Oral History

Arlie Tobler Interview

Arlie Tobler Interview

A 1999 Burks Fork area interview with Arlie Harman Tobler on preserving, sewing, casket work, farming, and country store she ran with her husband, Sherman.

Arva Conner Coleman Interview

Arva Conner Coleman Interview

A lively 2016 interview with Arva Conner Coleman, age 95, on farm life, one-room schools, and enterprise. She believed, “you’ve got to work. Work’s the one thing that has to go on.”

Earl Moles Interview

Earl Moles Interview

Earl Moles provides a richly detailed 2000, Buffalo Mountain interview on area music, hunting, butchering, logging, games, preserving, country stores, and horse training.

George Shelor Interview

George Shelor Interview

George Shelor provides a rich occupational and work themed interview (2000) with a detailed, place-based, family history of farm skills and enterprise.

Harless and Blanche Wood Interview

Harless and Blanche Wood Interview

In an interview focused on work themes, Harless and Blanche Wood speak of everyday rural life through the decades, from self-sufficiency on the land to later work with the National Park Service.

Harley Rush Alderman Interview

Harley Rush Alderman Interview

Mr. and Mrs. Alderman describe farm, family, and work life in the Buffalo Mt. area of Floyd County, with additional descriptions of music, recreation activities, and church.

Marie Gallimore Interview

Marie Gallimore Interview

Marie Vaughn Gallimore’s 2001 interview holds details on WGFC Radio station history and family life in the Burks Fork area of Floyd County, Virginia.

Nola Albert Interview

Nola Albert Interview

Nola Albert interview, Floyd County, Virginia, about observational and personal knowledge of migration in and out of Floyd, generational migration, and changes in town.

Orland Phillips Interview

Orland Phillips Interview

A WWII-era oral history with Orland Phillips of Indian Valley, Virginia. He was drafted prior to Pearl Harbor and served four years, seven months as an Army machinist in the South Pacific. 

Sunny Bernardine Interview

Sunny Bernardine Interview

Centered on the Depression and WWII, Sunny Bernardine shares her perspectives as a USO dancer. She notes changes over the years in women’s roles, mentioning the WWII poster icon “Rosie the Riveter” as an example.