The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History
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The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History University of Arkansas 1 East Center Fayetteville, AR 72701 (479) 575-6829 Arkansas Memories Project Margaret Moore Whillock Interviewed by Scott Lunsford March 1, 2017 Fayetteville, Arkansas Copyright 2017 Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas. All rights reserved. Objective Oral history is a collection of an individual's memories and opinions. As such, it is subject to the innate fallibility of memory and is susceptible to inaccuracy. All researchers using these interviews should be aware of this reality and are encouraged to seek corroborating documentation when using any oral history interview. The Pryor Center's objective is to collect audio and video recordings of interviews along with scanned images of family photographs and documents. These donated materials are carefully preserved, catalogued, and deposited in the Special Collections Department, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville. The transcripts, audio files, video highlight clips, and photographs are made available on the Pryor Center Web site at http://pryorcenter.uark.edu. The Pryor Center recommends that researchers utilize the audio recordings and highlight clips, in addition to the transcripts, to enhance their connection with the interviewee. Transcript Methodology The Pryor Center recognizes that we cannot reproduce the spoken word in a written document; however, we strive to produce a transcript that represents the characteristics and unique qualities of the interviewee's speech pattern, style of speech, regional dialect, and personality. For the first twenty minutes of the interview, we attempt to transcribe verbatim all words and utterances that are spoken, such as uhs and ahs, false starts, and repetitions. Some of these elements are omitted after the first twenty minutes to improve readability. The Pryor Center transcripts are prepared utilizing the University of Arkansas Style Manual for proper names, titles, and terms specific to the university. For all other style elements, we refer to the Pryor Center Style Manual, which is based primarily on The Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition. We employ the following guidelines for consistency and readability: • Em dashes separate repeated/false starts and incomplete/redirected sentences. • Ellipses indicate the interruption of one speaker by another. • Italics identify foreign words or terms and words emphasized by the speaker. • Question marks enclose proper nouns for which we cannot verify the spelling and words that we cannot understand with certainty. The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas ii Arkansas Memories Project, Margaret Moore Whillock Interview, March 1, 2017 http://pryorcenter.uark.edu/ • Brackets enclose o italicized annotations of nonverbal sounds, such as laughter, and audible sounds, such as a doorbell ringing; o annotations for clarification and identification; and o standard English spelling of informal words. • Commas are used in a conventional manner where possible to aid in readability. Citation Information See the Citation Guide at http://pryorcenter.uark.edu/about.php. The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas iii Arkansas Memories Project, Margaret Moore Whillock Interview, March 1, 2017 http://pryorcenter.uark.edu/ Scott Lunsford interviewed Margaret Moore Whillock on March 1, 2017, in Fayetteville, Arkansas. [00:00:00] Scott Lunsford: Margaret. Margaret M. Whillock: Yes. SL: Here we are at the Pryor Center. MW: Mh-hmm. SL: Today's date is March the first, 2017. MW: Right. SL: And my name is Scott Lunsford. MW: Mh-hmm. SL: You're Margaret Whillock. MW: That's right. SL: And I can't believe we're finally gettin' to do this . MW: I know. SL: . after all this time. MW: It's taken a while. [Laughs] SL: Well, I wanted to—um—uh—in part of this intro, I'm . MW: Mh-hmm. SL: . going to ask you if it's okay with you that we're recording this . MW: Yes, of course. The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas 1 Arkansas Memories Project, Margaret Moore Whillock Interview, March 1, 2017 http://pryorcenter.uark.edu/ SL: . and that eventually, we'll post it on our website, and we will preserve it forever. MW: Right. SL: Um—we'll give you a chance to redact anything that you don't want out there. MW: Mmm. SL: Um—we've had very few redactions. [MW laughs] They were usually something like . MW: Oh. SL: . that no-good, fat brother-in-law, or . MW: Mh-hmm. SL: . somethin' that would cause . MW: Yeah. SL: . family warfare. [MW laughs] Um—we have had a few things embargoed. MW: Mh-hmm. [00:00:49] SL: Uh—Morris—uh—Arnold . MW: Mh-hmm. SL: . kept some of the stuff out for a while. MW: Yeah. SL: Uh . MW: Mh-hmm. The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas 2 Arkansas Memories Project, Margaret Moore Whillock Interview, March 1, 2017 http://pryorcenter.uark.edu/ SL: . 'cause he was working on something at the time he couldn't really release. MW: Mh-hmm. SL: Uh—but other than that . MW: Mh-hmm. SL: . um—we're gonna put this out there, and if . MW: Okay. SL: . you're okay with that . MW: Mh-hmm. SL: . you just need to tell me you're okay with it, and we'll . MW: Sure. SL: . keep goin'. MW: Okay. Well . SL: Okay, great. MW: . start. [Laughs] SL: Thank you. MW: Good to go. SL: This is your donation to the Pryor Center. MW: There you—yes. I'm glad to do that. [00:01:16] SL: Um—so—um—I usually start with when and where you were born. MW: Well, I was born in Franklin County, in Altus, Arkansas, on April The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas 3 Arkansas Memories Project, Margaret Moore Whillock Interview, March 1, 2017 http://pryorcenter.uark.edu/ Fools' Day [SL laughs], the first day of April, 1935. SL: And—um—wa—were you born at home, or were you in a hospital? MW: I was born . SL: Home birth. MW: . at home. My brother and sister were born in a hospital, but I was born at home. [00:01:45] SL: And—um—what was your m—mother's name? MW: My mother was Louise—well, Hattie Louise Burrow Moore. And my father was William Rudy Moore. SL: Wow, now is that any relation to the Rudy Moore that . MW: Yes, it . SL: The attorney? MW: Rudy is my brother. That was the . SL: Oh. MW: . judge here in Fayetteville. SL: What a great guy. MW: He was—uh—Rudy Moore Jr. SL: Yeah. MW: Mh-hmm. SL: Okay, well, I didn't—I never . MW: Yeah. The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas 4 Arkansas Memories Project, Margaret Moore Whillock Interview, March 1, 2017 http://pryorcenter.uark.edu/ SL: . knew that connection. MW: Y—oh, you didn't? You didn't know he was my brother? SL: No, I . MW: Oh, yeah. SL: . did not. [00:02:13] MW: I—I've got pictures and things to say about him. SL: Well, we'll get to that. MW: Yeah. SL: Now what about your father's . MW: Um . SL: . his fa—your father's name was . MW: William Rudy Moore. SL: Uh-huh. MW: And they called him Rudy, too. And he eventually evolved, and he became a pharmacist, and he always had a drugstore, and we always had the family farm. He had inherited 986 acres in Franklin County. SL: Mh-hmm. MW: And he loved it. He loved raising cattle. The cattle would lose money, and he'd buy another drugstore. [Laughs] And so as a child, I lived in Fort Smith and several other places. And he ended his career as a pharmacist. He bought a drugstore in The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas 5 Arkansas Memories Project, Margaret Moore Whillock Interview, March 1, 2017 http://pryorcenter.uark.edu/ Springdale when I was a senior in high school. [00:03:02] SL: So wha—when did you move to Fayetteville? MW: Oh, I did not move to Fayetteville until—um—[19]51, I guess. SL: Oh, okay. MW: I was in high school . SL: Okay. MW: . when we came here. SL: All right. MW: Yeah. [00:03:14] SL: Um—so I'm a—so did you spend much time at all on the farm? MW: Not—um—not a great deal. We lived there occa—some, yes. SL: Mh-hmm. MW: There was a house there, of course, but anyway. SL: Franklin County. Now that . MW: Ozark . SL: And that has some . MW: . Altus . SL: . the Mulberry River . MW: Yes. SL: . in Franklin . MW: Yes, it . The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas 6 Arkansas Memories Project, Margaret Moore Whillock Interview, March 1, 2017 http://pryorcenter.uark.edu/ SL: . County. Were . MW: . does. Uh-huh. SL: Did your property touch any of that . MW: It . SL: . water? MW: No. It did not. Uh—in fact when my father finally sold the farm, he was well into his seventies. He asked each of us if we wanted it but—of his three children, but we all turned it down. SL: Uh-huh. [00:03:49] MW: And he sold it to the—um—Wiederkehr winery people. SL: Oh. Okay. MW: It backed up to the Wiederkehr land. SL: Okay. MW: And so they were very happy to have it.