her childhood and adolescence influenced the ways that she brought up her five children. Skinner also details the major differences between her experiences in Winchester, Kentucky and the time she spent at an…
Ruth Mae Noland Taylor discusses growing up in Trapp, Clark County, Kentucky, and her life after she left the area at age 20. Taylor also comments extensively on the changes she witnessed in Clark County through time, which includes desegregation, the decline of Main Street in Winchester, and the ebb and flow of festivals and recreation…
Harvey Robinson discusses growing up as an African American in Clark County. Robinson worked in the tobacco fields before moving to Ohio for a short time, only to return to the Winchester area to work for the American Tobacco Company in the winter and, before it shutdown, the C & O Railroad for the remaining months of the year. Robinson comments…
Shirley Richardson discusses growing up on a farm in Clark County and her eventual 30 year career with the Road Department. Richardson comments extensively on the farm life of her youth and the changing economic and social conditions across Clark County, including changes in the number of churches and shopping areas in Winchester. She also shares…
Emma Woosley discusses growing up in Estill County, where they moved frequently and made do with little money. Woosley also comments extensively on the role that neighbors, religion, education, and, more generally, the community has played in the lives of past and present Estill County residents.
Helen Davis Walker discusses growing up as the daughter of an African American sharecropper and domestic worker. Walker comments extensively on the differences between living in the country as a young girl and later in Winchester KY as a teenager and adult. Walker also comments on changes in race relations, schools, and, more generally, economic…
Mossies Osborne discusses her life experiences while living in Clark County for most of her life. Interview topics include discussions over her family's farm and family economy, and her experiences as a wife, mother and widow. She concludes that lifestyles were healthier, safer, and, in general, better.
Delbert T. Harrison discusses his life experiences and the changes in Estill County that he witnessed during his lifetime. Interview topics include comments on growing up in a family with 14 children, his work history, and the major changes in juvenile behaviors and family dynamics.
Zellner Cossey, a Trigg County native, discusses his family history and 18 years in public service in this interview. He comments extensively on his experiences as a Trigg County Judge, then Sheriff and County Judge Executive. Special attention is paid to the "unique qualities" of Trigg County, the Judicial Referendum, local healthcare issues, the…
In this interview, Finis Pyles, a former 1950s County Judge, details his political background, judicial duties, and problems during his time as Judge, such as local alcohol abuse and juvenile crime trends. He had no future plans to come out of retirement, however he did comment on the need for improving the extant Columbia Police Department…
