JM: Tell me a little bit about your mother. What was she like?

RH: She had lots of friends, and she liked people. She enjoyed doing things for people. I am also that way. I love to do things for other people. She liked to have fun. She and her friends would have tacky parties. That's what they called them. They would dress up for Halloween or something, you know, in old clothes and old hats. She always had the funniest looking hat.

JM: Did she work while you were growing up?

RH: I can't remember that she ever worked after I was born.

JM: Did she talk at all about working in the cotton mill?

RH: She did tell me that she went to work at 10 years old. Can you believe that? That's a child, a child going to work in the cotton mill. I think it's terrible. But, you know, people were very poor then. Everybody lived like that. There were very few people that had anything. There were eight children in her family. During the Depression, people just didn't have any food. They had to scrape for what they got to eat. They wouldn't have anything to buy things like coal. People would go cold. My mother said that Dad would go and pick up coal along the railroad track.

JM: Did you know your mother's mother and father?

RH: No, because I was five years old when my grandmother died. And as for Granddaddy, I don't even know when he died. My grandmother was buried in King's Mountain. We know where her grave is.

JM: What was your Aunt Viola like?

RH: She died at 16.

JM: Do you know what she died from?

RH: I heard it was something they called St. Vitas Dance.

JM: What year was your mother born?

RH: Oh, I have no idea. She wouldn't ever tell you exactly how old she was. We know more about my dad's family. They lived longer and we have more pictures of his family. In my mother's family they died so young. Some of her brothers died in their early thirties. She was one of the last ones to die in the family.

JM: Your sister Sara said that your mother had a lot of health problems.

RH: She had a lot of problems, but emphysema was the worst.

JM: Do you think that that your mother might have suffered health problems from working in the mill?

RH: Probably. She had lung problems that ran in her family, too. What took her life was a blood clot. She had a blood clot that went to the lungs. She was in her sixties. Daddy died when he was 73.

JM: How tall was your mother?

RH: I'm going say about 5' 6". She was fairly tall. We have one picture of her father. He's sitting in a straight chair. He had a beard, and he looked like he was a real tall guy. She looked more like her dad than she did her mother. He had a dark complexion, and my mother was dark complexioned. My sister and I are, too.

JM: In the picture of your mother, she looks like she might have been part Cherokee.

RH: I believe she did say something about her family having some Indian in them. My granddaughter saw the picture and asked me what tribe she was.

JM: Is Sara your only sibling?

RH: My mother lost an infant when it was born. It was about a week old.

JM: When you were a teenager in the forties, was your family better off then?

RH: Oh, much, much better.

JM: What did your father do for a living?

RH: He worked in a weaving mill where they made labels for clothes. He worked in the weaving room.

JM: What was the name of the company he worked for?

RH: I can't remember the name. It's been so many years.

JM: Where did you live most of the time when you were a girl?

RH: We lived on South Broad Street. The house sat right across from the Clara-Dunn-Armstrong mill. I think they've all been torn down now. All the textiles are gone.

JM: The Loray Mill, where your mother worked as a child, is being turned into condominiums.

RH: I really don't know which mill she worked in. She never said.

JM: What did your mother like to do for recreation or fun?

RH: I remember her saying that she always liked embroidery. She was sick an awfully lot. She just had so many problems with her lungs, so she just had to stay at home. She never smoked a day in her life. My sister smoked for a while, but she never smoked around my mother. She would have killed her. My husband is deceased now. He always smoked when we first got married. And then he had a heart attack and the doctor said he could only have a couple of cigars. Then he had a real bad strep throat and a high temperature, and I looked at him and I said, ‘You don't know how many times I have prayed that the Good Lord would take this desire away from you.' And he laid them down and never picked one up again.

JM: Did you have a career or a job when you grew up?

RH: I worked in a dress shop before I got married. After I got married, I kept working until I was 65. I mostly worked in the sewing room. We made pant suits and coats for ladies, and boy's suits for J.C. Penney.

JM: How far did you go in school?

RH: Eleventh grade.

JM: Do you know how far your mother went in school?

RH: I know it wasn't very far.

JM: Could she read and write?

RH: She learned to do that herself.

JM: What was your reaction to the picture I sent to you?

RH: I really did appreciate it. I was so surprised. I had no idea that any such thing existed. We framed it, and I have it sitting on my chest of drawers.