Family Archives - Page 33 of 47 - StoryCorps

Carol Miller and Marge Klindera

Marge Klindera spent decades teaching home economics to Illinois middle and high school students. As she was transitioning into retirement, she began looking for other ways to share her years of knowledge and experience. In 1983, she began working at a seasonal call center—answering questions from those needing last-minute information on cooking a turkey.

Each Thanksgiving, for more than 30 years, Butterball has run their Turkey Talk-Line. Operating from October to December, trained professionals like Marge answer thousands of turkey-related questions from home cooks across the United States and Canada.

At StoryCorps, Marge (pictured above right), 79, sat down with her longtime coworker, Carol Miller (pictured above left), 68, to remember some of the best callers they have had, as well as some of the best advice they have dished out.

Originally aired November 27, 2015, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

StoryCorps 448: Something To Be Thankful For

In this podcast, we hear about three Thanksgiving traditions: feeding strangers, feeding neighbors, and listening to the ones you love.

macaulay_lgThe first story is from Scott Macaulay, who every Thanksgiving cooks dinner for strangers in his hometown of Melrose, Massachusetts. At StoryCorps, Scott (seen at left), explains how he invites people to his holiday dinner and how a tradition that began with him feeding a dozen people back in 1985 became a meal for close to a hundred diners.

Next, we hear from Herman Travis, another man going above and beyond to make sure people in his community have food. Herman, 55, lives in Holly Courts, a low-income housing complex in San Francisco. Every Tuesday he fills a shopping cart with groceries from a local food bank and makes home deliveries to his elderly and disabled neighbors.

Herman is especially busy around the holidays, sometimes making three or four trips in a single day. He came to StoryCorps with his neighbor, Robert Cochran (seen above right with Herman), who happens to be one of the recipients of Herman’s deliveries.

If you listen to our podcast regularly, you’ve heard us talk about the Great Thanksgiving Listen. This holiday season we are asking history and social studies teachers across the country to have their students use the StoryCorps app to record a conversation with a grandparent or another elder over the coming holiday weekend. Our dream is to have an entire generation of Americans honored in this way by having their stories and voices preserved at the Library of Congress.

photo_1445971842000Already many thousands of interviews have been recorded, and our final story proves that a great app interview can be conducted almost anywhere. Kara Masteller, 21, interviewed her grandfather, James Kennicott, 86, while sitting in the front seat of her 1994 Buick while parked outside a mall in Waterloo, Iowa (they took the selfie at left after their recording ended).

Their 16-minute long interview begins simply with Kara saying to her grandfather; “Tell me about yourself, where did you grow up?” and then they proceed to discuss his upbringing, work, Alzheimer’s disease, and their family.

It was precious time together that, according to Kara, led to more discussions between them about family and life after the recording stopped. Exactly what Thanksgiving should be about.

Click here for more information about the Great Thanksgiving Listen.

Click here to download the app.

Like the music in this episode? Support the artists:
“Sonstiges” by Podington Bear from the album Backbeat
“Send Off” by Explosions in the Sky & David Wingo from the album Prince Avalanche: An Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

James Kennicott and Kara Masteller

Since 2003, we have broadcast hundreds of conversations that were recorded in booths across the country, but this week, for the first time, we present one recorded in the front seat of a 1994 Buick.

IMG_1058

Last month, Kara Masteller, 21, and her grandfather James Kennicott, sat together in a Waterloo, Iowa, mall parking lot and conducted a StoryCorps interview. They choose this location because James, who is 86 and resides in a local senior living facility, had no interested in sharing his business with any of the other people who live alongside him.

Their 16-minute long interview begins simply with Kara saying to her grandfather, “Tell me about yourself, where did you grow up?”

From there, Kara, the youngest of James’ 10 grandchildren, was able to get a man she described as unaccustomed to opening up about his life to briefly discuss his difficult upbringing. He then talked in greater detail about his beloved wife, Annie, who passed away in 2012 (seen above in a 1949 wedding photo), his work as a supervisor at the John Deere factory, the loss of his eldest son Chuck who suffered with Lou Gehrig’s disease, as well as his thoughts on life and advice for others as they age.

In a separate interview with StoryCorps, Kara, a senior at the University of Iowa, remembered her grandfather as once being an intimidating figure in her life, but as they have both grown older and maintained their close relationship, she now sees him as fun, protective, and loving.

IMG_0477

He’s a man who enjoys joking around, dancing, shooting pool, and playing the penny slots at a local casino.

During their conversation, James also offers Kara advice on a happy marriage, “You gotta kinda like each other…if something happened just say ‘I’m sorry’ and get it over with and make up,” because “when you get married, it’s kind of like the two of you are one. You think the same.” And on life in general, advising her to “keep it so the days don’t just go by and that’s all there is, a boring old day…let life roll on…it goes fast.” You need to “roll with age, don’t worry about it, it’s coming. Enjoy life, it’s wonderful.”

According to Kara, after their recording ended (and they posed for the selfie at the top of the page), James continued to share memories with her about Annie before they grabbed a cup of coffee and headed over to the casino to play the penny slots together.

Click here to hear their full interview.

Click here to download the StoryCorps app and begin making your own recordings.

We’re just days away from the Great Thanksgiving Listen, StoryCorps’ initiative to preserve the voices and stories of an entire generation of Americans over a single holiday weekend. Open to everyone, it’s your change to sit down with a parent, grandparent, friend, neighbor, loved one, or anyone else who you are curious about, ask them questions, and listen. Click here for more information on the Great Listen.

Originally aired November 20, 2015, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

GTL_wordmark_orange background-03Photos courtesy of Kara Masteller.

StoryCorps 447: Forget Me Not

In this podcast we’re highlighting stories from our Memory Loss Initiative. These interviews help people with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of memory loss get their stories on tape. It also lets family members and caretakers reflect on the impact the diagnosis has had on them.

We begin with the very first Memory Loss story we ever produced. In 2006, Priya Morganstern (above left) and Bhavani Jaroff brought their father, Ken Morganstern, to our recording booth in Grand Central Terminal. He was living with Alzheimer’s and the sisters wanted to record his memories while they still could. After Ken passed away in 2007, his daughters returned to StoryCorps to remember him.

From a story about a dad to one about a mom, Teresa Valko’s family has been battling Alzheimer’s disease for generations. She lives in California and her mother, Evelyn Wilson, lives in Georgia. Almost a decade ago, Evelyn began to show symptoms of memory loss, and Teresa remembers how their regular telephone conversations began to change.

Husband and wife Jo Ann and Bob Chew married later in life, a second marriage for both of them. Jo Ann, who is older than Bob, worried that one day he would have to take care of her. When they recorded this interview, Jo Ann was just beginning to show signs of early stage Alzheimer’s.

Like the music in this episode? Support the artists:
“Twelve Diseases” by Welcome Wizard from the album Lunachild
“A Spire” by Tape from the album Rideau
“Milo” by Fredrik from the album Trilogi
“Dunes” by Podington Bear from the album Solo Instruments
“Comptine d’un autre été – L’après-midi” by Yann Tiersen from the album Amélie from Montmartre (Bande originale du film)
Photo of Priya Morganstern, Ken Morganstern, and Bhavani Jaroff.

Teresa Valko

Teresa Valko’s family has been battling Alzheimer’s—a progressive disease that attacks the brain causing memory loss, the deterioration of thought and language skills, and changes in behavior—for generations.

According to Teresa, on her mother’s side of the family, there is a 100% occurrence of Alzheimer’s disease.

For many years, Teresa, who lives in California, would spend hours on the phone chatting with her mother, Evelyn Wilson (pictured above right), in Georgia (seen together below in Evelyn’s yard in 1980). But in 2007, Evelyn began to show the early symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

At StoryCorps, Teresa sat down with friends Lisa Farrell and Doris Barnhart to talk about her weekly telephone conversations with her mother and how they have changed over the years, as well as what she has learned about her own future health after undergoing genetic testing.

Valko4Originally aired November 13, 2015, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

NOTE: Two generations of Teresa’s family died of complications from Alzheimer’s including her aunt, uncle, grandmother, and all of her grandmother’s siblings. As of right now, none of her generation of family members have been diagnosed with the disease.
Photos courtesy of Teresa Valko.

Barry Romo

Barry Romo (above left) grew up in a tight-knit family in Southern California in the 1950s. The youngest of his siblings, he spent his childhood surrounded by a niece and nephews of a similar age.

Barry was particularly close with one of his nephews, Robert, known to everyone as Bobby (above right). Bobby was just a month younger than Barry and Barry considered Bobby to be another brother.
RomoExtra1

During the Vietnam War, Barry enlisted in the Army and Bobby was drafted. Only one of them came home. Private First Class Robert Romo was killed in action in 1968. First Lieutenant Barry Romo was chosen to escort his body home.

Barry came to StoryCorps to remember his nephew.

Romo3
After Bobby’s death, Barry did not return to Vietnam, he was reassigned to a post in the United States to serve out the remainder of his commitment.

Today Barry is an active member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

Originally aired November 6, 2015, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Photos courtesy of Barry Romo and Beverly Mendoza.

Alex Fennell and Janette Fennell

Days before Halloween in 1995, Janette Fennell, her husband Greig, and their 9-month-old son Alex arrived home from a night out with friends. After pulling into the garage of their San Francisco home, they were confronted by two armed men who forced the couple at gunpoint into the trunk of the Fennell’s car and drove away.

During the several-hour ordeal, which the family survived, both Janette and Greig believed that Alex was still in the backseat of the car in his car seat were they had left him.

Fennell2The carjackers were never caught, but Janette and her husband continued to drive the car (pictured at left in a 1999 photo with Alex and his younger brother, Noah, sitting with their parents on the trunk) they were kidnapped in for several years.

Alex, now in college, sat down for StoryCorps with his mom to talk about the experience.

Janette went on to devote herself to improving car safety by founding a nonprofit that lobbies for car safety reform. Due to her efforts, emergency trunk releases are now standard equipment on all new cars. She has also worked on legislation requiring child safe windows and rear view cameras on all cars.

Originally aired October 23, 2015, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Photos courtesy of Janette Fennell.

Marilyn Hillerman and Andrea Crook

After graduating high school, Andrea Crook (right) moved from her parent’s home in Northern California to Los Angeles. She was on her own for the first time in her life and had never before knowingly experienced the symptoms of mental illness.

A few years later, when she was 24, Andrea began having paranoid thoughts, delusions, and her behavior became erratic. One day she picked up the phone and called her mother, Marilyn Hillerman (left), who knew by the tone of her voice that Andrea needed her help.

Almost 20 years later, the two of them sat down for StoryCorps in Sacramento, California, to discuss that call and its aftermath.

Andrea is now married with two children, and serves as a client advocate liaison for Mental Health America of Northern California.

Originally aired October 9, 2015, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Andy Downs and Angelia Sheer

Young Andy Downs with his father, pilot Brent Downs, and his mother.On Oct 4, 1971, George Giffe, a 35-year-old Tennessee man suffering from mental illness, hijacked a charter plane at gunpoint from the Nashville airport. He also claimed to be in possession of a bomb.

Running low on fuel, the plane’s pilot landed in Jacksonville, FL, where the FBI was waiting. After a brief standoff, Giffe killed the two hostages who remained onboard before turning the gun on himself.

One of the two was Brent Downs—the pilot of the plane.

downs4At StoryCorps, Brent’s son Andy (pictured above with his mother Janie and his father) spoke with Angelia Sheer, the daughter of the man who killed his father.

This tragedy helped shape the way in which law enforcement subsequently handled hijackings after a federal appeals court ruled in 1975 that the FBI acted negligently when agents ignored the safety of the people onboard (the plane is pictured above sitting on the tarmac in Jacksonville, FL).

Originally aired October 2, 2015, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Photos courtesy of Andy Downs.

Chassitty Saldana and Noramay Cadena

Noramay Cadena is a mechanical engineer with several degrees from MIT.

Her family came to the U.S. from Mexico. They settled in Los Angeles where her parents worked in factories.

cadena_extra2Noramay (pictured above right) came to StoryCorps with her teenage daughter, Chassitty Saldana (pictured above left), to remember one summer when, as a teenager, her parents brought her to work.

During her engineering career, Noramay has worked to improve conditions at factories like the ones where her parents still work.

Originally aired September 25, 2015, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Photo courtesy of the Cadena family.