Interview with Mary Ann Quarles Hawkes, June 16, 1979

Interview Summary

Mary Ann Hawkes worked in Leslie County with a group at the Stinnett Settlement School and then later began work for the FNS in 1948. She talks about the differences between training in social work and actually working in a place where no agencies exist to assist people in need. Hawkes discusses the "Kentucky Mountain Male Syndrome," in which men raised in the mountains to do seasonal work could not adjust to working by a time clock. The transition was achieved after children began meeting the school bus and became accustomed to time constraints. Hawkes also remarks upon the impact of television upon mountain localities. She explains her role as liaison between the FNS and the Kentucky Crippled Children Commission and talks about some child welfare cases. Hawkes goes on to comment upon local living conditions and the influence of various technological changes in the mid-1960s. Also discussed are the lives of the nurses at Wendover and their association with Mary Breckinridge.

Interview Keyword

Social services Sociology Liaisons Rural health services Birth control Kentucky Mountain Male Syndrome Kentucky Crippled Children Commission Social workers Wendover Stinnett Settlement School

Interview LC Subject

Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965 Frontier Nursing Service, Inc. Appalachian Region Kentucky Nursing Leslie County (Ky.) Midwives

Interview Rights

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.

Interview Usage

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