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This is an interview with mrs mary Lou martin Farley for Sanford University oil history program by Rebecca thomas at her home on 5 20 Rock Ridge Avenue. Trustful Alabama conducted saturday november 16th 1985. Mrs Farley. Could you tell me a little bit about your background, your

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family growing up and trustful? Um My early years in trust we were very happy years. I was a member of a large family. My father owned a lot of property, a large farm in Trust Will and I had one brother and four sisters and it was

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a very happy home. He always provided much entertainment and recreation and my mother were felt that that our entertainment should be at home rather than the public places at that time. What your mother and father's married, my father's name was William lee martin and my mother

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was Leila Horton martin. Um What kind of you said you had entertainment at home, What did you have a piano? And we had a piano. My mother and my father played piano. My oldest sister taught music. Uh The next sister played the bowel. Uh The next

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sister also played the piano. My brother had a lovely voice and he sang and sang for many of the churches as a young man. He what was his name? Henry Ford and Mark. Your brother? Yes and um I was never musically talented. Uh my talents ran

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in other areas, but my younger sister also played piano and organ. My older sister was a church organist for 50 years in trust that method is his first United Methodist church and we were just a large happy family. Um Now, had any of your family been

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to college? Um My older sister went to college, but those were back in the that was the period of very difficult financial times and I was the only one in the family who ever was graduated from college. Okay. Um how did you decide to go to

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Howard College? I really don't recall as a high school student, I went to a private school with a little compton seminary and I had um enough credits that I could enter college after I left little compton by going to summer school. So Howard was very convenient

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in in a matter of distance for me at that time? And of course finances were played a part at that time. And I had some friends who were going to Howard that insisted that I go thought it was an excellent school. Who was that? Well, um

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Anabel Hollingsworth who was the she was Annabelle and um Hollingsworth who was the executive secretary to dr john Dawson who was resting at one time. And we had grown up together. She lived here and Trust. And so she went to, I went to Sam Howard 1st

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and then she went later on. How did you get back and forth between two continents from trump, supporting And did you live on campus at Howard also? No, I really don't recall that. I got the same. Howard. Um were you driving? Did you drive that I

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was driving? But I don't I don't think that we had a car that I could have at my disposal. It could have been that there were other students that lived here and I suspect that's what it was that we carpool rather to get there. Um But

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I really don't become um did um how did you uh how did you feel when you first went on the campus, your first registration? Do you have any recollection of those? Uh that period? It seemed to me that that college was not awesome. Uh My impression

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was that I was just to continue my education. My parents wanted me to and great sacrifice to them. Um Of course. Uh The reason I didn't go through the four years my father died and I felt that it was with a large family that it was

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my responsibility to get work if I could. So uh I went into teaching after the second year of my college. So you started in 1927? Is that? No, I started, it was 1925. Um it was, you know, I was supposed to graduate in 27. I would

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have started back in 23, wouldn't it? 03? And and so you stayed out, how many years did you, you worked teaching for a while and then went back. No. Uh I went back to after I started teaching, I just took classes during the summer and in

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the evening courses and got my degree in that way. I felt a need for some method courses when I started teaching and I was spending much of my summer only taking these method courses and then I had to go back and get the courses that would

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allow me to receive my degree. So it was a continuation of uh going to school at the time. I was also teaching. Really. My mind went blank. Did you live at home while you were going to school then? Yes. Where did you teach when I started

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the first year in Warrior with Jefferson County. And at midterm there was a vacancy of that year, there was a vacancy at the Trustful elementary school. And so I was transferred to my home. So I have spent the greatest part of my teaching career at transfer.

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I taught second grade and I taught fifth grade and then I became assistant principal and then I became principal and in 1942 and then I uh after teaching at Trustful I was asked and invited to go over to as curriculum coordinator for the vestavia system. They

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had been a part of the Jefferson County school system and uh they town council decided to create their own school system. And they had employed Mr Clark Mr William Clark as superintendent and I don't know how he heard because I didn't know him and he didn't

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know me, but someone evidently recommended me and I was invited to go and It was quite an interesting and wonderful experience for me to spend the next 10 years and before I retired in the new system and help it develop and healthy growth. And I thoroughly

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enjoyed that. And Sanford was much help to me in my work at Vestavia. I knew dr john dr king, I've forgotten his personally but he had been at the university when I was working on his doctorate when I was working on my masters. So he was

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teaching elementary courses there and he came over to West Asia and helped us with different projects that we had. So Howard has been meant much to me in my life over the years and it's a beautiful campus. However when I started to Howard I thought Howard

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was a beautiful campus and he's like could you give me what did you think of the faculty at? Howard College? Could do you have any impression? Yes I had some wonderful impressions. It was a rare privilege to have had a class from Dr Burns. Uh He

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was english literature teacher and uh it was sometimes very difficult but it really was a very rare opportunity for those of us who were in school at that time to have a course with him. Um I remember dr Bohannon who was a psychology teacher and he

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had a wonderful approach to life and a wonderful philosophy and I always enjoyed his classes What was his philosophy? Oh he one thing that impressed me, he used to tell us that after we took our final exams that he just the way he graded them, that

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he threw the papers up, even the ones that stuck got you had a very sincere but in other words he was saying it was pretty difficult to make an a on. Yeah but dr oh Deloney was a music teacher on campus and even though I was

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not musical I appreciated music very much and I took french from dr baloney and I was on the basketball team and during the basketball season we were out of town sometimes and I would miss my first class on monday morning or miss part of it. And

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as I would walk in he would be very low and in his little french accent welcomed me back which made me feel very guilty. But I had some happy times at Howard now was this during the whole how long were you on the basketball team? The

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two years that I was there, I played on the on the basketball team. It was coached by bob shelter and we had a very good basketball team. We didn't have any place to practice. As I recall. We would have to borrow the Y Y. W and

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we just practiced a different different anywhere we could find a place to practice and our costumes would be of interest. We were white bloomers and the middle class with the square sailor collar in the back. And I recall that dr french haynes was the dean for

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women, the women. And we would start playing and get so enthusiastic that we um, our bloomers would get in our way and we without thinking we would pull our our bloomers up and the elastic would come up too high and immediately we all knew that would

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be, we would be called into the and reprimanded. And of course it was very innocent in those days. It was a matter of being comfortable while we were playing and we had no thought of being indecent, but evidently teenagers always. Well, did you feel slighted the

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voice? I know the men's athletics had more facility, women's lib hadn't gotten here at that time. It uh, I think we were just such a wholesome young people at those in those days that it didn't occur to us. We just felt privileged to have a team.

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And we played by boys rules. We didn't even have girls rules back in those days. And uh, we, we made some interesting trips and we're always received well at other colleges who had teams and enjoyed our life. We were there, could you tell me something about

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the trips you took with the basketball tank? Uh we we went to Montevallo, We played the colleges mostly, they were in Alabama and we were always chaperoned. I recall that we we always have to be in in the evening after our game at a certain hour

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and we were restricted as to the college rules that we were visiting. We were always, it was a pleasant experience. It was always interesting to visit other colleges and meet new friends and meet new girls and see what their rules and regulations were. You stayed in

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the dorms at that stage? Um What about football? Are you very interested in? Football was just as popular at that time, Almost as it is today. There was a great rivalry between Howard and Birmingham Southern and I will recall many pranks that were played. Each would

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try to find the others mascot and keep it until the day was over. It was always a very friendly rivalry. Uh many of us had close friends on the other campus and of course they had friends. Uh, howard, but it was, it was a very strong

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feeling of rivalry and competition. Were you involved in the parade? Oh yes. We always decorated cars and drove through. I remember a friend of mine had had a Chrysler roaster and we would have imagined we would have seven or eight people and that Roadster and we

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always had a great time during the parade. So it was, there was a very close and warm feeling among students on the Howard campus. There of course were sororities and fraternities and one thing I recall, it doesn't have anything to do with football, but that the

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the boys were very protective of the young girls as a freshman. I recall that one of my friends came up and said mary do you don't go out with that young man? He saw me talking with him on the campus one day and he said he

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isn't the kind of person that you would like to be seen with. And this was a very warm feeling that to know that you were, that your friends were helping to protect you from making an error of the wrong decision when we were there about your

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dates. But it was a wonderful experience. You were involved in the sorority. How did you decide? Why did you decide to join a sorority? Having been in a private school? I did not know anything at all about sororities, but when I went the, I realized that

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there were certain girls that were being extremely nice to me and eventually I was told, you know that there were sororities and and that this was a certain rush period. And it, my my friends uh were in Delta Zeta. And of course, uh it just seemed

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to be a very natural decision for me to make is to choose. And an interesting thing I think is the fact that there were no sorority houses that that sorority rooms and our sorority was on the second floor of old names, the main building. Um our,

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we didn't have much space to entertain, but we did The parents of the girls were most gracious to have our special parties in their homes are there? If they belong to a country club we would go there. So we didn't have the luxurious homes that the

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girls and boys do today. We didn't have sorority roles in maternity road but which still are close friends those and this was I've forgotten how many girls we've had but many of us who still live in Birmingham remain good friends and have lunch with each other

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and see each other often at least once a year. I met mrs turk. Uh One of your sorority sisters and I believe her sister in law mrs Eagles but Virginia and then her sister in law also her name was Jamie before she manning Eagles. Oh yes.

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Um you were chairman of a fundraiser that was after you were already working. How did you find time to chair a fundraiser? Do you remember that? You don't um What was it far? I don't remember. That was I found it in the Crimson. It was a

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fundraiser. I think it was held at visits. I have no memory of this. Oh there there's so many things that have happened to me since I was in college that this is all new but I do not recall that I was so involved with athletics? I

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think more. I was not too active in good activities now were you thought involved after the time that you were teaching or just those first. Just two years. Um What about the chapel experience did you attend the chapel? Being a methodist going to a baptist school.

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How did you? Yes I am. We always attended chapel of course when we were having a pep rally there were more people in chapel than any other time. But uh we enjoyed chapel. A friend of mine uh who played the piano beautifully uh With a company.

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Well she was the company's for the glee club and the companies for the men's glee club and she always played the chapel. And when when the students knew that she was going to play they always went because they enjoyed our music so much but we had

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good programs and interesting programs. Um And and I don't know about chapel today whether it's whether people attend or whether you even have chapel but back then students more or less felt that they should attend and it was not required and they just wanted to, well

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it was expected not required but expected there's a difference. Do you remember some of the other professors there? Uh Maybe uh Mr Eagles. Oh yes I remember uh dr Eagles. Um uh Yeah who was the lovely woman? Mrs Boyer? I didn't have her mason mrs mason.

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She was um she was a lovely person and I do not recall her first name. Um But she married uh dr mason. Uh You should have given me a list of these things. This is now the your major was education, Is that what you major? History?

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Because my major at Howard I went in of course to education after when I got my Masters and I my degree was in supervision and administration. What do you feel about the academics of of your Howard College? Do you think you received a good or excellent

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education? Uh Yes, I feel that it was very sound and very basic. Um I I think I have used everything um accept foreign languages. I have not used my french and spanish. However, I had two years of blackness in uh in in my private school high

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school days and that was very beneficial. Um I still enjoy words and the derivation of words and and I remember that with great pleasure. Oh, I enjoyed my, I enjoyed all of my courses. I think I was just a a student and not particularly gifted at

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all. But I enjoyed learning and uh and that the atmosphere was good for that. Yes. How did you feel, did you feel any difference when you were coming back for night and summer courses? Did you still feel the relationship to the other students? Well, of course,

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not as much. Uh your relationships were closer with your fellow teachers and educational meetings and that type of thing and of course going back you were with oftentimes your fellow teachers rather than college students. So it was a different relationship however, those, those friendships that we

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made when we were students for the two years, we still recall with much joy and, and we still keep in touch with a lot of them and any time that a group of us are together, we all reminisce and talk about this one in that fraternity

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and this one in that sorority and, and what has happened to them and how many Children they have and how many grandchildren to have. It was a very close, It was a small student body at that time, but I think that has a great advantage. Um,

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how did did the depression affect you any? Um, the depression of course affected my continuing my education and with my father's death. It also did. Um, I think one thing that when we were, the depression caused, I don't think it caused much embarrassment. We were all

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in the same category more less and if we were going to a party and one didn't have an evening dress to wear someone else furnished. So we didn't miss very much. Uh, we coped, uh, did you get the feeling of the campus struggling that the administration

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struggling to keep the campus running? I didn't, I remember my second year when my father died, that dr Dawson offered me a scholarship, which was greatly appreciated. I don't think I accepted it because it was for the coming years and I felt that I had to

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go to work uh for the next two years. But, and I regret that I didn't, but at the same time it was, it was important for me to begin my, so you got the feeling that the administration was trying to help the students in every way

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they could continue to be in school. Well, how do you think that, that the girls that went to howard, were they there mainly for an education? Or was it the old feeling that they went there to get a preacher boyfriend? Well, um, my impression was there

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to learn. Um, I, uh, I have one friend who, who really made a sacrifice to come to school and she talked now about playing the piano for a dollar for all day so that she could pay some of her tuition or buy books. And so I

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do believe that most of us at that period of our lives wanted an education to be able to do some things for ourselves. Our families usually for large and we weren't brought up to think that every day was christmas as Children. That's true. So you, you

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felt you were going to school so you could get a job and you thought that most women are that, uh, all the time. Um, the girls, They either worked in their parents business are we're looking for some kind of work, as as during the depression years,

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even after I started teaching, I was paid $70 a month For seven months a year and the second year we were paid in script. It was a very difficult financial period for everyone that I think that one was called the Great Depression. How did you use

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the script? Well, I have had a serious illness and so I paid my doctor with the script and he discounted it 75 cents on the dollar. You mean, had it. Well, in other words, if the bill had been $100, I gave him $100 a script, but

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he only gave me credit for paying him $75. Did the banks take the script or grocery stores? Did you eventually have to go back and pay him the difference. I was the one that lost on the difference. Uh, he accepted it as a dollar, But he,

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it was, I mean, he accepted my dollar as 75 cents. So I had to pay the total bill and I was losing a quarter on every dollar difficult. You heard a lot about a lot of people jumping out of windows and bending over backwards to help

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other people. He doesn't seem like he was one of the doctors didn't at that time. They were having a difficult time too. And I'm sure that some of them had had a lot of expenses going to school to get to become doctors, but they didn't even

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school teachers just weren't paid very much in those states. Um, and it's always amazing to me even after years later, during my teaching experience that small Children would come to school with $10 bills in their pockets. Um, the, there seemed to be not the respect for

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the dollar Children now get everything they want, it seems every day some way, but their parents are very generous. Um, how do you think your experience at howard college affected your life? Do you think it prepared you for the real world? Or was it a shell

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of, of comfort? Or uh, did it mislead you about the way your life would run? No. Uh, I think not. I think that college was all and more than I expected. I think that it, uh, I was a very naive young person and very young. Uh,

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I started teaching at 17 as I said, I was 16 when I started college and I have not had many experiences other than a warm family life. So, college was a very, uh, broadening experience for me, a growth period in my life. Um, and, and this

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was a very small town and very few families lived here. So, my associations were broadened. I just felt that it was, uh, the opportunity to go to college and what college offers. Okay, I want to thank you so much for talking. Can you think of anything

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else you'd like to, to say? Well, not necessarily. Um, I want to thank you for being so nice and I appreciate the opportunity to city one of my pupils. I wish you much luck and hope that your they're successful with your master. Thank you so much,

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Mrs Farley.