I was mostly raised In Floyd Co. KY & did live in Grundy , Va. at one time. Im fortunate that my job regularly takes me to Eastern Kentucky. It rated right up there with his song about Jim and Tammy Baker, pretty good actually. My best friend (not from Harlan) went to Saudi Arabia as a traveling nurse. Good memories there. I feel blessed to have grown up in Harlan, at a time when people actually cared about each other, and would not trade it for anything!! Mostly, we just hung out. My little brother had a knife pulled on him at Cawood. I will say Harlan is a great place to be from, I would not want to raise my kids there because of all the struggles I went through, and all the people I knew while growing up there. My mom is from Cote (Evarts) I cant wait to read this to her! Your mother was my teacher at Hall High for four years. Browse Obituaries and Death Records in Middlesboro, Kentucky. I used to try and derail the presumptions, now I just embrace them. It was an old theater whose best days had long past. Were about the same age. We mine coal and have for over 100 years. Cheese is the only thing the US government ever perfected. Phone: (828) 649-9163. I instructed her to be on the lookout for a Harlan countian. I have neglected my research of the Leonards and McKendrick for some time because of my health problems. Im proud of where Im from and yes my Daddy was a coal miner for a time. They had two fabulous sons who have college education with degrees in medical field and other fields. Im definitely a Harlan County boy. March 9, 1997. It will always be home., Thanks. You hit home with many of your comments being born and raised in Eastern Kentucky, Sandy Hook, Elliott County to be exact. If youre spending the night in Harlan, you probably have family there anyway. Miner Curtis Cress, 34, says towns. Everywhere I go here in Ohio I run into people from Harlan or people who have relatives from there and some still living there. Janice and I were both switchboard operators and admissions clerk. I still have a lot of family living in Harlan, Evarts, going all the way to Holmes Mill (Alias. Two of my best friends were Steve Farley and Jamie Helton. A native of Fulton, he was a life resident of the Fulton-Volney area. I was born and raised in the suburbs of Detroit but my parents were from Harlan County, my dad born in Holmes Mill growing up in Highsplint, my mother born and raised in Black Mountain eventually leaving and lived in Corbin. We used to sprinkle sugar over the cheese, before grilling them! My mother taught at Evarts for many years. [citation needed] She only worked sporadically after that, in guest roles on Fantasy Island (1984), Murder She Wrote (1985), Hardcastle and McCormick (1985), and Blacke's Magic (1986). I was raised on Rhea straight, where the old airport was. My parents married in Harlan County in 1949. Well written and interesting. Cats and Harlan Countians have 9 lives. If he is still living can you ask him about any Leonard relatives he know about or put him in touch with me. Knox County. We hiked deep into the woods for good sled trails in the winter. February 24 . Born and raised in Cumberland.I live in Florida now loved your article.Proud of my roots! Therefore, the kids of this county today only have to step out theyre door and into a pool. You went up 119 to the Loyall turnoff, and youre absolutely right: Any Harlan Countian who turns the corner at Pineville changes languages! Kevin Keating as Director of Photography. Jeanette McKendrick Leonard was my Me-maw and the best lady you to have ever been born! The field is backdropped by some beautiful mountains, right at Tunnel Hill. I am a badass.. In that regard, Harlan is Small Town, USA. There are a couple of places to stay, and theyre okay. I try to go back a couple times a year, for nostalgia as much as bagging those elusive, scarce birds. Katherine Lynn Caldwell February 24, 2023 (51 years old) View obituary. now but have family still in Harlan Co. NEAR CLOSPLINT KY AND I AM PROUD TO BE FROM HARLAN CO THAT IS HOME ALTHOUGH I LIVE IN CORBIN KY NOW. I need to work Watts Creek in to a future post, for sure. TO JIM CONNOR, jimmy c morgan lives in the big town of sawbriar, near wallins creek. The name of the area now came to be because the truckers that hauled from the mill just refrerred to it as Holmes Mill! I spent at least a week during the summer vacation every year growing up visiting the Harlan area and family enjoying every visit which included rail road tracks and slate dumps on one side of house and the Cumberland River on the other side all residing in a big holler off HWY 38. He points a gun directly at the camera in one scene. Thats probably why he is disabled now at a a young age. In talking about monthly checks, I can remember visiting my family in Louellen, a coal mining camp in those days, and going down to the the company store and watching people get their cheese in blocks and their commodity meat which was actually spam. .I didnt think to ask them while they were alive. Justified portrays Harlan as a lawless frontier of wanton violence. Daughter has owned her own business in Harlan for thirty years. He had a taxi service called Do me right He was found on the side of the mountain with many bullets in him and his taxi. 6. Age 82. I can connect with outlanders here in Georgetown by telling them, I was there the day that McDonalds opened..great times! I wanted more for my kids and wife. You mustve been a good student, John. Get directions Disability checks. If we had a problem like that today in my slice of Suburbia, there would be a full-blown panic. You brought back a lot of memories. In Atlanta, some of the New Yorkers that worked with me at the ad agency used to continually ask me where I was from just to hear me say it. So my family got to enjoy it even tho they never lived in Harlan. Graduated from jach in 78. I do think this is good stuff. My children are fascinated and perhaps slightly horrified that I grew up in Harlan. I am an Outlander (orlando), looking to be a Stalwart. LOL! If you need to go someplace that can be accessed through Harlan County, I guarantee that theres an easier, quicker way to get there. The previous mentioned Clarence E. Leonard is my Uncle. Not many folks have a clue of my history, and thats fine. The hills and hollers made me who I am today and the people I love still call Eastern Kentucky home. I suspect its mostly because they didnt care much for Hustler, at least not publicly. I not THAT old! Did you know Jimmy C. Morgan? I just know that by writing all this misinformation as if it were this day in time, you have disgraced and embarrassed your people, an you should be ashamed of yourself. Construction on the house beat the power company by a few years. I loved all your rationale for your boundary lines. My husband is a retired coal miner. Theyre still there. People were practically hanging on it. Yes, Big_O,, I remember the man you asked about. One person wrote that people visiting here didnt have hotels or anywhere to stay unless they stayed with family. I havent lived in Harlan in 30 year, but if someone asks where Im from, Harlan is the immediate response. I bet I heard them talking about you. I have lived here all my life and even tho at times i feel like due to work i may have to leave, i doubt i ever could. Just curious, if you struggled with the inclusion of Whitley county..what was your rationale for the inclusion of mccreary county? I believe you will see that I have great affection for Harlan, much more than many of the people who still live there. Now, dont confuse Harlan County with the town of Harlan, our county seat. Thats righttheyll pretend. I spent a lot of hours and burned up a lot of powder and boot leather grouse hunting in Pathfork and Black Star. I would have loved to have had that McDonalds there when I was kid. We have mountains all around us. Our Story; Our Locations; Our Calendar; Contact Us; Directions; Send Flowers; Call: Evarts 606-837-2119 Harlan 606-573-3030 Loyall 606-573-2132 Tri City 606-848-5455; Girl fights were always the best. I made the mistake of posting a picture of Basil on a Harlan County Facebook page. I was raised over the mountain at Little Laurel. Users who like (A Previously Patreon Episode): Harlan County USA; Users who reposted (A Previously Patreon Episode): Harlan County USA Middlesboro Daily News - Official Site. I am a born and raised harlan countian. | Coal Troll's Blog. We can be called ignorant, inbred, genetically inferior, toothless, shoelessyou name it. I have to admit that I enjoy the irony of a sentence like Your ignorant., Its like the guy who commented that Im a fuckin mooron.. After hours we would head to the American Legion behind the Post Office. No wonder I was overwhelmed. Arrangements are pending with Oneonta's only family-owned funeral home, Lewis, Hurley & Pietrobono at 51 Dietz St., www.lhpfuneralhome.com. I have many relatives there, but Ive been gone since I graduated from high school in 1979, when my family moved to Corbin. Sometimes, these people would show up to help us. When attempting to explain to someone where I grew up it was easiest to say somewhere between Harlan and Hazard. I actually grew up on Beech Fork in Leslie County. Btw, the Mount Victory part of this county feels very Eastern KY. Just found the blog and enjoyed it. Stalwarts, outlanders, pretenders, loathers you left one group out. I attended LoyallElementary and Junior High and James A. Cawood High School. I suggest you search my blog for my many other posts about life in Harlan County. Most of us pass through this phase at some point. If its hard, its hopeless. Many never leave it. I was born and raised in Floyd County,I always heard my family came out of Harlan or Harlan County over a hundred years ago.I dont know if there are any STAPLETON family in Harlan anymore,I am proud to be from the HILLS OF KENTUCKY !! Not a native but my ears always perk up when I hear Harlan. She laughed. Loved this! My husband and I are the black sheep as I am an attorney and my husband is an accountant. Brings back so many memories. Norman was good to my dad, especially during my dads troubles with alcohol yet another commonality of that age. I just found this wonderful Blog! My Dad used to talk about when they distributed commodity margarine. We have accents which are obscured by our penchant for mumbling. I never got a straight story from my parents and possibly they didnt know why or what happened. Russell was a coal miner for 18 years.Mr. And to the ones that moved away (say to the north) or wherever, it shows very little respect and class to put down the place you came from. Guide to Harlan County, Kentucky ancestry, genealogy and family history, birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, and military records. So so sad to see that head of the Holler non existent now, all overgrown. One can argue that its always been over-populated what with the chronic high unemployment and high poverty rate. The ones who love it love the depiction of rough and ready union brothers and sisters ready to wage war with the coal company thugs. No as in stop, do not, negative, etc and nothin slang for nothing not anything; no single thing; having no prospect of progress; of no value; not at all. Howard and Lucille Leonard are my grandparents. He was from Leslie, she from Perry. Its boring. You do remember he is my step-daddy?? I was born and raised in Harlan County-Cumberland. I also have no desire to change this wonderful region.am I forgiven? Unemployment in 2017 was 9.4 percent, far above the national average. The economy continues to contract and isnt likely to get much better. They dont want to sound like Harlan or look like Harlan. I grew up in Wilhoit and went to Loyall High for the first part of my freshman year, then moved to Indiana, but I still go back to Harlan often, my sister still lives there. I just cant get enough of the haters. I KNOW A LOT OF REALLY GOOD PEOPLE AT CAWOOD AND SMITH, KY. Women took over the picket lines. Basil Collins was Uncle Basil to us. I guess this was one of many reasons my dad thought California was a good choice for me. The obvious beingwe are just like you and every one else. Death, Burial, Cemetery & Obituaries Search; Sponsored by Ancestry. =). And so do I. I know all those places. Offended by the possiblility that outsiders will use them to measure the intelligence of my people. Went to JACHS then moved to Indiana an I havent went home in a long time. The distance a miner had to walk and how time was looked at was in 15-minute increments. U take car cuz. Harlan graduated from Readstown High School in 1949. I will never be ashamed of where I grew up. Were isolated. Its nice to remember, though. LO Kildav . I still get over through there for work sometimes. The folks in Brookside were surely Harlan Countians as was the chief gun "thug," Basil Collins. Maybe they never left. I left first to attend Cumberland College, then only a two year school, and later was forced to leave and gravitate north for employment. We are made to known about his death on September 16, 2020. I am definitely proud of my heritage, both generally mountain/Appalachian and Harlan County in particular. It has to be kind of tough to get there or at the very least its just on the way to somewhere else. Id love to learn more about the people, especially on the other side of the strike. Welcome to Harlan County! Take care. I thought Harlan was great as a kid but my wife told me if I ever wanted a divorce all I had to do was move here to Harlan. There are a lot of us spread over the country, but we still think of ourselves as being from Harlan. We are related to at least one coal miner. I aint convinced about mccounty I get the isolation, and the coal mining( although Boyd , Greenup, and a lot of the others have had some minor strip mining now and then.) November 20, 1931 - January 8, 2023 Harlan Price passed away peacefully at the age of 91 years with his wife Harriet at his side. I owned a genteel little social club called THE CLIFFHANGER up on pine mountain, and had some of the finest folks i ever knew as customers, although mostly they considered the Garys crowd a little on the gentler side. February 24, 2023. Basil Collins asks the sheriff, who is handling the situation in plainclothes, why he's being arrested and hears, "Disorderly conduct I guess; I don't know." Even at a tragic moment, a union veteran speaks after the death of Lawrence Jones and puts it this way: "Why couldn't it be somebody like me, some old man just about spent anyhow." Hey, I actually remember the Cliff Hanger (by reputation only), but it was not for my younger crowd. Yes. I absolutely LOVE this! Why? Most of my old mean crowd are dead. There arent any hotels to speak of, really. It still is in some ways, although it has been many years since the United Mine Workers Association held great sway. I own a piece of railroad track on the Rhea Straight. My dad was one of them, outside Tommy Lees barbershop. My grandparents, Elve and Flaura Campbell, moved to Sunshine and eventually to Loyall. I was one of the Hensley girls that lived on the strawberry farm. I have resided in Knoxville, TN for 26 years but Eastern Kentucky will always be home because that is where my extended family and my husbands extended family continue to reside. SOMEONE MENTIONED SMITH. Mr. Blanton explained the reasoning behind coal camps. I was born and raised in Harlan County and we moved to Alabama in 1952 when I was 12 years old. She used it for many recipes, everything from casseroles to sauces. What did he end up doing after the strikes? I had to laugh at your reference to government cheese. It really was good stuff! My husband has worked in low coal where one had to crawl to get to your section. His name was Arthur Johnson, he was from Cumberland, but lived at Thank you so much for this, it came at a time when I needed to count my blessings, and being born in Liggett, and raised in Pansy, I truly was blessed. Maybe its the camo/orange. It will always be home to me. Im surprised I didnt end up with some kind of lung disease. heres the link: My cousin posted the link on Facebook and I have not been able to move till finishing the read. He was a clerk there. It might have been the wrong side of the tracks, but I knew some good folks from there. Obituaries; Photos; Podcasts; Scene; Id hate to have to kill you. Spent a lot of time at the top of the hill up Watts Creek. There are a few folks who left and dont care to ever hear of Harlan again, but thats true of all small towns. . the Ackley Hotel in Harlan until he retired and moved back to Cumberland. Trivia: He was a survivor of the Bataan Death March. Ill say Im from Harlan, but dont get confused. Again, they are excluded because of lack of isolation. Theirs will be more like trips to Kings Island, etc. You need some coal mines, either now or in the past. He enjoyed fishing, hunting, and just being outdoors. We werent eligible for cheese, either, but my Dad would get it anyway! I was born and raised in Leslie County. It was a thriving community in the 60s-70s. First time reading it. Ive often heard that anywhere you go on Earth you can find someone from Harlan county. Even though I had been lots of places, leaving Harlan took me out of my comfort zone. We had our own post office, City Hall and fire station. Harlanthats what we call itisnt a destination, either. God do I ever remember the Government Cheese and all the other free food provided by the gov. Bell county baby.We got the mountains here too. I just said, hey, he was my neighbor. Funeral Home Phone Number Website; Barnes Funeral Chapel: 419-822-5995: www.barnesfuneralchapel.com: Grisier Funeral Home And Cremation Center: 419-822-31 Im from Loyall. Eastern Ky is not privvy to divorce is it?? She talks about taking care of her father through his health issues while also participating in the Brookside strike. What Mountains besides the one on the border with Virginia, Black Mt.(?)? Enjoyed the article. I appreciate your comments but must, of course, defend myself. Thanks again for the good read. My mom (Joyce Abraham) was a home ec teacher at JACHS at the time of government commodities, and she had students who always offered to sell her their cheese for $5.00 a block. That bastion of journalism, Hustler Magazine, once listed Harlan (the town) as one the three meanest towns in America. Crusenberry talks about being asked by a group of women to . To add to my previous comment above, my other Grandfather was Elijah Depew (nicknamed Lidge? He lived there with his wife my Aunt Hazel and their children Laura Jean, Stanley and Mickey. Maybe 700 or so now. Kentucky Death Records 1911-2000 over 2 million records. He was the hardest worker I have ever known. My ancestors settled Smith, hence its name, and Im proud of it being off the grid. There were several Leonard families in the county in my day. A spokesman for the Harlan Appalachian Regional Hospital said Mr. Bruner, who was shot with a . But we still think of ourselves as being from Harlan or people who live! Much for Hustler, at least one coal miner for a Harlan County picture of Basil on Harlan. C morgan lives in the winter people from Harlan a gun directly at the in... C morgan lives in the winter mine Workers Association held great sway left one group out are a times! Have great affection for Harlan, Evarts, going all the other side of the area now to! Tough to get there or at the camera in one scene bagging those elusive, scarce.! 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