ORAL HISTORY OF NOEL (KEN) AND BRENDA NEWTON
Interviewed by Don Hunnicutt
Filmed by BBB Communications, LLC.
July 12, 2016
1
MR. HUNNICUTT:This interview is for the Center for Oak Ridge Oral History. The date is July 12, 2016. I'm Don Hunnicutt, in the home of Brenda and Ken Newton, One Breakers Court, Mariner Point, Clinton, Tennessee, to take their oral history about Oak Ridge, Tennessee. First of all, Ken, we'll start with you, give me your full name, place of birth, and date, please.
MR. NEWTON: I'm Noel Kenneth Newton. I was born in Talladega, Alabama, on February 2, 1940.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And, what was your father's name, and mother's name?
MR. NEWTON:My father's name was Samuel Leon Newton, and my mother's name was Velba... Velma Ruby Milam Newton.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Do you recall their place of, date, of birth dates?
MR. NEWTON: My mother was born in Coal City, Alabama, on July the ninth, 1915. My dad was born in Eden, Alabama, on December the second, 1909.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And, what did your father do as, for, for work? What was his occupation?
MR. NEWTON: Dad'd started in the coal mines, and, after a few years of that, he decided he would, wanted to do something else, so he served an apprenticeship as a machinist in cotton mills, in and around Talladega, Pell City, some of the other towns there. He became a machinist through the program.
MR. HUNNICUTT:What about your mother? Did she work?
MR. NEWTON: She worked in a pants factory, cut and sew operation, in Leeds, Alabama. Then, she also sold Avon when she came to Oak Ridge.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Your grandfather, what was his name on your father's side?
MR. NEWTON: His name was Clayton Monroe Newton. He was born in 1880, and his occupation was listed as a farmer.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And, how about your grandmother on that side of the family?
MR. NEWTON: Her name was Mattie Butterworth, maiden name, and I'm not sure what year she was born in, but she was a homemaker, and they had 12 children. Ten of them survived to adulthood.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And, on your mother's side of the family.
MR. NEWTON: My grandfather's name was Charlie Crandall Milam, and he was, like, a night watchman for his career. My grandmother was a homemaker and she had four daughters.
MR. HUNNICUTT: (coughs) Excuse me. What was their education on your father's side of the family? Grandfather and grandmother on father's side?
MR. NEWTON: I'm not sure how far my grandfather went to school. I never, never addressed that. But, my dad went through the eighth grade.
MR. HUNNICUTT:How about your mother?
MR. NEWTON: The same. She also went through the eighth grade, I believe.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Do you recall on your other grandparents' side of the family, their education?
MR. NEWTON: I don't know if, if they graduated from high school or not. I don't believe they did. I don't know how far they got.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Do you have sisters and brothers?
MR. NEWTON: I have an older brother, Harold Dwight Newton. He was born August the sixth, 1934. So, he's five and a half years older than I am.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And, we talked about your father's work history as a machinist, tell me a little bit about what he would've done, related to the cotton industry.
MR. NEWTON: Ok, he was, like, a maintenance machinist. He kept the operations going, production equipment, kept it running.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Now, Brenda, give me your full maiden name, and where you were born, and your date of birth.
MRS. NEWTON: Ok, Brenda ...
MR. NEWTON: Anne.
MRS. NEWTON: My birth certificate says, "Joanne" ...
MR. NEWTON: Joanne, but it's Brenda Anne.
MRS. NEWTON: ... but my name was not, and I never had it changed. Brenda Anne Greene was my name, but on my birth certificate, it had Brenda Joanne. My name, it were just a misprint, but they never had it changed, so, I guess Joanne's my middle name, if it's on my birth certificate.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Where were you born?
MRS. NEWTON: In Alcoa.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And, what year?
MRS. NEWTON: '42.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And, what was your father's name?
MRS. NEWTON: Claude, C-L-A-U-D-E, v., initial, "V." He hated that, his name was, "Vayrow," Claude Vayrow Greene. He never would tell anybody, "Vayrow."
MR. HUNNICUTT:Do you know how he was named, "Vayrow"? Was that somebody's name in the family?
MRS. NEWTON: I have no idea, have no idea.
MR. HUNNICUTT:What about your mother's name, maiden name?
MR. NEWTON: "Young," was her maiden name.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And her first name was?
MR. NEWTON: Geniveve.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Geniveve.
MR. NEWTON: Yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Do you have brothers and sisters?
MR. NEWTON: Have one brother, and he lives in California. His name is C.V., he has the initial, but it doesn't stand for anything, it's just C.V. Greene.
MR. HUNNICUTT:That takes after his father's name, I guess.
MRS. NEWTON: Yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And, they just call him C.V.
MRS. NEWTON: C.V., yeah, but that was his name.
MR. HUNNICUTT:That's your only ...
MRS. NEWTON: That's my only ...
MR. HUNNICUTT:... brother?
MRS. NEWTON: I just had the one brother.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Now, do you recall what, on your grandfather, on your mother's -- I'm sorry, on your father's side of the family, what your grandfather's name was, and grandmother's name?
MRS. NEWTON: My grandmother's name was Liza. And, what was Grandpa Greene's name?
MR. NEWTON: Morrison.
MRS. NEWTON: Morrison, Morrison.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And, where did they live?
MRS. NEWTON: Well, (laughs) I don't know what you call where they lived.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Was this over in Maryville?
MRS. NEWTON: Madisonville, I guess.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Yeah.
MRS. NEWTON: Around Madisonville.
MR. HUNNICUTT:In Blount County.
MRS. NEWTON: Uh-huh, well ...
MR. NEWTON: Her grandfather lived in Arkansas for most of her adult life.
MRS. NEWTON: Yeah, he worked down there.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Do you recall what he did as a profession?
MRS. NEWTON: What?
MR. NEWTON: He helped his brother run a barbecue shop.
MRS. NEWTON: Yeah, barbecue.
MR. NEWTON: Barbecue restaurant, and ...
MRS. NEWTON: I never did ...
MR. NEWTON: ... we won't go into why he was in Arkansas (laughter) but, it had to do with (laughs) revenuers ... (laughs)
MR. HUNNICUTT:Ok.
MRS. NEWTON: He ran off.
MR. NEWTON: ... and his earlier occupation.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Uh-huh, what they legalize now, huh? (laughter)
MR. NEWTON: We never found that out until just a few years ago.
MRS. NEWTON: Yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Well, there was many of that went on in the area, years, and years ago.
MRS. NEWTON: Right.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Your father's high school, education, how far did he go through school?
MRS. NEWTON: You know, I don't even know. Sixth grade, eighth grade ...
MR. NEWTON: Eighth or ninth grade.
MR. HUNNICUTT:What about your mother?
MRS. NEWTON: About the same.
MR. HUNNICUTT:That seems to be the trend, back in those days ...
MRS. NEWTON: Yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT: ... because you had to go to work.
MRS. NEWTON: You had to work.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Yeah. (clears throat) And, when did you come to Oak Ridge?
MRS. NEWTON: When would that've been? I was about three.
MR. NEWTON: January, 1945.
MRS. NEWTON: '45, yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And, why did the family come to Oak Ridge.
MRS. NEWTON: I think it's on account of Daddy's work.
MR. HUNNICUTT:What type of work did he do?
MRS. NEWTON: He was a sheet metal worker.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Do you recall who he worked for when he came to Oak Ridge?
MRS. NEWTON: Was it RoaneAnderson? Is that what it was?
MR. NEWTON: Might've been RoaneAnderson, MSI [Management Services Inc.].
MRS. NEWTON: MSI.
MR. NEWTON: He was, like, in maintenance, in those days.
MRS. NEWTON: Way back then. Yeah.
MR. NEWTON: He did all sorts of maintenance jobs.
MRS. NEWTON: RoaneAnderson, I believe. And, it might've been turned into MSI, or something.
MR. NEWTON: I think so.
MR. HUNNICUTT:When your family first came, did you have a house to live in, or did your dad come earlier, and, and then, book, get a house for you guys to live in?
MRS. NEWTON: Do you remember? What was ... ?
MR. NEWTON: They acquired the A house on Parker Road, 106 Parker Road. It was kind of an interesting story about how they kept it. They, apparently, weren't qualified for that house, but the government was going to come out and interview Brenda's mother about that house, and she knew that she had to make a good impression in order to keep the house. So, she got her shorts on, and got him a cup of coffee, and that sort of thing, and convinced him that they deserved that house. So, that's, kind of, an interesting side. (laughter)
MRS. NEWTON: They let us stay.
MR. HUNNICUTT:What type, you said it was an A house.
MRS. NEWTON: A.
MR. HUNNICUTT:What do you remember about the house? How many bedrooms did it have?
MRS. NEWTON: Had two.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And, what else do you remember about the inside of the house? Did it have a dining room, or ... ?
MRS. NEWTON: No, no. Had a, just a living room, and, I guess, it was, kind of, big on one side, the table would go there. But, there was no table in the kitchen, you know.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And how was the house heated?
MRS. NEWTON: Coal, I guess ...
MR. NEWTON: Remember, you had the coal furnace.
MRS. NEWTON: ... at one time, had those big ol' coal furnaces in the ...
MR. NEWTON: And, you had to put the towel down under the door when they delivered coal.
MRS. NEWTON: I know. They'd put the coal ...
MR. NEWTON:To keep the dust out of the house.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Now, they delivered coal to the houses. Do you remember where you put the coal?
MRS. NEWTON: Yeah, there was a, what do you call that, like, to put it in, you know?
MR. NEWTON: Had a coal bin inside the house.
MRS. NEWTON: Yeah, yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Had a door in the outside?
MRS. NEWTON: Yeah, yeah, put it in.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And they put it in. You mention putting a towel down at the door where the coal bin, the door there, to keep the coal dust from coming in the rest of the house.
MRS. NEWTON: When they'd do that, Mother would have to put a towel there, so the dust wouldn't come into the house (laughs) you know, when they brought it in.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Well, the houses were still pretty dusty because ...
MRS. NEWTON: Yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT: ... of the coal heat, wasn't it?
MRS. NEWTON: Yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And, now ...
MRS. NEWTON: It came out in the vents. They had vents in the ...
MR. HUNNICUTT:Did you have a bedroom to yourself?
MRS. NEWTON: No, there was two bedrooms. Mom and Dad, and then, my brother and I stayed in one, in one.
MR. HUNNICUTT:How long did you live in that house?
MRS. NEWTON:Until I got married.
MR. NEWTON: Her whole life. (laughter) Until we got married.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Yeah.
MR. NEWTON: From '45 to '60.
MRS. NEWTON: Mom and Dad stayed there, too, 'til they both passed away.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Did your mother work outside the home?
MRS. NEWTON: Uh-huh, she worked at, she started at Winders, then Loveman's, and, I guess, it turned into Miller's ...
MR. NEWTON: It was ...
MRS. NEWTON: ... in alterations. She did alterations.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Now, when you mention Winder's, was that a department store?
MRS. NEWTON: Uh-huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And, do you recall where that was?
MRS. NEWTON: Yeah, where was that? Down at, I don't know how to describe it.
MR. NEWTON: It's in that strip of land ...
MRS. NEWTON: Yeah.
MR. NEWTON: ... (phone rings) by where The Oak Ridger used to be.
MR. HUNNICUTT:We were talking about the Winder building, it was located there on Tyrone Road. That's where TheOak Ridger used to be ...
MRS. NEWTON: Yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT:... in that building.
MRS. NEWTON: Mmm-hmm...
MR. HUNNICUTT:And, that was a department store?
MRS. NEWTON: Uh-huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And she was the ...
MRS. NEWTON: She was the alteration lady in there. She worked on all the clothes.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Do you remember how long she might've worked there.
MRS. NEWTON: I don't. Do you have any idea?
MR. NEWTON: Just a short period, because then, she was hired by Loveman's, up on Jackson Square.
MRS. NEWTON: Yeah.
MR. NEWTON: Town Site.
MRS. NEWTON: She did alterations up there, too.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Yeah. And, is that what she did all of her life, is, alterations.
MRS. NEWTON: Alterations, when she worked.
MR. NEWTON: In those days, they had, like, three alterations ladies.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Well, people had their clothes altered a lot, back in the day.
MRS. NEWTON: Oh, yeah, yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Because you didn't have a lot of choice to buy a whole lot of clothing, like we do today.
MRS. NEWTON: Mother did the ladies. Then, they had another lady that did the men's alterations, so Mother did the ladies' clothes.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Let's switch gears to you, Ken. Tell me about where you were, grew up, and how it was.
MR. NEWTON: Ok. During the war, my dad worked for DuPont, in Childersburg, Alabama. That's a program very similar to Oak Ridge. The government came in and bought thousands of acres, and then, had DuPont build a powder plant where they made TNT for the services. So, Dad, again, was the maintenance machinist, and he kept the equipment running for production of TNT. I read recently, where they also, during the war, made heavy water, which they shipped to Oak Ridge, at, from Childersburg. Heavy water, I presume, was used as shielding in a reactor, something of that nature. It's the only thing I could, I could think they'd use heavy water for. So, Dad worked there during the war. Then, that was before I started to school. We moved to Florida for one year, where Dad was -- this is after the war -- where Dad was a maintenance machinist for diesel engines on the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. He worked there for about a year, until my grandmother came down with breast cancer, and we had to move back to Alabama for my mother to take care of her. Then, Dad went to work for a small company in Leeds, Alabama, and we moved to Leeds, Alabama.That's where I entered school, and went through the fifth grade there. When I completed the fifth grade, my dad had had hernia surgery, and Union Carbide was the first company that let him, or was the company that let him come back to work first. He'd interviewed Union Bag Paper Company, in Savannah, Georgia, and Union Carbide. They were all looking for machinists, at the time, so, Dad accepted a job with Union Carbide, because he could go to work sooner, and, and get some money coming back into the family. So, he moved to Oak Ridge for about a month. He moved in June of 1951, and he was able to secure housing after about a month. We had a one half of a duplex on Hamilton Circle. So, when he got the housing, then, of course, the company sent their moving van to pick us up, get our furniture, and bring us up to Oak Ridge. It turns out, they didn't tell him that the moving van was going to get our furniture, and then, go to South Carolina and get some more furniture, and then, come to Oak Ridge. So, we came up to Oak Ridge, like, on a Wednesday, and we were ready to move into our house the next day, but we didn't have any furniture. So, the, we spent the first night in Tennessee in Rockwood, in a motel, with our pets: bunny rabbit, a dog. Then, came into Oak Ridge on Thursday morning, and saw our new house. Dad had the keys for it. Anice neighborhood on Hamilton Circle. A lot of kids, middle class people or lower, lower class, I guess, whatever. We, we didn't know it. So, we couldn't move in, so that night, Thursday night, we spent in the Alexander Inn. I think it's a couple of bucks, or something, to spend the night there. They put my brother, and me, on one floor, and Mother and Dad on another floor. That unnerved my mother tremendously. So, she was really upset about that, but we made it fine. The next day, we went back out to the house, and the neighbors had heard about our plight, so they'd rounded up some bedding, and stuff.So we made a bunch of pallets in the living room and around different places, and spent Friday night on, in our new home, with, with nothing except our clothes on our back. Then, Saturday morning, the moving van arrived. So, they unloaded our furniture and, of course, we moved in, and returned all the, the goods to the neighbors, so, it was, really, a helpful thing. Typical Oak Ridge spirit, where they helped the neighbors get through some tough times.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Do you know what year that was?
MR. NEWTON: Yes, it was July, of 1951.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And, at that time, the, it was called the Alexander instead of the Guest House?
MR. NEWTON: Don't remember what it was called at that time. I just remember it.
MRS. NEWTON: It wasn't Guest House.
MR. NEWTON: It was up there.
MRS. NEWTON: Not then, it wasn't the Guest House.