Collection Title: Jackson Purchase Oral History Project - Lifestyles
Interviewee: Hart, Elizabeth R. F.
Interviewer: Anderson, Margaret
Date interviewed: November 10,1988
Processed by: Tara Marcum
Date processed: June 6, 2011
Description: 2 sound disc (1 hour, 30 minutes)
Abstract: Elizabeth R. F. Hart recalls her childhood in Murray, Kentucky during the Great Depression era. She remembers playing in the swimming pool behind the ice factory and neighborhood children roller skating on the recently paved city streets. While attending college, Hart recalled her uncle matching whatever money she made from selling Christmas cards door to door to pay tuition. Hart mentions her father hiring a African-American woman named Ora Jackson to help with cooking, household cleaning and family care. She described how Jackson took great care of her as a child. She concludes with a discussion about her relationship and marriage with her husband Jim Hart.
Biographical / Historical note: Elizabeth R. F. Hart was born in Mason Memorial Hospital in Murray, Kentucky on August 30, 1922. Her parents, Mary and William Finney were both school teachers. Her father was also served as president of First National Bank and dabbled in real estate. Hart was five years when old her family moved to Florida. One year later, her family returned to Kentucky. She attended Murray Training School on the campus of Murray State Teachers College (presently Murray State University). To support her college education, her father built a tobacco barn and farmed tobacco. The barn burned down not long after she started school and her father died soon afterwards. After graduation, Hart started teaching physics in Louisville, Kentucky at a middle school. She and her husband, who worked in the medical field, resided in several places including West Virginia, New York, North Carolina and Paducah, Kentucky. They returned to Murray to raise their three children.
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:
Hart, Elizabeth R. F.
Coldwater (Ky.) – History.
Murray (Ky.) – History.
First National Bank, (Murray, Ky.)
African Americans – Kentucky – Murray.
Depressions – 1929 – Kentucky – Murray.
