The Kentucky Archivist
Newsletter of the Kentucky Council on Archives
Page Two
The Sound Archives at Berea College has recently acquired more than 1600 discs from Louisville radio station WHAS. National and Kentucky notables including Keen Johnson, Franklin Roosevelt, M.M. Logan, John Y. Brown, Sr., King Swope, Alben Barkley, and Happy Chandler are among the many voices represented in the collection. Combined, they bring to the present the personalities who, via radio, were frequent visitors in Kentucky living rooms during the years the state was recovering from economic depression and facing the possibility of sending the Commonwealth's young men and women to fight in yet another world war.
Dating from 1936 to the mid-1950s, these recordings document a wide range of state and national public figures and news events. Popular entertainment includes the snappy patter and songs of Foster Brooks and Joe Pierson, soap operas such as "The Road of Life," and folk songs by John Jacob Niles. There is country music from Renfro Valley and such artists as Uncle Henry's Kentucky Mountaineers, Asher and Jimmy Sizemore, Hank Keene, Sunshine Sue Workman, Cousin Emmy, the Georgia Wildcats and Randy Atcher. Sporting events include the Kentucky Derby and University of Kentucky football.
During the 1930s and into the 1940s, WHAS's 50,000 watts was the primary source of radio programming for Kentucky's mainly rural population, east and west. Newspapers were not always delivered every day. As television does today, radios during those years drew households together for news and entertainment, especially early in the morning and in the evening. Going beyond the limitations of words on paper, these rare recordings make it possible to hear the same accents, emotions, and issues that entertained and influenced a past generation.
Submitted by Shannon Wilson & Harry Rice
In the fall issue of Kentucky Archivist, we shared information about the 125th anniversary of Ursuline Sisters at Mount Saint Joseph, Maple Mount, KY. We referred to the five pioneer Louisville Ursulines who established the Mount Saint Joseph Academy in 1874. The five pioneers were Mother Pia Schoenhofer, and Sisters Martina Greineder, Margaret Allgeier, Xavier Wurm, and Johanna Froeba.
Imagine our surprise and celebration, in October 1999, when we received an e-mail from Shirley Donohue of Houston, Texas. Shirley is the great-great niece of Sr. Johanna Foreba! We have corresponded by e-mail and snail mail, exchanging information. Shirley and a cousin are researching the Froba/Froeba family from Buchbach, Germany, to the United States and throughout. Sr. Johanna's sister, Anna Barbara Kimley lived in Galveston, Texas. She and her family survived the disastrous "hurricane of 1900." We have a typed copy of some of the letters to Sr. Johanna from her niece, Emma Kimley, telling of the terrible devastation. What a telling remark from one of the letters: "They have finally got the sea wall done, but I will never feel safe again." Only someone who has gone through nature's fury can really understand her feelings.
We were very blessed that the tornado of January 3, 2000, missed the MSJ complex. Much damage was done in Owensboro, only fifteen miles away.
Submitted by Sr. Vickie Cravens
Go to Page Three, Spring 2000 Kentucky Archivist