Interview with Lula Baker, April 29, 1979

Interview Summary

Lula Baker was born on Poll's Creek in Leslie County in 1912. Since the next child, a brother, was much younger, she helped her father work the farm, and she also performed household chores. Baker tells of taking her baby sister and brother, twins, to Wendover after her mother died so that the FNS nurses could care for them for a month. She also comments upon her family's acquaintance with Mary Breckinridge. Baker's parents made a living selling vegetables and teaching school. She indicates that her grandmother, known for her cooking, boarded several people and served meals to travelers, and Baker's mother boarded workers from a stave mill. One of Baker's two children was delivered by a country doctor and the other by a "granny" midwife.

Interview Keyword

Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965 Depressions--1929--Kentucky Rural churches World War, 1914-1918

Interview LC Subject

Appalachian Region--Social conditions Appalachian Region--Social life and customs Country life Frontier Nursing Service, Inc. Medical care--Appalachian Region Midwifery--Appalachian Region Rural conditions Rural health services Traditional medicine

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Interview Usage

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