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Many lies and half-truths have been written about the mountain people, but we know God sent his strongest men and women who could enjoy life and search the few pleasures contained in a life of hard work. I wrote my book, “What My Heart Wants To Tell” because I wanted my grandchildren to be proud of their heritage. Now, surprisingly, my book is in it's fifth printing
Verna Mae Slone
Pippa Passes, Kentucky
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I taught school in Delaware but decided to come home to Kentucky. In 1977 the coal companies were hiring women right and left, so I decided to work in the mines. I can make money and I can afford to get what I want and do what I want. My grandmother probably turned over in her grave.
Mary Jack Hargins
Lebanon, Virginia
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My parents were missionaries, and my childhood was spent in China. I came to Kentucky when my husband was appointed president of Berea College. I worked twenty-eight years as a pediatrician, and had clinics all over the state. Many unprivileged folks had large families, and I introduced them to family planning. The mothers were so happy they soon sent their teenage daughters to me for advice.
Louise Gilman Hutchins
Berea, Kentucky
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I'll be 87 in January, and I'm still able to work and eat everything I can get ahold of. I own this gorcery store. I make quilts in the back of the store and grow onions in a garden on the side. We've got Indian blood in us. That's why we work like we do.
Mary Steele
Swords Creek, Virginia
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We came to Bishop when I was nineteen, so my husband could work in the mines. I raised my four children in this house without running water. We had our good times and our bad times. Men were killed in explosions. There were strikes, layoffs, and we were flooded out twice. We lost everything, but we were a tight community basd on love. Color didn't make no difference. All the miners were brothers.
Dorthula Hargrave
Bishop, Virginia
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When I was a young'un I chopped down trees to make props for the mines and even dug coal in the mines. I worked hard doing a man's work. I had to or I'd git hit. Today young'uns don't want to do nothing. You got to raise them up right. If you tell children to do something - mean it.
Mary Gibson
Estill, Kentucky
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My ancestors hid in the mountains so they wouldn't have to march to Oklahoma when the government drove the Cherokees out of North Carolina. I think preserving our traditions is essential to our survival as a Cherokee people. I teach the Cherokee language to our young people. We are the only tribe with a written language that uses its own alphabet.
Myrtle Driver
Cherokee, North Carolina
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Me and Amos were married 51 years, but the Lord needed him worse than I did, so He took him away from me. I said, “Lord you know I'm left alone, but you're going to stay with me. I ain't doubting you for nothing.” I never did feel afraid, and I ain't going to give up. The Lord didn't come down here and promise me a bed of roses. Lord have mercy.
O.C. Puckett
Bonanza, Kentucky
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My mother was a domestic, but she taught me that I could be anything I wanted to be — if I worked hard enough. Now that I'm a police captain I want to be a pathfinder for those after me. I would not be where I am today were it not for people like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King and Eleanor Roosevelt.
Ivin Lee
Dunbar, West Virginia
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I grew up on a farm in Wythe County and got my first job teaching when I was 17 years old. It was a one-room school. The only water we had was what the kids carried to school in a bucket from a spring somewhere. I had to build the fires and sweep and everything. It was way back when.
Osa Price
Ivanhoe, Virginia
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Lots of folks come up here looking for their roots. I don't have to look, 'cause my roots are running deep in these mountains and way deep in the stories I've heard all my life. And I got to tell about the people in the mountain … I just got to tell those stories. People need them, specially those folks who come up here looking for something to comfort them.
Rosa Hicks
Banner Elk, North Carolina
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When I was little I lived right down thar in a two room house. We had five or six beds to a room, but it was the warmest house there ever was. My Daddy worked on the farm, and Mommy made our coats and dresses. She made our socks from the wool after they sheared the sheep. My Daddy had three or four guns. I was teached what to do.
Sylvie Turner
Kite, Kentucky