INTERVIEW with VANNIE KIRBY” Voices of the DC Fort Totten Storytellers by Stephanie Mills Trice (DCOHC Community Partner)
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INDEX “INTERVIEW WITH VANNIE KIRBY” Voices of the DC Fort Totten Storytellers By Stephanie Mills Trice (DCOHC Community Partner) Narrator Full Name: Vannie (Crowder) Kirby Date of the Interview: 2018-06-21 Location: Lamond Riggs Public Library Washington DC Interviewer Name: Stephanie Mills Trice Total length of Interview: 40 minutes This oral history interview was conducted with Vannie Kirby by Stephanie Mills Trice in Washington, DC. Vannie Kirby was born in Rockingham, North Carolina and moved to Washington, DC to attend business school. Mrs. Kirby and her husband moved to the Fort Totten neighborhood in 1964. She talks about raising her children in Fort Totten. She attended Cortez Peters Business School for two years and worked for the Department of Public Health for 31 years. She talks about the changes gentrification has brought to the Fort Totten area where she still resides. Vannie Kirby Index 00:08-05:02 Interview introductions and Mrs. Kirby discusses living in the Petworth area before moving to Fort Totten. Her children attending Powell and Keene Elementary, Rabaut and Roosevelt schools. She’s originally from North Carolina and her father, Leroy Crowder worked for the Seaboard Railroad. 05:03-15:03 Mrs. Kirby reminiscences about the childhood games that she played with the children in her neighborhood. She talks about Rockingham Colored High School and how she skipped a grade and graduated at 17 years old, fads, alumni reunions (Leakstreetalumni.org) and attending Cortez Peters Business School. 15:04-20:02 She explains that her family was already living in DC thus the reason for attending the business school which was located in the U Street corridor and meeting Mr. Marvin Kirby there. She goes on to name all the neighborhoods and streets that she lived on. 20:03-24:59 She talks about the discovery of their present home in Fort Totten, demographics of the neighborhood in 1964. 25:00-35:04 Mrs. Kirby discusses her experience of the era in shopping downtown at the various department stores (e.g., Hechts, Lansburgh and Woodworth and Lothrop). She briefly discusses the Fort Totten Civic Association and how Mr. Kirby was involved early on and the Church she attends, Canaan Baptist where her in-laws were founders. 35:05-40:00 Mrs. Kirby states that getting the Metro, which goes through Fort Totten was a historical event that she recalled while living in the community. She shares that while living in the Petworth neighborhood she and Mr. Kirby were eligible to vote for the first time. She also talks about change in the city and gentrification. .