Life Everlasting and the Twelve Mile Blues: Remembering McCreary County in the Early 20th Century

Take a trek back in time with Selvidge, as she explores what it was like to live in McCreary County, Kentucky before, during, and after the Great Depression. Meet Mary Gilreath Selvidge who left the mountains to find a good job in Detroit during WWII. Explore the life of Myrtle Gilreath Baird who makes a choice to stay in the mountains. Living apart, their love for each other never faded. Several family members allowed Selvidge to tape interviews with them. She also discovered scores of other oral accounts in the McCreary County Library that were taped during the mid-twentieth century. There were church-goers, miners, midwives, casket makers, hunters, and people who worked for the WPA and the CCC during the depression. Selvidge describes the hundred year old homestead that all the family descended upon during the first week of July every year. One of the most important traditions of the family was to visit the graves of those who passed on. One by one, as they explored the grave stones, stories of ancient ancestors were relived and appreciated. Walk with her as she examines iron horses, mines, one-room school houses, mountain churches, free blacks and coloreds, moonshine, violence, and sex on the mountain. Discover the secret of life everlasting in the valley and on the mountain top in McCreary County from a girl who had the Twelve Mile blues.

Author: Marla Jean Selvidge
Publisher: Loch Lloyd Travel Consultants, Llp
Published: 02/14/2015
Pages: 146
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.58lbs
Size: 9.25h x 7.50w x 0.31d
ISBN: 9780989580854

About the Author
Marla J. Selvidge, Ph.D., is Professor Emerita (That means she is retired!) at UCM. She founded the Center for Religious Studies in 1990 and directed its growth, developing scores of courses, as well as academic and public programs. She specialized in feminist and peace studies. Having published numerous academic texts and articles, her first novel was completed in 2013, Demimonde. The Other Story. In 2014 she published her ground-breaking book For the Love of Elvis and most recently, a biography of Igor Yusov entitled, Igor and the Red Elvises. Hailing from Roseville, Michigan, (Just outside of Detroit) she has spent most of her career in Higher Education. Her Ph.D. is from Saint Louis University and the M.A. was awarded at Wheaton Graduate School. Marla resides with her spouse and long-time friend, Thomas C. Hemling, Ph.D., a Chemist, and two beloved canines, Prince Charlie and Princess Twinkers, in a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. For correspondence with Dr. Marla you can email her at selvidgemarlaj@gmail.com.

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