Interview with Betty J. Ward, November 18, 1988

Interview Summary

Betty J. Ward was born in 1925 near Columbus, Ohio but her family moved to Van Lear, Kentucky when she was only a year old. She remembers that her family became close friends with an Italian family, the Campagottas. This family offered to pay to send Mrs. Ward to nursing school in Huntington, West Virginia, but her family would not let her go so far from home. After she graduated from high school, Ward went to work in the Consolidated Coal Company's grocery store. She worked there for two years in the early 1940s. She talks about the sexual double standard and the acceptance of young women who had children out of wedlock.

Interview Keyword

Appalachian people Appalachian social issues Coal mining Consolidated Coal Company Gender roles Immigrant coal miners Johnson County (Ky.) Sexual mores Van Lear (Ky.) Women's role in coal camps Social conditions

Interview LC Subject

Appalachian Region Ward, Betty J., 1925- Ward, Betty J., 1925- --Interviews

Interview Rights

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Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.