Items

• Oral history: "Grady Long Talks About Home Remedies and Folklore" [audio recording and transcript]
  "Grady Long Talks About Home Remedies and Folklore." Lifelong Tennessean Grady McCarty Long (02 Aug 1905-21 Apr 1981) gives talk on various herbal home remedies with which he was familiar; discusses some superstitions, practices, phrases and "sayings" that are part of collected folklore.
• Oral history interview with Zeler Turner [audio recording and transcript]
  Zeler Turner (14 Jun 1913-29 Dec 1989), Howard High School graduate and Chattanooga resident, tells her life story from childhood to 1984. Turner lived her first 23 years in Chattanooga but in 1937 moved to Hendersonville, North Carolina where she resided until her return to Chattanooga in 1975. She relates incidents, events, and experiences of her Chattanooga years that pertain to homelife, childhood, various family members, jobs, and school days; discusses the status and experience of Chattanooga's Black residents, especially in the 1920s and 1930s, touching on businesses and professions, politics, social life, schools, churches, communities, segregation, challenges, and opportunities; describes her involvement (after 1975) with issues related to public housing and toxic wastes. She also tells of her years in Hendersonville, describing the town and its people, jobs and incidents related to them; her fight against glaucoma and oncoming blindness; touches on World War II and the civil rights movement as it affected people there. Gives philosophical views on "senior adults," the changes in people, attitudes, values, and life styles over the years.
• Oral history interview with Wilkes T. Thrasher, Jr. [audio recording and transcript]
  Wilkes Terrance Thrasher, Jr. (23 Jul 1921-14 Dec 1984), chancery court judge, discusses facets of both his own political career and that of his father, Wilkes T. Thrasher, Sr. which spanned from 1924-­1960; describes the operation of the county government in its county council/manager (post-1941) and county court/judge (pre-1941) forms; describes political practices of the county court era, including the buying of poll taxes, use of the chain ballot, etc.
• Oral history interview with Summerfield Key Johnston [audio recording and transcript]
  Summerfield Key Johnston, (16 May 1900-1 Aug 1985), Chattanooga resident, briefly recalls family background, education, and career; gives bits and pieces of early twentieth century Chattanooga history, touching on businesses, industries, schools, historical events, transportation, amusements, etc.
• Oral history interview with Stanton Smith [transcript]
  Stanton Everett Smith (29 Aug 1905-16 Nov 1998), discusses his career as union organizer and leader, including the organization of the American Federation of Teachers' locals in Chattanooga; the activities, changes, developments, and political role of the labor movement from the 1930s to date on both the local and national levels; relates cases, purposes, etc., of the American Civil Liberties Union of which he was an active member, as well as his interests in various community organizations; touches on early Chattanooga political practices. Note that this recording could not be digitized due to condition; only the transcript is available digitally.
• Oral History interview with Sam McConnell [audio recording and transcript]
  Samuel Perry McConnell (22 Aug 1912-31 Dec 2000), Hamilton County educator, recalls early education, family, and career as teacher, principal, and superintendent; gives his experiences with and views on school facilities, funding, curriculum, construction, desegregation, annexation, transportation and consolidation; discusses student and parent attitudes towards schools and education; and political involvement in school administration; shows changes and developments in the school system and in various educational concepts over almost a fifty-year span.
• Oral history interview with Rosalind Ewing Martin [audio recording and transcript]
  Rosalind Ewing Martin (28 Jul 1894-12 Jan 1983), Chattanoogan, briefly touches on childhood, education, family life with husband Cyrus Griffin Martin, interest in volunteer work with the Red Cross (beginning in World War I) and other civic and patriotic organizations.
• Oral History interview with Rosa McGhee (#2) [audio recording and transcript]
  Rosa Margaret McGhee (30 Oct 1905-4 Mar 1986), local teacher of 37 years and founder of the Chattanooga Chapter of the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, recalls childhood and education, discussing the influences of family ties, moral values, religion, and the role of teachers in the Black community of the 1920s; notes changes in attitudes in these areas, beginning in the 1950s, and the subsequent effects seen in schools; lists Black business and professional people in numerous fields who have contributed to Chattanooga's development. Note: See also card entries for McGhee's first interview, June 2, 1982, which is mainly biographical and also touches on Chattanooga's early Black physicians.
• Oral History interview with Rosa McGhee (#1) [audio recording and transcript]
  Rosa Margaret McGhee (30 Oct 1905-4 Mar 1986), local teacher of 37 years and founder of the Chattanooga Chapter of the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, recalls childhood on the West Side, including family, education, churches, early jobs, teaching career, and activity in the American Federation of Teachers; gives views on changes, standards, and problems in public education; mentions some early Chattanooga businesses (white); touches on early Black physicians in the Chattanooga community. Note: See second interview with McGhee, June 16, 1982, which gives a more detailed account of Chattanooga's Black physicians as well as other Black business and professionals.
• Oral history interview with Ronald L. Willingham [audio recording and transcript]
  Ronald Lewis Willingham (08 Aug 1951-09 Jan 2012), Chattanooga resident, reminisces about growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, touching on school days, church activities, popular hair and clothing styles, etc.
• Oral history interview with Reverend John Bonner, Jr. [transcript]
  Reverend John Hare Bonner, Jr. (22 Dec 1919-20 Mar 1993), community activist and rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church since 1956, notes changes seen in his parish over the years; recounts church's efforts to meet community needs through outreach programs such as those which led to the establishment and development of the St. Barnabas nursing home complex; briefly relates history of St. Paul's; discusses his association with and activities of both the informal biracial committee and the mayor's human relations committee that helped implement the desegregation process in Chattanooga in the 1960s. Note that this recording could not be digitized due to condition; only the transcript is available digitally.
• Oral history interview with Penelope Allen Johnson (#2) [audio recording and transcript]
  Penelope Allen Johnson (27 Oct 1886-9 Jan 1985), historian and genealogist, gives location and description of Ross and McDonald family holdings in north Georgia and Hamilton County, Tennessee; describes settlement at Ross' Landing in 1830s; discusses the forced Cherokee removal; briefly comments on naming of Chattanooga.
• Oral history interview with Penelope Allen Johnson (#1) [audio recording and transcript]
  Penelope Johnson Allen (27 Oct 1886-9 Jan 1985), historian and genealogist, describes the organization of the Historical Records Survey under the Works Progress Administration, 1935-1945, of which she was the Tennessee state supervisor; relates education, family background, and varied career; touches on the woman's suffrage movement and meetings with Dr. Emmet Starr, Cherokee historian and genealogist.
• Oral History interview with P. R. (Rudy) Olgiati [audio recording and transcript]
  Peter Rudolph Olgiati (24 Aug 1901-6 Aug 1989), Chattanooga mayor (1951-1963), recalls childhood; education; community of Alton Park; construction jobs; Depression years; local Works Progress Administration projects; the "rough-and-tumble school of politics;" election as Public Works Commissioner, 1947; mayoral elections of 1951, 1955, and 1959; unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign, 1962; events during his tenure as mayor, including the civil rights movement, and especially "urban renewal" of Chattanooga's West Side/Cameron Hill, the interstate highway system, railroad relocation, and interceptor sewer system projects.
• Oral history interview with O. B. Gladish [audio recording and transcript]
  Omar Brainerd Gladish (6 Feb 1884-16 Feb 1984), a self-proclaimed "river rat"; recounts life as machinist, hoist inventor, motorboat and excursion boat operator; recalls colorful incidents and experiences of river life from dealings with bootleggers to hazards of ice and flood.
• Oral History interview with Mary Quarles Paquette [audio recording and transcript]
  Mary Elizabeth Quarles Paquette (14 Jun 1889-15 Mar 1986), discusses military life with her husband, Henry Paquette, a soldier in C Troop, 11th Cavalry, stationed at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. Gives an overview of their life at the Fort from 1912 to its closing in the 1940s. Touches on domestic, recreational and social life, uniforms, post buildings, the flu epidemic of 1917, and the World War I German prisoner of war camp.
• Oral History interview with Martha Bachman McCoy [audio recording and transcript]
  Martha Dulaney Bachman McCoy (4 Oct 1904-31 May 2004), having spent her childhood in the neighborhood of Oak and Vine Streets and her summers on Walden's Ridge, McCoy reflects on these two contrasting cultures as they both gave way to automobiles and development. McCoy recalls childhood, education, family life with husband Thomas McCoy in Chattanooga and on Walden's Ridge; notes social activities, customs, and events, interspersed with historical facts and anecdotes; gives memories of her father, Senator Nathan Lynn Bachman (1878­1937) and her grandfather, Presbyterian minister Jonathan Waverly Bachman (1837-1924).
• Oral history interview with Mark Womack [audio recording and transcript]
  Mark Sanders Womack, Jr. (31 Dec 1923-25 Dec 2020), railroad buff and retired employee of the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway and the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, draws on over forty years of personal experience and cites supplemental historical facts to give a picture of railroading life over the years. Topics touched on include: Chattanooga as a rail center; train orders, messages, rules, and other operational procedures; decline of passenger service; company mergers; transmission instruments; dining and cafe cars; employee positions, duties, food and lodging, etc. Also discusses the historic engine, "The General," and Chattanooga's efforts to keep it.
• Oral history interview with Margaret White Bright [transcript]
  Margaret Lea White Bright (4 Jun 1893-2 Jan 1991), lifelong Chattanoogan born in Fort Wood, recalls particular events, interests, and activities of her childhood and youth, touching on transportation, games and other entertainments, clothing, early Chattanooga businesses, neighborhoods, and historical events that create a picture of life as it was in pre-World War I Chattanooga. Note that this recording could not be digitized due to condition; only the transcript is available digitally.
• Oral history interview with Louis John Williams [audio recording and transcript]
  Louis John Williams (24 Jun 1892-10 Jul 1984), Chattanooga civic leader, briefly recounts years as typewriter salesman and mechanic, and as cement company executive. Discusses his association with and activities of several civic and conservation-oriented organizations; highlights include the establishment of the Tennessee Conservation League and its fight to create an independent game and fish administration; the efforts of the Chamber of Commerce to make Moccasin Bend into a park area; and the formation of the Chattanooga Audubon Society and the subsequent growth and development of its programs and properties. Describes his hobby of repairing and making fishing rods and includes some of his experiences in their presentation to national figures; relates interest in genealogy.
• Oral history interview with Leah James [audio recording and transcript]
  Leah Harriet James (29 Jul 1904-5 Feb 2011), Executive Director of Chattanooga's Family Service Agency, 1944-1966, recalls education, jobs, background in social work; relates beginnings, changes and growth in programs and services offered by FSA, including those pertaining to adoption, mental health, and literacy development; discusses her work in the fight for a state adoption law and for better racial justice through the establishment of the Community Relations Conference during the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
• Oral history interview with Joseph W. Johnson [audio recording and transcript]
  Dr. Joseph Wilson Johnson (03 Jun 1910-02 May 1986) briefly recalls the East Terrace community where he grew up, his childhood, education, career in medicine, particularly as it pertained to psychiatry; discusses the growth and development of mental health facilities in Chattanooga.
• Oral history interview with Joseph C. Hurt [audio recording and transcript]
  Joseph Charles Hurt (13 Jul 1913-08 Sep 2003), offers reminiscences of his days as Sixth Cavalry trooper at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, and information gleaned during his time as historian for the Sixth Cavalry Museum. Hurt describes life at the fort from its establishment in 1902 to its close in 1946, and touches on soldiers' duties, post privileges, next card housing, uniforms, weapons, field maneuvers, the introduction of mechanized vehicles to the cavalry, polo games, and more. Hurt's interest in the cavalry began when he was enlisted as a trooper in 1931, and has continued through his five terms as National Commander of the Veterans Association. He describes the last days of the fort when mechanization approached, and also identifies significant stages of the fort's early history.
• Oral history interview with John N. Popham [audio recording and transcript]
  John Nicholas Popham, III (30 Jul 1910-12 Dec 1999), newspaper executive and reporter, relates career and methods of operation as Southern regional correspondent for the New York Times (1947-1958) and managing editor of the Chattanooga Times (1958-1977); discusses methods and importance of obtaining complete and unbiased news coverage and other facets and issues pertinent to current print and television journalism; describes role of Chattanooga Times in Chattanooga's desegregation process; comments on desegregation, business and industry, education, government structure, etc. in the local community.
• Oral history interview with John A. Chambliss [audio recording and transcript]
  John Alexander Chambliss (14 Oct 1887-16 Nov 1976), Chattanooga lawyer and businessman, recalls events of childhood and youth, school days, law career and business ventures; discusses reading interests, events in his family life, various acquaintances and family members, especially his father, Alexander Wilds Chambliss (1864-1947), Chattanooga lawyer, politician, and businessman.