30 Years After Carrying Her Out Of A Burning Building, A Firefighter Tells The Woman He Saved: “You’ve Carried Me Through Tough Times.”
Los Angeles County firefighter Derek Bart first came to StoryCorps in 2020, just hours after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis.
He stepped into the MobileBooth to reflect on his 33 years of public service and how he wanted to be remembered. But there, he thought of someone else, an 8-year-old girl he’d met early in his career, when he responded to a house fire.
Los Angeles County fire captain Derek Bart at his firehouse. Courtesy of Derek Bart.
Shortly after his first recording, Derek found out he’d been misdiagnosed, and that he was going to live. So he came back to sit down for another StoryCorps conversation, this time with Myeshia Oates, the woman who he saved nearly three decades ago.
Top Photo: Myeshia Oates and Derek Bart at their StoryCorps interview in Santa Clarita, CA on August 23, 2021.
Originally aired September 24, 2021, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
“There Was No Hanky Panky”: A Couple Reflects On The Friendship That Led To 70 Years Of Marriage
Julia and Joel Helfman met when they were just kids — at 12 and 13 years old. Their friendship blossomed into a decades-long love story. And together they had five kids of their own, as well as 11 grandchildren and eight great-grandkids.
A few months before their 70th wedding anniversary, Joel and Julia sat down at StoryCorps to remember how it all began.
Top photo: Julia and Joel Helfman on their wedding day in November 1949. Courtesy of the Helfman family.
Middle photo: Joel and Julia Helfman (center) with their five kids, c. 1972. Courtesy of the Helfman family.
Bottom photo: Julia and Joel Helfman at their StoryCorps interview in Philadelphia, PA in 2019. By Eleanor Vassili for StoryCorps.
Originally aired July 26, 2019, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
A More Perfect Union
“He asked me, ‘How many jelly beans are there in the jar?’”
Theresa Burroughs
When Theresa Burroughs came of voting age, she was ready to cast her ballot—but she had a long fight ahead of her.
During the Jim Crow era, the board of registrars at Alabama’s Hale County Courthouse prevented African American people from registering to vote. Undeterred, Theresa remembers venturing to the courthouse on the first and third Monday of each month, in pursuit of her right to vote.
Theresa Burroughs died May 23, 2019.
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Theresa and Dennis McLaughlin
Dennis McLaughlin was born in 1948 with spina bifida, a birth defect that left him unable to use his legs.
But his mother, Theresa McLaughlin — a single mom who worked at a local paper mill– knew that “from the neck up, he’s just fine.” So she treated Dennis just like any other kid.
At a StoryCorps mobile booth, Dennis payed tribute to the way Theresa raised him.
Originally aired May 11, 2012 on NPR’s Morning Edition.