“Dad”, “Grandaddy”, “Big Bear” – 1906-1983 Willis was born at Kanawha Falls, West Virginia, a small town on the Kanawha River about 50 miles east of Charleston. He grew up in Alderson, West Virginia, another small town — with an estimated population of about 1,500 at that time — in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, on … Read more
“Granddad Hale” – 1883-1966 Henry Hale, my mother’s father, was born in Greenup County, KY in 1883, and died in 1966. Like Nanny Hale, he was a product of the Appalachian mountain culture: a tough person for tough times. He was a coal miner and farmer who, until his late sixties, never knew anything other … Read more
“Nanny Hale” – 1887-1978 Effie Allen Rice Hale, my mother’s mother, was born in Eastern Kentucky in 1887. She married quite young and moved to West Virginia with her young husband, Henry Hale. By the time I knew her, she was in my eyes “old.” I remember her very well — knew her for a … Read more
“Nanny Farley” – 1884-1955 Lelia Farley (my paternal grandmother) was born in 1884 and died in 1945. Although I spent a lot of days and years with her close by, we were never close — that is, we never shared ideas or personal thoughts. While she was always a little aloof, and had a limited … Read more
When I was in high school most kids my age didn’t think too much about going to college. I read somewhere that the national statistics showed that 1953 was the first year that the dropout rate was less than fifty per cent. While it wasn’t nearly that bad at South Charleston High School, only a … Read more