Collection Title: Jackson Purchase Oral History Project - Lifestyles
Series Number: OH092
Interviewee: Baker, Elizabeth Jane
Interviewer: Anderson, Margaret R.
Date interviewed: November 22, 1988
Processed by: Tara Marcum
Date processed: April 11, 2011
Description: 2 sound disc (90 minutes)
Abstract: Jane Baker describes her life in a small college town in western Kentucky during the Great Depression and the Second World War. She discusses childhood activities, adolescent chores and responsibilities, attending high school, working with her father at the hardware store, food distribution and healthcare, and significant events that occurred in Murray and Calloway County, Kentucky. She spoke of how everyone in town had their own gardens and shared food with neighbors. She also mentioned her family history, her experiences during the Second World War as the wife of an American soldier and offered detailed descriptions of her family home in Murray.
Biographical / Historical note: Jane Baker was born on December 2, 1922 at Murray, Kentucky. She was a lifetime resident of Murray, except for a few years during the Second World War when she lived at several military bases with her husband. Her mother, Gladys Hail (born 1900), grew up in the Kirksey area of Calloway County, Kentucky. Her father, Charlie Hail (born 1893), worked at the Scott & Lester Hardware Company located on the Court Square in Murray. She graduated Murray High School in June of 1941 and married in October of the same year. In early 1942, her husband was drafted into the United States Army and sent to Colorado and then to Washington D.C. where he worked at the Pentagon. Baker followed her husband on his tours of duty and after the war's conclusion returned to Murray.
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:
Baker, Elizabeth Jane (1922- )
Murray (Ky.) – History
Calloway County (Ky.) – History.
Women – Kentucky – Social conditions.
Scott & Lester Hardware Company (Murray, Ky.)
