Ramsey, Mary Margaret 2022-07-27

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In this first interview, Mary Margaret Ramsey provides her family background—growing up and moving around with her father who was a Presbyterian minister and later professor of religion at Trinity University in San Antonio. She speaks about living in Florida during World War II, working at Joske’s department store, and her interest in math growing up. She discusses how her husband’s work required them to move around frequently—from Mississippi to Dallas to California to Memphis and finally settling in Lubbock in 1972. She speaks about her involvement in various volunteer organizations and the business she created and ran from her home while raising her son. She touches on issues of faith (her Christian upbringing and connections to Jewish communities because of her husband and other friends), race (living in Meridian Mississippi as well as Memphis when MLK was assassinated), and gender (pay inequities). The interview ends just as she’s about to move to Lubbock.

General Interview Information

Interviewee Name: Mary Margaret Ramsey

Additional Parties Recorded:

Date: July 27, 2022

Location: Lubbock, Texas

Interviewer: Elissa Stroman

Length: 01:44:51 (1 hour 44 minutes)


Abstract

Introduction and background information; Memories of the World War II era; Moving to San Antonio; Attending churches in San Antonio; Meeting her first husband; working as a woman; Ramsey’s mother; Memories of racial tensions in the 1960s; life in Memphis, Tennessee; Jewish faith and Presbyterian faith; The business she started; Moving to California; moving to Lubbock

Access Information

Original Recording Format: born digital

Recording Format Notes: patrons may listen to audio in our reading room

Transcript: transcript available on dspace <https://hdl.handle.net/10605/374123 >

Related Interview: Ramsey, Mary Margaret 2022-08-03


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