Menu Expand Menu Close
Back to Top
Filter Search Expand Close Filter
Search Expand Search Close

Listen to Audio

1. Oral history of Elaine Purkey, 1 of 2

Identifier:
4224.PurkeyElaine.AudioInt.001.10.27.16
Title:
Oral history of Elaine Purkey, 1 of 2
Date:
2016-10-27
Creator:
Purkey, Elaine
Contributor:
Hilliard, Emily, Wilson, Rick
Subject:
Working class--Songs and music, Strikes and lockouts--Coal mining--West Virginia, Purkey, Elaine, Country music, Folk music--West Virginia, Coal mines and mining
Location:
Harts (W. Va.), Lincoln County (W. Va.)

Listen to Audio

2. Oral history of Elaine Purkey, 2 of 2

Identifier:
4224.PurkeyElaine.AudioInt.002.10.27.16
Title:
Oral history of Elaine Purkey, 2 of 2
Date:
2016-10-27
Creator:
Purkey, Elaine
Contributor:
Hilliard, Emily, Wilson, Rick
Subject:
Purkey, Elaine, Strikes and lockouts--Coal mining--West Virginia, Country music, Folk music--West Virginia, Coal mines and mining, Working class--Songs and music
Location:
Lincoln County (W. Va.), Harts (W. Va.)
["Elaine (Moore) Purkey is an activist songwriter and musician from Harts Creek, West Virginia in Lincoln County. She was born on May 29, 1949, on the same piece of property where she still lives. She was raised in a family of musicians and flatfoot dancers and attributes her powerful voice to the acapella singing she learned as a member of the Church of Christ. As a teenager she played in bands with her brother, and in early adulthood she was the lead singer of a local country band. In the 1980s, she began performing regularly on the Wallace Horn Friendly Neighbors Show, a live radio program out of Logan County that has been on the air since 1967. She now hosts the show. Purkey wrote songs for the Pittston Coal Strike and Ravenswood Lockout and has performed at concerts and festivals across the continent. Her song \"One Day More\" written for the Ravenswood Lockout, is featured on the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings compilation Classic Labor Songs. Purkey is portrayed in the 2014 film Moving Mountains, based on a book by Penny Loeb. A proud mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, Purkey teaches singing classes to children at the Big Ugly Community Center."]%

3. Oral history of transcript of Elaine Purkey

Identifier:
4224.PurkeyElaine.IntTranscript.10.27.16
Title:
Oral history of transcript of Elaine Purkey
Date:
2016-10-27
Creator:
Purkey, Elaine
Contributor:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Working class--Songs and music, Country music, Purkey, Elaine, Strikes and lockouts--Coal mining--West Virginia, Coal mines and mining, Folk music--West Virginia
Location:
Harts (W. Va.), Lincoln County (W. Va.)