Winthrop University Oral History Program

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  Interview with Modjeska Monteith Simkins - OH 78

  Modjeska Monteith Simkins

  OH 078

  This interview was conducted with Modejeska Monteith Simkins (1899-1992) who was a Civil Rights leader in South Carolina and an advocate of public and social reform. The interview began again with the questions of Mrs. Simkins family life. Her mother was a house slave until the Emancipation Proclamation and Mrs. Simkins relates stories of her childhood, parents, education, race relations, health services, nutrition and blacks in S.C. and S.C. politicians. This tape gives deep insight into the conditions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes of a black family from slavery through Reconstruction. The interview is interrupted and continued with questions from Margaret Eppehimer of the Winthrop College Public Affairs Office. Also the interview ends abruptly.

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  Interview with Leah Simmonds - OH 658

  Leah Simmonds

  OH 658

  This interview was conducted for the as part of the 20^th Anniversary of the September 11^th Terrorist Attacks on the United States. This effort was to produce a history of the university’s, as well as the community’s, response in the days and weeks following the attacks. A key aspect of the project was a series of audio-taped interviews conducted with various members of the Rock Hill and Winthrop communities who felt their stories needed to be shared.

  This interview is of Mrs. Leah Simmonds, Financial Analyst in the College of Arts and Sciences at Winthrop University. In this interview with Andrew Russell, Leah Simmonds describes her thoughts and memories of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Ms. Simmonds describes her experience during the events, the response of the company she worked for, and the response of the Greater D.C. area during the attacks.

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  Interview with Essie Simmons - OH 162

  Essie Simmons

  OH 162

  IN PROCESSING

  Interviews with extension members and agents throughout the country documenting the history and development of the extension movement in the U.S. The interviews describe homemaking, child bearing and family management in the small towns and rural areas where they live. They also discuss the role of extension homemakers groups in their lives.

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  Interview with Beatriz Simon - OH 153

  Beatriz Simon

  OH 153

  IN PROCESSING

  This recording includes information about foreign student life at Winthrop. The interviewee is from San Salvador, El Salvador and much information concerns her native country.

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  Interview with Elizabeth "Betty" Simpson - OH 279

  Elizabeth Anne Hoffman Simpson

  OH 279

  This interview was conducted with Elizabeth “Betty” Hoffman Simpson who attended Winthrop from 1954-1956 as a 2-year business major, but did not graduate. Betty discusses what it was like attending Winthrop in the 1950s. She was a Rock Hill native and was a “day student.” She discusses attending Winthrop, including the uniforms and the classes she took. One of these classes was a shorthand notetaking class. She also discusses coeducation and how excellent her professors were. After attending Winthrop, Betty worked for a year for the Clemson Extension Office before it moved from Rock Hill to Clemson, SC. She then began working at Winthrop in 1958 and worked for the College for 34 years until she retired. She worked in 13 different jobs in several different departments.

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  Interview with Kimberly Paul Simpson - OH 281

  Kimberly Paul Simpson

  OH 281

  This interview is with Mrs. Kimberly Paul Simpson who attended Winthrop from 2002 to 2005 in order to get a Master’s in Early Childhood and Curriculum Development (December 15, 2005). Before she attended Winthrop, she graduated from College of Charleston in 1991 with her undergraduate degree. Mrs. Simpson discusses her time at Winthrop as a graduate student, including being a member of the Phi Delta sorority, her favorite professors and classes, learning teaching games and strategies, working in the library, and comparing Winthrop and the College of Charleston. She also talks about her career as a teacher, including her time at Mt. Holly Elementary, and how to help students with comprehension and her personal teaching style. Mrs. Simpson also mentions touring Winthrop with her daughter and the many relatives of hers that have graduated from Winthrop including her father.

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  Interview with Shannon Simpson - OH 273

  Shannon Simpson

  OH 273

  In her June 12, 2013 interview with Martha Manning, Shannon Simpson detailed her time as an undergraduate student at Winthrop from 1995-1999. Discussed are details of Simpson’s life as a student – residence halls, classes, meals – rules and regulations on campus, and her desire to go back to Winthrop as a graduate student in 2013. Included are Simpson’s thoughts on professors, traditions, and cultural events on campus. Simpson also shares details of her career as a police officer after attending Winthrop to a transition as an employee in Human Resources. This interview was conducted for inclusion into the Louise Pettus Archives and Special Collections Oral History Program.

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  Interview with Brown Simpson Jr. - OH 283

  William Brown Simpson Jr.

  OH 283

  IN PROCESSING

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  Interview with Mrs. B. N. Simrall - OH 260

  Mrs. B. N. Simrall

  OH 260

  IN PROCESSING

  Interviews with extension members and agents throughout the country documenting the history and development of the extension movement in the U.S. The interviews describe homemaking, child bearing and family management in the small towns and rural areas where they live. They also discuss the role of extension homemakers groups in their lives.

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  Interview with Mary Skelley - OH 386

  Mary Skelley

  OH 386

  IN PROCESSING

  Interviews with extension members and agents throughout the country documenting the history and development of the extension movement in the U.S. The interviews describe homemaking, child bearing and family management in the small towns and rural areas where they live. They also discuss the role of extension homemakers groups in their lives.

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  Interview with Elsa Skiles - OH 375

  Elsa Skiles

  OH 375

  IN PROCESSING

  Interviews with extension members and agents throughout the country documenting the history and development of the extension movement in the U.S. The interviews describe homemaking, child bearing and family management in the small towns and rural areas where they live. They also discuss the role of extension homemakers groups in their lives.

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  Interview with ZaDonna Slay - OH 659

  ZaDonna Slay

  OH 659

  This interview was conducted for the as part of the 20^th Anniversary of the September 11^th Terrorist Attacks on the United States. This effort was to produce a history of the university’s, as well as the community’s, response in the days and weeks following the attacks. A key aspect of the project was a series of audio-taped interviews conducted with various members of the Rock Hill and Winthrop communities who felt their stories needed to be shared.

  This interview is of Ms. ZaDonna Slay, Admissions Coordinator and Instructor for the Master of Social Work at Winthrop University. In her interview with Andrew Russell, ZaDonna Slay discusses her thoughts and memories during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Mrs. Slay describes her experiences as well as the response of her local community to the events.

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  Interview with Alicia Faye Smith - OH 695

  Alicia Faye Smith and Emmett Scott High School

  OH 695

  This interview was conducted by Dr. George Garrison with Alicia Faye Smith for the Emmett Scott History Project. Emmett Scott High School was the segregated African American high school in Rock Hill South Carolina which was named for Emmett Scott who was an aide to Booker T. Washington and President Woodrow Wilson. Emmett Scott High School opened in 1920 and closed in 1970 when integration was implemented in Rock Hill School District. Mrs. Smith attended Emmett Scott from 1969 to 1970 and then was transferred to Rock Hill High school after integration. Mrs. Smith discusses her education and experiences during this time. She details how she feels both segregation and integration impacted her education. She discusses the tension and conflict that arose during the process as well as the student walkouts that occurred. Mrs. Smith discusses the ‘Rattlercats’ which is how the students that were transferred from Emmett Scott referred to themselves.

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  Interview with Olive Bertha Smith - OH 167

  Olive Bertha Smith

  OH 167

  Olive Bertha Smith from Spartanburg County, South Carolina (1888-1988) graduated from Winthrop College in 1913 and served as a Baptist missionary in China for 42 years (1917-1959). She is also the author of several inspirational books, and is credited for her work as a part of the “Shantung revival” in China in the late 1920s. In this interview, Ms. Smith discusses her teaching career after graduating from Winthrop, attending seminary in Kentucky in 1914, getting into the mission field, church services and activities, teaching night school in her community, and leaving for China. She discusses her 42 years in China as a Baptist missionary, having to retire at 70 years old, the Foreign Mission Board, learning the language, training for missions work, working in China and Taiwan, and teaching English to the children. Ms. Smith also discusses her first book, Go Home and Tell (1965), which was used as a study book and became a best seller. She also briefly mentions her second and third books. Ms. Smith discusses her class pin, her involvement with religious groups at Winthrop College, her homesickness while in China, Chiang Kai-shek, her personal relationship with God, small religious communities from the past, cooking Chinese food, her travels to speak at different churches after retirement, her memories of Dr. David B. Johnson, and Dr. Glen Thomas.

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  Interview with Benjamin Gordon - OH 367

  South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus

  OH 367

  IN PROCESSING

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  Interview with Julia Souza, Mary Soon, and Kazuko Kurose - OH 436

  Julia Souza, Mary Soon, and Kazuko Kurose

  OH 436

  IN PROCESSING

  Interviews with extension members and agents throughout the country documenting the history and development of the extension movement in the U.S. The interviews describe homemaking, child bearing and family management in the small towns and rural areas where they live. They also discuss the role of extension homemakers groups in their lives.

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  Interview with Frances Lander Spain - OH 081

  Frances Lander Spain

  OH 081

  In her April 26, 1980 interview with Arnold M. Shankman, the 1925 graduate

  of Winthrop University, Frances Lander Spain, discusses her life and accomplishments.

  Spain goes into detail about her academic career prior to, during, and after her years at Winthrop, Emory University, and the University of Chicago. She discusses her work in the American Library Association, her library work in Thailand, as well as the contributions she made to the New York Public Library. In addition, Spain recounts more personal aspects of her life pertaining to her mother, husband-who had passed away by the time this interview took place, and the lives of her children.

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  Interview with Hiram Spain - OH 140

  Hiram Spain

  OH 140

  IN PROCESSING

  Hiram Spain discusses his background, work at Dept. of Social Services, problems with taking the bar exam in South Carolina and the urban league.

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  Interview with Joanne H. Spring - OH 181

  Joanne H. Spring

  OH 181

  IN PROCESSING

  The Travelers (often referred to as “Gypsies”) are descendants of the Irish subculture of itinerant Irish men and women who emigrated from Ireland to the northern U.S. after the famine of 1840 and then migrated to the southeastern U.S. They settled in Aiken County, South Carolina in 1963. Interviewees include Peter Carroll, a Traveler who talks about the Traveler’s history, lifestyle and hopes for their children’s future, Joanne H. Spring, a newspaper reporter from North Augusta, who wrote about the Travelers, Mim Woodring of' the Aiken County Council, and Dudley Posey, a funeral director who describes burial practices of the Travelers.

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  Interview with Calvin F. Stallings - OH 96

  Calvin Forrest Stallings

  OH 096

  This interview was conducted with Mr. Calvin Forrest Stallings (1915-1982) and his wife, Alvie Carauth Stallings (1920-2002) regarding their experiences working in a local mill. They discuss family life, work attitudes, and experiences growing up in the area. Also discussed are mill villages, black-white relations, unionization, and mill prospects for the future.

  This interview was conducted by Victoria Hickcox who was a junior Sociology major at Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass. The interviews result from her participation in an exchange program involving a study of mill villages. Dr. Jack Turner, Sociology Dept., helped coordinate the research at Winthrop. The original cassette contained three separate interviews conducted by Victoria for the project which included this one, an interview (OH 155) with Clarence Luther Wilson (1917-1993) and Doris Griffin Wilson (1918-2006), and an interview (OH 93) with Vera Taylor Johnston (1913-1988),

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  Interview with Dennis Stamper - OH 127

  Dennis Stamper

  OH 127

  In his January 12, 2015 interview with Michelle Dubert-Bellrichard, Dennis Stamper shares his memories of being one of the first male, day students from 1969-1972. Stamper details his studies and professors from the Philosophy and Religion Department, as well as the Psychology Department. Stamper includes his perception of the atmosphere at Winthrop during a time of great change in the country, and how that experience coupled with his work in the Wesley Foundation and the influence he received from professors paved the way for he currently lives his life. Stamper concludes his interview detailing his studies and careers after Winthrop. This interview was conducted for inclusion into the Louise Pettus Archives and Special Collections Oral History Program.

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  Interview with Tom Stanley - OH 628

  Thomas Stanley

  OH 628

  This interview was conducted as part of the Winthrop History Project, an initiative led by Winthrop President Emeritus Dr. Anthony DiGiorgio and Rebecca Masters. The project aimed to document Winthrop’s transformation over Dr. DiGiorgio’s 24-year tenure, tracing the institution’s evolution from Winthrop College to Winthrop University. Designed to supplement Dr. Ross Webb’s The Torch is Passed, which chronicles Winthrop’s history up to Dr. DiGiorgio’s presidency, this project sought to provide a comprehensive account of this significant period.

  A key component of the initiative was a series of recorded interviews with members of the extended Winthrop community who played a role in shaping the university’s progress. These firsthand narratives preserve the voices, experiences, and perspectives of those who contributed to Winthrop’s growth and development.

  This interview features Thomas Stanley, who dedicated 27 years to Winthrop University before retiring in 2017 as the chair of the Department of Fine Arts. Appointed as the inaugural director of Winthrop University Galleries in 1990, Stanley advanced to department chair in 2007. In this conversation, he shares his experiences and insights from his tenure at Winthrop, including his interactions with President Dr. Anthony DiGiorgio.

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  Interview with Leoda Starnes - OH 546

  Leoda Eubanks Starnes, Rock Hill Printing and Finishing Company, Bleachery, and Alexander Keith Windham

  OH 546

  In her May 26, 2017 interview with Alex Windham, Leoda Eubanks Starnes (1925-2024) detailed her thoughts and memories of his time at the Rock Hill Printing and Finishing Company referred to locals as the Bleachery. Starnes spoke of the time period of the 1940s through 2017 and on the follow topics: race relations, day to day job responsibilities and actions, technology changes, worker attitudes, the decline of the Bleachery, family, her other occupations up until the year 2017. Mrs. Starnes also offered her opinions on the Bleachery compared to other textile jobs.

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  Interview with Robert Star - OH 685

  Robert Star and Emmett Scott High School

  OH 685

  This interview was conducted by Dr. George Garrison with Robert Starr for his History of Emmett Scott project. Emmett Scott High School was the segregated high school for African Americans, which was named after Emmett Scott, a former aid to Booker T. Washington and President Woodrow Wilson. The school opened in 1920 and closed in 1970 with the integration of the Rock Hill South Carolina School District. Mr. Starr attended Emmett Scott in the late 1940s. In this interview he discusses his experiences at Emmett Scott and how segregation affected him. He also discusses his career both in the military and after. Mr. Starr served in the US Navy during the time of the Korean War. Using his experience gained from the military Mr. Starr then went on the join the Merchant Marines, and later in his career he became a long-haul truck driver.

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  Interview with Frances Patton Statham - OH 182

  Frances Patton Statham

  OH 182

  Frances Patton Statham (1931-2020) was born in Catawba, South Carolina to Ernest Boyd & Kathleen Patton. She attended Winthrop College and graduated with a B.S. degree in 1951. The next year on June 28 Frances married Dr. George Wilkes Statham. Continuing her education, Mrs. Statham attended the University of Georgia and received a M.F.A in 1970. Frances also studied at the Royal Conservatory in Canada and with tenor Ralph Errolle. In November of 1976, France Patton Statham divorced her husband and moved to Atlanta, Georgia. Mrs. Statham has written several historical romances set in the south. In this interview, she discusses her discovery of an interest in writing, her inspiration behind her first novel, personal history as a part of living in the South, the necessity of accurate research for historical romance writing, her writing process, her experience with publishing, her decision to write historical romance novels instead of gothic novels, her other artistic interests, the relation between her music education and writing novels, the Dixie Council of Authors and Journalists, her involvement with Winthrop, her future plans, an approximation of her sales, and an explanation of book sales in foreign markets.