DeborahKing.txt

-n -n -n 18th, 1994, interviewing Deborah King, War West Virginia. [BLANK_AUDIO] For the Women of Coal Project under the auspices, Kentucky Historical Society. [BLANK_AUDIO] >> I'd like to be first is, first I'll acquaint you with what the questions are. There's only three, and they're very broad in general. We'll go ahead and get our biographical data over with that, but I'll tell you what they are you think about. And it's just simply what have things been like in the coal fields if you're growing up, what are they like now, and what do you see for the future? And then of course what we'll do is just go off into the way if you want to go off into it and that's fine. But those are the three broad questions to kind of hold the whole thing together. But first for biographical information, how long have your people been in the coal fields? Were your grandparents here? Did they live here? Has your grandfather, your father's a coal miner? >> Right. >> Is his father a coal miner? >> Right. >> And tell us who your grandparents are, where they came from, how long they've been here. >> Okay. >> As much of that kind of information, then when you're done, I'll provide you. >> Okay. Well, I am actually a transplant at Mcdowell County. I was born and reared in Canawah County. Pink Creek, still Appalachia. I'm still from a coal mining company. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. But I'm married though, one of those who was inside. You know, he was born and reared here. We met at the Capitol. I was a summer secretary and he was a research assistant for the legislature. Both of us worked for legislative services because I had never heard of war with Virginia. I thought he was just coming on to me when he told me it's for war. I'd heard of Welch, only. But no, my family, dad was a coal miner, went into the mines. He started working at age 14 or 15. >> And what's your father's name? >> Everett. James E. or Everett Tensher. His father and stepfather. His father is mostly a timber man. They came from Greenbrier County. But ended up in Kanawah County, Fayette County, all in that area. All having to do with mines. And my dad just always knew mining. He started out in the mines at that time. His stepfather, mine, coal, they worked together. He had a brother who worked with him. He was a self-taught, more or less self-taught, but yet a certified electrician. A man took him under his wing who liked his hard work and his ambition. Plus his personality. He persevered in a lot of rough circumstances. And so he taught him what he knew. And then dad eventually became a certified electrician. >> In the mines. >> In the mines, yes. >> Very, very important job. >> Yeah. >> He's a good one. >> Allowing everything to happen. >> Exactly. And I know I was too little to remember because I was born in a coal camp right on the riverbank at Crown Hill. It's right there at the mouth of Pink Creek, they call it. And on the Canola River, right next to the rivers where I was born. And our house, I understand, was the first one they built a bathroom in. And that's how bad the company wanted my dad to come there. And they said, "If you come, move your family, we will install a bathroom." And I didn't, I don't recall it, but I do remember mom and different people telling me that they resented it, the people in the community did. >> Because they had built you a bathroom. >> That's right. And you know, what made them feel that they were so big and bad, you know, so important to date. That's right, I had that running water. >> The indoor coal. >> I -- >> Did you, let's see your, what was your mother's name? >> Maj Calhoun Tenture. She came from Kentucky. She was from the Grayson area. >> Okay. And your grandparents on either side of Chico Lombard. >> Okay. My grandmother was a wrist and she, that was her maiden name. There were many, many of those and they were coal miners, just all having to do with coal or they're again timber and Fayette and Kanaw County, some in Boone County. And on my mother's side, I don't recall because my mother's mother died shortly, about three and a half years after my mother's birth. She was the youngest. She died in Kentucky, but her maiden name was Burton. So I don't know very much about my maternal side. >> Okay. >> Okay. So taking us back to where you were born. >> Mm-hmm. >> The mouth of what was it? >> Paint Creek. >> Paint Creek, right on the Kanaw River. >> Tell us about growing up in a, and you were born what years? >> 1954. >> Okay. >> In December. >> Tell us what name you sent. >> December 14th. >> Ah-ha, I was born the 13th. >> All right. Something in common. >> That's right. That's what I was in. >> Ah-ha. >> Of '49. >> All right. >> Okay. So tell us about what it was like growing up in the Colcamps, where you went to school? >> Okay. Well, I lived the first four and a half years of my life there, on the rivers right there in that little house, two bedroom house. It was just a close-knit place, but it was muddy. I have terrible recollections of that. Very, very muddy. Thick ruts of mud in the spring. I can remember that when things were blooming, just as a little thing looking out. And I've got to be honest, I thought the coal mines were terrible, because that's what I thought was mining, you know, just the mud, the dirt. You know, there's a little one, but yet I knew it fed us and kept us closed. There were six of us in all. Six children. I have three sisters and two brothers. >> And they're not smaller ever going. >> Oh, okay. Carolyn, Sue McCune, who is my oldest sister. Then there's Janice, Tinsher Hughes, who is transplanted. She's the only one out of state. She's up in Indiana. Larry, Tinsher, who still lives on the Canaw River, but he lives at Hansford just a few miles away from Crown Hill. My brother Gary, who also still lives on the river at Pratt, Gary Tinsher. And he is still in mining. He loves it. So he's about third or fourth generation coal miner. And my youngest sister, Teresa, Tinsher Snodgris, who now lives across the road from my dad, but no longer at Crown Hill, as you'll find out, we moved to a place called Paint Creek, which is still a coal mining area about five miles away from Crown Hill. She lives there now. And her husband, though, has never gotten to mining as far as I know. So that's all my siblings. Anyway, back to the dirt and the field. I just remember there was one, there are several good families there, hardworking people. And one of them I vividly remember, because it was my first black friend. And I didn't know, as I grew up, I didn't remember that that's what they did, but they were coal miners. The family was. And I didn't think blacks were coal miners. But later on, I did realize that's what they did. Good family. They were clean, but yet I remember my next door neighbors were very, very dirty and loud. And they just, they weren't the loving family or nurturing family that we were. You know, they were like fighting and they just left junk cars out, or they're always working on cars. And they weren't like us. You know, we always were just different. Mom was quiet and she was the nurturing mom, always taking care of the kids. And these folks were very dirty. I remember that. So then right before I went into school, we moved. We made a family deal out of it. My oldest sister was married and actually my niece is only three years younger than me. My oldest sister's daughter. They lived next door. They had built a home and across the dirt lane from them was my aunt and uncle, my mom's sister. They were very, very close. They both came from Kentucky at the same time, basically. They had built their home there and they also helped. They had no children. They had helped everyone build their homes. They helped mom and dad build the home that I grew up in, basically. That's the one I remember. Just a plain single story home, little ranch style, lots of property, lots of gardening done in the summers, even though dad worked all the time with a big garage where he still brought home. He did contract work. He would bring miners. I remember all those continuous miners and things he would bring in the garage and rebuild for them. And I guess for extra money, I remember workaholic dad. As a matter of fact, I did not get to really know my dad until about, I'd say the last 15 years, he was forced to retire. He had a bike entry. Was forced to retire. And since that time, I've really got to know him. Always before, I just remember him working, working, working. A lot like me. Doesn't know a stranger. Always wanting to help someone. If there's a need, he'll try to help. Very positive, outgoing. If someone says it can't be done, he'll say, "Why not?" And he tries to find a way to get something done, whatever it is, needs to be done. But anyway, up until adulthood, I really was ashamed of mining. I even detested it until one time, I was a young adult, dad owned a mine. He was fortunate enough to go in and own one for a while. And he thought that he was going to take me in. And I was looking forward to it. I thought, "Well, finally I'll learn something about this and really know what it's about." But I got to the mouth of it. It was so cold. So black and so drafty. I couldn't go in there. And I'm not a claustrophobic person, but I became that way. At that point, I earned a new respect, a real respect for what my dad had done all those years. Going in there, because he never smoked a day in his life, but yet he had black lung and still does. A touch of it. And I realized that that was truly an art in itself to be able to mine. And to not fear for your life. It's very interesting that day. So I grew up. It seems to you know the thing that there's two things that we've learned in up in the coal fields. One is that when we came up here, we had this vision of women being very sad and lost. That's something that could be further from the truth. And I hope those are very happy and very glad to be there. Yes. And have had very rich, productive lives. The other thing was that we had this vision of men being coal miners being forced out of the mines. And economic necessity. They like coal mining. Dad loves it. And you know, the thing that I think you don't think of coal miners as being very romantic. But I think it's a romantic thing. And it's like, well, we might not make it back out tonight. It's like there's this hint of danger. And it's like macho kind of thing. You know, and that appeals to. Well, and especially when my mother just died three years ago. And like dad, they were married 51 years. And it was romantic to him. He would buy her things. Beautiful dresses. Furniture, what have you. He picked it out because mom was one. She was the content. She wasn't sad, but she was very content with her lot in life. Being a mother, because like she said, her mother died so young. And that's all she wanted to be was a mother. And he would just buy her beautiful things. I mean, Stone and Thomas or a real nice department store at Montgomery called whites. He would go and buy the best for her. So he he always took pride in and being able to provide for all of us through mining. Yeah. And it's interesting too that you can you can just imagine this guy going in there with his rough hands. Yes. And picking it out himself. Give me this. Give me this silk. Uh huh. Yes or whatever. Mm hmm. That's a great image. Yeah. So I think that's that's some of the stuff that we've learned. Yeah. And and it's been worthwhile. Those lessons have been worthwhile. Growing up, where did you go to school? Little two story building or actually three basement and two story called Livingston Elementary. It was still what we call up the hollow. It was up Paint Creek. Just first grade through sixth. Even though it was Canola County and they spent a lot of money in Canola County in those days because that was supposed to be the best area, you know, of the whole state. We did not benefit from it. It was just an old dark damp. Seemed damp to me. School building. Learning wasn't much fun. I think that's why I ended up being in special ed. The best thing that happened there was that we did not have special education at the time. And I did go to school with retarded people or people with vision problems in lots of handicaps. And it continued when we went to Pratt Junior High that was right on the river at the mouth of Paint Creek. Pretty nice junior high, really. We had one young boy with severe cerebral palsy. So I got to see different types. And it was at that point when I realized I was different and that I was a coal miner's daughter and that I lived up a holler because there were people who maybe perhaps sold cars or who were accountants, you know, who were more professional than my dad. And is that when you started to kind of develop this being ashamed of being a... Yes, that as well as coupled with my parents were older. See, my mom was 40 when she had me. She was 43 when she had my sister, the youngest. So a lot. It was very unusual, but my best friend's mother, they were in the same situation. They couldn't have children for a long time. So they ended up with just two children. So at least we had that bond. We both lived up the holler. But now everyone else's parents and they could drive. Their mothers could drive. One mother was a secretary and she yet always was the one who could come and pick us up in the evenings from band practice or cook and have pizza parties for us. And, you know, she was more outgoing. Yes, she drove. But I still think... I was saying she drank. Right, but she drove. She smoked cigarettes. She drove. She had the wheels. But yeah, that's when I learned, well, maybe, you know, better be quiet here. Maybe my dad isn't so great after all, but he was. Our whole family was. We're very close knit and we learned such values and learning to help one another. We still do. I think that's carried over in every one of our lives in community work, even community service or church, whatever, you know, prayer, some of these people, these same people. No, mom, I did started in fourth grade, I guess it was. Always went to Bible school. They'd take us once in a while, send us by my older sister. Well, I went for learning. I'm one of those. Even my name, I said, mom knew best. You know, my name is Seeking, Deborah Amin Seeking one. And I went just to learn. I loved it. And so it wasn't fourth grade that I became a Christian. Didn't know quite what it was all about and never was followed up with. It wasn't baptized until I was 15. But I went to youth meetings and just Sunday school. But mom and dad always sent me one. I started out as baptized in a an American Baptist church. And now I go here. I chose to Southern Baptist church. We we left the association and went with Southern Baptist about three years ago. So I still stayed with the same same line. But I'm very thankful that, you know, later years, mom did become a Christian. She was handicapped at that time, though she was bed past for three years before she died, she'd had a stroke. And dad did so. Gee, now it's been many, many years, about 10 and 13 years ago. He was saved. It was baptized on Easter Sunday. So things have definitely changed for him. And he still goes regularly as long as health permits, you know. But that was an interesting part of my life going being with the people and just seeing all the different lives. People who really cared. I think that's what I'm seeing a big difference in even McDowell County. I've been transplanted here by choice. We've been here 13 years, will be in May. They are what I call real people because most of them have never really left their roots. They've they've grown, been blessed materially, materialistically, but they have never gotten bigger than their bridges, so to speak. They've never gone beyond their upbringing. They still have that beautiful whatever it is. It's something honest about them, very, very rich that I think Kanaw Countyans lost. I was very backward. I was as quiet as my daughter out there for many, many years. I didn't trust myself. I thought, well, you know, we I didn't trust my instincts, my intellect, even my talent. I didn't even start singing. The inch was about 20, yeah, about 20 and then I quit singing for a while until about age 25. So it's interesting. Very interesting to see where we've been and where we come from because we're we're moving ahead. Things when I came here, they were very still fairly good 13 years ago, but then just one right after another, mine started closing. Abandoned buildings more and more started cropping up even in Welch. Like sores on the urban lands. Yes, yes. It's awful. The thing that we like when we're driving around is or not that what we like, but it's curious that we get curious about is you see all these houses and the lights and you wonder who are those people in front of the lines that they go to? And then you see all these people in there abandoned and you think, oh, you know, right? And they're all over the place. That's the only thing that really saddens me to see all the abandoned buildings. If you have lots of outmigration in West Virginia as much as they have in Kentucky. Yes. McDowell County, it's horrible. They call the highway to Charlottesville, the McDowell County or the West Virginia highway, you know, going back and forth. But what's interesting is they go, they might even stay just six months, but they're back. They find out even their welfare systems not as good as ours here and that they miss those family ties and they miss the babysitters or just a companionship because, as you know, out there in the real world in these cities, people are so pressed and they don't care. They're so busy into their own itinerary, their own agenda that they're not going to care about them. So they come back. So it's, well, let's see, then you talked about the mines closing. What we've heard so far in our interviews are that there was a time before the mines, I guess around the turn of the century, when nothing was, the only way you could make a living was moonshine. You couldn't throw anything because land was too up and down. And then there was a time when the mines were here and that was good. You know, and then we came to a time where the mines started closing and people had been real dependent on the mines and they became dependent on the state because they had been dependent on the mines and they just shifted that dependency. And now we're into that timeframe of where do we go from here? So how do you kind of address that time period of how things were during the good times? And now we're up to that point of the mines closing. What's your perspective of what's happening there? Right at this point, we're on the verge of either we're going to make it or break it really and truly in this counting. We can diversify, we can go ahead and unify even because for so long we've been fragmented, isolated in pockets. What's happening with this development corporation is its unification at first. That's it. And then diversification. Right. Trying to get away from the coal industry and then some more stable. It's taken many, many years for people to see. We have allowed, MacDowell County has went the entire state, but especially MacDowell County has allowed people, I call it brain drain, they pick our ideas. They've done it even people on the state level when we were applying for grants. They had taken some of our ideas, said it was good. They expanded it. We weren't funded for such projects, whatever it might be. And yet they used our ideas elsewhere. It's like, we're not good enough to have something started here in MacDowell County. So now we have finally enough little groups, support groups, so to speak, and different organizations have cropped up. Now we are demanding our due. There's enough people and their strength in our unity. We've come together with this MacCann MacDowell County Action Network. And we are, we are demanding, we're advocating, you know, why not MacDowell County? I don't know right now with this MacCann. As an educator, I'm on the Education Committee with our Superintendent of Schools. He's part of the group. Yes. Is the group, is it what you would call it? I'm trying to think, is it a? Is it a radical change group or is it people within the? Are you, are you fighting the established political order to make change? Or is it sounds like they're part of it, part of the change that's occurring? That's an interesting question. We're, we're not so much great radicals. We're more like visionaries. That sound better? We are truly, there's so many of us. I'm going to call myself a visionary rather than a radical. Well, no. We're a visionary. We do have vision. I mean, it's things I've always asked. Somebody tells me something can't work and I'll say, why not? I wasn't trying to label you. What I was trying to do was figure out how to fit in the political arena. Many of us are part of that system. Of course I am just by virtue of association with my husband. Okay, who's a judge? And you know, which judge is your general? Circuit judge. Right. The lead judge is, what do you call him? The head judge of the circuit court is Booker Stevens. And my husband, yes, criminal or civil. Or civil. Okay. But, and you're also a teacher. Right. I'm in the system. We're in, you're in the system. Right. And, and the people that you're working with now, the name of the, at the group of individuals. MacKann, McDowell County Action Network. Okay. MCAN. MacDowell. MCAN. We want Mac like McDowell. Okay. Little C. Capital C-A-N. Okay, I got that. That's good. Thanks for showing me when I write that down. Yeah, MacKann. But most of us know we're all establishment, a guy with the human services who's head of that. One you might call kind of radical, but he's making ways of making things happen in this county is Norman Clark, who comes from a very strong mother, Pauline Clark. You might say he's more radical. He's with redevelopment authority, but he's, you know, the verge of bringing in a million dollar, multimillion dollar project of low income housing at Gary. He's made a lot happen. So most of us, we're just mainstream, but we are still different from just the old politicians because for so many years, they would make deals. All right. For, to get something. For themselves. But for themselves or what they thought was the county, you know, like, right, you know, they had, they, they didn't have vision. They didn't look long term. For example, I think one thing my husband had to clear me on this, but there was some kind of deal years ago to get Burwind Lake established. A little lake. It is beautiful and there's a swimming pool, but that's about all they've done with it. And they have, they stock it over next to war. That was the exchange. That's what they got on that end of the county for not pushing that we get a three lane road. Like there is, I don't know if you've gone over on Welch Mountain yet over on route 16. It's three lanes so far in a certain distance. They exchanged that rather than getting the road completed. You know, three lanes. They just sell out and they, they don't attack a real problem. They've always respected certain factions and I think those factions are breaking down now. This political factions. All by all means. And the county's redefining itself in terms of groups. And now, Andy, one of the things she seems to have gone out of her way to remain apolitical. Yes. And however now is the group that you're with, McKinnon, is that it doesn't sound apolitical. It sounds political. So we're going to sense that you want change. It's political. Right. That way it is. But of course even economic development authority is because I'm on that board with her. I was at one time, I teased them when I came on board because I really didn't know anything about economic development. I'm not into money. I'm into people, what they need. This will answer my question. I think do you have a county executive here? The county commission. Yes, sir. Does the county commission support or oppose what you guys are doing? That shows that's drawing the lines. I'll be honest. Time will tell on that. County commission right now is in very hot water. They're playing politics with one of our people that's involved. A Miss Frankie Patton, a Rutherford, I'm not sure if you're, I'm pretty sure you will interview her. She was the public service district president. She is the one who basically single-handedly got all the millions of dollars to get the coldwood Coretta water put in. And now out of the blue, this woman married and she moved just a few miles away to place, to war, okay, from Coretta, which is in that public service district. And they did not inform this woman a few weeks ago, but at a meeting, just dismissed her. Because she moved. Wasn't living in the PST. Her friend called her at midnight or no at noon one day while she was working. I said, do you know you've been dismissed and they're appointed so-and-so in your place? So anyway, there's been a struggle from there. They're saying, oh, they're not saying she didn't do a good job, but there's ways they could have handled that. They could have gone to her and said, do you want to move back to your home at Coretta? Because she had it. Yeah, do you want to move back to your home or? Well, no, they could have even given her a token. Some said, would you still be a lot of consultant to us or grant writer? Because she wrote grants. She did everything for them. So that is political. I don't know what that is. I think it goes back to about three or four years ago, maybe, to where she upset. She ruffled the feathers of then the president who said that they were just going to study their request to become a PST. And she said, that won't be acceptable. She says, we've been studied to death. We've got to form this thing and get rolling and get some water. So I mean, that's just my opinion. And after talking with some people, that's what it is. OK, let's move beyond that, I guess, to what? What? So you're only educational committee? Oh, OK. Yes, I'm also on publicity. I enjoy doing ads. I enjoy writing. So I do that. Just ads, narratives, things that go in the newspaper for them. We're wanting to do a docadrama. We were going to see if the-- or at least even a documentary of this whole process, beginning with Addy, because everything starts with the EDA in our movement, I think, to where they got many grants started to get people in the communities involved. We did little workshops. People learned how to organize. It was a grassroots thing. It started several years ago. And from that, we've blossomed to Mackayen. We formed a-- I might want to talk to you guys later about that, because I'm starting a PhD program in the fall on American culture studies. Oh, wow. See, we can-- Well, one of the things-- one of the things I'm going to be majoring in, ethnography, which is what this is. Right. You know that. Ethnography. Makes sense to me. Wow. I said, what is it I do? I said, you're an ethnographer. And I said, oh. And I've also-- but I've got to do some academic work, and some of the-- what we're going to do was was-- I'm going to be working. And one of the reasons I went back was because I wanted to do-- I wanted to get my hands on all their expensive video equipment. Wow. Yeah. Because the school at Bowling Green State University has its own TV station and stuff. Well, see, we're wanting something like that with a production company. That's what I'm thinking is-- Mm-hmm. --is-- Wow. --is giving me-- Wow. --and looking for projects in terms of what-- like, I've got to do a 30-minute or a 15-minute corporate video or something in a 30-minute. So that's the kind of thing that I can make use-- Sure. --because what I want to do is go in and say, oh, here's my project. Mm-hmm. And this is what I want to do. And then again, you've got to get it funded. And as I said, when you-- the thing that scares me is this $1,000 a minute thing. Of course, when you talk about using university equipment, the cost dramatically-- Boy, it would drop. --a minute immediately because you're not having to buy the equipment. You're not having to rent the equipment. Or you're going to do sign it out. Right. You know? Well, see, eventually, we want ours-- I mean, this, like I said, this is a vision. We're wanting to be self-sustaining. But I foresee us even using it as a training thing with our technical-- Votech School. Mm-hmm. Train some technicians. Let them get some-- In the video. Mm-hmm. In the video. Even in production with the taping, you know, with doing their music and stuff. Well, now, I'll tell you. I'll tell you right now where the money is. I keep noticing everywhere I look, there's all kinds of library grants available. So if when you're writing your grants as part of your junior college, be sure and put in a film studio, editing studio, and write up the component of the kids' training and-- And they would, yes. And if you can-- The thing that you've got here that they don't have other places as minority students. Yes. We do have those. Use those numbers to state, we're going to train these kids in the technical field rather than athletics. Exactly. And train them to do these things, which will then explain the African-American vision. Very good. Well, actually, I write these grants. Yeah, you definitely know how to get the money. Well, that's great. But-- I hope we get to-- Yeah. But I'll get back with you on this. Sure. I mean, I don't know yet what I'm going to have, because it may be too big a project. What you're doing is going to be a big project. Oh, yes. And it's going to have to require somebody to-- Now, what we might do is this. Well, maybe you could do a portion of it. Well, here's what I'm thinking. We might do the thing I really want to learn how to do is edit. So what I can maybe do is work with you or with a kid. If you want to do the videotaping, get the three-quarter inch video camera. That's what they use is the three-quarter-- Oh, the little, the mini. It's the good one, you know, three-quarter inch. And use that one. And then when I get out there in school and I start working on it, then I can do the editing. And the thing that I'm good at is the narrating. And that's what I want to get into is the putting together of and the narration. And I'm glad I'm getting into public radio and stuff. Well, now, we've got-- Our radio station is fantastic. They're even wanting to have interns and stuff and help us with it. We might be able to. I'll keep this-- and I don't know how actively you want to be involved in. I mean, what do you want to do? What do I want to do? I really don't know. Do you want to film? Do you want to produce? Do you want to script? Do you want to, you know? I just want to see that that portion is done because my part-- I'm a facilitator. I like to link up whether it's through-- That's what I do. Yeah, I like to facilitate. That's what I do. It's really strange. It's weird. I don't know why I want to call myself, but I see myself eventually. We call it one-stop shopping around here. I have a central location, be it through computers or whatever, that we could make referrals. We could do an intake, whether it's for human services, whether it's for job training, whatever they need or want, a place where families or individuals can come. And I could see myself facilitating, making sure that all this is done. So we'll have to duplicate. Right now, that's all we do in this county. We're all segmented. Are we-- First, you go to the room, then you go to the food stand place. Right. Rehab center, the voc rehab. As you're trying to sell this $40 million project as a model for you can eliminate a lot of this bureaucratic duplication. Exactly. That's why we'd like to purchase Stevens Clinic Hospital. I mean, right there, we could all pull resources. Developmental counseling, it's for birth to age two. My program's age three to five. The school services, children, handicapped. The older people, people who've had strokes and all have to have physical therapy. We could pull our resources, have physicals. It's huge, right? But we have the building. I think of big projects. And this is bigger than I can comprehend. Well, that's what I mean. It's something-- that's why we have to have the strategic plan. I mean, it will take years, but it's meant to be a tenure plan. We're sitting here talking. And what I need to do is get this all in a framework where I can write it. OK. You graduated from high school when? East Bank High School, 1973. OK. And went to college where? Two places. West Virginia Tech. I went there because it was convenient. It was cheap. I didn't want to ask my parents for money. And I didn't have a supportive counselor. I was a valedictorian, but yet they didn't help me get funding. You know, they could have cared less, I guess. Probably because you were a girl. Right. No one helped me. All I knew was to either be a secretary, like my sister, who worked summers and a school teacher, because she ended up being a school teacher. That's all I thought women could be. So you went to West Virginia? West Virginia Tech, which was 12 miles at Montgomery, West Virginia. OK. Basically an engineering school. But I got some of my core classes. I got some of my C. Tech. Oh, OK. West Virginia Tech. I have the same. All right. I see people. Just a little. Just a little. Just a little slide room. Yeah. So anyway, I went there just for my two years. And then I got married. So my husband said, we won't go to McDowell counties. If you marry me, we'll go to Princeton, West Virginia. So I could go to Concord College and finish up, which was my dream college. I wanted to be an educator. And it is a good school for education. So I graduated from there in, let's see, 1978, shortly after the birth of my son. And from there, that was Language Arts, 7 through 12, because I was good at that and public speaking and all, or thought I was and thought that's what I wanted to do. But after student teaching, 11th and 12th graders, I decided that wasn't my bag. Was a housewife until 1982. Was when after I renewed my certificate, we'd moved to McDowell County in the meantime. And I got a position being a behavior disorder teacher. I was certified in that. And I knew that preschool handicap was being mandated. I love being a mommy. You wanted to have about 15 kids. Ended up with two. Ended up with two. We just-- And their names are? Joshua and Beth or Elizabeth. And Josh was? Is 16. He's going to be 17. My daughter is. No, he could be wonderful and they could be brats too. And Beth is 14. Okay, now after-- And you've taught ever since you-- 12 years. So you're a working mom. And when did you guys move back to McDowell County? We moved to McDowell County 1981. But that night-- Yes, 1981. It was a year after my father-in-law was killed in a mining accident. See, my husband, that's why I think I was gravitated to him because he was very much a professional. And yet he came from a coal mining family, both sides, Union all the way. See, my mother-- my grandmother, even got to meet Mother Jones. And my grandfather was strong with Arnold Miller and them years ago. And dad was Union all the way. Well, we've spent some time down in Appalachia with Sam Church. He's a real character. Yes, yes. But so then you moved here-- what year was that? 1981. Okay, so you've been here for now the last, oh, 10, 12 years. Right at 13. And how long ago did you-- and you noticed that things were falling apart? That I had to get involved and I'd do something. I'm talking about things falling apart. I mean, the mining industry was-- Right. --all the time. You said it was everything that was gone. Yes, right. And so what made you-- was there a particular thing? Or was it just a set of over-- you notice that they were boarding up all the buildings? Or what happened that made you realize, hey, we've got to do something to turn things around? It was a gradual thing. Yeah. Wasn't a point to do that. No, but a lot of it pointed back to politics in that having to do with red tape, people perhaps being rewarded who shouldn't be rewarded. Moving up with positions, positions of power, and yet they weren't doing anything for the county. Maybe they were on people getting fired even, or people who had conflicts of interest, like serving on the board of education. I guess to see my husband was in the prosecuting-- He's not a bad son. Yeah, little things. And my husband was in the prosecuting attorney's office. And I guess I started taking a stand when he fought and succeeded in getting a two-man removed from the board of education. And I kind of got my nerve, I guess, from him thinking, we've got to take a stand. Because my children are getting older, and I want to set a good example for them. If you sit and do nothing, it's just going to go down the tubes. Okay, so then you started getting in. When was McCann actually founded? McCann was founded February 14th of this year. We're a new group. So this process that you went through was probably a 10-year awakening that occurred. Very much. Little incidences over this 10-year period. Exactly, through county commission, through board of education, just seeing little things. And he got fed up with the way things were being done. Yes, even with the EDA. See, I thought I was asked to be on there just to be a token female. But Addy took economic development authority with Addy. But come to find out, she wanted my ideas, even though I don't know much about, like I say money, I'm into people. But she thought that I would be able to awaken some of these people. Because I don't mind trying, I won't be mean to them, but I like to point out, open their eyes. Because a lot of them were just saying, "I don't know what's wrong, coals down, we're going to have to bring it back." They're beating down the brand parts. Oh, okay, we got hurry. Okay. I think naming this. But when did you come up with this $40 million idea? Well, the Clinton plan from the Budget Reconciliation Act, many of us were invited to a meeting in Charleston on February the 8th. I could not go to it. But anyway, many people went, all the key people, these little radicals, visionaries, whatever you want to call us, went to that. They started talking and humming around because there were federal people at this meeting who were saying, "You guys stand a chance. You all already, because through the Economic Development Authority and through some strategic planning, and the enthusiasm, the groundwork was laid." Okay. And they said, "You guys could do this. Pull it together. You know what you're wanting to do." So we met very quickly because there was a group prior to that, McCann, that was called McFern, McDowell County Family Resource Network, of which I was a part. I helped them write a grant, which we did not receive. It was through the governor's cabinet. It was a state thing. And that was one of those deals where I think they picked our brain and used much of our ideas and funded other people. Yeah. That's incredible. Yeah. We certainly didn't get anything for it. So anyway, we decided rather than branch out, keep spinning our wheels in all these different directions, we would drop the McFern, McDowell County Family Resource Network, and join forces all under one umbrella as McCann. So that has helped facilitate things. We're all in one thing rather than going our separate directions with an early task force for children and McDowell County Family Resource and whatever else is going on in the county. We've pulled all of it together. And your vision is a $40 million project that's going to be self-sufficient that includes that. Where is it? It's the geographic center of the county. You tell me. Well, no, there's two focal points if that's what you're talking about. One, we're hoping to purchase what was known as the Stevens Clinic Hospital, that beautiful facility on Route 52. Possibly house multi-agency's there so that we can have that one-stop-shop type thing. And connect. Exactly. Exactly. It'd be wonderful. Right. I don't. I'm not a computer whiz. But I know. Right. That's right. And the second one is Colwood, which is truly the geographic. That would be the-- Colbarian's cabin that she was talking about. Okay, up on the hill. No, no, no. I'm not sure what she's-- That's another focal point. This is right in Colwood, which is the central location of the county. It's a beautiful clubhouse there, the coal company had put in. And we would use that to train CCC workers. And-- How about this, the wetlands? Wetlands sewer project, yes. And we would have technicians from that. They could consult across the country, really. How to do it? Yeah. Yeah. Build that up. And yeah, they'd build that up into a network or something. That's right. Okay, now. Summing it all up, having grown up in the coal field, trying to go, you know, if you were from that-- And now you're moving off into other things. Leaves with one last statement, good, bad, happy, sad, you know. What's the one for your chance to say, "This is what I think"? What do you think? What do I think? What happens to you? I'm very thrilled, very excited at this time, because I always felt that these crazy ideas, at the time when I was young, and even 12 years ago, these ideas that came to me for managing, you know, the county as far as education, health services and all that, I'm excited to see that possibly these weird ideas weren't so weird after all. It's just that I was laying groundwork, so that I would have the enthusiasm and the sight to be able to help these people bring it to fruition. And the vision. You know, yeah, because it's exciting time. You know, we can do it. So you sit rather than looking at this economic downturn and saying, "This is a disaster." Oh, no. You're looking at it and saying, "Wow, what an opportunity." It is, it's an opportunity to the alert. That's for sure, that's the way I look at it, to the alert. Thank you so much. - Well, that's-- - You should mention our group. You can write something.