Interview with Melvia B. Anderson Fields, October 18, 2010

Project: Bourbon County, Kentucky African American Oral History Project

Interview Summary

In this second interview with Mrs. Melvia B. Anderson Fields, Mrs. Fields talks about the home her family lived in after WWII; the home belonged to her husband's family. The house was next to the projects and there were lots of children. It was a close knit neighborhood, a good environment for raising children. The families shared babysitting because many of the African American women had entered the workforce in the 1950s. Mrs. Fields gives the names of many of the families who lived on Lylesville Street, and the social interaction that made it a vibrant neighborhood. Mrs. Fields also talked about life in rural Bourbon County in LIttle Rock: hog killing, the making and canning of sausage, cooking, family, race and relationships, and living on a farm. She also talks about her employment at the Paris-Bourbon County Hospital and the employment of African American women, and the notoriety of the cooks in the hospital. Mrs. Fields helped found the volunteer program at the hospital. She also discusses her employment at Avon (Lexington-Blue Grass Army Depot), and the difficulties for African American women to gain employment at Avon. It took Mrs. Fields twelve years to become employed at Avon. She helped found the Avon Black History Month Annual Celebration.

Interview Accession

2010oh153_bcaa006

Interviewee Name

Melvia B. Anderson Fields

Interviewer Name

Reinette F. Jones

Kellie Scott

Interview Date

2010-10-18

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.

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

All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.

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Fields, Melvia B. Anderson Interview by Reinette F. Jones. 18 Oct. 2010. Lexington, KY: Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.

Fields, M.B. (2010, October 18). Interview by R. F. Jones. Bourbon County, Kentucky African American Oral History Project. Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries, Lexington.

Fields, Melvia B. Anderson, interview by Reinette F. Jones. October 18, 2010, Bourbon County, Kentucky African American Oral History Project, Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.





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Persistent Link for this Record: https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/ark:/16417/xt7n028pg62v