Collection Title: West Kentucky History and Culture – Land Between the Lakes Series
Series Number: OH056
Interviewee: Lancaster, Helen, 1913-
Interviewer: Margaret Hopkins
Date interviewed: November 22, 1976
Processed by: Sheree Wise
Date processed: March 31, 2010
Description: 1 sound disc and 1 cassette tape - identical recordings (1 hour, 2 minutes)
Abstract: Helen Lancaster discusses teaching and social conditions in the Land Between the Lakes region of Tennessee from the 1920s to the 1950s. She recalls the competition for teaching assignments, living arrangements for rural teachers, the student enrollments of rural schools and the salaries of teachers. She also describes her subsequent teaching appointments, responsibilities as principal at the Tharpe School and comments on the decline of enrollment in rural schools. She also discussed warnings given by certain community members to her grandfather to stop boarding African-Americans at his home and litigations against Tennessee Valley Authority prior to the creation of the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area.
Biographical / Historical note: Helen Lancaster was born January 12, 1913 in the Snyder community of Stewart County, Tennessee. She graduated Dover High School and attended Murray State Teachers College for two years. She taught at the Blue Spring School and later served as principal at the Tharpe School in the Land Between the Lakes area of Stewart County, Tennessee. Her father, Emanuel Spiceland, was both a general store owner and a teacher.
General information: No user access to original recordings. Use audio user copies, digital derivatives, transcripts, and/or tape indexes. This collection may be protected from unauthorized copying by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code). Permission for reproduction must be requested from Murray State University.
Subject Headings / Descriptors:
Lancaster, Helen, 1913-
Spiceland, Emanuel
Land Between the Lakes (Ky. and Tenn.) – History.
Stewart County (Tenn.) – History.
Tharpe (Tenn.)
Tennessee Valley Authority.
Rural schools – Tennessee – Stewart County.
Teachers – Tennessee – Stewart County.
Research Notes: Abstract and index included with oral history.
