West Virginia Folklife Digital Collection

Ruby Abdulla

Ruby Abdulla, b. 1949, is an immigrant from southern India (via Canada). She was born in Madurai. Abdulla is Muslim and a member of Indias Memon community, a cultural minority. She is active with the Islamic Center in Charleston and is a skilled home cook, preparing traditional southern and northern Indian dishes.

Charles Steven Adams

Charles Steven Adams is a hand-hewn bowl carver living in Martinsburg, WV. Originally from Nitro, WV, Steve worked as a social worker and took up bowl carving in retirement. He also makes wood furniture and hand-hewn carved sinks. His wife Jan works with him at local craft shows. Adams also teaches bowl carving workshops at his woodshop. http://www.charlesstevenadams.com/index.php. This is part 1 of 5 files constituting the full interview.

Al Anderson

Al Anderson is an R&B singer and shoe repairman from Osage, West Virginia. He grew up in the Scotts Run area outside of Morgantown, where Osage is located. He was a member of Billy Wards group The Dominoes, and says he sings lead on their recording of, "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve." He is featured on the Songs of Scotts Run CD and is active with the Scotts Run Museum.

Appalachian Acres Farm

Appalachian Acres in Tallmansville, West Virginia, is owned and operated by Donnie Tenney and Lorelie Nicolas-Tenney. On September 28, 2017, they gathered with family and friends, including Nicolas-Tenney's mother Liz Villegas, seedsaver and farmer Charlie Radabaugh (of Radabaugh Farm in Buckhannon, WV), and seedsaver, farmer, and chef Mike Costello (of Lost Creek Farm in Lost Creek, WV), to harvest, process and boil sorghum into syrup.

ASW Wrestling

All Star Wrestling (ASW) is an independent wrestling promotion out of Madison, West Virginia, owned and operated by Gary Damron. Wrestlers on ASWs regular card include Rocky Rage (Rocky Hardin), Huffmanly (Kasey Huffman), and Shane Storm. On July 18, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Damron held ASWs first Drive-In Wrestling event at Lees Dance Studio in Winfield, WV. Fans circled the ring with their cars and sat in and on their cars and in bleachers to watch the matches.

Jenny Bardwell & Susan Brown

Genevieve (Jenny) Bardwell and Susan Ray Brown of Mount Morris, Pennsylvania led an apprenticeship in salt rising bread with Amy Dawson of Lost Creek, West Virginia as part of the 2018 West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program, supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. Master salt rising bread baker Genevieve (Jenny) Bardwell holds an A.S. in culinary arts from the Culinary Institute of America, and a B.S. and M.S. in plant pathology from the University of Massachusetts. Jenny is the co-author of Salt Rising Bread: Recipes and Heartfelt Stories of a Nearly Lost Appalachian Tradition and was the co-founder of Rising Creek Bakery in Mount Morris, Pennsylvania, both with Susan Ray Brown. Jenny has engaged in a deep, decades-long study of the unique labor-intensive Appalachian bread, focusing particularly on the scientific process and researching analog breads in other cultures. In 2017, she was awarded a Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Grant from the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts to lead a salt rising bread apprenticeship with baker Antonio Archer and in 2018, she was awarded an Folklife Apprenticeship Grant from the West Virginia Folklife Program with fellow baker Susan Ray Brown and apprentice Amy Dawson.Master salt rising bread baker Susan Ray Brown grew up in southern West Virginia, and her family roots go back nearly 300 years in her beloved Mountain State. She holds a B.A. in sociology/anthropology from West Virginia University. Susan is the co-author of Salt Rising Bread: Recipes and Heartfelt Stories of a Nearly Lost Appalachian Tradition and was the co-founder of Rising Creek Bakery in Mount Morris, PA, both with Jenny Bardwell. Susan has engaged in a deep, decades-long study of the unique labor-intensive Appalachian bread, recording oral histories, gathering recipes, conducting scientific studies, and constantly experimenting through her own baking. Find more on her website at www.saltrisingbread.net.Amy Dawson is a native of Lost Creek, West Virginia. She holds a B.S. in geology from West Virginia University and a J.D. from the College of Law at West Virginia University. She manages and co-owns Lost Creek Farm with her partner Mike Costello, hosting travelling kitchen/pop-up dinner events around the greater Appalachian region. In 2018, Lost Creek Farm was featured on CNNs Parts Unknown with Anthony Bourdain.See our feature on Bardwell and Browns apprenticeship with Dawson here: https://wvfolklife.org/2018/11/12/2018-master-artists-apprentice-feature-genevieve-bardwell-susan-ray-brown-amy-dawson-salt-rising-bread/

Eleanor Betler

Eleanor Betler was born in Buckhannon, West Virginia in 1940 and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. She spent her summers in Helvetia at the farm of her maternal grandparents, James and Anna Merkli McNeal. She married Howard Bud Betler in 1961. The couple moved to a hilltop farm in Helvetia and raised four children. All the good cooks, many of them relatives of Mr. Betler taught Mrs. Betler about canning, preserving, cooking and baking. She was especially interested to learn the skills of butchering and preserving meat, and making sausage. Mrs. Betler loves the Swiss traditional baking but also Appalachian ways of some neighbors. She grinds her own flour for baking bread. At Fasnacht time she invites neighbors and friends to make the hozablatz and rosettes just to keep the tradition alive. She also preserves this history by collecting stories, music, and photographs for The Helvetia Archives.This interview is part of a series of interviews conducted with foodways practitioners in Helvetia, West Virginia, as part of the Helvetia Foodways Oral History Project in partnership with the Southern Foodways Alliance. Learn more: https://www.southernfoodways.org/oral-history/helvetia-west-virginia/

Dave Bing

Dave Bing is a fiddler and fiddle maker from Melissa, West Virginia, outside of Huntington. He now lives in Harmony in Roane County, West Virginia with his wife. As a young man, he spent time learning from many elder fiddlers in West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky, including the Hammons Family of Pocahontas County. Dave Bing has been a member of numerous old-time bands such as The Bing Brothers with his brothers Tim Bing and Mike Bing, Gandydancer with Gerry Milnes, and The High Ridge Ramblers with Mark Payne and Andrew Dunlap.

Roger Bryant

Roger Bryant (b. 1948), is a native of Logan, West Virginia. He is a county musician and songwriter, and is the grandson of West Virginia banjo player Aunt Jennie Wilson. He is the executive director of the Logan Emergency Ambulance Service Authority (LEASA) and is director of the Logan County Office of Emergency Management.

Vernon Burky

Vernon John Burky was born to a Swiss family in Helvetia, West Virginia in 1925. He grew up speaking Swiss on his family farm, where his parents raised animals and managed a sawmill, and his grandparents operated a cheese house. They made Helvetia cheese, a type of Swiss cheese, similar to Emental, that was made throughout the Helvetia community and a staple in the diet of residents. As a child, Burky raised chickens and tapped maple trees on his family farm. As an adult, he was an active winemaker, a common pursuit in the Helvetia community. During his working years, Burky worked as a truck driver for a saw mill and a coal company. He learned to play fiddle as a child and started playing in the Helvetia Star Band, the local dance band for generations and the namesake of one of the villages two dance halls. He still plays in the group, which performs regularly for Helvetia square dances and events. Yeah; just kept that smokehouse full of smoke all day and night. Theyd put a big hunk of wood on it; it wouldnt burn but it--they had fire under it and it would sit there and smoke that little room half as big as this. They just smoked up tight. They had the sausage on rods; nothing could come in or get up on there. There it would sit; it was just dried up real solid and my uncle was--I stayed with my uncle when I was in high school. And he said, hey Vernon; come over here. (Laughs) He had rheumatism and he couldnt move around. He was in bed all winter. Go up there to the smokehouse and get me a link of that sausage. (Laughs) And Id go up and clip one of them off and bring it down. Hed get a hold of one piece and put the rest under the pillow and hed start eating that. He wasnt supposed to have red meat because of rheumatism.This interview is part of a series of interviews conducted with foodways practitioners in Helvetia, West Virginia, as part of the Helvetia Foodways Oral History Project in partnership with the Southern Foodways Alliance. Learn more: https://www.southernfoodways.org/oral-history/helvetia-west-virginia/

Shirley Campbell

Shirley A. Campbell (March 17,1949-January 10, 2021), a native of Pinch, West Virginia and a resident of Charleston, West Virginia, was a lifelong songwriter and poet. Two of her songs were recorded by Grandpa Jones and Ernest Tubb, respectively. Campbell married into the Reed-Campbell family of the bluegrass musician Ola Belle Reed, who was her mentor. Read Campbells obituary:Shirley A. Campbell, 71, of Charleston, WV, passed away suddenly at home, Sunday, January 10, 2021.Born March 17, 1949, in Pinch, WV, she was the daughter of the late Ruby Francis Jarrett and Jack White.She is survived by her two children, daughter Carlie Campbell of Charleston and son Jeremy Campbell of Elkton, MD; and pets.In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her beloved dachshunds, Buckwheat and Alfalfa.Shirley studied at Oklahoma University and Marshall University. She was a nurse for 20 years, a dog groomer for 15 years, and a small business owner for approximately 10 years. She was a woman of endless talents, for many of which she received recognition. She was deeply devoted to animal welfare; throughout her life caring for ANY and ALL that she found in need.There will be a symphony of animal calls greeting her at the gates of heaven; and it will be glorious!As per her request, there will be no services. She asks that, in lieu of flowers, please donate to an animal charity in her honor.You may send condolences to the family at: www.barlowbonsall.com.Barlow Bonsall Funeral Home, Charleston, WV, has been entrusted with the arrangements.

Jimmie Carder

Jimmie Carder, 78, is the owner of Jims Spaghetti and Steak in Huntington, WV. Jims was founded in 1938 by Jimmies parents, who were both of Lebanese descent. 25 years ago, Jimmie moved back from Nashville, TN to operate the restaurant, which was awarded West Virginias first James Beard American Classics Award in 2019. http://www.jimsspaghetti.com/

Coal Camp Creations

Coal Camp Creations is a workshop in Kimball, WV in McDowell County, sharing space and run by the non-profit arts organization McArts. Workers at Coal Camp Creations, some of whom are former coal miners, create figurines and other objects from coal dust and sell them to visitors. McArts was founded by Jean Battlo and three other artists in 1979. Battlo now serves as the organizations creative director.

James Day

James L. Day (July 5, 1932-April 12, 2019) was the owner of JL Day Sign Company in St. Albans, WV. He made hand-bent neon signs for nearly 60 years and was one of the last hand tube benders in the Kanawha Valley.In 2018, the West Virginia Folklife Program worked with West Virginia Public Broadcasting to produce audio and video documentaries about Day. View them at https://wvfolklife.org/2018/09/04/st-albans-artisan-has-been-making-neon-signs-by-hand-for-five-decades-a-profile-of-james-l-day/Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCe99a7ke50&feature=emb_titleAudio: https://soundcloud.com/wvpublicnews/wva-artisan-has-been-making-neon-signs-by-hand-for-five-decadesRead Days obituary here: https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/saint-albans-wv/james-day-8250954

Carol Dougherty

Carol Dougherty is an elder in Wheelings Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Church. She was born in Wheeling, WV in 1938 and was raised by her grandparents, who were immigrants from Lebanon. She is a traditional Lebanese home cook, a member of Our Lady of Lebanon Womens Society, and will be teaching a folk dance and dubke class for children at Our Lady of Lebanons 84th annual Mahrajan Festival in August 2017.

Rev. Ronald English

Rev. Ronald English of Charleston, West Virginia was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1944. He grew up in the community surrounding the Ebenezer Baptist Church of Atlanta and his family was close with the family of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. English is a graduate of Morehouse College and served as ministerial assistant to Drs. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sr. He delivered a prayer at the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.Rev. English was called to the First Baptist Church of Charleston in 1972 where he served for 21 years. He now serves as an interim minister in Charleston and is a consultant in healing and restorative justice.In this interview with state folklorist Emily Hilliard and American Friends Service Committee West Virginia Economic Justice Project director Rick Wilson, Rev. English speaks about his relationship with Dr. King, his work as a pastor and community leader in Charleston, and his mindfulness practice.

Kathy Evans

Kathy Evans (b. 1962, Morgantown, WV) of Bruceton Mills and Margaret Bruning of Elkins are participants in the 2020-2021 West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program, in an apprenticeship titled, Sheep to Shawl: The Art of Raising Sheep and Creating Fiber Arts. Evans is a fifth-generation farmer and co-owner with her husband Reid of Evans Knob Farm in Preston County where she cultivates Certified Naturally Grown vegetables and raises sheep and poultry. She teaches and exhibits her fiber arts both in West Virginia and across the country and has been featured in Modern Farmer and Morgantown Magazine. Bruning grew up on a goat farm in upstate New York and has been a lifelong fiber artist. She and her husband David raise sheep at their homestead in Randolph County.Read a profile of Evans and Bruning on the West Virginia Folklife blog:https://wvfolklife.org/2020/11/04/2020-folklife-apprenticeship-feature-kathy-evans-margaret-bruning-sheep-to-shawl/Evans Knob Farm website: https://www.evansknobfarm.com/Poe Run Craft and Provisions: http://www.poerun.org/

Doris Fields aka Lady D

Doris A. Fields, aka Lady D, known as “West Virginia’s First Lady of Soul” is an R&B, soul, and blues musician and songwriter living in Beckley. She is the founder and organizer of West Virginia’s Simply Jazz and Blues Festival and previously hosted the weekly Simply Jazz and Blues radio show on Groovy94 in Beckley. In 2008, Fields’ original song “Go Higher” won an online contest sponsored by the Obama Music Arts and Entertainment Group. She performed the song as a headliner at the Obama for Change Inauguration Ball with President Obama and the First Lady Michelle Obama in attendance.

Ray Fought

Ray Fought is a self-taught fiddler and fiddle maker living in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

Frank & Jane George

Frank George (October 6, 1928 November 15, 2017), a Bluefield native, was a banjo player, fiddler, and piper, who also played piano, organ, hammer and lap dulcimer, and was a walking compendium of West Virginia traditional music history and jokes. He was the recipient of the 1994 Vandalia Award, West Virginias highest folklife honor. Jane George (November 11, 1922 February 19, 2018) helped launch the craft revival in the Mountain State through extensive fieldwork with traditional artists, educational programming, and by co-founding the Mountain State Art & Craft Fair at Cedar Lakes. She also hosted Mountain Heritage weekends and Kanawha County Parks Mountaineer Day Camps to teach young mountaineers about their cultural heritage, founded two Scottish dance troupes, and served as a 4-H agent in multiple counties. She was the 1993 Vandalia Award recipient.

W.I. “Bill” Hairston

W.I. Bill Hairston, 71, is a storyteller, old-time musician, and pastor (Westminster Presbyterian Church) living in Charleston, West Virginia. He was born in Phenix City, Alabama, and his family moved to Saint Albans, West Virginia in 1960 when he was 11. Through his storytelling, Hairston, as he says in the interview, combines the Appalachian culture that he was exposed to on the Coal River, to the African-American culture that he is a part of. For 35 years, he served as music coordinator at the Stonewall Jackson Jubilee, and is currently the coordinator of the Vandalia Gatherings West Virginia Liars Contest. Hairston is an active member of the West Virginia Storytelling Guild, the Kentucky Storytelling Association, and the Ohio Storytelling Network, the National Association of Black Storytellers, and serves as the West Virginia liaison to the National Storytelling Network. He has performed in concerts, festivals, libraries, corporate meetings, conventions and schools throughout the region and the country.

Cora Hairston

Cora Lee (Phillips) Hairston (b. 1942, Sarah Anne, WV) is a musician and writer from Logan County, West Virginia. She and her husband Fred, also a musician, currently live in Omar, West Virginia. Cora Hairston is the author of two novels, Faces Behind the Dust and Hello World Here Comes Claraby Rose, both fictionalized accounts based on her childhood growing up in a Black coal camp. She spoke about her childhood, her music, and her writing practice.

Trevor Hammons

Trevor Hammons is a 17-year old banjo player and fiddler from Pocahontas County, and a member of the legendary musical Hammons Family. He is the only member of the Hammons Family who still actively plays music in the familys old-time tradition.

Marion Harless

Marion Harless of Kerens led a 2018 apprenticeship in green traditions with Kara Vaneck of Weston as part of the 2018 West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program, supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. Harless is a co-founder of the Mountain State Organic Growers and Buyers Association and the West Virginia Herb Association, and has taught widely on medicinal herbs, edible landscaping, and native plants. Vaneck is the owner of Smoke Camp Crafts and has served as vice president and treasurer of the West Virginia Herb Association.Read our feature on Harless apprenticeship with Vaneck here: https://wvfolklife.org/2018/12/20/2018-master-artist-apprentice-feature-marion-harless-kara-vaneck-green-traditions/Read Emily Hilliards article on Marion Harless here and in the Spring 2019 issue of Goldenseal Magazine: https://wvfolklife.org/2019/03/22/the-state-folklorists-notebook-people-need-to-know-about-plants-herbarist-marion-harless/

Leonard Harris

With his wife, Leonard Harris (b. Martinsburg, WV, 1936) is the co-founder of Sumner-Ramer School African American Museum and Archive in Martinsburg, West Virginia. He is an alumnus of Sumner-Ramer, which was the Black school in Berkeley County during segregation. The school closed in 1965, one year after schools in the county were integrated and 10 years after the Brown v. Board ruling. The Sumner-Ramer Museum and Archive is located in a ground-floor room of the school building and contains materials from the school and its alumni, including ephemera, photos, artifacts, portraits, and more.

Helvetia, West Virginia

Helvetia, West Virginia, population 59, is a Swiss community nestled in a high mountain valley along the Buckhannon River in Randolph County. In the 150-plus years since its founding, the Swiss traditions practiced by Helvetians have evolved in various ways. Helvetia began hosting its annual ramp supper sometime between 1946-1948 (Helvetia native Ernest Hofer who has been working at the supper for at least 40 years, wasnt sure of the exact date). The event is a fundraiser, benefiting the Helvetia Community Hall Association and the Farm Womens Club. For weeks prior, volunteers, including local 4-H kids, work to wash and freeze 60 bushels of ramps, some of which are dug and donated by locals, and the rest are bought from a digger. On the Friday before the event, male volunteers gather outside to cook 400 lbs. of potatoes in iron kettles over a wood fire, while drinking homemade wine. Women volunteers work in the kitchen, cutting 300 lbs. of ham, making cornbread, cooking Navy beans, and defrosting ramps. The Helvetia Ramp Supper is always held the last Saturday in April and draws visitors from across the state and region. The dinner includes fried and fresh ramps, beans, ham, fried potatoes, applesauce, cornbread, coleslaw, drink, and dessert, which guests eat at long tables in the basement of the Helvetia Community Hall. After dinner, a square dance is held upstairs. The documentation of the Helvetia Ramp Supper is part of the Helvetia Foodways Oral History Project in partnership with the Southern Foodways Alliance. Learn more: https://www.southernfoodways.org/oral-history/helvetia-west-virginia/Also see Emily Hilliards piece on Helvetias seasonal celebrations, including the Ramp Supper, via The Bitter Southerner: https://bittersoutherner.com/my-year-in-helvetia-west-virginia and read her piece on the Ramp Supper via the West Virginia Folklife blog: https://wvfolklife.org/2016/05/27/rampfingerprints/For more information, visit: http://www.helvetiawv.com/Events/Helvetia_Ramps/Helvetia_Ramps.htm

Leenie Hobbie

Leenie Hobbie of Rio in Hampshire County and Jon Falcone of Lost River in Hardy County were participants in the 2020-2021 West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program. Hobbie led an apprenticeship in traditional Appalachian herbalism Falcone. Hobbie has been a family herbalist for over 30 years, originally learning the tradition from her grandmother, who used both garden-grown and wild harvested plants at her home in the mountains of Southwestern Virginia. She has studied with acclaimed herbalists across the country and has taught the tradition within her community in Hampshire County. Falcone is a novice herbalist who hopes to apply his skills to his future homestead in West Virginia.See our feature on Falcones apprenticeship with Hobbie here: https://wvfolklife.org/2020/10/26/2020-folklife-apprenticeship-feature-leenie-hobbie-jon-falcone-traditional-appalachian-herbalism/The West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program offers up to a $3,000 stipend to West Virginia master traditional artists or tradition bearers working with qualified apprentices on a year-long in-depth apprenticeship in their cultural expression or traditional art form. These apprenticeships aim to facilitate the transmission of techniques and artistry of the forms, as well as their histories and traditions.The apprenticeship program grants are administered by the West Virginia Folklife Program at the West Virginia Humanities Council in Charleston and are supported in part by an Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. West Virginia Folklife is dedicated to the documentation, preservation, presentation, and support of West Virginias vibrant cultural heritage and living traditions.

Delores Johnson

Delores Johnson is an African American quilter and retired Marshall University linguistics professor. She was born in Athens, Georgia, but was raised and has lived in West Virginia for over the past 60 years. She is one of the founders of the Saint Peter Claver Piecemakers quilting group in Huntington, WV.

Kim Johnson

Kim Johnson and Cody Jordan were participants in the 2020-2021 West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program. Kim Johnson, a resident of South Charleston led an apprenticeship in banjo traditions of central West Virginia with apprentice Cody Jordan of Charleston. Johnson began playing with fiddler Wilson Douglas in 1979 and has played with and learned from many acclaimed West Virginia old-time musicians including Frank George and Lester McCumbers. She has taught both locally and nationally, at Augusta Heritage Center, Allegheny Echoes, The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, and the Berkeley Old-time Music Convention. Jordan plays guitar in The Modock Rounders with Johnson, touring across the state and region, and is looking forward to expanding his knowledge of central West Virginia old-time banjo traditions.See our feature on Johnsons apprenticeship with Jordan here: https://wvfolklife.org/2020/09/04/2020-folklife-apprenticeship-feature-kim-johnson-cody-jordan-banjo-traditions-of-central-west-virginia/The West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program offers up to a $3,000 stipend to West Virginia master traditional artists or tradition bearers working with qualified apprentices on a year-long in-depth apprenticeship in their cultural expression or traditional art form. These apprenticeships aim to facilitate the transmission of techniques and artistry of the forms, as well as their histories and traditions.The apprenticeship program grants are administered by the West Virginia Folklife Program at the West Virginia Humanities Council in Charleston and are supported in part by an Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. West Virginia Folklife is dedicated to the documentation, preservation, presentation, and support of West Virginias vibrant cultural heritage and living traditions.

Maria Kayafas Agape Greek Dance Troupe

Maria Kayafas has been the Greek dance instructor at the St. John the Divine Greek Orthodox Church in Wheeling for 25 years. She grew up in Kent, Ohio. In this interview, she talks about her family background and heritage, her experience as a Greek dancer and dance instructor, and the community at St. John the Divine. Learn more about the Wheeling Grecian Fest: http://www.grecianfest.com/

John Kosanovich

John Kosanovich is a Weirton native and retired Weirton Steel worker of Serbian descent. He is a member of the Steubenville, OH Serbian Holy Resurrection Serbian Church and Mens Club and is one of the old-timers who manages the Mens Club Chicken Blasts at the Weirton Serbian Picnic Grounds every Wednesday in the summer. See the short video and audio documentary about the Chicken Blasts, produced by the West Virginia Folklife Program and West Virginia Public Broadcasting: https://wvfolklife.org/2020/01/27/weirtons-serbian-heritage-is-a-chicken-blast/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpGF-MFUlhYhttps://soundcloud.com/wvpublicnews/weirtons-serbian-heritage-is-a-chicken-blast

Sarah Boyd Little

Sarah Boyd Little, 94, is an African American gospel singer who grew up in Scots Run, West Virginia. When she was in high school, Littles choir sang for President Roosevelt at the White House. Little still performs in the group Al Anderson and Friends, and is active in the Scots Run community. I spoke with her and West Virginia University art professor Eve Faulkes at Faulkes home in Morgantown.

Daniel & Ellen Lubuguin

Daniel and Ellen Lubuguin are the owners of Philippines Best Food in Parkersburg, WV. Daniel works as the chef and Ellen also owns and operates a salon next door. The Lubuguins are originally from the Philippines and have been living in West Virginia for over 20 years. See Emily Hilliard's columbn about the Lubuguins and Philippines Best Food in the Summer 2017 issue of Goldenseal magazine and online here: https://wvfolklife.org/2017/07/13/the-state-folklorists-notebook-adventures-menu-sharing-traditional-filipino-food-in-parkersburg/

Nola Morgan & Ron Shepherd

Nola Morgan (b. Ronceverte, WV) and Ron Shepherd (b. Parkersburg, WV) are avid marble collectors living in Jackson County, West Virginia. They are founding members or the West Virginia Marble Collectors Club and are particularly interested in machine-made marbles, once made at various factories in West Virginia, including Alley, Vitro, and the newer company Jabo, which is still in operation. As part of their collectors hobby, they have conducted digs at the site of the old Alley factory to excavate vintage marbles.In this interview they speak about their marble collecting hobby, the history of marble-making in West Virginia, the marble collecting community, and the varieties of marbles they collect. Emily Hilliard was introduced to Morgan and Shepherd by Janey Singleton of Sandyville, WV who sits in on the interview. Learn more about the West Virginia Marble Collectors Club: https://westvirginiamarblecollectorsclub.com/members/

John D. Morris

John D. Morris Born in Ivydale, Clay County, into a family steeped in traditional music, David and John Morris learned from family and neighbors, including banjo player Jenes Cottrell and fiddler French Carpenter. After David returned from Vietnam in 1968, the brothers began organizing musical get-togethers and, in 1969, held the first Morris Family Old-Time Music Festival that same year. The festival became a major traditional music event in Clay County and filmmaker Bob Gates documented the 1972 festival in his film The Morris Family Old-Time Music Festival. Members of The Morris Brothers band included Pocahontas County old-time banjo player Dwight Diller and the late North Carolina harmonica player John Martin. Playing a mix of old-time, bluegrass, and country styles, including some of David’s original music, the group played together through the mid-’70s, releasing an LP in the late ’60s, Music As We Learned It, and two live shows on eight-track tapes. John, a traditional fiddler, and David, a singer, songwriter, and guitarist, were involved in union and environmental activities from the late 1960s through the 1970s. They were also instrumental in establishing the first Vandalia Gathering at the Cultural Center in 1977. The Morris Brothers music was featured in Barbara Kopple’s 1976 film Harlan County, USA. David, who passed away in 2016, contributed music to Kopple’s 2015 film about Vietnam vets, Shelter.John lives in Ivydale and plays fiddle at music events across West Virginia. He is a rich source of information about the history of old-time music in central West Virginia, and one of the few native fiddlers of his generation to continue the older style of playing. Morris led an apprenticeship in old-time fiddle and stories of Clay County with Jen Iskow of Thomas as part of the 2018 West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program, supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. Morris was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts’ National Heritage Fellowship, the nation’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts, in 2020.

Aaron Parsons

Aaron Parsons, 20 years old at the time of this photo, is a native of Jackson County, WV. He makes turkey calls with materials (slate, native woods, bone, etc.) found on his familys land in Jackson County. He is also a hunter, trapper, fisher, and hide tanner.

Elaine Purkey

Elaine (Moore) Purkey was an activist songwriter and musician from Harts Creek, West Virginia in Lincoln County. She was born in 1949, on the same piece of property where she lived when she died in 2020. She was raised in a family of musicians and flatfoot dancers and attributed 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 eventually became the host of the show. Read state folklorist Emily Hilliard's tribute to Purkey: https://wvfolklife.org/2020/09/03/a-tribute-to-west-virginia-labor-singer-songwriter-elaine-purkey-1949-2020/

Sam Rizzetta

Sam Rizzetta is a dulcimer designer, builder, and musician who moved to West Virginia in the early 1970s. He was a member of the string band Trapezoid and founded the hammer dulcimer playing classes at the Augusta Heritage Center at Davis & Elkins College. He has built dulcimers for musicians including John McCutcheon, Guy Carawan, and Sam Herrmann. Rizzetta now collaborates with the Dusty Strings Company who build hammer dulcimers based on his designs. He lives with his wife Carrie Rizzetta in Berkeley County, WV. He was photographed in his home workshop.

Sharon Rollins

Sharon Rollins grew up in Charleston, West Virginia and moved to Dallas, TX when she was thirty years old. Upon retirement in 2010, she moved to Helvetia, West Virginia and has since become involved in a number of community projects. She manages the Ramp Supper, serves as treasurer for the Helvetia Community Fair, and volunteers at the Hutte Restaurant.This interview is part of a series of interviews conducted with foodways practitioners in Helvetia, West Virginia, as part of the Helvetia Foodways Oral History Project in partnership with the Southern Foodways Alliance. Learn more: https://www.southernfoodways.org/oral-history/helvetia-west-virginia/

James Shaffer

James Jim Shaffer, b. 1929, of Charleston Broom and Mop, in Loudendale, WV is one of the last commercial broom makers in the state of West Virginia. He began making brooms at the age of 17 and at the time of the interview, still maintained a shop outside of Charleston. See the short video produced in partnership with West Virginia Public Broadcasting:, James Shaffer, Charleston Broom & Mop Company at https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=O3lrgTn2hyM See the post on the West Virginia Folklife Program blog: https://wvfolklife.org/2017/03/30/building-a-broom-by-feel-an-interview-with-james-shaffer/Read the interview with Jim, Building a Broom by Feel: Jim Shaffer by Emily Hilliard in Southern Cultures fall 2017, Vol. 23, No. 3: Things at http://www.southerncultures.org/article/building-broom-feel-jim-shaffer/

Benny Snyder

Benjamin (Benny) D. Snyder, 60, is a miniatures maker, woodcarver, and poultry farmer living at The Folly farm outside of Shepherdstown, WV. He makes miniatures on a 1/12th dollhouse scale of objects in his environment such as wheelbarrows, tools, scaffolding, tool sheds, park benches, watering cans, and more. He is a native of Weirton, WV and a U.S. Army veteran.

Cynthia Taylor & Aaron Yakim

Aaron (Ike) Yakim (b. 1949, Charleroi, PA) and Cynthia W. Taylor (b. 1950, Virginia) are traditional white oak basket makers living in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Yakim learned the art form in the late 70s from 5th generation West Virginia basket maker, Oral "Nick" Nicholson of Doddridge County. Yakim and Taylor, who work from live tree-to-basket, are not regularly making baskets currently due to the intense labor required as well as the scarcity of suitable white oak trees. Yakim has produced over 2,500 baskets, several of which are included in the Smithsonian Museum of American Arts collection. Learn more via the Smithsonian Museum of American Art: https://americanart.si.edu/artist/aaron-yakim-27916And via Cedar Creek Gallery: http://cedarcreekgallery.com/album/yakim_taylor.html

Weirton Serbian Annual Picnic and Chicken Blast Events

Every summer Wednesday since 1969, members of the Serbian Eastern Orthodox Church Mens Club have hosted a Chicken Blast at the Serbian Picnic Grounds along Kings Creek outside of Weirton, West Virginia. They roast 300-400 chickens per week as a fundraiser for the maintenance of the picnic grounds. The spits, an industrial brick oven, and walk-in coolers were constructed in the 1960s out of material from Weirton Steel by Mens Club members, most of whom were Weirton Steel employees. Each week, the choir also sells pogacha (a type of Serbian bread), haluski or cabbage and noodles, corn on the cob, strudel and other desserts. The bar at the picnic grounds is also open, serving beer and Slivovitz.See the short video and audio documentary about the Chicken Blasts, produced by the West Virginia Folklife Program and West Virginia Public Broadcasting: https://wvfolklife.org/2020/01/27/weirtons-serbian-heritage-is-a-chicken-blast/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpGF-MFUlhYhttps://soundcloud.com/wvpublicnews/weirtons-serbian-heritage-is-a-chicken-blast

West Virginia Teachers’ Strike 2018

On February 22, 2018, thousands of West Virginia public school teachers and school service employees walked out of their classrooms in what would become a nine-day statewide strike. Teachers demands included a 5% raise and affordable healthcare coverage through the West Virginia Public Employees Insurance Agency or PEIA. These photos are part of a series of photos, videos, and interviews documenting the labor lore and expressive culture of the 2018 and 2019 West Virginia Teachers Strike.For more information on the 2018 and 2019 West Virginia Teachers Strike visit e-WV: https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/2454

Tom Zielinsky

Thomas W. Zielinsky is a member of Weirton, West Virginias Polish community. He is a member of Sacred Heart of Mary Church in Weirton, WV, where he plays accordion at their annual Polish Festival and biannual Polka Mass. Photo made at the Mary H. Weir public library in Weirton.