Melba Wilbanks Kizzire and Edna Mae Plunkett

Published on December 30, 2018

Kizzire's and Plunkett's word cloud ". . . well coal miners are coal miners at heart, wherever they are. They're facing danger every day, so it brings them closer together."

Chapters

Moving to Docena

Melba Kizzire describes her first impressions of Docena as a child, comparing it to her rural background in Blount County.

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Docena Housing and Other Buildings

Melba Kizzire describes the community's housing and the dangers of house fires, as well as detailing other buildings in Docena, such as the clubhouse and the outhouses.

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Education in Docena

Melba Kizzire recalls the education system in Docena and the teachers who had the most impact on her as a child.

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The Commissary

Melba Kizzire explains the amenities that TCI provided, especially the commissary, and recalls learning cooking, sewing, and music.

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The Mines and Strikes

Melba Kizzire and Edna Mae Plunkett recall a particularly hard year in Docena.

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Legends and Superstitions in Docena

Melba Kizzire recalls commons superstitions about the mine and local ghost stories.

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The Commissary and Entertainment

Melba Kizzire recalls the community's preference of the commissary over outside stores and describes some of the common methods of entertainment for the children.

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Church Activities

Melba Kizzire recalls the central role of the church in the lives of Docena children and cooperation among the various denominations.

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Medical Care, Politics, and Law Enforcement

Melba Kizzire discusses Docena's medical care and leaders in the community, including law enforcement.

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The Volunteer Fire Department

Melba Kizzire recalls the dangers of fires and the efforts of Docena's fire brigade.

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Before TCI

Melba Kizzire summarizes her findings about the Docena area before TCI took ownership of the mine.

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Closing Remarks

Melba Kizzire makes some closing remarks about her love for the Docena community and its hospitality.

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Transcript

JOY RICHARDSON: This is an interview with Mrs. Melba Kizzire for the
Samford University oral history program, and my name is Joy Richardson. We're in
Mrs. Kizzire's home, and the date is March 12, 1979. Mrs. Kizzire has written a
book on the history of Docena, and it was published in 1977, was that right?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: (nods)

JOY RICHARDSON: Mrs. Kizzire, I'd just like to ask you, what is it about Docena
that has intrigued you and made you want to write the history?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: The fact that it was and is a very good place to live
and bring up a family. People seldom leave. When the older people die out their
children take over their homes. If somebody does move away they usually move
back--as soon as the house is available they'll buy it and move back. The
Jackses was one example, wasn't it?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Uh huh.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: And most of the people that do move away are very
unhappy, and for one thing, this is where my relatives have been for a long
time, and it's where I intend to be to bring up my children, and my
grandchildren make my fourth generation.

JOY RICHARDSON: Okay, um...Let's start back to when you moved to Docena, Mrs.
Kizzire, that was about 35 years ago?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Be 35 years in September.

JOY RICHARDSON: Okay. What is your earliest recollections of Docena--what was
the day to day life like then?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: The day that I moved in, my daddy took me for a walk to
see an aunt and uncle that already lived here. And I was startled maybe by the
black hard-packed dirt roads; like, they were slag, which is not coal but it's...

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Looks like coal.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: It looks like coal. And the roads were very black, very
dusty, but the people that I met were very friendly, very close, and the
neighborhood children made you very welcome, the grandpas, grandmas--everybody
had a grandma living with them. (phone rings) And...

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: (sets down cup)

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Oh.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Hello?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: The fact that...

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: (whispers on phone) She's talking right now. Busy.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: The whole community in...

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: (on
phone) There's a lady here.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: ...in general was like a close family.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: (on phone) Okay. Alright.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: And uh, didn't feel like you had come to a new place
because everybody shared, and um, the lifestyle was everybody's lifestyle. Maybe
I moved in next door to the superintendent's son, but we didn't realize the
difference, that my daddy was the laborer and his daddy was the superintendent.
We just never did think like this.

JOY RICHARDSON: Oh really, you did move into the--

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: No. I'm saying for example if I did. Now her [Mrs.
Plunkett] husband was the boss. But I played with her children. It never
occurred to any of us that Mr. Black was the boss, and I should be nice to those
children because their daddy could fire my daddy. It was never nothing, anything
like that.

JOY RICHARDSON: And your daddy did move here to work in the coal mines?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yes.

JOY RICHARDSON: Okay, now, he had worked in coal mines before he came here?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yes.

JOY RICHARDSON: And where was that?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Nyota, in Cullman, in, in Blount County.

JOY RICHARDSON: In Blount County?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Mmhm.

JOY RICHARDSON: Well, why did he decide to move to Docena, if I may ask?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Because the money at TCI, the advantages of a TCI miner
were much better. The housing was better, the fringe benefits were better. Like,
uh, there we lived in just an old wooden house, and here we had it wallpapered,
we had running water--it was cold but we had running water, and we had
electricity, and we had our sanitation provided for, our ice house, our
churches, our teachers.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: It even--

JOY RICHARDSON: And you felt like that was over and above what you had in Blount
County--or your father did?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Oh yeah.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: They'd even come around and pick the paper off the streets
and all.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yeah, I can remember the men with the little sharp
stick, sticks--this was, this place was immaculate, is that the word?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: And they'd spray around your back door, and we had outside
toilets--they sprayed around in those and all, kept them.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: They had some strict rules. You had to keep your cow
stalls clean, your back yard, your chicken yards clean. Couldn't keep coal on
the front porch in the early forties. Didn't chop wood on the front porch. They
had a lot of rules, but they had a lot of good fringe benefits.

JOY RICHARDSON: And did you, How did you come to find out about these rules?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: There was a notice nailed inside each home.

JOY RICHARDSON: Oh, I see. Mmhm. And what was your, your home like, that first home?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: When I came to Docena?

JOY RICHARDSON: Uh huh, imagine you're in that home.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Okay, I lived in a wood, a log, a log cabin in the hills
of Blount County, and I came to a brown painted house. Like, you know, there was
paint on all four sides and the top (chuckles). First time I'd ever lived in a
painted house. All the rooms were wallpapered with that I thought was the most
beautiful wallpaper I had ever seen. And it was. (baby begins crying) The floors
were covered in linoleum, and, and I had been able to see the chickens through
the floor where I lived. I mean, it was primitive. And um, the schools...had
flushing johns. First time I ever saw a flushing john.

JOY RICHARDSON: Oh really?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: First time I ever saw a telephone was when I came here.
And I had a lot of firsts when I moved here, that, the first week that I came.
And I'm only 40 years old, and I know a girl at church that [said] I wasn't old
enough to remember things so primitive, but you didn't have to be old, to have
come from the hills of Blount County.

JOY RICHARDSON: Certainly.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: The houses were warm, the houses were warm, fireplace in
every room.

JOY RICHARDSON: And how many rooms?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Four rooms.

JOY RICHARDSON: Four rooms.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: And to me it was breathtaking and all, the wallpaper--I
never had seen a wallpapered house. It took me a week to--I was stunned for
about a week. It was like I had gone to heaven, you know.

JOY RICHARDSON: Oh yeah. How large would you say it was--the rooms?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: (unclear)

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Very large rooms. In fact, people have raised as, reared
as many as nine children in a, in a four room home, and had room for two and
three beds in a bedroom.

JOY RICHARDSON: And how many [children] were there in yours?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Oh, I was an only child. My sister married when I was
six years old. She was married when I moved here.

JOY RICHARDSON: So that was a lot of room then. And the house was heated with
the fireplaces?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yeah, uh huh.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Well if there's five rooms, they had--now mine's five
rooms--and it had, in the extra room it has a flue for a fur, uh, heater. A
heater. That's what we had, a heater. And the fireplaces.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Oh, we had a "warm-morning" later, a "warm-morning" heater.

JOY RICHARDSON: What is that, again?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: A "warm-morning" heater. That was a--burned coal or
wood, didn't it?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Uh huh.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: And um...And we really-- And it was this, about this
time that we, window fans came out. You know, the big window fans, and we really
thought we were cool. And we were at night, weren't we?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: (nods)

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: And at night--like I had lived on a hill in Blount
County where you didn't see your neighbors' houses--and at night it was just
like a, to me I like to think about it; you would sit on the front porch, and
she [Mrs. Plunkett] and I were talking about it Sunday. And as far as you could
see, up the street, people were sitting out, talking, and they're blowing their
cigarettes at night. (child crying) And uh, you could hear the radios playing.
Of course, we didn't have TVs. About five o'clock when "The Lone Ranger" came
on, when you heard "dum da da dum da da dum dum dum" (singing), you better get
out of the way because there was a stampede to get home to hear "The Lone
Ranger." And when it was over we had a, we had a branch we played in, and we had
out hideouts around the community, we had a cave down here. And, uh, I know I'm
rambling, but all the kids--

JOY RICHARDSON: No, no.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: --we, we just played together. It's not like kids now.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: And let me tell you something, we had street lights.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yeah.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: The company furnished our street lights, that was, uh, where
we don't have them now (laughs).

JOY RICHARDSON: Did the company furnish your radio?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: No. We had a battery radio, and if we were lucky we got
to hear the Fat Man at eight o'clock, if the batteries didn't go out. It was
some time before we got an electric radio. And the first Christmas tree I ever,
have, had ever seen with lights was here. And my first year I lived here I
didn't have any lights but the next year my daddy bought me some lights and
balls. Before that we'd had holly and cotton balls to decorate the tree. And my
mother had tried real hard to put some lights on the tree, so she took a big red
light bulb (baby crying) and a big yellow light bulb and hung it in the tree and
I thought it was real pretty you know. And um, it was the first year I lived
here, like I said I was six years old. It was like, uh, Alice in Wonderland. It
was just a, it was a, to me it was a fascination every way I turned.

MELBA KIZZIRE: Yeah. The fastest burning wood this side of hell, my daddy says
it was (laughter). The wood was brought in from Tennessee. It was Tennessee
pine. It was the best that money could buy at that time that TCI brought in to
build our home with. But they burn fast, I've seen a house burn here in 45
minutes completely to the ground. We lost quite a few houses.

JOY RICHARDSON: Did you have neighbors who were close by?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Oh yeah.

JOY RICHARDSON: You weren't, in other words, it was not like it was when you
were in Blount County?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Oh no, uh-uh. No, that's what we did at night for
pastime, we'd--

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: All the houses still standing been here for years and years
and years.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Built in about 1907.

JOY RICHARDSON: 1907?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: And that was one of the pastimes, uh...talking to each
other at night on the porches and all. The houses were really close together in
the community. Now this was not a community house. It was the mess hall for the
prison camp [her present house]. And I don't have a close neighbor, like as
close as the other homes are.

JOY RICHARDSON: The house we're in now was?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Uh huh.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: That used to be a clubhouse down there where those two houses
are. We had a big clubhouse the company had built.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: But I wasn't brought up in this house. I was brought up
in one on South Fifth Street.

JOY RICHARDSON: Is that the only house you lived in?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: The one on South Fifth?

JOY RICHARDSON: Uh huh.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: No, I moved to Minor for three years, behind Minor High
School. And I was the loneliest person in the world. And I gave up a new home to
buy this 90-year-old home just to get back in Docena. And I've never wanted to
leave again, and I probably never will leave.

JOY RICHARDSON: It's a lovely home, it really is. Was your house, uh, um, you
say it was wooden?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yeah. The fastest burning wood this side of hell, my
daddy says it was (laughter). The wood was brought--

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Pine.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: The wood was brought (phone rings) in from, uh, Tennessee.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: (on phone) Hello?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: It was Tennessee pine. It was the best wood that money
could buy at that time that TCI brought in to build our homes with. But they
burn fast, I've seen a house burn here in 45 minutes completely to the ground.

JOY RICHARDSON: Oh my gosh.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: And, um...We lost quite a few houses.

JOY RICHARDSON: Would TCI come in and rebuild them?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yeah...Well, no, I--

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Melba? Your husband wants you to call for a minute, he's got
to ask you one thing.

(taping interrupted here for Mrs. Kizzire to take a phone call)

JOY RICHARDSON: Okay, Mrs. Kizzire, we were talking about replacing the houses.
You were saying that TCI--

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: I don't know of any they rebuilt, but when TCI sold the
homes to the, to the miners, one family--whichever was on this side of the
vacant lot--got to buy the lot, and they have a double lot now. And they could,
uh-- My mother had, had a double lot. There's one on this street. There's.
there's probably a double lot on every street, isn't there?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: (nods)

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Where they've lost a home.

JOY RICHARDSON: Usually from fire?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yeah. Always from fire.

JOY RICHARDSON: Were all the homes build of this Tennessee pine you speak?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: As far as I know they were all built.

JOY RICHARDSON: And they all had a fireplace in every room?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yeah. Every room had a mantle and a fireplace.

JOY RICHARDSON: And you had, um, did you have out, outhouses with this?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: We had a beautiful outhouse. Ours was brown metal, and
it was painted to match our house. And the men came out to spray and sanitize
the outhouse every week. And we kept it scrubbed, and we kept...My job on
Thursday was to scrub the outhouse. Yeah, we had pretty outhouses, didn't we? (laughs)

JOY RICHARDSON: Were they the kind with the trap door in the back?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: No.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: We had the deep holes.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: We had the deep holes. But we had a lid on the john. And
these were manufactured outhouses. They weren't, you know, they were metal. On
Halloween, the house, the outhouses that could be toppled over were toppled
over. (laughs) That's not the case anymore, it's so dangerous, the kids don't
get out too much.

JOY RICHARDSON: Well, you say you entered junior high school when you came here--

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: No, first grade.

JOY RICHARDSON: Oh, you started first grade here?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: In 1944.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: And it went thought to the eighth.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: It went through the eighth grade and we started Minor in
the ninth grade through the twelfth grade.

JOY RICHARDSON: Could you, um, describe the typical day in the first grade in Docena?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yes. We had a lovely teacher, Miss Bonds. At that time
she was slender, and I thought she was about the prettiest woman I'd ever seen.
She had long hair, and she had a gabardine suit, and it was rust colored, with
big padded shoulders. And I thought she looked sort of more, prettier than Joan,
Joan Crawford. I spent most of the day looking at this teacher and the first
week looking at all the pretty clothes. But she did get me with a yard stick
(laughter). She got me straightened out the first week. And I didn't learn too
much the first year that I moved here. Um...I didn't learn too much out of the
books. I was real busy visiting all over the camp, and I learned a whole lot of
things except what I should have learned in the first grade. But I found, made
it out of the first grade and made it, was at school eleven and a half years
when I got married. But a typical day in our school--she read a story and of
course we had a prayer. We had a Bible story and a prayer. And it was better
than the school systems now, because we memorized our numbers, adding,
subtracting, multiplication, and we never have, we never will forget. And I
don't know if phonics was ever thought of. But we had the little reading circles
called the red circle and the blue circle. And we had mid-morning lunch, and
this was something, we had, uh, we could sit under the trees and eat our
lunches, this was before we got a lunch room. And it was a happy time. It wasn't
like the kids--I can't remember many kids starting to school and crying. And uh,
the teachers were interested in us, and interested in our home life. And most of
the teachers at that time were not married, so they had a lot of time to spend
with us, and the classrooms were not as crowded.

JOY RICHARDSON: About how many in a classroom?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Well, she had a first and second grade. Each teacher had
two grades--first and second, that was Mrs. Bonds. Miss Deaver had third and
fourth, and Miss Higgins had fifth and sixth. Jere Beasley, our lieutenant
governor, his aunt was our seventh-grade teacher, Willie Shots.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Willie Baker, then.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Well, she was Willie Baker then, and um...

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Miss Gulley.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Miss Gulley, Miss Mary Kate Gulley was our principal for
many, for so many years I can't remember. And she was interested in us as
individuals. We weren't just students. They were interested in us as, as people.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: In fact, she lived here. She lived in the clubhouse down
there. Had her apartment in the clubhouse and she lived here.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: And our fourth-grade teacher was the doctor's wife. He
was our doctor, and they had the doctor's home up here and she taught school and
he was down at the dispensary--Miss Deaver. And she was my fourth-grade teacher.
Of course, they were our neighbors, but they were our teachers and they were our
friends. Miss Baker--I can remember I was about, I was in the seventh grade,
just becoming a young lady. And she was like a breath of fresh air. Now this was
the one that was our, like I said, Jere Beasley's aunt. She came out, she taught
us how to dance certain--with our May Festivals, and she introduced us to real
pretty evening gowns for the May Festivals. She was real stylish, she was single
at that time. And um, she, to me, taught us a lot about not wearing earrings
with our blue jeans, but we wore them anyway, you know. She taught us a lot of
things that maybe our parents were too busy to teach us.

JOY RICHARDSON: Would she do this during school hours?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: No. If we wanted to sit and talk with her during play
period, she was always there. And she wasn't prying. She was just always there
as our friend.

JOY RICHARDSON: Did they let you wear blue jeans to school?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yeah. We wore blue jeans, And I had two pair. And I
pulled them off when I came home, and my mother would starch them, and they'd
probably stand up by theirself. And I hung them up and put on
my..."jogafers"--is that what they called them?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Jodhpurs.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Jodhpurs. And we slid the seats out--what we played
after school was, we'd get a box at the store and cut it in two and slide down
the pine straws. So--

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Jodhpurs or pedal pushers.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Pedal pushers or jodhpurs, whatever we had that was
already worn out is we had to put on. We wore our school clothes two days,
because we had wringer washers. And, um, I can remember the first can of hair
spray I ever had, I had ever seen. Miss Baker brought it to school. Our class
had been selected to dance at Minor High School, and she sprayed us all down
with hair spray. She was-- was and still is--really up with the times and the
young people. In fact, she taught my daughter at Minor High School years later.

JOY RICHARDSON: Well, um, did TCI furnish those washing machines and everything?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: No.

JOY RICHARDSON: What did they furnish in the home?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Just our electricity and our water and our
sanitation--picked up our garbage and cleaned if we had, cleaned our yards and
extended us credit. If we ran out of money before payday, they had little
coupons that we'd get and, um, they provided our commissary. I think I told you,
the only thing I could remember we would ever had to left here for was to go to
the dentist, because we had our doctors. We didn't have a dentist--is the only
thing I can remember TCI did not provide for us.

JOY RICHARDSON: So where would you get your furnishings?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Through the commissary, the TCI commissary--everything
we needed, even our kerosene. And kerosene was a necessary item back then. And I
know my ankles were never the right color or the right size because I had to
carry the kerosene can with a potato capped over the spout. And Thursday, I
think, or, no, Thursday was hair washing day, and spraying the outhouse. We had
a day--we had our chores to do. And my job was to bring home the kerosene every
week to start the fires, and um...They pro- they provided our doctors, like I
said, our teachers, and delivered our ice, delivered our food that we ordered
from the store, delivered our furniture, delivered our coal that we ordered from
the mines.

JOY RICHARDSON: How would you order the food from the store?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Oh, we just went up there like it was a supermarket and
made our grocery bill and he would deliver it on in the evenings, wouldn't
Arthur? His name was Arthur.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Uh huh. It was all in walking dis- it was all in walking distance.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yeah. What we couldn't bring home, he delivered it in a
company truck.

JOY RICHARDSON: Mhmm. Um...What about the-- Didn't you have a school garden of
some kind?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: The county taught the boys to make the garden, Not the
county, TCI, taught the boys how to make the gardens. And the girls were taught
cooking and sewing, and I think everybody was provided the opportunity to learn
music. Even years later, Mrs. Hill came out to teach music to us. We had a
teacher that would come out, and I remember the old song, "Beautiful Dreamer"
(singing). I've hated it all my life! (laughter) She was a wonderful person,
Mrs. Hill. She taught us this song. That was among a lot of songs, but I
remember spending a lot of the time on "Beautiful Dreamer." And, like I said,
their, the TCI school systems will never be duplicated.

(whispering to a child)

JOY RICHARDSON: Uh, what would you do with the, what, what you grew in the garden?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: That was a little before my time. I remember when I came
here, I was shown where the gardens had been grown. And the boys had talked
about growing their gardens, but what, we didn't do it when I, when I came here.
We wouldn't making gardens, and we weren't being taught cooking and sewing
either, were we?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Uh-uh.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Uh...But I don't really know what they did with the food.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: I think they did that at Bradford.

JOY RICHARDSON: Uh, Mrs. Kizzire, as the daughter of a man who worked in the
coal mines and...the wife of a coal miner--

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: No, I'm, my husband worked for Union Oil Company. He's
the price analyst. My husband was the only one that wasn't a coal miner. He went
with Union Oil Company 21 years ago as a price analyst. My son-in-law is a coal miner.

JOY RICHARDSON: Oh, that's right. Okay. Well, as a daughter, as you're the
daughter of a coal miner, what were your specific obligations--was there
anything special you had to do for your father, as...to help him in his job?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Not to help him in his job. We had, all had a garden,
didn't we? And we all had to help in the garden, backyard garden, and gather the
eggs and help milk the cow. Everybody had--well, not everybody had a cow, did they?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Not when I moved here, they didn't.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Back when I first came here a lot of people did. And we,
The children helped keep...But nothing specifically. I used to help him bring
his paycheck home every Friday (laughter). I was dressed up every Friday at 3
o'clock. And I met him--I had a dog, little brown dog and we would wait down--he
worked here, and he had to go down a holler and up a hill. And we would wait,
and I'd carry his lunch bucket home because he always left a raisin pie in there
for me and the dog. And I carried his paycheck and his lunchbox home. (laughter)
That was about my job.

JOY RICHARDSON: Uh huh. I understand. (pause) Did you, uh, do you remember any strikes?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: I sure do. The last year I went to Minor High School. I
can't remember if it was a strike or a lay-off, but it lasted nine months. Can
you remember, Edna Mae? That year I got--do you remember if it was a strike or a lay-off?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: I don't know, you know A.J. always worked--

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Well her husband was a boss, you know, he didn't, he was
a salary man. But anyway, the last year I went to Minor I had two skirts and two
sweaters and one coat. And I was tall, and my girlfriend was short, and my
mother let those hems up and down, so we could switch out clothes until she wore
the hems out of our dresses. And uh, I don't think I ever carried a lunch to
Minor. I think she managed somehow to always have me some lunch money. But it
was a real bad year, that year.

JOY RICHARDSON: What year was that, did you say?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: It must've been '54. And I had one sweater. I'd switch
the skirts around and mix and match the sweater and put a fake collar on and,
um, But we were all neat and clean. Our shoes got pretty thin, but we made it
through it. Like people that did have something, they'd help the ones that
didn't. I was a little more fortunate than some of the because I was an only child.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: But before they sold the houses, if they was on a strike,
they'd go to the commissary and charge their groceries, during the strike, to
get by on.

JOY RICHARDSON: Did you have any relief from the union, from the national union
or anything?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Probably we did. I don't remember, do you?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: I don't think so. I don't think they've ever helped like that
as far as I know.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: No, I think that year, I can remember, my daddy and
another couple of men went out to the merchants in Ensley and asked for shoes
and asked for stuff, and then they distributed them out among the children,
because I remember my shoes that I got were green, and they had crepe soles
about this high. And I think I tried to wash them down at the branch and
everything else. (chuckles) But every child in the school, not every child, a
lot of them had the green crepe. I guess it was something the merchants couldn't
sell. And they gave it to us. But the shoes never wore out. The s- crepe soles
were about an inch thick. And it was the only pair of shoes I couldn't wear out.

JOY RICHARDSON: So, you had a good relation with the merchants in Ensley?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yeah...Yeah because they knew what business we didn't do
with the commissary, they got it, didn't they?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Uh huh.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Because it was really a tough thing. Back then everybody
didn't have a car--

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Well in '54 I think we'd done bought the houses.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: We may have...what year did we buy the houses?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: I really don't remember. But a good many years before A.J.
died, and he died in '59.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Well, uh, maybe that wasn't the year that we got, my
daddy went out and got the shoes, but I know one time the merchants did give
them clothes and shoes and food, and then it was all distributed out evenly.

JOY RICHARDSON: So that's the only strike you remember?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: It's the only one I remember, I guess because it lasted
so long, and it could have been a lay-off instead of a strike.

JOY RICHARDSON: Right, mhmm. Well, how strong was the union back then?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Now that, I don't know. She could probably tell you more.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Always been strong, the union has. They'd stay up till they
got they wanted.

JOY RICHARDSON: Right. Um, what about any legends or stories that were connected
with the mines? Like we were talking about the women not being able to go in and
you mentioned the canaries. Would you tell us about that?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yeah. The canaries was back when my grandfather was a
wagon miner in Blount County. They would carry a canary with them. And when the
canary would act up, it was time to leave, and... This was sort of primitive
mines. Docena, I believe, was always total electric, wasn't it? Maybe not at the
very beginning, they might've had mules.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: 'Cause they generated their own electricity.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: But they liked to have the rats in the mines, and when
the rats made their exit, the coal miners was right behind them, because the
rats could pick up sounds of cracking and breaking away of rock that other, that
the men couldn't hear.

JOY RICHARDSON: And the canaries for the same reason?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: The canary was a warning too. And it was a no-no for a
woman to even go into the mines to look. You didn't go in the mines. You could,
Daddy let me, he'd take me all down here to the washers and the lamp house and
the tipple--what do you call it?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Yeah, tipple.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: And, uh...he'd let me go with him to hear the, see them
blow the whistle, and steam would come out of the whistle, but I couldn't--

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: That thing would scare you to death at night.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Uh huh, but you couldn't go in the mines. Even a little
girl couldn't go in the mines. Maybe little boys did, but the girls didn't.

JOY RICHARDSON: Was it bad luck or something?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Bad luck. But now my son-in-law works with ladies in the mines.

JOY RICHARDSON: Really? Is he here in Docena?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: No, he works at...

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Concord.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: He got transferred--Oak Grove. He tried and get Concord.
He works at Oak Grove. But now I don't, I can't say that he works with them now,
but there was two training when he was training at Concord.

JOY RICHARDSON: What about any legends or legendary heroes? Were there tales of
famous people?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: (pause) Not really that I know of. We had a, a legendary
ghost here. Every community had their ghost.

JOY RICHARDSON: Was he connected with the mines?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Oh no. This guy was just--he was invented to keep us out
of the ponds, and to keep us in after dark. And um, his name was Lem Lane. He
had snakes growing out his ears. This is why we didn't get out and chase
lightning bugs too far away from the house. He got me a lot of times, I thought,
when I...I, I, like I said in my book, I would always play out until the last
trickle of daylight was gone, knowing Mother wouldn't let me walk through the
house with my black feet. And it was black and dusty. She had a little
aluminum--what do you call the washpans with the glazing on it?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Enamel.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Enamel. It was a washpan. And she'd hand me the washpan
and a, a cloth and a bar of Lifebuoy soap, and I'd have to sit out on the back
steps and wash my feet before I could go in the house, and Lem got me so many times.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Because their feet--my children--looked like they would had
on boots. Their feet was that black.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: But I really wasn't that afraid of Lem. And Lem could
live underwater, and he lived in the pond. We were forbidden to swim in the
pond. But like I said, uh, we did, true to nature and as children will, we swam
in the pond and looked for Lem Lane.

JOY RICHARDSON: Uh-huh. How would you compare the commissary with today's
grocery stores?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: There was the friendliness, and...The friendliness and
the-- (coughs)

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: You just knew everybody.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: You knew everybody.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Knew all the clerks.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: And it was like going, and when you went in, you knew,
you knew everybody that was shopping there, you knew everybody that worked there
because they lived here, and you were trading with friends, and...

JOY RICHARDSON: Was the clerk a local person?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yes.

(coughing)

JOY RICHARDSON: Were the prices better than you would find downtown?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: She would have to tell you that.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Well, just about the same. But you got, really got good
stuff. You knew what you was getting when you bought it at the commissary, and
you was getting the good brand stuff.

JOY RICHARDSON: So, you seldom to never bought food anywhere else?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: No, not really. If we did, we had to ride the bus, and
bring it all home on a bus. And that's be pretty hard to do, because we didn't
have a car until I was about nine or ten years old. I just don't remember the
reason we would go out. I guess when we went shopping was for Christmas things
and little extras that they didn't carry at the commissary. Or we went out to
see the movies--that's why we rode the buses. Yeah, we'd go out every Saturday
to see a movie, and Daddy would give me a quarter. Quarter to ride the bus, a
quarter to--no, a nickel to ride the bus, a nickel to get in the movie, a nickel
for popcorn, a nickel for a coke, and a nickel to ride the bus back home. And we
window shopped at all the pretty--Goldstein and Cohens. And we had to go every
Saturday because they had a continued flick to bring us back every Saturday,
along with the main feature.

JOY RICHARDSON: Did you have any plays or, or anything like that here in Docena?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yeah, she can tell you that. Tell them about the Tom
Thumb weddings and the man- the womanless weddings.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: I never did go to those too much. (phone rings) Had the May Festivals.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: The May Festivals. They had--

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: (on phone) Hello?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: In the clubhouse--we had, uh, that's where we had our
pageants. Well, actually during school we had our pageants in First, in the
Baptist Church. And um...But we didn't have anything from outside
people--outsiders come in. And the churches and the schools all put on their own
Christmas pageants, and a few womanless weddings and Tom Thumb weddings
and...There, it was never a dull moment because on Fridays we had the square
dancing, didn't we?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Uh huh.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: And on Monday evenings we had Sunbeams. That was when
Miss Parsons taught us Sunbeams. That was through the Baptist Church. And then
Miss Bingham came out and read a story hour, did I say that? We, we were always
entertained. Good entertainment, clean entertainment.

JOY RICHARDSON: What was Sunbeams?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: It was, um, just a little, for little children in the
Baptist Church. We read Bible stories and played little games and it was called
the Sunbeams.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: And we had a study club for women that want to belong.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yeah, the Mary Dolliver study club. We had our own study
club. Mary Dolliver--I don't remember her, but she must've been a very important
person. She served during World War II. She was a social worker I guess. She,
there was a tree planted up here at the store in memory of Mary Dolliver--she's
still alive, isn't she? She planted the tree herself up here at the store.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: I don't know. She's getting pretty old if she's still alive,
I don't know.

(Taping interrupted here to check on time left)

JOY RICHARDSON: Okay, speaking of the church activities and the study clubs,
what other, uh, things did you have centered around the church?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Most--a lot of our entertainment. Now when we were
little, we all went to...Uh, for instance, on Sunday, I went to Sunday school at
my church, which I was brought up in the Church of God. Sunday night we went to
training union with the Baptist children. W- Tuesday night we had Y.P.E, Young
People's Endeavor at the Church of God and all the children went. The Methodists
had--what was the young people?--M.Y.F. in the Methodist Church. So we actually
would, all the children here, were all brought up in the three churches: the
Baptist, the Methodist, and the Church of God. And as we grew older, we made our
own decisions where we were going to join. I grew up in the Church of God, I
married a Baptist, and I joined the Baptist when I, uh, well, fourteen years ago. But
I still visit the Church of God. And a lot of the entertainment we had was
provided by the churches. They took us on trips to Ave Maria Grotto, Noccalula
Falls; we had picnics in the woods, many, many, many picnics in the woods that
the Sunday school teachers would take us on, and we just pooled the children. We
put on a play in each church, didn't we? I know one year I was Mary at y'all's
church. And um...Uh... The boy scouts, too, met in the churches, I think,
didn't they? And they were always having hikes, and the girls would get invited
to go on the hikes. Whatever church had an activity, the Baptist, well, all the
children were invited. And uh--

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: They was together to begin with, the church.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Now she was, I wasn't a member when the Baptists and the
Methodists met in the same building, but she can tell you about that.

JOY RICHARDSON: Was there a Church of God then?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Uh huh.

JOY RICHARDSON: You did have a separate building for that?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: For the Church of God, but the Methodists and the
Baptists both went together. They had, the preacher, the Baptist preacher
preached one Sunday and the Methodist preacher the next Sunday.

JOY RICHARDSON: And what about these preachers? Were they hired by the community?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Well, by the church, uh huh.

JOY RICHARDSON: The church paid, the church members paid their salaries?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Uh huh.

JOY RICHARDSON: They had no connection with TCI?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Oh no.

JOY RICHARDSON: Did they live here in Docena?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Well, they provided the parsonages. Now the Church of
God has always had a parsonage. The Baptist church, up until not too many years
ago, furnished a parsonage. Did the Methodist?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Mm-mm.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: But now the, most of the ministers out here, except the
Church of God, have other jobs besides pastoring the church.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Own their own homes.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: And own their own homes, yeah. So we had, we sold our
parsonage, the Baptist church did.

JOY RICHARDSON: But back as far as you can remember they...

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: In fact, we don't even have a Methodist church here now.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: It closed in 1977 due to a declining membership. A lot
of the old families are dying out, just-- And, um, if their houses weren't taken
over by their children, other people moved in. And there, it...A lot of the
older people were Methodists, weren't they?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Uh huh.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: And now the Methodists are--a lot of them are--just
coming back to the Baptist church and worshipping with us. And uh...

JOY RICHARDSON: Did the Methodists ever have their separate building?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Oh yeah. She can tell you about that.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: We had, we had, they had a separate building.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: You bought the ice house.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Uh huh. They bought the ice house and made it into a
pretty--it was really pretty on the inside. And we all went in. I know we bought
a pew and had our name on it. And then when, after my first husband died, they
had, uh, we had three big chairs, you know, one of the preacher and different
ones to sit on, and they put one of those, I got one of those in memory of my husband.

JOY RICHARDSON: Well...before the Baptist and Methodists had separated, you say
you had different preachers, and the community supported them and bought their
parsonage? TCI did not build their parsonage?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Well, back then, I don't believe any of them had the
parsonage, other, uh, even, not even the Church of God--

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: I don't believe so either.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Not that far back.

JOY RICHARDSON: Did TCI build the churches?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yeah, the one church, that one Baptist church, in 1917.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Well, who built the Church of God if we [TCI] didn't?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: They must've built their own church.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: They might have.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: And it was in 1917, there was a lady living here named
Mrs. C.E. Fant, and she refused to raise her, rear her children in a community
that didn't have a Baptist church. So, she got her husband to talk to some more
men at the mines, and they agreed to try to start a Baptist church. And this was
the Corley family, and do you remember any more? I know one of the Corleys--

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Shoemakers, I imagine, and Turners.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: The Turners, the Shoemakers, the very, very early
families founded, you know, our church. And we have a missionary in South
America now. His father was one of the early founders of our church. His name is
Marion, Marion Corley, and he's in Columbia, South America. And the TCI did
build the big brick church. And we, the whole community uses it now as a storm
shelter. As a matter of fact, two weeks ago there were, there was nineteen of us
in the basement during the tornado.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Not two weeks ago--Saturday night was a week ago, when it was.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yeah. We still share everything.

JOY RICHARDSON: Did you ever have what they call camp meetings for, for the, the
other denominations, any little small denominations?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yeah, I remember one time the Church of Christ put up a
tent here on the school grounds, and we went to the--I didn't miss any church
meetings. That's why I'm so good. (laughs) I went to all the funerals and all
the churches. And uh, no, I'm kidding, but, uh... I, I did. We visited each
other's churches.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Yeah, Hutto...

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Hiram Hutto, yeah, he's a well-known radio evangelist,
and he was brought up here, wasn't he? His family still lives here. And I can
remember, he, they had that--

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: A tent on the school [grounds], I remember it now.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: A tent, uh huh.

JOY RICHARDSON: The Church of Christ?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Uh huh. Well right now in our community we have the
Seven Day Adventist, Jehovah's Witness, Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Church of
Christ, Church of God, and The Church of God and...

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Uh...Assembly of God.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Mormons and the Assembly of God.

JOY RICHARDSON: What about your health care? Who, uh, did you have to pay
anything for the doctor fee?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: You'll have to tell her that. I can't remember.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: You know, I don't believe we did. I won't say for sure, but I
don't believe we did. That's been so far back I can't remember.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Maybe a little bit was taken out of each pay.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Might have been, but--

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: But the dispensary is that red building. That's where we
received our care.

(pause)

JOY RICHARDSON: Um...And the hospital, I understand, is what is now Lloyd
Noland. Is that correct?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Uh huh.

JOY RICHARDSON: Was that a well-staffed hospital, a good hospital?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Uh huh.

JOY RICHARDSON: Did y'all have your deliveries in the hospital or did you use
midwives? Or, uh, not you [Mrs. Kizzire], I understand you wouldn't have done that.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: I, uh, had mine, the last three now, I wasn't living here
when my first three was born, but they was born at home and I had the doctor.

(End of Side One)

JOY RICHARDSON: So, you would say, or would you say, that the health care was
good? Was it as good as you might you get now?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Uh huh. In fact, when they sold the houses, they fixed this
house right up here where they used it for the office, it was for a doctor. And
he got killed. They was going to let the doctor live on out here, I reckon.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: TCI let their employees have first choices at the
houses. And some of them moved, but most of them didn't. Most of them stayed and
built and rebuilt, just like I'm going to try to leave this house for my grandchildren.

JOY RICHARDSON: Well, who was the city's highest official? Who was your
political leader?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Oh, we were provided the sheriffs too. We had two
sheriffs in residence here. We didn't need them. Nothing ever happened, except
maybe you had to shoot a dog, sometimes. (laughs) But who would have been most
important person-- The mine superintendent? Actually, we all thought we were
equal, didn't we? We didn't ever think of anybody being important.

JOY RICHARDSON: Did you have elections of any kind?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: No.

JOY RICHARDSON: There were no elections?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: No, we're not, can't, wasn't incorporated.

JOY RICHARDSON: So, as far as the head law enforcement person, it was the sheriff.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yeah, we had our sheriffs. But I don't remember too much
that we ever needed any.

JOY RICHARDSON: You didn't have a lot of, um, gambling, or--

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: No, didn't have any violence, we've never, we've never
had any violence. We had a train crash, and maybe a suicide, which this happens
everywhere. We had one sheriff killed in the line of duty many, many--Bud
Helton--many years ago. And, but we've never had any knifings and rapes and--

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Black man killed him, didn't he?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Uh huh. And I didn't, uh,

JOY RICHARDSON: Was that related to the mine in any way?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: No.

JOY RICHARDSON: You didn't have any violence during the strike?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: No.

JOY RICHARDSON: Have you ever heard of any?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Not here, have you?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Uh-uh.

JOY RICHARDSON: That's good. So, who, who appointed the sheriff, do you know?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: I imagine the--

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: TCI.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: TCI. Tennessee Coal and Iron. I keep saying TCI, but it
was called Tennessee Coal and Iron, which is U. S. Steel now.

JOY RICHARDSON: And who took care of your fires?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Oh, let me tell this story. We had our own fire bri-
brigade. We had long, little red firehouses through the community with a big
wheel. And it had the big hoses wrapped around it. And I like to tell this
because the men would run pulling, the local men would run pulling the fire, uh, wheel.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: We had fire hydrants, didn't we?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yeah, we had our fire hydrants on every corner, and they
would connect the hose and pray for rain. I love to tell that (laughs). Because
if it didn't rain, we lost a house. It wasn't a very good...It was good for the
late, early 20s and 30s, you know. But we're under Minor Heights fire protection
now. And they're here--a man had a heart attack, and we timed it. Three minutes,
that it took the rescue squad to come from Minor to across the street.

JOY RICHARDSON: But up until that time you had your volunteer community fire department?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yeah. One man was going to push the wheel. And the fire
brigade took out so fast, the man's feet flew out from under him and he rode all
the way to the fire. That's how fast our men could run to the fire (laughs). And
the store was lost, the school was saved. And we lost the doctor's office. This
was years ago before they were rebuilt in metal and bricks. The school did catch
fire one time so one of the old timers told me, but it was saved.

JOY RICHARDSON: And these little fire stations, how big were they?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: About nine by nine?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Twelve by twelve, because there's one right up here on the
corner now.

JOY RICHARDSON: Made of wood?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yeah.

JOY RICHARDSON: And that's all they had in them is the wheel?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: The wheel, yeah.

JOY RICHARDSON: With the house?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: And you ran with the wheel and connected it to the
hydrant closest to the house.

JOY RICHARDSON: Oh, I see. You actually removed the wheel from the house?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yeah.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Oh yeah. It had a, it was kind of like a, what would you call
it...It had two wheels--one over here and one over here and rolled.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: The wheels rolled, and the hose was wrapped around the
wheel and you ran pulling the contraption.

JOY RICHARDSON: Did TCI build those little stations for you?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yes, TCI, as far as I know, built us everything.

JOY RICHARDSON: Now, I understand this house we're in now was the mess hall for
the prison.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yes, and it's the only building still remaining from the
prison. Now the prison was here at the turn of the century. And the prison camp
was located right down in this area.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: There's graves or something down there.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: There's a little cemetery down on a little knoll beyond
the old prison barracks. And um...My house is a lot differently built than the
other houses because it was just a big mess hall and it was partitioned off and
made into this home. And it is the only building that is still standing from
the-- And it's 90 years about--I really don't know how old it is. It's very old.
And um...

JOY RICHARDSON: How many prisoners would you say they would keep there?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: I don't know. I didn't learn that in the interview [for
her book]. But they, the prisoners at that time worked in the mines. See the
state or the county, whatever, could, let, it was, it was, uh, lawful for them
to do it, I guess. And when TCI bought it all out they transferred the prisoners
and put tents up and the families lived in tents at the turn of the century
until the homes were constructed.

JOY RICHARDSON: And so, after TCI bought it out, then they used the prisoners in
the mines.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: No. TCI brought in their own coal miners. Hired their
own men. And the prisoners were-- I don't know where the prisoners were taken.
Nobody seems to remember where they were taken. Some say to Flattop. But I
learned this in an interview with one of the very old men who's, he recently
died at the age of eighty--about eighty. And his grandfather was here. And his
father was the face boss for the prison down here. And the man that was eighty
years old that just died, [when he] was six years old, he would help stand guard
with his daddy. And they had bloodhounds. And they say at night you could hear
the bloodhounds, if they had an escape you could hear the dogs barking. They
called it "the barking of the hounds" and they knew there had been an escape.
But this was more like the people that lived on the farms surrounding here
because the community wasn't here then.

JOY RICHARDSON: What about those, those people living on the farms around here?
Were they absorbed by the mines? Did they all eventually come into the mines? Or
did you have--

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Oh yeah. I imagine because what was called Trammel's
Pasture was over there. And all of the Trammels worked in the mines. In fact,
Hoyt Trammel is our speaker? What is Hoyt Trammel in politics?

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: In the house--

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: House of Representatives. And, uh, all of the
Trammels--there was five brothers. They lived on the same street: Herman,
Hagler, Howard, Hoyt--

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: Horace.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: And Horace. And the Parkers lived on a farm somewhere
around here, and I think all them, all of them, their daddy finally took over
the sanitation department for TCI, and they worked in the mines. Yeah, they were
absorbed into the--

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: And the Troy Reeses that lived down here.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yeah, the Troy (tape changes) Reeses and the Huskins, and my uncle,
Homer Wilbanks, the new highway goes right through where his farm was. Yeah, the
community more--they were just--and brought up their children here.

(pause)

JOY RICHARDSON: Well, what, what were the most prominent crimes you would say?
What were those men in prison for?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: I have no idea. The only, I knew, when I was a very
little girl, that there had been a prison camp here. But for what reason, I
didn't ever know. My daddy would always take me when we would go hickory nut
hunting, or polk salad hunting, or muskadine hunting. Daddy would always take me
by the cemetery and he would pull his hat off to pay respects to the-- And we
would sit for a while and talk about how sad it was that the graves were sinking
in and the tombstones were falling over and trees were coming up through the
graves. And this was thirty-something years ago, so it would be very hard--
There was two people still living that could take me to the cemetery and one of
them is gone. And the other lady that knows where it is is across the street.
And her husband knew, and he's d-- We couldn't find it. My neighbor and I went
to find it and we can't find it, because, like I said, thirty years ago it was
growing up, I was a little girl, ten years old, and now I can't find it.
Probably the honeysuckle vines have covered the tombstones, and...But for what
reason the prisoners were here, I don't know. All I knew was that it was a
prison camp and my daddy knew where the cemetery was. My daddy knew where
everything was. He knew every black walnut tree, hickory nut tree and everything else.

JOY RICHARDSON: When, when was the prison torn down, or what happened?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: It had to have been gone by 1907, because the people
that I interviewed, some of them were here in 1907, and the prison camp had been
gone, had been taken away.

JOY RICHARDSON: Well then what did they do with the prisoners after that? I
mean, didn't they have just little local offenses?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Oh. You mean if somebody out here got put in jail?

JOY RICHARDSON: Uh huh.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: What did they do? Nobody ever got put in jail. Look, we
were good people. (laughs)

JOY RICHARDSON: (laughs) I'm not trying to say you weren't.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: I never remember anybody being put in jail. Oh, if they
went out to Ensley or Pratt City and pitched a drunk, I'm sure they got put in
the slammer there, didn't they, but we didn't have--

JOY RICHARDSON: You didn't have a prison.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: No, we didn't have a prison, we didn't have--

JOY RICHARDSON: You didn't have--

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: --a jail.

JOY RICHARDSON: --gambling houses or anything like that?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: No, we didn't have gambling houses. We may have had a
few bootleggers, but if we did, and my daddy would know, I didn't. And, um, I
know I made some muskadine wine one time, and it blew up under my mother's sink.
(laughs) And, um...But I don't remember, we didn't have a jail, and I, there
wasn't any crimes committed out here. And in fact, I don't remember any of our
men ever getting in jail anywhere else, and we would've known it because we knew
everything that went on. I'm sure that the boys were boys, that they did get
drunk and brawdy.

JOY RICHARDSON: Well, I, I've just about covered all my topics, but I'm sure
there's a lot more. Is there anything you can think of you would just like to
say or...reflect on?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: Yes. I've enjoyed the close friendships that I have made
for 35 years in the schools and in the churches. And like, her children and I
grew up together and we're still good friends and people just don't, uh, we're
still like a big family. And I want my children to grow up in this atmosphere
and I'm bringing up my grandson in this atmosphere, and...And, uh, if I needed
anything and which last year was the first time in 30 years my husband has ever
been out of work and I didn't have a dime to spend for Christmas. And she [Mrs.
Plunkett] brought my children blue jeans, shirts. They got beautiful gifts from
across the street. My girls had the biggest Christmas, I guess-- One of the
biggest ones they've ever had from the neighbors giving them so many pretty
clothes and jewelry and perfume and, and, because like I said, it was the first
time we had ever been unemployed, and it hit hard. Because my husband's company
folded under after he had been there 21 years. And I know one day, my stove went
out. Everything happened when the job closed down. So here she comes down the
street carrying a hot plate and a pound of coffee. She didn't know that, I
hadn't really let her know that I was needing things. So, she comes down the
road with the coffee and a hot plate, and Mrs. Pugh finds out that I hadn't told
her that the children needed something so she brings fruits and coffee rolls and
a pound of coffee. And the church sent me a hundred dollars. And she started
doing all my running around for me because I couldn't, I can't see to drive
anymore. And what I came into 35 years ago, I relived this Christmas, which is
hospitality, southern hospitality, that could only be learned by living under
the hardships of a coal mining community.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: When, just like I said, when you have a death and all,
trouble, they're really good, people out here are.

JOY RICHARDSON: Do you think the coal mine today is what really enforces,
reinforces that closeness, just as it did when you moved here?

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: I don't believe, uh...Well, coal miners are coal miners
at heart, wherever they are. They're facing danger every day, so it brings them
closer together. But, one thing I wanted to stress when her husband and my
father went into the mines, they did it because there was nothing else to do.
But now the young men are fighting to get into the mines. My son-in-law's in the
mines and makes a lot of money. He started working there in June of last year
and he's already bought a new home and a fairly new car.

EDNA MAE PLUNKETT: My son's trying to get in there.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: And the boys are fighting to get in. They had their
baby, it cost them fifty dollars with U.S. Steel's insurance. And, um...I think
that coal mining is in your blood.

JOY RICHARDSON: Well, Mrs. Kizzire and Mrs. Plunkett, I want to thank you both
so very much for this interview, and I know it will be tremendously helpful to
us in our research.

MELBA WILBANKS KIZZIRE: We like to talk about Docena. (laughs)

JOY RICHARDSON: That's great. Thank you so much.

(Tape ends)

Audio Information
Attribute	Value
Interviewee	Melba Wilbanks Kizzire
Repository	Samford University Oral History Collection
Accession	SUHist/TCI/003