Interview with Annie Belle Walters, June 11, 1992

Partial Transcript: June 11th, 1992, and I want to interview this person here in Lynch.

Segment Synopsis: Annie Belle Walters talks about her family history, she talks about growing up in Alabama. She also talks about coming to Kentucky.

Keywords: Agriculture; Birmingham (Ala.); Coal mining; Cotton; Jefferson County (Ala.); Lynch (Ky.); Parents; Sharecroppers; Slavery

Subjects: Divorces; Family; Marriage

Partial Transcript: Did your first husband do anything except load coal? What was his job?

Segment Synopsis: Walters talks about what it was like living in Lynch. She talks about all the different immigrants that lived there and how they lived. She talks about the segregation that was present in the town, and says if you were black you could only get houses on one side of the street.

Keywords: Alcohol; Boardinghouses; Children; Citizenship; Domestic relations; Employment; Ethnicity; Family; Immigrants; Lynch (Ky.); School; Shared housing

Subjects: Marriage; Race relations--Appalachian Region; Segregation

Partial Transcript: What is a "hunk-stand"?

Segment Synopsis: Walters talks about what it was like living as a woman in a mining town. She talks about the ways she and the other women would live, like making soap and cooking. She also talks about the immigrants that she lived with.

Keywords: Apple butter; Bacon; Birmingham (Ala.); Boardinghouses; Grandparents; Home economics; Hungarians; Immigrants; Soap; Trains; Women

Subjects: Cooking; Family

Partial Transcript: Would groups of people, uh, large groups of people make lye soap or just a couple of, uh, families?

Segment Synopsis: Walters talks about the various communities in Lynch, and how they were often grouped based on their religion.

Keywords: Baptists; Catholics; Churches; Clergy; Communities; Employment; Kitchens; Lye; Methodists; Outhouses; Rent; Segregation; Soap; United States Steel Company; Wages

Subjects: Appalachian Region--Religion; Home economics

Partial Transcript: I keep talking about race but I want to know, was it just black women who were cooks or white women up there too?

Segment Synopsis: Walters talks about racial issues during her time in Lynch. She talks about the kinds of things she worried about in daily life, and she talks about the stock market crash of 1929.

Keywords: Bank tellers; Banks; Catholics; Christmas; College education; Funeral homes; General stores; Great Depression; High schools; Hospitals; Interracial dating; Men's suits; Rent; Saving; Shoes; Worrying

Subjects: Appalachian Region--Religion; Communities; Depressions--1929; Race relations--Appalachian Region; Stock Market Crash, 1929.

Partial Transcript: You were saving it for nurse's training beyond high school?

Segment Synopsis: Walters talks about her experience working for the hospital. She talks about going to nurse's training and what it was like to work as a nurse.

Keywords: Brothers and sisters; Children; Employment; High schools; Hospitals; Nursing; Pregnancy; Rent; Segregation

Subjects: Family; Marriage; Money; Women--Employment.

Partial Transcript: Did you--just in your tone of voice, were you thinking, maybe you didn't give it quite enough thought about who you married at first?

Segment Synopsis: Walters talks about her marriage and her divorce. She tells a story about her mother and her involvement in her marriage.

Keywords: Alcohol; Beauty culture.; Birmingham (Ala.); Children; Clothing; Divorce; Mining; Money; Moving; Parents; Relationships; School; Tuscaloosa (Ala.)

Subjects: Employment; Family; Marriage

Partial Transcript: Let me ask, how close were you to having the sixty dollars?

Segment Synopsis: Walters talks about Lynch and describes life there with more detail. She talks about the various immigrant cultures there, and the religions in Lynch. She also talks about the labor unions in the town.

Keywords: Alcohol; Churches; Company stores; Cooking; Doctors; Hungarians; Italians; Labor unions; Prostitution; Step-parents; United Mine Workers Union; Women

Subjects: Family; Parents

Partial Transcript: Um, was the union good about having blacks participate and hold office? Were the meetings integrated?

Segment Synopsis: Walters talks about segregation and how it affected her life. She talks about World War II and the draft, as well as some about the coal mines.

Keywords: Coal mines and mining; Employment; Equality; Family; Immigration; Labor unions; May Day; Military draft; Money; Rent

Subjects: Coal; Race relations--Appalachian Region; Segregation; World War, 1939-1945

Partial Transcript: What do you mean? Go ahead and just say, what, what do you mean you questioned?

Segment Synopsis: Walters closes by discussing some of her work experiences later in life working in education.

Keywords: Children; Employment; Money; Real estate; School; Special education; Teaching

Subjects: Education; Women--Employment.