Interview with Karen B. Mulloy, November 10, 1990

Interview Summary

Karen Mulloy grew up in New York where her father was an engineer for a construction company. Mulloy attended the State University of New York in New Paltz, New York, where she studied art in the hopes of becoming a photographer. She recalls that it was sometime during the 1965-1966 school year that she saw an ad for the Appalachian Volunteers (AVs) in Newsweek and applied. By the summer of 1966 she was on a train on her way to the mountains. She describes the train ride which was full of new Appalachian Volunteers, a media event led by Sargeant Shriver, and the first training program.

Mulloy's first position was on Marrowbone Creek in Pike County where she lived with a schoolteacher and his family. She recalls that as a leader of a recreational program for children she was welcomed into the community, but she does describe a confrontation with a school board member at the end of the summer. Mulloy also discusses local attitudes toward female Appalachian Volunteers.

During the next school year, Mulloy took part in the People's Campaign in Washington, D.C. She returned to Wyse County the following summer as an AV. She explains that during that summer she and Joe Mulloy, her future husband, began more serious community organizing. Mulloy states that they joined in projects already underway including the anti-strip mining movement. Joe Mulloy later was tried for sedition. He was acquitted, but then was drafted into the army, and Karen Mulloy recalls how her husband avoided being sent to Vietnam.

Mulloy describes how the activism she took part in as a young woman influenced the rest of her life. She helped to write the Appalachian People's History Book and worked for the Black Lung Association. Mulloy explains that eventually she came to believe that she could be of most service by becoming a physician, and she completed medical school while she was in her thirties and with two kids at home. She continues to serve her community by working in a free clinic and serving as a spokesperson on miners' health issues.

Interview Keyword

anti-poverty organizations

Interview LC Subject

Appalachian Region Appalachian Region--Economic conditions Economic assistance Mulloy, Karen B. Mulloy, Karen B.--Interviews

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.