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OH228 Zelma White Oral History

Zelma White Oral History

Collection Title: Jackson Purchase Oral History Project – Kentucky Dam Project

Series Number: OH228

Interviewee: White, Zelma

Interviewer:

Date interviewed: February 23, 1995

Processed by: Wesley S. Bolin in November of 2013.

Date processed: November 19, 2013

Description: 2 sound discs (1 hour 29 minutes)

Abstract: Zelma White discusses her experiences working as an office clerk for the Tennessee Valley Authority during the construction of Kentucky Dam from 1944 to 1945. She describes working both in the TVA administrative offices and in the office of the Kentucky Dam Village hospital. White relates encounters with Luther Draffen and George Jessup and discusses Jessup's reputation among the TVA employees. White also discusses observation visits by Chinese engineers to the Dam and talks about President Harry Truman's visit to the Dam, at which she was present. White also discusses the physical layout of Kentucky Dam Village and life in the Village.

Biographical / Historical note: Zelma White was born in Reidland, Kentucky on March 25, 1926, and lived in Reidland until age 31, when she moved to Paducah. Both she and her father worked for TVA on the Kentucky Dam project. White was employed by TVA, working both in the administration building and later as an office clerk in the hospital in Kentucky Dam Village.nWhite was employed by TVA from May 1944 until December 1945, when she left employment instead of moving to a new TVA project in Parsons, Tennessee.

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:

White, Zelma, 1926-

Reidland (Ky.)

Paducah (Ky.)

McCracken County (Ky.)

Kentucky Dam (Ky.)

Tennessee Valley Authority.

Dams – Kentucky

Land Between the Lakes (Ky. And Tenn.) – History.