Wanda Penny (1923-1994): Interviewed on 10 June 1993 -- Penny was born in Sparta, Illinois, and lived in Ohio and West Virginia before she and her brother came to St. Louis with their mother in 1932, she taught art in the St. Louis Public Schools and at Harris-Stowe College. They lived in Mill Creek and her mother was active with Jordan Chambers and his political organization. Penny recalled that Chambers helped people get jobs. After graduating from Vashon High School, Penny became active with CORE and recounted her experiences with the lunch counter sit ins and with CORE meetings and organization.


Vida “Sister” Prince was born in 1933 to Vida Tucker (1906-1981) and Myron S. Goldman (1905-1936). She graduated from John Burroughs High School in St. Louis and earned an Associate of Arts degree from Centenary Junior College (New Jersey). Prince augmented her education at Fontbonne College, University of Missouri-St. Louis, and Webster University. She married Ronald S. Prince (1931-2016) and the couple had three children.

Prince began her career with oral history in 1979 when she answered an advertisement for volunteers at the Holocaust Museum & Learning Center. She interviewed over 100 people in St. Louis touched by the holocaust. In 1986, Sister Prince began working with the Missouri Historical Society in several capacities. She taught programs in how to conduct oral history interviews, did research for exhibits, and conducted oral history projects relating to several museum exhibitions, most notably I, Too Sing America: Black St. Louisans in the 1940s, A Strong Seed Planted: The Civil Rights Movement in St. Louis, 1954-1968, and Golden Gateway: Asian Immigration to St. Louis.

In 1993, Prince embarked upon an independent oral history project in which she explored how race affected people of color in their daily lives in St. Louis. After consultations with staff at the Missouri Historical Society, she interviewed 40 people. She called the project “Race and Memory in St. Louis” and it became the basis of her book, That’s The Way It Was (MHS Library StL/305.8/G619t).

SCOPE AND CONTENTS
The collection dates from 1942 to 2014 and is arranged alphabetically into three series: Race and Memory Oral History Project series which is subdivided into the Interviews and Management subseries, Book series, and General Subject Files series. Interview transcriptions and supporting documentation for the “Race and Memory” oral history project conducted by Vida Sister Prince from 1993 to 1995 comprise the bulk of the collection. It also includes files about the management of the project; files about Prince’s book, That’s the Way It Was (The History Press, 2013), which resulted from the oral history project; and general subject files relating to Prince, black history, and prominent civil rights figures in St. Louis.

Sister Prince began this independent oral history project in 1993. The Missouri Historical Society offered limited support: advice and feedback, some transcribing, and a place to conduct interviews if needed. It was also understood that the tapes and transcripts would eventually be deposited with the Society’s Library and Research Center. In That’s The Way It Was, an article for Gateway Heritage (spring 1997), she described her project as:

"…an oral history project about how race affected people of color as they went about their daily lives. I wanted to know how people learned about themselves: how they became aware that there were people whose skin was a different color than their own, and that it made a difference, and where in the St. Louis landscape their memories took place.”

Sister Prince ultimately interviewed 40 people for her project, both African-American and Caucasian. Some interviews included relatives or spouses, but most were with a single individual. Interviewees ranged in age from thirty to over ninety.

See the finding aid: mohistory.org/collections/item/A3071

Interview with Wanda Penny, Vida "Sister" Prince Oral History Collection

Jack Yarbrough and Mike Bay (Oral History #1125)

As you step into the “Chamber of Treasures”, a collection of framed images is displayed on left hand wall.  At the bottom in the centre above the red-painted dado rail is a black and white photograph showing a hearthside in Barnsley.  

 

The label tells us this photo was taken in the early 20th century. A dog, a cat and a kitten are curled up on a rag rug in front of a range, in a room that contains a table, a bed and, in the corner to the right of the stove, a wooden rocking chair.  

 

The chair is draped with a tartan rug and bits of paperwork lie on the seat. Built into the fireplace is the leaded range. It has an oven on each side connected by a fire basket - an open grate - in the middle. A brass fireguard sits in front of the grate, and the coals are glowing faintly. A sooty kettle perches on the smaller oven to the left and a tea pot warms on the taller oven to the right.  

 

Raised letters on this oven spell out the words Queen’s Foundry and the oven door has an ornate wrought-iron latch. Between the fireguard and the animals is a long low metal box containing fire irons – a pair of tongs and a couple of pokers. To the left of this box is a wooden stool with a fake-fur cushion on top. But it’s the animals that occupy prime position, curled up and snoozing gently in front of the hearth.

A Barnsley Hearthside with pets

Set within an area called the “Chamber of Treasures” and standing proud on the top shelf of a glass-fronted display case 1.5 metres tall, is a pair of fabulous knee-high platform boots from 2020.  

 

They’re made of a wet-look material in the colours of the American flag. The toes of the boots are red, as are their 10cm heels and the platforms which are about 2.5cms high. A band of white, called the vamp, joins the toes to the boot uppers which are blue & emblazoned with white stars. 

 

The boots fasten up the front with white laces. The long laces are criss-crossed, knotted at the top and dangle halfway down the boots which can also be opened or closed by a blue zip, concealed up the inside. The white vamp of the boot on the right is scuffed.  

 

The label tells us that Mikki Kenworthy wore these boots to celebrate the first Barnsley Pride event since the coronavirus pandemic. Mikki is a local treasure, founding Trans Barnsley to support the local transgender and non-binary community.

Stars and stripes knee high boots

This is a silver sweetheart brooch and buckle that dates from the 19th century. It’s displayed within an area called the “Chamber of Treasures” in the left-hand side of a glass-fronted display case, on the third shelf up.  

 Two hearts have been pressed out leaving the underside of each one with a raised rim all the way round. The edge of the rim is decorated with tiny balls. The hearts are joined at their widest point by a smaller, solid heart, and a flat row of irregular angled shapes links the points of the larger hearts at the bottom.  

The brooch can be fastened by a simple pin that hinges open on the right-hand side. The larger hearts are hallmarked and the label that tells us the brooch is inscribed with the Hebrew word ‘mizpah’ meaning 'watchtower' to express a powerful bond of protective love. It belonged to Susannah Hartley who was married to the carpenter James Senior of Wentworth Castle.

Silver ‘Sweetheart’ Brooch and Buckle

On the bottom shelf of a glass-fronted display case, that’s set within an area marked “Chamber of Treasures”, sits a collection of vintage Christmas lights and hand painted decorations. Amongst them is this colourful Christmas scene.  

 

Printed on thin card 32cm square, it’s an advent calendar dating from the 1970s or 80s. It shows 6 little angels outside a stable in a snowy night-time garden. The angels have bobbed blonde hair, blue eyes, red cupid’s bow lips and little tiny wings. They wear full-length dresses, or romper suits in bright colours, pink, yellow or green. The front wall of the stable and part of its snow-covered roof have been cut away to reveal the Christ child, sitting on a red blanket spread over a straw-stuffed wooden bed frame. The doll-like Christ wears a white robe and his blonde bob is surrounded by a yellow halo. A bluebird perches on the end of the bed and a lamb, a donkey and a cow push forwards to look at him. A red squirrel and a cat paw at the foot of the bed. Another squirrel peers down from the roof.  

 

Angels either side of this rooftop squirrel, one in pink and one in yellow, play a violin and a recorder. The violinist is bathed in the light of a bright yellow multi-pointed star in the top centre of the image in a midnight blue sky sparkling with little stars. The recorder-player sits in the upper branches of a tree that leans over the stable, close to a couple of little birds with their beaks open. At the base of this leafless, snow-dusted tree kneels an angel in a yellow romper suit who’s feeding a little faun. There are more woodland creatures in the garden - a rabbit and two bigger deer wait between small, snow-drenched fir trees. Two taller angels, holding candles, have their backs to a wishing well. A couple more bluebirds perch on the well’s snowy roof. A cat peers around its circular stone base. An owl and a robin sit in a tree bending over it from the right.  The well backs onto a green picket fence which divides the garden from a wintry forest in the background. The seventh angel leans over the fence between the well and the stable. The number 23 is prominent on one of the struts of the fence. Other numbers, dotted around the scene, identify rectangles in the calendar that can be opened. A few have been opened already revealing little Christmassy pictures – baubles on a tree, a woman on a donkey. What little surprises hide behind the remaining numbers? They will be opened each day in anticipation of Christmas. The label tells us this calendar was made in Germany, where the tradition originated.

Advent Calendar

Recorded in 2004, Brian speaks with Ernest Kaye about his lifetime down the mines, including his striking memories

#Strike40 Brian Elliott in conversation with Ernest Kaye about his mining memories

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Interview with Wanda Penny, Vida "Sister" Prince Oral History Collection

Missouri Historical Society

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