Interview with Elizabeth Clay Johnson, October 26, 2010

Project: Bourbon County, Kentucky African American Oral History Project

Interview Summary

In this interview Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson, a widow, singer, piano player, and mother, talks about her life as a child and teen and having to go to work at an early age. Born in Lexington, Kentucky, the daughter of parents who were deaf, Mrs. Johnson learned sign language at an early age. Her parents had been students in Danville School for the Deaf (Colored section). When her parents divorced, Mrs. Johnson and her sister were placed in the Lexington Colored Orphanage for six years, while their brother, who is also deaf, remained with their father. Her mother moved to Virginia while her father remarried and took the girls out of the orphanage. Not long after, Mrs. Johnson went to live with her grandmother in Paris, Kentucky. Her sister followed, and when their grandmother became ill, Mrs. Johnson quit school in the tenth grade and went to work to support her sister and grandmother. When their grandmother's condition became critical, Mrs. Johnson went to live with a couple who were friends of her grandmother in Paris. Mrs. Johnson has worked as a hospital nurse technician in delivery, and managed the cafeteria at an elementary school in the Bourbon County School system. She is the mother of three children, grandmother of five, and great-grandmother of two. Mrs. Johnson volunteers with the church alliance organization in Paris that helps those in need.

Interview Accession

2010oh142_bcaa005

Interviewee Name

Elizabeth Clay Johnson

Interviewer Name

Reinette F. Jones

Interview Date

2010-10-26

Interview Rights

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Interview Usage

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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.

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Johnson, Elizabeth Clay Interview by Reinette F. Jones. 26 Oct. 2010. Lexington, KY: Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.

Johnson, E.C. (2010, October 26). Interview by R. F. Jones. Bourbon County, Kentucky African American Oral History Project. Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries, Lexington.

Johnson, Elizabeth Clay, interview by Reinette F. Jones. October 26, 2010, Bourbon County, Kentucky African American Oral History Project, Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.





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