{"id":9429,"date":"2023-04-24T22:06:22","date_gmt":"2023-04-24T22:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/?page_id=9429"},"modified":"2023-04-24T22:06:22","modified_gmt":"2023-04-24T22:06:22","slug":"dorothy-franklin-oral-history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/dorothy-franklin-oral-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Dorothy Franklin Oral History"},"content":{"rendered":"[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_spacing=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][divider line_type=”No Line”][vc_column_text]\n

Dorothy Franklin Oral History<\/span><\/h1>\n[\/vc_column_text][divider line_type=”No Line”][page_submenu alignment=”center” sticky=”true” bg_color=”#008542″ link_color=”#ffffff”][page_link link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/manuscripts-and-guides\/” title=”Manuscripts & Subject Guides<\/strong>” id=”1682373520160-7″ tab_id=”1682373520161-0″] [\/page_link][page_link link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/guides-to-the-collection-page\/” title=”Collections Portal<\/strong>” id=”1682373520169-3″ tab_id=”1682373520169-7″] [\/page_link][page_link title=”Visit<\/strong>” id=”1682373529483-6″ tab_id=”1682373529484-6″ link_url=” https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/departments\/archives-museum\/visit\/”][\/page_link][page_link title=”Make a Request<\/strong>” id=”1682373530796-3″ tab_id=”1682373530797-3″ link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/departments\/archives-museum\/requests\/”][\/page_link][page_link title=”About Us<\/strong>” id=”1682373531527-0″ tab_id=”1682373531528-4″ link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/departments-archives-museum-about-us\/”][\/page_link][page_link title=”Yearbooks Online<\/strong>” id=”1682373533221-4″ tab_id=”1682373533222-8″ link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/departments\/archives-museum\/yearbooks-alumni-magazines-delta-state-histories\/”][\/page_link][\/page_submenu][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_spacing=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]Franklin, Dorothy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tape 1 of 1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2\/24\/00\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 OH# 295<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Kari Willis<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This is an interview for the Mississippi Oral History Program.\u00a0 The interview is being recorded with Ms. Dorothy Franklin in her residence on February 24, 2000.\u00a0 The interviewer is Kari Willis.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Ms. Franklin, what are you parent\u2019s name including your mother\u2019s maiden name?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 My father\u2019s name was Samuel Benton Cane, and my mother\u2019s name was Eddie Estelle Thompson.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Do you know when they were born?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Yes, they were both born in 1889.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 And their parents\u2019 name, do you know anything about them?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 I do.\u00a0 My grandmother had an odd name, Dosha Elsie Thompson.\u00a0 My grandfather\u2019s name was Edman Heishaw Thompson.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Can you tell me a little bit about your parents or your grandparents?\u00a0 How were you brought up in the home?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 A very strict Baptist home, there was no card playing, drinking, and no dancing.\u00a0 We went to church every time they opened the doors.\u00a0 We lived together with my grandmother, grandfather, my parents, and my old maid aunt.\u00a0 In those days, people lived together in a big old house with lots of rooms.\u00a0 I lived in Brookhaven.\u00a0 They had lived in the country before they moved in to Brookhaven.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 How long did you live in Brookhaven?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0\u00a0 Well, I was born in 1920, and I graduated in 1938.\u00a0 Then I went to Blue Mountain for two years.\u00a0 Then I lived there for two more years.\u00a0 Then I met my future husband who was teaching at Co-Lin at that time.\u00a0 After we were married, well I lived maybe a year or two when he was over seas during the war.\u00a0 Other than that I really left in \u201938.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 How did your parents end up in Brookhaven?\u00a0 Were they born there?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 They were born around there.\u00a0 My mother was born in Wesson, and my father was born in Morse southwest Mississippi.\u00a0 It is sort of around Franklin County or somewhere back out that way.\u00a0 They both worked for the post office.\u00a0 My mother attended Witworth College, which was one of the earliest colleges for women.\u00a0 She would have graduated in about two months, but she got a job.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t get her degree.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think.\u00a0 She was extremely smart.\u00a0 She entered as a sophomore.\u00a0 She did well.\u00a0 My father went to Mississippi State, but I only think he only attended one year or two.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t graduate.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Where did your parents go to school?\u00a0 Did you say?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0\u00a0 Well my father, he graduated from Brookhaven High School.\u00a0 The story was, and I believe it is true.\u00a0 That he bore his first long pass to graduate.\u00a0 I think he was about fourteen when he graduated from high school.\u00a0 My mother\u2019s family had moved to Brookhaven in about 1901.\u00a0 My grandfather had a gin or grist mill.\u00a0 He had lots of those things that people had to do on the farm.\u00a0 They were out in well somewhere between Lincoln and where Natchez is.\u00a0 It is out in that area, and I have forgotten.\u00a0 I can not think of it right now.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 I can\u2019t either.\u00a0 I am not good with counties.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 They both came to Brookhaven, and that is where they got together.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 So they both graduated from high school?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Yes, and they both went to college.\u00a0 Neither had a degree.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Both did go.\u00a0 One went to Mississippi State.\u00a0 Your father went to Mississippi State.\u00a0 She went to?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Witworth College, it was a Methodist Girl\u2019s School.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Oh I see, here in Brookhaven?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Right, something interesting if you want a little sideline.\u00a0 Janice Wyatt, who husband has just retired Kent, is on a committee that is working to make an art school like at M. S. C. W.\u00a0 One that is like the math and science school, this is going to be more for the arts.\u00a0 She is on that committee.\u00a0 They are working to restore it.\u00a0 It is in bad shape because it is really old.\u00a0 I think it is interesting that she is doing that.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 When were they married?\u00a0 When were your parents married?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 I think it was 1917.\u00a0 It must have been in 1917 because my sister was born in 1918.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know exactly.\u00a0 I have forgotten the date.\u00a0 It was in February.\u00a0 They said.\u00a0 I have forgotten the date though.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 How many brothers and sisters do you have?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 I have one brother.\u00a0 I have lost one sister, and I have two more left.\u00a0 There were four girls and one boy.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 That is a big family.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 It was pretty big.\u00a0 Living with grandmothers, grandfathers, uncles, and aunts and everybody was trying to tell us what to do.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Were you the oldest?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 No I was the second in line by two years.\u00a0 The one younger than I by two years, she is the one that has died.\u00a0 Our brother was the fourth.\u00a0 Then we had a little surprise sister who came along seven years after he.\u00a0 She was eleven years younger than I was.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Do you mind telling me when your parents passed away?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 My father did in \u201957.\u00a0 The year we moved up here.\u00a0 My mother did in 1980.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 What happened to them?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 He had Hodgkins Disease for about eight years.\u00a0 He had lived for a good while, but finally it caught up with him.\u00a0 He was only sixty something I think.\u00a0 She was ninety-one or close to it.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t have anything that was really wrong.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 She lived a good life.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 She did.\u00a0 She was one of the most wonderful people you could ever want to know.\u00a0 If we could be like her, but we can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 So you grew up in Brookhaven?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Right<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Then you went to Co-Lin.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 No I did not.\u00a0 I went to Blue Mountain.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Blue Mountain and that is where you met Mr. Franklin?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 No I met him back at home.\u00a0 He was teaching at Co-lin.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Okay tell me how you all met.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 I hate to say like I am bragging, but he said he fell in love with me at first sight.\u00a0 Do you believe in that?\u00a0 I was teaching music.\u00a0 I was living at home those two years after I went to Blue Mountain.\u00a0 I was teaching at a little country school out from Brookhaven.\u00a0 I was teaching piano.\u00a0 I was getting eighty dollars.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to go into that.\u00a0 That was sad.\u00a0 He brought his little what we called it orchestra in those days.\u00a0 It was like a stage band from Co-Lin down to this school.\u00a0 They were doing recruiting and stuff.\u00a0 That is how we met.\u00a0 I had dated some of the boys that were in the band.\u00a0 He was a little older.\u00a0 He was seven years older than I was.\u00a0 That is how we met.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 How old were you at the time?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 I guess I was twenty.\u00a0 I was twenty-one when we married.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 So you dated less than a year before you got married.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 This is how that happened.\u00a0 He had taught at Co-Lin for several years.\u00a0 He went there in \u201938, and now was \u201940.\u00a0 His number came up for him to go in the draft.\u00a0 He went to report.\u00a0 Oh they said, \u201cWe have our quota.\u00a0 So you don\u2019t have to go.\u201d\u00a0 This was in Copiah County.\u00a0 He being a teacher, and the semester ending.\u00a0 He thought he would go ahead and get my year over.\u00a0 That is when they had to go and do a year.\u00a0 He thought if he went in June, he would be back in time for the next year.\u00a0 He was back five or six years later.\u00a0 The war happened because of Pearl Harbor in \u201941.\u00a0 He was in there for so long.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 So he was in the war?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Yeah, but he would have been in a pretty bad place.\u00a0 He got in a band.\u00a0 That was lucky for him.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 How long did he serve in the war?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 He came back in ’46, and he went in \u201941.\u00a0 So that is a good while.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 A couple of years.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 He was over seas only one year in India.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 So after you met and got married, where did you live?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 We lived in Jackson.\u00a0 He was transferred back to the Jackson Air base.\u00a0 He was in a band.\u00a0 The Jackson Air base was training Dutch and some of their island people how to be pilots.\u00a0 They were extremely risky.\u00a0 They had so many killed.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how many were killed.\u00a0 They would go and fly under the bridge in Vicksburg.\u00a0 They were just very risky and dangerous.\u00a0 They did dangerous things.\u00a0 Was it Guam?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 So he was in the Air force?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 That is right, but he wasn\u2019t a pilot.\u00a0 He went over in India.\u00a0 They had to fly over the hump to entertain and stuff.\u00a0 He said, if the Lord lets him get back, that he will never fly again.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know that he did.\u00a0 I don\u2019t believe he did.\u00a0 They used to fly in these old these transport things they sat along the wall.\u00a0 It was pretty scary.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Not something you would want to do.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 No way.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 What did you do at the time he was doing that?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 I was working.\u00a0 I worked.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Did you teach school?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 No, I was working.\u00a0 I worked in the Health Department in Jackson for a little while.\u00a0 Then I worked out at the Jackson Airbase.\u00a0 Then I got so lonesome for him.\u00a0 I just decided that I would fly out.\u00a0 They sent him ahead for him to get ready for them to go over seas.\u00a0 So I decided I would fly out there to Los Angles.\u00a0 I only got as far as Dallas.\u00a0 They bumped me.\u00a0 In those days they would bump you know because they had to have the space for necessary people.\u00a0 I then had to go on the train.\u00a0 I had a horrible experience.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know if he would meet me.\u00a0 It all worked out.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Because he thought you were flying, right.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Right, and I had to call my mother.\u00a0 She had to try to call him.\u00a0 We all just thought it was terrible.\u00a0 Low and behold, God was with us.\u00a0 He was there when I got there.\u00a0 We met.\u00a0 I stayed there for about two weeks.\u00a0 Then he had to go.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 So he was stationed in L. A.?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Well he just went ahead.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what they called it.\u00a0 It was for them to get ready for the whole group to come over.\u00a0 He actually wasn\u2019t stationed there.\u00a0 They were getting ready to go.\u00a0 They went. He said it was the most awful thing on the ship.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t lamb. It was goat that they cooked.\u00a0 It was so sickening.\u00a0 He would never eat lamb after that.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t happy with his army experiences.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0\u00a0 So when he was in L. A., and he came back.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 No, he left, and I came back.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 You came back.\u00a0 What was it like at that time in Mississippi as far as the war when he was in the war and you didn\u2019t get to see him as much?\u00a0 Was it a hard life for you then?\u00a0 Was it hard when he was off?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 I am trying to think how it was really.\u00a0 I can not remember how long I stayed.\u00a0 Oh I moved in an apartment with two or three girls.\u00a0 That is when I decided I was going out to see him before he left.\u00a0 I probably went home and stayed.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 This was before you were married or after?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 No it was after.\u00a0 We had been married.\u00a0 I had lost a child.\u00a0 I had a miscarriage.\u00a0 We had been married for about three years before he went over seas.\u00a0 It is so hard to think back on all of this.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t thought about a lot of it in a long time.<\/p>\n

KW: \u00a0Now you have children.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 I have three.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 You have three children.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Boys.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 They were all boys.\u00a0 What are their ages?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Bill is fifty-three.\u00a0 Jim-Bo will be on March 6 fifty.\u00a0 Bob turned forty-six on December 13.\u00a0 So they are all pretty old, but it makes me feel so much older to say that Bill is fifty-three than it does to say I am seventy-nine.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 No it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Fifty-three, whenever they turn fifty, I always say, \u201cNow you can join the A. A. R. P.\u201d\u00a0 That always makes them feel real good.\u00a0 No not really.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Going back to your childhood.\u00a0 What kinds of things did you do growing up, for example like your family farmed or what did you do on the farm?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 No, I did nothing.\u00a0 We were lazy, I guess.\u00a0 I guess we were.\u00a0 There were so many old people living in our house.\u00a0 We always had a cook.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 How many were living in your house?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Gosh well let\u2019s see, at various times different uncles and aunts would move in if they would lose their jobs or anything.\u00a0 It was a great big old house.\u00a0 We had room for everybody.\u00a0 No, we didn\u2019t do much of anything I guess.\u00a0 In high school, I played tennis.\u00a0 I played piano.\u00a0 The reason I went to Blue Mountain was I was playing at the Kawinis Club on Wednesday, and Dr. Lowery who was president of Blue Mountain was there.\u00a0 I guess he was the speaker.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 Anyway I was playing.\u00a0 He offered me a scholarship.\u00a0 I ended up at Blue Mountain.\u00a0 I was always the town goodie-goodie.\u00a0 You know Ms. Baptist.\u00a0 Every time they opened up the door, our family went to the church.\u00a0 We were just around the block from the church.\u00a0 My mother and my aunt, my dad went to, but he wasn\u2019t as into it as they were.\u00a0 Mother and my Aunt Bessie were into it.\u00a0 They were Ms. Brookhaven Baptist Church.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 What did you do for fun besides play sports like tennis and music?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Of course, and listen this is kind of sad I think.\u00a0 I played in a skirt.\u00a0 I did.\u00a0 We are talking about when I was a senior.\u00a0 My dad came over to watch us in a tournament. The others had on shorts I think.\u00a0 So he went and bought me some culottes.\u00a0 That year we got to go to the state.\u00a0 I was playing girls\u2019 doubles.\u00a0 My partner and I got to go to State College for the State tournament because we won the Southwest thing.\u00a0 We were pitiful.\u00a0 All the boys from Brookhaven that were at State were over there cheering us on.\u00a0 We were losing like nobody\u2019s business.\u00a0 We were crying.\u00a0 It was so stupid.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well growing up do you remember anything about in the \u201820\u2019s the depression, W.W.II?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 I have a terrible thing I can tell you if you want to hear it.\u00a0 It is about a lynching.\u00a0 Do you know what that is?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 You probably will have to refresh my memory.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Do you know what lynching is?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 No I do not.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 It is killing.\u00a0 It is killing people for nothing.\u00a0 Well it might have been for some reason.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if you want to hear this or not.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 It is interesting.\u00a0 Yes I want to hear it.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Well, I don\u2019t know how it got started, but it was sad that it was started.\u00a0 Two black men were in a garage where cars were being repaired.\u00a0 Something happened in there.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know exactly what.\u00a0 That was during the day.\u00a0 That night, it was on a Friday.\u00a0 We had Bible School at the Baptist Church.\u00a0 At the last night, if you remember, they always have this little program thing and you had to show all the stuff you had made.\u00a0 Most of my family, my big family was at the church, but my old maid aunt and another aunt because their was a baby.\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember whose.\u00a0 It was some cousin.\u00a0 I guess.\u00a0 They were there.\u00a0 We lived.\u00a0 As I said this big old house, and it had a big screen porch.\u00a0 They were sitting out on that.\u00a0 They heard this loud noise coming.\u00a0 They were dragging these two black men behind cars.\u00a0 My folks ran in the house, and they closed the door.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t used to lock doors of course.\u00a0 It went right by our house, and then turned and went right by the church.\u00a0 They took them down to a place called Old Brook.\u00a0 It was an old part of the town, and they hanged them.\u00a0 That really happened.\u00a0 That is sad.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 That is really something.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 That is so sad.\u00a0 To think that could happen, but it did.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 The difference between the whites and blacks back in that time was it bad relationship?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Well we didn\u2019t associate with them, but the ones that we knew that worked for us for about two dollars a week.\u00a0 My grandmother was the best person on earth.\u00a0 Do you know what a tramp is?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Yes I do.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Those men, the Ho-Bo\u2019s really that went around.\u00a0 I guess it was the depression.\u00a0 They would come and beg for food.\u00a0 I am sure.\u00a0 They used to mark houses that would feed people.\u00a0 They came in great numbers.\u00a0 There was an old black man that lived in Brookhaven.\u00a0 He came all of the time.\u00a0 Mr. Brown, we called him Old Man Brown.\u00a0 He smelled so horrible.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t thought of this in so long.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t come in the house to eat.\u00a0 My grandmother would always make them cut a little wood or do a little this and that.\u00a0 She would always give them a big old piled up plate of food.\u00a0 They sat on the back steps and ate.\u00a0 Old Man Brown sat in the front.\u00a0 I wonder why he did.\u00a0 They always fed them.\u00a0 We called them tramps.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 You called them tramps, really?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Well a tramp now is a S-L-U-T.\u00a0 They were Ho-Bo\u2019s.\u00a0 They were homeless people, and they had no food.\u00a0 That is sad.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Who of your family members included your extended family most influenced you or inspired you growing up?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Well other than my mother who was perfect as a person can get.\u00a0 Of course they can\u2019t, but she was as near as anybody can get.\u00a0 My aunt who lived.\u00a0 My daddy died younger.\u00a0 That isn\u2019t young to you in the sixties.\u00a0\u00a0 My aunt was eighty-six, and mother was ninety-seven.\u00a0 They were so good.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Why would you say that your mother was the one that most influenced you or inspired you?\u00a0 Why would you say?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 She was just so wonderful.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 She was a wonderful Christian woman.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Right she was.\u00a0 She loved people.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 That is wonderful.\u00a0 What was the most important thing that you learned at home?\u00a0 If you can remember one thing that your mother always taught you, what was the most important that you remember?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 I guess to tell the truth maybe.\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Who were your best friends in elementary school or high school?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Well my sisters and I were always really close.\u00a0 We were pretty much.\u00a0 My sister, who is older than I, she remembers and reminds me of this very often.\u00a0 That one time she was in the third grade and I was in the first grade.\u00a0 I came to her on the playground and said, \u201cGeneva White has beating up on a friend of mine named Billie.\u201d\u00a0 I told her to come over there and do something to her.\u00a0 Stell went over there and beat her up.\u00a0 I think.\u00a0 Then her teacher found out.\u00a0 When Stell went back in after recess.\u00a0 The teacher told Stell that she was going to have to go to the principle at the end of the day.\u00a0 She struggled with that all day.\u00a0 She was miserable.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t make her go, thank goodness.\u00a0 Stell always said that she took up for me.\u00a0 I had good friends, lots of good friends.\u00a0 In high school my best friend was Mary Jo Clark.\u00a0 She was a year younger than I was.\u00a0 We were close.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 That is good.\u00a0 Did you have favorite subjects in high school?\u00a0 What was your favorite?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 I think English might have been.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 English<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 When I started in college, I started as an English major and a music minor.\u00a0 When we moved up here in \u201957, I went to Delta State.\u00a0 I got my degree, and then my masters.\u00a0 Of course they were all education degrees.\u00a0 I majored in music.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 When you got to Delta State, who was president at the time?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Dr. Ewing, after he had been here for a year, he brought Ralph up here.\u00a0 Ralph had a show band, which appealed to the public.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Was it is kind of a Jazz Band?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 No, no, no, it was like the shows would be like pageantry.\u00a0 Is wasn\u2019t the drum corp style.\u00a0 We made figures.\u00a0 A lot of them were at night.\u00a0 They had cat lights on their cabs.\u00a0 We used fireworks.\u00a0 We used spotlights.\u00a0 We used all kinds of things.\u00a0 People loved it.\u00a0 They would come for that as much as the football games.\u00a0 They loved the Delta Belles.\u00a0 We had these props and things.\u00a0 When we would have a parade, they would be just packed on the street.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 They would perform for every football game.\u00a0 Was it before or after or both?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Half or whatever.\u00a0 We usually had a half time shows would have a theme.\u00a0 We might play fifteen different numbers that all went around a certain theme making outlines.\u00a0 We had some drills too.\u00a0 We would always had a dance by the Delta Belles.\u00a0 I remember one time; we had a girl dancing in a silouhette of a moon.\u00a0 She was the silouhette.\u00a0 We had all these props we used.\u00a0 People loved it.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Of course that is entertainment.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Yeah, Dr. Ewing loved it too.\u00a0 He knew that was appealing to more people than a concert for only two hundred or three hundred people would come.\u00a0 That was it.\u00a0 We went all over the country to parades and half times shows.\u00a0 We went to the Gator Bowl.\u00a0 We went to the Oilers and Gator shows.\u00a0 We went up north to a lot of parades.\u00a0 We went<\/p>\n

to Washington, Cleveland, and Detroit.\u00a0 We also do lobby shows.\u00a0 That meant a smaller group.\u00a0 We would go in a hotel lobby or on the street and give a little show. (Tape cut off)\u00a0 The basic thing they wore was white shorts and a turtle neck little shirt.\u00a0 It had Delta Belles on it.\u00a0 This is a weird story that I just heard the end of last Saturday when I went down to Paul\u2019s Discount Drug Store down there to get some prescriptions filled.\u00a0 I said, \u201cPaul I remember the first time I saw you, you were in the fourth grade, and I remember your dad who he used to be a sign painter.\u201d\u00a0 His dad used to be a sign painter.\u00a0 I remember some picture he painted.\u00a0 We talked awhile.\u00a0 Then I said, I want to tell you this funny story because when we moved up here, we had been at Colleen.\u00a0 We have had the same kinds of outfits and they had Colette painted on there.\u00a0 I painted that all on there by hand.\u00a0 I had to paint every one of them by hand, because we were in a poor place.\u00a0 So when we came up here, they were going to be able to pay to get it professionally done by Paul his daddy.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Oh I see.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 So I went down there to tell him.\u00a0 I said, \u201cNow you have to be sure, because this is on a strategic place on a woman\u2019s figure.\u00a0 You are going to have to be sure to measure from here to here and here to here and here to here.\u201d\u00a0 It kind of insulted him because he was an artist.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t want to have to think he had to measure. I used to do each one by hand.\u00a0 It would take forever.\u00a0 I would do it all night.\u00a0 He said, \u201cMy daddy did it with silk screen.\u201d\u00a0 He said he could do them so fast and just like that.\u00a0 He said he used make my mother hold it up to see if it was right on the shirt.\u00a0 Now I thought, I didn\u2019t know that about his mother having to do that and all.\u00a0 This was Saturday that he told me that.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 When you went to Delta State, you and Mr. Franklin were married right?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Of course and I had three children.\u00a0 I was teaching up at Pearman School music.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Pearman School is that here in Cleveland?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Yes, it is that elementary school up on the high way next to the high school.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Okay<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Now there is a Junior High in between.\u00a0 No it is that round school behind it.\u00a0 It used to be on the highway.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 I am not familiar with Cleveland.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 It was the only elementary school when we moved here.\u00a0 Now they have Parks and these private schools too. I started, and Mr. Ewing who was the president and came by the house one day, and said, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you come out and work on your degree?\u201d \u00a0I remember very well when I went out there and signed up.\u00a0 Then it dawned on me, that I was going to go to class tomorrow.\u00a0 Those days, old people were not going like they are now.\u00a0 What on earth would I do?\u00a0 The nicest teacher my first teacher was so nice.\u00a0 It was good experience.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 What were Delta State\u2019s classes like?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Well when we came here, they were small.\u00a0 It was all small.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Did you live on campus?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 No, we lived.\u00a0 No the first year we were because we decided the last minute to come.\u00a0 We had all these big furniture, and we couldn\u2019t find a house that we could get it in.\u00a0 So we lived over on Peaman Ave.\u00a0 We rented.\u00a0 It is now the oldest house in Cleveland.\u00a0 It belonged to Mr. Parks\u2019 wife.\u00a0 She was a Pearmon.\u00a0 That is where we lived till we bought this.\u00a0 We moved here.\u00a0 It was less than a year.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 So when you entered Delta State, what was your major at the time?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 I majored in music.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Music, did you get a degree at Delta State?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 I did, and then I got my masters.\u00a0 I think I was the first person to that finished the requirements for the master because we had to have an oral.\u00a0 I believe I was the first one.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how they do it now.\u00a0 I finished in the middle of the year.\u00a0 I got my degree in June, and by then six others had gotten theirs.\u00a0 Dr. Jake is dead.\u00a0 Dr. Mones is gone.\u00a0 The only one left in Cleveland is Linda Watkins.\u00a0 They were my three people.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Okay so my senior year when you got your bachelors, what did you have to do?\u00a0 Did you have a senior recital?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 No, I didn\u2019t have to have that.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 They have that now.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 They have to have a recital.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 They have a senior recital to graduate.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 I remember Dr. Mones.\u00a0 Here I was thirty-seven when we moved up here.\u00a0 So he made me memorize a Mozart concerto only the first movement.\u00a0 He played the second piano.\u00a0 I thought that was pretty mean of him because I had those three children and my husband helping him with the Delta Belles and teaching.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 How old were you at the time?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Thirty-eight I guess or thirty-nine.\u00a0 As soon as they inaugurated the masters program I enrolled.\u00a0 I felt like I got a very good education over there.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t think that it was anything easy or given out.\u00a0 I felt like I really did.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Do you know about how many graduated in your class?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Of seniors, no, I didn\u2019t keep up because I was an old woman.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 I am talking about in your department in the music.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 No, I don\u2019t remember that.\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember anything like that.\u00a0 Here they have had a Demonstration School.\u00a0 It had only a few students.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Was that called the Hill Demonstration School?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 The Hill Dem. School, and it was over there where that library is now.\u00a0 There were two dorms on each side.\u00a0 Anyway the kids would be signed up in town when they were born to get in it.\u00a0 It was like a private school.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 How many buildings were there?\u00a0 Was it just one building?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 For that school yeah. Oh for Delta State?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 For Hill Dem. School where was that?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 That is where the library is now.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if it went from one to twelve or one to six.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Okay the college library?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 No the college library.\u00a0 It was there. (Tape cut off.)\u00a0 Which displeased a lot of the up adult, which were sending their children out there.\u00a0 He did that the first year we came here.\u00a0 He had done that.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t like that too much.\u00a0 He said it was a waste of money.\u00a0 We were told when we came that the people here wanted Delta State to remain small.\u00a0 It was little clique sort of, they just wanted their own to be able to go there.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t want it to grow that much.\u00a0 Whether that is true or not, I don\u2019t know, but that is what we were told when we came.\u00a0 It started growing, and it has grown.\u00a0 I guess it has kind of tapered off now around four thousand.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Yes, I would say it is around four thousand.\u00a0 It is still small.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Of course Kent Wyatt who just retired was a graduate and Janice.\u00a0 They both went to school here.\u00a0 His daddy taught.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Okay now when you went to Delta State about how many buildings were there?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Well let\u2019s see.\u00a0 There was Whitfield Gym was here. Broom was here.\u00a0 The Music Department was not.\u00a0 Zeigal was not here.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t hardly anything.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Was the union?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 No, no, no.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know when it was built.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 What about Cleveland hall?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 I think those were here.\u00a0 Cleveland and?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Ward<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Ward was here.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 I live in Cleveland Hall.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 I knew you told me that.\u00a0 I know where that it is.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what was where the union is.\u00a0 Somewhere along in there was something called the Mill.\u00a0 That was where people could go in there and eat little snacks and stuff like that.\u00a0 The music building was Doolittle.\u00a0 It was right over there sort of where the back of library is.\u00a0 Where the little chapel is that was the furnace or something.\u00a0 Right on around and little bit of the side of the library was a little building called Doolittle.\u00a0 It was the music department.\u00a0 It was very small.\u00a0 Then the Mill was very small.\u00a0 Whitfield was there.\u00a0 That was the only gym they had.\u00a0 This was way back.\u00a0 Do you know who Verner Von Braun is?\u00a0 Father of the Space thing, he came here.\u00a0 They had Delta Council Day, even then.\u00a0 He was speaking in Whitfield Gym.\u00a0 It was packed.\u00a0 It was probably still in the fifties.\u00a0 It might have been fifty-nine or early sixties.\u00a0 I remember that.\u00a0 We let our oldest boy get out of school to come.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 What was your church life like when you and your husband were living here?\u00a0 Where did you go to church?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 We went to First Baptist.\u00a0 We always belonged to that.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Were you very involved in the church?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Not really.\u00a0 I did as you know had two jobs, but I taught Sunday School.\u00a0 I did not want to teach the same children that I saw everyday that I saw in school.\u00a0 So I was in the beginners department.\u00a0 Ralph never did like to go to Sunday School, but we always went to church.\u00a0 That is what we did.\u00a0 When I was superintendent of the beginners department I would just play for some department.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Did they have the Baptist Student\u2019s Center here?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 They used to.\u00a0 Well I wasn\u2019t a normal student you know.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t take part in all of that campus stuff because I was a mother and a married person.\u00a0 Right over where it is now, there was a big two-story house.\u00a0 It was a white old house in Cleveland.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Before the BSU was here?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 That was the BSU.\u00a0 That was it.\u00a0 That was the BSU then.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t tear it down.\u00a0 They moved it down on Memorial Drive, and somebody bricked it all up.\u00a0 You could go down there and look at it.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 That is something.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t now know that.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Court Street was once a street that had some big old houses on it when we came.\u00a0 That was one of them.\u00a0 It was the BSU place.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 That is neat.\u00a0 Do you know who was the director at the time?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 The only one I know is Jimmy Brim.\u00a0 I can\u2019t think of anyone else.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 I think he has been.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how long he was there.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if he was there in \u201957.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know that is a long time ago.\u00a0 He may not be that old.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 What made you and your husband decide to come to Cleveland?<\/p>\n

DF: \u00a0Well he had been in Jefferson Military Academy in Washington for two years.\u00a0 Then he went to Co-Lin.\u00a0 He had worked for him all that time.\u00a0 They clicked and got along.\u00a0 He came up here and visited Mr. Ewing, and Mr. Ewing asked if he would come.\u00a0 He came.\u00a0 After he had been here a year, Dr. Ewing was here for a year.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 So Dr. Ewing and your husband were good friends?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Well yeah, Ralph.\u00a0 Well Dr. Ewing liked that style of band.\u00a0 He used it as a style of recruiting thing to go around and try to get students.\u00a0 That is why we came.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Were your parents living the time you were here?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 My daddy died the year we moved here.\u00a0 We moved here in the very, very last of August.\u00a0 He died on October 29th I remember.\u00a0 After the funeral, we let the children put on Halloween costumes and go around the block.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 What did your mother think about you going to college?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 She wanted me too.\u00a0 She had gone to college.\u00a0 My aunt went to M. S. C. W., but it was called some kind of institute when she went. \u00a0All of my uncles went to college back in those days.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Did any of your friends go to college that you went to high school with?\u00a0 Did they go to different places, or around the same?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Everybody, right they went to different places.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 So that wasn\u2019t unusual at the time.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 To go no.\u00a0 I lived in Brookhaven.\u00a0 The way we had to get to Blue Mountain, which is way up at the very top of the State.\u00a0 We had to go to Jackson or maybe Monticello.\u00a0 There was this train called the Rebel.\u00a0 It would take hours, and hours to get up there.\u00a0 It was hard to get there.\u00a0 Of course none of us took cars in those days.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 What did you hope going to college would do for you?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 I was pretty much into religion.\u00a0 I can\u2019t say I still am, but I mean.\u00a0 I was in to music.\u00a0 We had a wonderful music teacher.\u00a0 Everybody in our family took from her, and she was our next door neighbor.\u00a0 She was a Jewish woman.\u00a0 We loved her like she was in our family.\u00a0 I used to grieve about whether she would be saved or not.\u00a0 Anyway they had a good music department at Blue Mountain.\u00a0 I loved it.\u00a0 That is wonderful.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Was sending you to college a financial hardship for your family?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Probably, I am pretty sure it was.\u00a0 I had a scholarship, but that wasn\u2019t much.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 How much was the scholarship?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 I have no idea.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Did it pay for all the tuition?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 No, no, it just paid for some little bitsy part.\u00a0 I can\u2019t remember.\u00a0 I probably didn\u2019t even know it anyway.\u00a0 This is the horrible thing that they made us do at Blue Mountain.\u00a0 They made us keep a little cashbook of all the money that we spent.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 That is good.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Ha-Ha, you had to turn it in at the end of the month.\u00a0 Guess what the night before, we would fill up our books.\u00a0 We really didn\u2019t do it. \u00a0We couldn\u2019t keep up with it.\u00a0 We would just put down what we thought.\u00a0 My roommate and I burned our room up at Blue Mountain.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 How did you do that?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Once a month they had a formal dinner.\u00a0 You dressed in evening dresses.\u00a0 You were served the meals family style.\u00a0 They had a hostess, and an assistant.\u00a0 So we were all ironing our dresses to wear.\u00a0 Somebody left the iron on.\u00a0 In the middle of the meal, they had the alarm.\u00a0 There was a boy\u2019s school there called Height\u2019s Academy.\u00a0 They had to make a bucket brigade up to our room.\u00a0 It pretty much burned it pretty bad.\u00a0 B. B. Carpenter was my roommate.\u00a0 We had to go and spend the night at the president\u2019s house.\u00a0 We were so scared.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t know what to do.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 How long did you go to Blue Mountain?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Two years.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Two years<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Then my roommate was going to go to Ole Miss.\u00a0 My friends were seemed to be going to other places, so I decided that I didn\u2019t want to go back.\u00a0 Although I loved it.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 You had when you and your husband lived here you had three children at the time right?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Right, but they were all born in Brookhaven when we were at Co-lin.\u00a0 Our youngest one was three when we moved up here.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 I am sure that was really hard going to school and trying to be a mother at the same time.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Right, every morning, well the only way we could manage I guess.\u00a0 Well Ralph usually took the boys to school.\u00a0 They had to go at eight.\u00a0 I had to go at eight thirty, and Ralph had to go at nine.\u00a0 We could just kind of alternate.\u00a0 Every morning I would get up, and iron three pairs of blue jeans and three shirts.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know why I didn\u2019t do it the night before, but while they were taking their showers and everything. I would be in there ironing their clothes.\u00a0 Now you don\u2019t have to iron them I don\u2019t think.\u00a0 Part of the time, Johnny Utz.\u00a0 You don\u2019t know him, but he used to teach at Delta State.\u00a0 He may have been dean of one of the departments.\u00a0 They lived next door to us.\u00a0 They would ride with him.\u00a0 He was teaching at the high school in those days.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Do you know Dr. Shubert?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 I do, I know who he is, but he probably doesn\u2019t know me.\u00a0 I know he is out at Saint Luke.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Yes, he also teaches on campus.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Yes, I know, and he has all that curly hair.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 He has three children.\u00a0 I keep their children often.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Oh you do.\u00a0 Well my really best friend, who has now moved.\u00a0 She was a member of Saint Luke.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know really many of the people any more.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 His wife teaches private piano lessons at home.\u00a0 They home school their children.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 At times I would teach some of the overflow for Delta State in piano in the summer.\u00a0 I just did that in the summer.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Do you play piano here too some?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Yeah, my whole family is very musical.\u00a0 We have been getting together over at Lake Tiakota.\u00a0 Do you know where that is?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Yes, that is very pretty.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 We get together twice a year for reunions.\u00a0 My brother is a wonderful clarinet player.\u00a0 All my sisters play.\u00a0 So we take keyboards.\u00a0 We go over there and have a big time.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 My family is very musical too.\u00a0\u00a0 In my dad\u2019s side of the family, we used to grow up singing gospel music.\u00a0 They were very talented.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 We used to get together at mothers at Christmas with all our children.\u00a0 I would take some little books that we had at school, and everybody would sit around on the floor.\u00a0 We would sing Christmas Carols.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that wonderful.\u00a0 I love that.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 There was something else that I was going to tell you, and I have forgotten what it was.\u00a0 It was kind of funny. Well never mind.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Talking about you and your husband, were they any dances or anything like that when you were at school here at Delta State?\u00a0 What did you and your husband do away from your home life?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Oh yeah, we belonged to the Country Club.\u00a0 We would go to the parties up there.\u00a0 We had a good time.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 So you had dances at the time at the Country club here.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Right, but I didn\u2019t learn to dance until Ralph was in the army.\u00a0 He was in this dance band, and the wives would be sitting around.\u00a0 So gentleman would come up and ask us to dance.\u00a0 I would say, \u201cI don\u2019t know how.\u201d\u00a0 They taught me.\u00a0 After I got married.\u00a0\u00a0 Then I did all this dancing with the Delta Belles.\u00a0 I made up all those dances.\u00a0 I would do it here at home.\u00a0 One of the props we used was ladders.\u00a0 They were made so that they had steps on both sides.\u00a0 I remember making that dance up in the kitchen.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t get over it without bumping my head.\u00a0 I had to duck down because it was so high and big.\u00a0 They had about six steps that went up and down.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 So you taught the choreography for the Delta Belles.\u00a0 That is neat.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know how to dance till I was married.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 The times that you would go to these parties.\u00a0 What was there to do in Cleveland besides going to the Country Club and spending time with friends and family?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Well they had a Square.\u00a0 Kent Wyatt\u2019s daddy was a good caller, Jeff Wyatt.\u00a0 We square danced.\u00a0 The faculty\u2019s wives would have pot luck suppers and stuff like that.\u00a0 There was always stuff to do.\u00a0 Now I am so busy, I don\u2019t know what to do because you think that you are retired and old, but there is so much to do.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 What do you do now?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 I play bridge.\u00a0 I go to Bible Study at the Presbyterian Church.\u00a0 I belong to a Widow\u2019s Supper Club.\u00a0 I go to our church on Wednesday and make the tea for our supper.\u00a0 I help serve that.\u00a0 Every day there is something to do.\u00a0 Always something to do.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 That is good.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 I love it.\u00a0 Yeah it is.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 That is good that you stay busy.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 I do stay busy.\u00a0 They best days I have are the days that I don\u2019t have to do anything but sit here and be a couch potato with my telephone and remote.\u00a0 I am looking for that when Saturday comes.\u00a0 I have been busy every day this week.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Am I keeping you from anything this evening?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Not a thing.\u00a0 I have some Chicken Salad.\u00a0 Would you like a sandwich?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Not right now, but thank you though.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 I made it yesterday.\u00a0 I took a sandwich for myself.\u00a0 I pick up a lady who used to teach at Delta State.\u00a0 She has Manicular in her eye.\u00a0 She can not see to drive anymore.\u00a0 So I pick her up and I took her a sandwich today too.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 You are fine. You are on.\u00a0 Were there any shopping centers here at the time?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Not centers, we had stores.\u00a0 Kamiens was always here, and it still is.\u00a0 The one that I shopped at a lot is not here anymore it was called Fashionaire.\u00a0 It was a lady\u2019s shop.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Was it right in the down town part of Cleveland?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 It was on Sharpe St., which is right across the railroad from Cotton Row.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 At that time were their trains coming through here?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Right, they certainly were.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 They are closed now.<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 Right and the tracks are taken up, but yes there was trains coming through.\u00a0 Eventually Gibsons opened up where the Western Plaza opened up.\u00a0 Do you know where I am talking about?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Western Sizzling?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 No I am talking about out there on the outside of town on highway 8.\u00a0 There is some stores out there now.\u00a0 Then they opened one down by the post office where Heileg-Meyers.\u00a0 Those two were our first shopping centers that I can remember.\u00a0 For a long time the merchants did their best to keep Wal-Mart from coming in.\u00a0 Finally we had K-Mart open up across from the hospital.\u00a0 Those were our shopping centers.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Did you belong to any sororities?<\/p>\n

DF:\u00a0 No at Blue Mountain we had clubs.\u00a0 They called them societies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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