ORAL HISTORY OF CHARLOTTE KEYES
Interviewed by Don Hunnicutt
Filmed by BBB Communications, LLC.
June 20, 2016
1
MR. HUNNICUTT:This interview is for the Center for Oak Ridge Oral History. The date is June 20, 2016. I am Don Hunnicutt, in the home of Charlotte Keyes, 387 East Drive, Oak Ridge, Tennessee ...
MRS. KEYES: May I correct you?
MR. HUNNICUTT:I'm sorry, yes, ma'am.
MRS. KEYES: We do not pronounce it, "keys", we pronounce it "kize." It would not bother me, but it would bother my husband.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Thank you for correcting me. (laughter) "Kize."
MRS. KEYES: Yes. Pronounce the "eyes," like blue eyes.
MR. HUNNICUTT:As I said, we're at 387 East Drive, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to take her oral history about living in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Charlotte, please state your full name, your maiden name, place of birth, and date.
MRS. KEYES: Charlotte Vaughn Keyes. I was born in Montgomery County, Virginia, near Christiansburg, November 28, 1924.
MR. HUNNICUTT:What was your maiden name?
MRS. KEYES: Charlotte Vaughn, Charlotte Rebecca Vaughn.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Vaughn.
MRS. KEYES: V-A-U-G-H-N.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And your father's name, place of birth, and date.
MRS. KEYES: My father was born in 1888, in Virginia. His name was Everett Sidney Vaughn, the Reverend Everett Sidney Vaughn.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And your mother's maiden name, and place of birth.
MRS. KEYES: Dora Fitzgerald.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And, do you recall her place of birth, and date.
MRS. KEYES: Virginia.
MR. HUNNICUTT:How about date? Do you recall that?
MRS. KEYES: 1894.
MR. HUNNICUTT:On your father's side, what was your grandfather's name?
MRS. KEYES: Elijah Vaughn. The Vaughn family dates back before the Revolution.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And, and, what about your grandmother's name, on your father's side?
MRS. KEYES: On my father's side?
MR. HUNNICUTT:Yes.
MRS. KEYES: Matherly, the last name was ... Oh, America Ann, don't forget that name. Who else is named America Ann Matherly?
MR. HUNNICUTT:Spell the last name, please.
MRS. KEYES: M-A-T-H-E-R-L-Y.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Now, on your mother's side of the family, your grandfather, his name.
MRS. KEYES: My grandfather's name was William Fitzgerald.
MR. HUNNICUTT:What about your grandmother?
MRS. KEYES: She was Julia Allred.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Do you have sisters, and brothers?
MRS. KEYES: I had two sisters, and two brothers.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And their names?
MRS. KEYES: Their married names, or what? All right.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Either way.
MRS. KEYES: All right.
MR. HUNNICUTT:It's fine.
MRS. KEYES: My older sister was Dorcas Fitzgerald Goodman.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Spell her first name.
MRS. KEYES: D-O-R-C-A-S.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Goodman?
MRS. KEYES: Goodman. G-double-O-D-M-A-N. My other sister's name was Edith Vaughn Parker.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Spell her last name.
MRS. KEYES: P-A-R-K-E-R.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And your brothers?
MRS. KEYES: Robert Max Vaughn.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Ok, and your other one?
MRS. KEYES: Everett Sidney Vaughn, Jr.
MR. HUNNICUTT:What did your father do for, for his ... What's his work history?
MRS. KEYES: He was a Baptist minister.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And, did your mother work outside the home?
MRS. KEYES: In later years, she taught school.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Now, all your life, was your father always a Baptist minister?
MRS. KEYES: I ... I think he worked in, for the railroad, in communications -- and I'm trying to think of the proper word -- before he went to seminary.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Where, where was the family's home located?
MRS. KEYES: Both of my parents, my grandparents, lived in Pulaski, Virginia.
MR. HUNNICUTT:I'm familiar with that. And then, your home, where you were born.
MRS. KEYES: Not too far away. (laughs)
MR. HUNNICUTT:And, how long did you live there before you left Virginia.
MRS. KEYES: I'm sorry. I didn't hear.
MR. HUNNICUTT:How long… (coughs) Excuse me. How long did you live in Virginia before you left Virginia?
MRS. KEYES: I lived in Virginia until I was married, at the age of 23.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Tell me about your school history.
MRS. KEYES: I went to Radford College.
MR. HUNNICUTT:That's Radford, Virginia?
MRS. KEYES: Radford, Virginia.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Let's back up, and talk about your elementary school. Did they, did they have kindergarten when you went to school?
MRS. KEYES: (laughs) No. No kindergarten. I went, a little town of Goshen, Virginia. G-O-S-H-E-N. Beautiful little town, that almost doesn't exist anymore. I went there the first six grades. Then, I went one year in Pulaski, Virginia. That was my seventh grade. Then, my four years of high school was in Big Island, Virginia. It's a little town down on the James River, in Virginia.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Did you like school?
MRS. KEYES: Loved it.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Do you recall some of your teacher's names?
MRS. KEYES: Oh, yes. Miss Priscilla Allen was my first grade teacher. And, I had a wonderful Latin teacher, Miss Walker. The high school was, was interrupted by our favorite English teacher being -- I don't know whether he was drafted or whether he chose to go -- in the service. So, I had the same experience in college, that many of the best teachers left to go into ... Everything paid better than teaching school. This is when the war economy came, I said the Depression wasn't over, the war economy came. That is, getting ready for war. I graduated from high school in '42, so many of the boys went to, into the service.
MR. HUNNICUTT:When you went to Radford College, what was your major?
MRS. KEYES: I majored in biology. I later became a science teacher at Bedford, Virginia.
MR. HUNNICUTT:What year did you graduate from Radford?
MRS. KEYES: The same, the same time that the bomb was dropped. August of '45.
MR. HUNNICUTT:'45.
MRS. KEYES: I can remember that date great. There was no boys at home, so I graduated in three years. I went, instead of going home for the summer, I went to college.
MR. HUNNICUTT:What do you remember about that particular date, other than your graduation, about dropping the bomb? What do you remember about that?
MRS. KEYES: I knew John at that time. I had met my husband, John, because he was, had been pulled out of the infantry. He was, he took his infantry training in Florida, and he was, felt he was very fortunate that he was pulled out to come to Tennessee, but he did not know why, nor where. He thought he was going in the signal corps, really. They were not quite ready for the boys here, in Oak Ridge, so, he was, he'd had two years of chemical engineering at Carnegie-Mellon. So, they put, he went to Virginia Tech, which was close to Radford. That's where I met him. He was there taking some electrical engineering. Then, when they were ready to bring ... and still, I, I wish I had the paper. It's here. When he was brought into Oak Ridge, he, all he knew was he was coming to Knoxville. So, then, from there to Oak Ridge.
MR. HUNNICUTT:What was your husband's name?
MRS. KEYES: John. John J. Keyes, Jr. K-E-Y-E-S. So, he felt very fortunate to get out of the infantry, and to come to Oak Ridge.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Now, when you graduated from college, tell me about your work experience after that.
MRS. KEYES: Well, I got a job teaching school at Bedford, Virginia, and I had two, had two paychecks, and John invited me to come to Oak Ridge to see him. So, I took a train, and he met me at the station in Knoxville.We got on a, as I remember, it was kind of like an Army bus, on a bus,and came into Oak Ridge. (laughs) Oh, we got in Jackson Square, I think, about two o'clock in the morning. I was so surprised, because people were shopping, pushing baby buggies.But the town, you know, I came from a town that closed the sidewalks at dark, and that activity was just, everything was going on at two o'clock in the morning in Jackson Square.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Now, how, let's back up. Tell me how you met your husband.
MRS. KEYES: The college, Radford College, was not too far from Virginia Tech. The dear dean, this was things when things were properly done. She thought it would be nice to invite some of the little soldier boys over for a cotillion dance. So, (laughs) I belonged to the Cotillion Club, and we had punch and cookies, first, to properly meet the boys. I served the punch, and I told my friend, roommate, one of them, I said, "Now, let's look them over, and we'll decide which one we're going to the dance with." Well, we looked them over, and looked them over. I tease my husband that the only reason he got caught by me, is he was late, and he, my husband had a little habit of being late. So, I took him, because he was about the last one that came, and we went to the dance, and things progressed from there. (laughs)
MR. HUNNICUTT:Tell me again about the club you were involved with. What, what was the functions that you did?
MRS. KEYES: Of the Cotillion Club?
MR. HUNNICUTT:Yes.
MRS. KEYES: It was a dance organization in the college. It was a girls’ college, and everything was properly run. We were, the lights were out at ten o'clock, and you didn't go off campus without writing out. So, at that time, Radford College almost went under, because that area was very highly, of Virginia, geared up for the war. They, the big plants there that, it was, it did for that area what Oak Ridge did for this area. Everyone went to work for the Hercules Power, Powder Company, which made ammunition. Bagged the powder for the ... So, the college, as I've said, lost students, and it lost faculty, because everybody went to the war effort. They could make more money than they ever dreamed of teaching school. It was a teachers college.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Was Radford Hospital, the Radford Mental Hospital, still there, at that time?
MRS. KEYES: I think it is. Yes, it was at St. Albans. It, it recently made the news. The young man who did all the shooting at Virginia Tech had been a patient there, I think. And, St. Albans made the, made the ... Now, St. Albans also was used by the powers that be in Oak Ridge, for people who had nervous breakdowns, who needed help with drinking problems. Now, you can ...
MR. HUNNICUTT:Yes, I'm familiar with that.
MRS. KEYES: You might, you might want to edit that out.
MR. HUNNICUTT:No, no I'm very familiar with that, and that's the reason I asked you if it was still in operation.
MRS. KEYES: I think it is.
MR. HUNNICUTT:It was a wonderful place, that people could go to get help from what you said.
MRS. KEYES: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And, it wasn't that far away.
MRS. KEYES: That's right. As I said, I had an aunt there later in life, who had to be treated there. So, I have visited people there, and the high school that I did my student training in, was on the same hill, so I was, I was well aware, aware of it.
MR. HUNNICUTT:As a high school student in those days, what was the dress code for girls?
MRS. KEYES: (laughs) Oh, I don't know. We didn't even use the word dress code. I had a rather interesting experience teaching. I had some students older than -- when I went to teach, I was 20, in Bedford. I had some students who had come out of the service early, so I had students older than I. People, people will, in Bedford, students were well-behaved, well-dressed. Oh, I mean, they were country people, a lot of them. But ...
MR. HUNNICUTT:Was that a school you had to pay tuition to go to?
MRS. KEYES: No, it was a public high school.
MR. HUNNICUTT:And, the college, at Radford, that was a girls’ college.
MRS. KEYES: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Well, let me ask you this. Did you find it any more difficult for students that was older than you, to teach, than the students that was younger?
MRS. KEYES: No, no, no. Bedford -- I don't know how much you've read. What was the name of the book that was written? They lost, in the, during the war, during the Invasion, they lost more, per capita, something, of their, with D-Day.They lost so many of the, the, their young boys.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Lot of people ...
MRS. KEYES: During the invasion.
MR. HUNNICUTT: ... deceased from that area.
MRS. KEYES: Mmm-hmm. There's, there's a beautiful memorial to -- D-Day Memorial in Bedford, at the foot of the Peaks of Otter, the Blue Ridge. But, I, I would recommend anyone to go to it sometime, to the D-Day Memorial.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Does that area have any Civil War history?
MRS. KEYES: Not, not like the valley. When I say, "the valley," Shenandoah. Not like the valley. I'm trying, I was just trying to think. There were some skirmishes in the little town of Dublin, but, but not the big, not the big things like at Petersburg, or Fredericksburg, that area, on up the valley.
MR. HUNNICUTT:You mentioned you came to Oak Ridge via train. Where did you board the train?
MRS. KEYES: I was thinking, I'm almost ... the town of Bedford was ... But, yet, it seemed like I had to ride into Roanoke to get that train, but, probably, Bedford. I know I went back and forth to school. I went to school when gas was rationed, and – college…An interesting thing is that, we were not allowed (although I didn't live that far from the school) we were not allowed to go home until Christmas, so that we'd stay off the trains. Trains were so crowded, and soldiers, and et cetera. So ...
MR. HUNNICUTT:Do you recall, when you rode the train, was it crowded ...
MRS. KEYES: Oh, yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: ... at that particular time.
MRS. KEYES: It was crowded, and, Christmas was a wonderful time, and it came, and I could go home. I took the train from Radford to Lynchburg, Virginia. My folks, at that time, lived in Big Island, which wasn't too far from Lynchburg. My daddy was a minister, so he had a certain amount of gas allotted to him, but he was very conscientious how he used it. Now, my parents did take me, probably, it was all of 150 miles from home, that I went. They did take me, but rationing was a big thing. I loved, I loved this article in the Knoxville News Sentinel, where it says, shows, I think we had a car just like that.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Turn, turn it around ...
MRS. KEYES: Dillard ...
MR. HUNNICUTT: ... turn it around a little bit more.
MRS. KEYES: This way.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Yeah, like that.
MRS. KEYES: Can you see that? All the way, I mean.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Raise it up just a little bit.
MRS. KEYES: There?
MR. HUNNICUTT:Mmm-hmm. And, that's talking about being able to fill up your gas tank.
MRS. KEYES: Yes. (laughs) Yes. (laughs) Oh, dear. But ...
MR. HUNNICUTT:How many gallons of gas was rationed, do you recall?
MRS. KEYES: I have no idea. I didn't drive the car. I had an older sister that took forever to learn to drive, and my father could only stand teaching one girl at a time. (laughs) But, anyway ...
MR. HUNNICUTT:Well, tell, let's go back and talk a little bit about your father being a minister. Did the family take any vacations during the time that he was minister?
MRS. KEYES: This last field (Baptists use the word, "field," instead of "circuit," where you had more than one church),well, it was interesting. Daddy had two churches that were, oh, I'd say 15 miles apart. One was considered the town church, and one was the country church. The town church, Big Island, had one industry, which was a paper mill, which you could smell for quite a ways away. And, the other one was out. But, any ... What were you asking me, anyway?
MR. HUNNICUTT:About whether your family took vacations during this ...
MRS. KEYES: Ok, Ok, Ok. Fifth Sunday. If there was a fifth Sunday in a month, we got a vacation. Daddy had the fifth Sunday off, that was it. Now, the reason I was saying he had two churches, every other Sunday, one Sunday'd be at one church, and one, the next, come up this Sunday. You had it off. But we didn't ever go anywhere. (laughs) I always had an older brother, and sister -- or sister, or both -- in college. That's all of my life I can remember. When I finished first grade, and my sister, older sister finished high school. Oh, I was a child of the Depression. Everything was around getting that older brother, or sister in college through school. So, vacation, no. I did not see the ocean -- maybe I shouldn't tell things like it -- but I did not see the ocean until I was employed myself, and had the money. We didn't live that far from the ocean, but we did, that far. The only, the only trips we ever took were to see grandparents, who lived a hundred miles away. So, that was it.
MR. HUNNICUTT:Well, how ... Now, looking back on your life, growing up under a Baptist minister, how do you perceive that was? Tell me about how that, how you thought about it, as you've gotten older, look back?