William K. Diehl, Jr. Interviewer: Ryan Smith Place: Charlotte, North Carolina Date: October 6, 1995
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INTERVIEWEE: WILLIAM K. DIEHL, JR. INTERVIEWER: RYAN SMITH PLACE: CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA DATE: OCTOBER 6, 1995 Tape 1, Side A RYAN SMITH: Mr. Diehl, we would just like to begin with your early childhood. Where were you born? WILLIAM K. DIEHL, JR: Norfolk, Virginia. RS: How long did you live in Norfolk? WD: [I] lived in Norfolk from the time I was born, which was October 4, 1944, which means I just celebrated a birthday two days ago, until 1959 when my family moved from Norfolk to Kinston, North Carolina, which is in the eastern part of the state; and [I] went to high school there and graduated from high school in 1962 and [then] I went to Chapel Hill. And when I completed Chapel Hill in 1966, I went to the University of Virginia Law School in Charlottesville. I got my law degree there in 1969 and I came to Charlotte to practice law in 1969. RS: What do you remember about growing up in Norfolk? WD: Boy, lots and lots of things. I am the oldest of six children. I have lots of memories of a big family and the things that go along with a big family, the goods and the bads that happen when you are in a large group of young people. I remember starting to work when I was twelve years old as a newspaper boy, and I am either glad or sad to say that I have been working since I was twelve, steadily. My dad didn't have a lot of money and didn't make a lot of money. We didn't 1 Interview number J-0065 in the Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) at The Southern Historical Collection, The Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, UNC-Chapel Hill. want for the basics or anything like that, but I have pretty much been making my own way from an economic standpoint for about thirty nine years now. So I have a recollection of working as a youth: getting up at four o'clock in the morning delivering newspapers and a good route, collecting once a week the money from the various customers, and in the midst of all that, developing a relationship with a girlfriend. That was kind of nice. I would always try to collect at her house when her parents were out for something, so that I could have a little visit with my sweetie. I remember sports. My dad was the sports editor of the newspaper in Norfolk and so I grew up with an appreciation for sports activity and I played a lot of sports: football and baseball, and basketball, those being the three things that were prevalent in those days for young people. [We] didn't have any soccer in the '50s, and being an average athlete I have a few recollections of moments of glory but not many. I was always short, white, fat, and slow. And I have retained all of those characteristics in my adulthood. But I enjoy it. [I] love sports, and to this day, [I] thoroughly enjoy sports activities. I don't play much sports anymore but have kept myself active in my law practice in the sports area. And so I vicariously experience those moments now. RS: You say that you had a paper route. Was Norfolk a small town at that time? WD: No, Norfolk, in my life time, has been relatively a large city and it was then. [It] certainly seemed big to me. I just went back maybe four weeks ago, 2 Interview number J-0065 in the Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) at The Southern Historical Collection, The Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, UNC-Chapel Hill. took my Mom to a wedding, and it was interesting riding around and seeing the changes in Norfolk. But Norfolk doesn't feel particularly bigger as a city, certainly the core of the city is basically the same place. It's much nicer now. They have modernized it [and have] cleaned up some of the area that was not very attractive and not very pretty in the '50s. But it was a big city then relative to the state of Virginia - Richmond and Norfolk being the two cities of any size in that area -- and so I grew up not as a country boy. I wasn't on a farm or anything like that. RS: You said you just saw your mother a few weeks ago. Did you have a close family growing up? WD: I would say we had a pretty close family. My dad was a person that because I think of the way his life was and getting into sports from the writing standpoint, (he) was a competitive person and inspired in us competition; and so there was a lot of competition going on among our family members, whether it was football or baseball in the backyard, things like that, or ping-pong, or whatever it happened to be. There was this winning notion which I am not so sure how great that was as I look on it from a retrospective standpoint. I didn't grow up particularly close to my father although I don't have anything bad to say about him. He was busy. He took me places - to sporting events, things like that. I was the oldest and I enjoyed all that, but we didn't communicate very well. I have always had a better personal relationship with my mother. RS: What did your father do? 3 Interview number J-0065 in the Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) at The Southern Historical Collection, The Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, UNC-Chapel Hill. WD: He wrote; he was a writer, a sports writer. And later he had a TV sports show and a radio sports show. So he was in the media in the area of sports until 1959. Then when we moved to North Carolina, it was because he bought a radio station. We were in the radio business for about three years. He bought, subsequently, three more stations in Florida. Then, my senior year in high school in Kinston, he was in Florida with these three new stations; and he sold the station in Kinston and my family moved to Florida when I went to Chapel Hill. The only time I lived in Florida was in the summer for two of the summers away from college I was in Florida, one working at one of the radio stations and one selling clothes which was my other means of making a living after I got out of high school. RS: You said you had a close relationship with your mother? WD: Yes. RS: Did she work while you were growing up? WD: No. My mother is legally blind and has been her whole life. She never had a driver's license. So she was a home maker and a home maker and never worked outside of the home. Now at age 72 (my dad died two years ago) she lives in Lynchburg, by herself, very independent surprisingly, doing extremely well. I am very pleased that she has adjusted to being more independent after being a dependent person her entire life. I mean, she couldn't go anywhere by herself because she couldn't get there if she had to drive. I mean, she can walk places but if it required any distance, she was out of luck. 4 Interview number J-0065 in the Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) at The Southern Historical Collection, The Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, UNC-Chapel Hill. RS: How do you think it affected you and your brothers and sisters that she was home and around all of the time? WD: I think in a positive way. I am a believer in that -- I like to think of myself in some areas as a little more liberal than maybe some of my cohorts/ contemporaries, but I am a believer in mothers being home with children, even big children. It seems to provide a certain sense of stability and nurturing that we all need even though we think we don't when we are thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen and know everything and know more than anybody. But the fact [is] it was great to have her there and she has always been there. So that was good, I think. RS: How about your grandparents? Did you know your grandparents? WD: Yeah. I knew all four of them for varying lengths of time. My granddad on my dad's side was a traveling clothing salesman and I am named after him. His name was Kase William and my dad was William Kase and I am a Jr. I have kept the clever tradition going by naming my son William Kase III. But anyhow, Pappy as we called him, lived a long life and I knew him all of it even to the time I was married. And I have been married since 1966, which means I am working on my thirtieth anniversary. So even into my early married life he was alive. [He] ended up at the Elks Home in Bedford, Virginia, and he was a sprightly, talkative person, I guess, [from] being a salesman, a clothing salesman. He had a line and traveled extensively selling, as I understand it, navy uniforms to naval officers all over the east coast. [He] did a lot of traveling by train and was gone a lot, apparently. He and my dad were not that close I am given to understand.