Matewan Oral History Project Collection
Sc2003-135

Betty Smith Interview

Becky Bailey: Today's date is, June 19, 1990. Becky Bailey from the Matewan Development Center, I'm home in the home of Betty Smith. And my first question Mrs. Smith is, when and where you were born?

Betty Smith: I born in uh...(her aunt Liza Blakenship says Williamson Memorial Hospital) Williamson, West Virginia at Williamson Memorial Hospital May the ninth, 1960.

B: Okay. And who are your parents?

BS: Uh...my adopted parents, were Fred and Rachel Smith, of Matewan, West Virginia. (Liza Blakenship says - your real mommy was Frances Ann Hatfield, she never tells who your daddy was).

B: Okay. And would you tell me something about the Hatfield family background, how you were related to the Hatfields.

BS: Well, my real mother was Frances Ann Hatfield, she was the daughter of Luther Hatfield (Liza Blakenship says "and Mabel Hatfield was her mommy's name and Mabel and Luther Hatfield (Aunt answer Mabel and Luther was her mommy and daddy).

B: Okay. Luther and Mabel Hatfield. Okay. And do you know further back than that?

BS: Well, no not really, and all I know is Devil Anse is my great, great, great grandfather.

B: How did you become to be adopted by the Smith's?

BS: Let's see uh...Frances that was, I was her second pregnancy, and she had already had another son before me and so she was not married and she did not want the responsibility of another child. So she adopted me even before I was born, to Fred and Rachel Smith for a payment of hospital fees, in the time for delivery.

B: Did they tell you why they wanted to adopt a baby?

BS: uh...Well Fred and Rachel wanted to adopt me because they couldn't have a child of their own and uh...there was no possible way for her to have a child so, they was wantin' a baby real bad and they, heard of me from close friends of theirs and she was going to give me away to somebody, so they needed a child and wanted one so I was the lucky number and I was chosen, I was one of the chosen ones. (Liza Blakenship talking, she, she called down Williamson tryin' to get the doctors to knock me in, knock me in, thought Rachel wasn't going to take her and you know that was my sister that adopted her, she called down there and Dr. Scott, and Dr. Salton was the doctors, and uh...she called down there, Frances did, you know...that's her mommy, (Betty's biological mother) uh...she called down there and asked that doctor did, "if Rachel, my sister, didn't adopt her would he take it," he told her no he already had one adopted, he didn't have any kids, but he didn't have no kids but he had one adopted.

B: How old was your real mother when you were born?

BS: I think she was about...twenty. Liza Blakenship: (she had already Mark, before she had you and she wasn't married and give you away, see she had Mark too, she had two to raise and she wanted to give one away.)

B: Now, you said she never said who your real father was does, does your...

BS: No, she never does really tell, she doesn't really know she claims that uh...she blocked it out, I don't know whether it was you know, I don't no whether it was rape or uh...I can't really go into that, because I don't know, you know, and the only thing she says is that she just can't remember his name. (Liza Blakenship -she just told us that 'cause...Betty didn't remember that Betty wasn't born. She wouldn't tell me and my sister, who Betty belonged to and she blocked him out of her mind and she didn't tell, that's all she said. She never would tell.)

B: Okay. Um. Now did your older half-brother know who his father was?

BS: Yeah. His brother was uh... I mean his father uh...Lowell Gibson.

B: Now um...let's see do you have much contact with the Hatfield family other than your mother?

BS: Mmm...well, I go visit my mother but that's about, that's about the only people I associate with, I wasn't raised with them and so, the only, you know, you know the only others I know is in my half-brothers and half-sisters and that's really, the people who I associate with. I don't know if the rest of the Hatfield family know if I'm really kin to them or not. Liza Blakenship: (Yeah, Mary and them doesn't, don't know, Mary and Frances' sisters and that one lived on, on Ieagar [sic].)

BS: They assume I'm a Smith because, that I was adopted in the Smith family so I carry their name.

B: Now, your, your adopted father, worked for the Railroad?

BS: He worked for the Railroad Company when he was young, but later, later in his later life he worked as a coal miner.

B: Uh...huh, Okay. Did he ever tell you about his early life workin' for the railroad?

BS: Well, he died when I was two years old, so I really can't remember him.

B: Okay. But he worked for the railroad first and then, then in the mines. Okay. So your adopted mother did she ever remarry after he died?

BS: No, she uh...she died in 1974.

B: Okay, When we first made contact you said you knew somethin' about the old herbs and the things that people used for medicine can you tell me something about that?

BS: Well, I know that the uh...penny royal, I know that's the name of it is, to go by, uh...professional...professional name for it is penny royal. But the old people call it pennyroll, and uh...they used for...to...break fevers, like menstrual cramps, durin' monthly you know the cycle, they used it to break the cramps. Liza Blakenship: (saying if you drink it at night a sweat you know, it will make you sweat you know it, it will make you sweat and sweat a cold out of ya.) She's got some out there now ain't ya.

BS: And then the peppermint uh...they used that for uh...they smelled it, just use it like olefactory through the nose for like headache pain, they tie it to their head, to relieve headaches.

B: Um. Now, um...how did you learn about this?

BS: Uh... my Aunt Liza Blankenship told me about it.

B: Did she teach anything else about?

BS: Well, she said uh...the old time milk weed plant, they use to break the leaves off that and there's a white milky uh... substance, that comes from it and they rub it on like toe itch, when you get that breaking out between your toes, it itches and burns. They use to put that on something they called toe itch. Then she, she also told me that uh...like if you get uh... the shingles, that runs around your waist and stuff that they use to kill the black chickens, and drain the blood out and rub it on that and that's how they cure the shingles.

B: Uh...okay let's see here. Um...what about um...how, how long have you had contact with your mother did you always know who your real mother was?

BS: No, uh I didn't know that I was adopted, until my real mother, contacted me, you know after the death of my adopted mother, I didn't know anything about her, I thought that uh...my mother that died was my real mother, until after her death and she phoned me and told me that she was my real mother. So, and that's how I found out.

B: Uh-huh, um. And uh...how did, how did you feel about that?

BS: Well, uh it was kind of weird, at first. Knowing that uh...I was adopted and uh...you know that she was my real mother and I suppose that my feelings were at that time, "no it couldn't be true, you know." And as time went on I just learned to accept it, and what was done is done and there was nothing no one could do change it...on either side.

B: Okay. How old was your adopted parents when they adopted you did you know?

BS: Well, not really um...I suppose that they were really gettin' up in their later years, because I know my mother, my adopted mother was in her uh....mid 50's when she passed away. And uh...I supposed my dad he was uh...uh...almost 70 some when he passed away, so uh...they had to be at least in their late 40's and late 50's when they adopted me, or somewhere around there.

B: Uh-huh, so you don't know when they were married or uh...

BS: No, I...I really wouldn't know that.

B: Uh-huh, okay.

Liza Blakenship: (shows a picture of Betty's mom in the hospital). That's a Christmas card she sent Betty.

B: Uh-huh, that's nice. What's your relationship with your mother now, your real mother?

BS: Well, we...we get along, I mean I don't have no hard feelings against her for doin' what she had to do, I know sometimes we have to make choices, and you know, due to life and circumstances, Liza Blakenship: (she didn't have enough money and she couldn't raise them both).

BS: So I speak to her and she speaks to me, but really that's.. that's something more less like a good friendship,

Liza Blakenship: (her mom sends her a card on Christmas, and sends you birthday presents and things, don't she and things like that)?

B: Okay. What was Matewan like when you were growing up, was it does it look like it did know was it?

BS: No, it was radically different during the time I was growing up, I mean things were good and (Aunt is showing Becky pictures) when I was growing up things were uh...the economic conditions seem to be better, there were more people livin' here, then and it was a prosperous community, we had uh...high schools over here and uh...there seem to have been more population in here but since uh...my good memories of Matewan were back when I was a child, up until the flood and then after the flood things changed, they just don't seem the same anymore.

B: Uh-huh. Were you all affected, I notice you live up on a hill did, were you all affected by the flood?

BS: Um, well we couldn't get out because we were stranded on all sides, and it lacked four feet getting in the house.

B: Uh...uh...and this is the 1977 flood?

BS: The, '77, but we had them, seem like on a twenty year cycle, you had one in '77, '57, '37 and uh...as far back as I can remember, I can hear him talkin' about the '37 and '57 but, I never expected to see it in '77, I was seventeen, let's see seventeen years old in 1977 and uh...that water came up so fast, I mean that it was a frightening experience, It uh...I didn't even think it was going to quit when it did. So we... I think it affected me emotionally because uh...even to the day, right now, when it rains hard at night when i'm sleeping or anything I can't sleep I have to get up because, I think it's going to come back again. And if it follows the twenty-year cycle in 1997, we'll have another one and I think that, I think it will get even bigger than, because the silt flowin' into the rivers from uh...mine run off and you know not to mention the normal erosion it's going to fill in the rivers even more.

B: Okay. What um...where did you go to school in Matewan?

BS: Uh...well, I went to grade school and Matewan Grade School and then after I went through the Grade School, I started in Matewan Junior High...And then Matewan High School, which is right across from where I live now, in 1977 in April '77 when the flood came, it got into the school and destroyed the school as we knowed it, I finished school at home, through correspondence course, through an American school in Chicago, Illinois, and I got my diploma in November of 1977...And so I did that instead of waitin' for them to get everything rebuilt and uh...'cause it would of takin' longer. So I finished at home.

B: Did alot of kids do that, did they finish at home or?

BS: No,I think most of 'em just waited, until they built the new school so, I think must of 'em waited and graduated at the new school.

B: Uh-huh. What have you done since you graduated from high school?

BS: Well, I started workin' on the Ambulance I went to Vocational School, became a trained E.M.T, and I worked on the Ambulance a couple of years and then my health started gettin' bad like uh...heart condition, tachacardia, so I...I...kinda of backed of away from the strenuous work and uh...trained as a cashier, and worked up until 1984 as a cashier. And I done some cleaning and stuff in between that and I haven't worked since 1984.

B: Uh-huh, okay. Is that because of your heart condition? Okay. What is that heart condition?

BS: Well, it's called superventricular tachacardia. And most likely was inherited from a side of my family which I don't, don't know, which from my mother's or my dad I really don't know where it came from. But, I went to the hospital in eight-six because of it, my pulse rate went as high as a hundred and forty and it has been that way up until last fall, which it causes severe migraine headaches and uh...nausea and vomiting and really bad incapacitation,thats the only way I can describe it. Because...it's when your head hurts so bad, that you can see colors and flashing lights your incapacitated. But, uh...I'm on the medication uh...tenoretic now, it helps with the fast heart beat but, still from time to time I still have the severe headaches.

B: Uh-huh. Would you tell me something about...would you tell me something about, you were showing me a photo album and there was uh...um a relative that was involved in the Matewan battle, I assume he was Ballard.

BS: Well, Ballard Blankenship, was my Aunt Liza Blankenship's brother and uh...he was if I'm not mistaken, he was on uh...with the Baldwin Felts Detective Agency or the state militia, I don't know which. But he was serving under one of those, uh...as a security guard or some type of crime control, I not sure which but he was employed at that and uh...my Aunt Liza Blankenship said he used to come home on his days off and he'd brag about his job and his guns and his uniforms, he had his uniform. So that's how that I came to know about him,

B: Um. Okay. Was there uh...anything else you like to add on tape today?

BS: Uh...well, I just hope some people is concerned with the future of Matewan and uh...as well as I see it, I can't really imagine it the same after all that's going to be done in here, I can't imagine it being the same place and it won't never be home again. And so I hope that uh...I hope it does build up, but really I can't see that happening, because the people that are leaving have no plans of returning as far as I know and I don't because uh...if I can move to Williamson and uh...and uh...get settled at Valley View and find some type of employment down there, I don't plan on comin' back because there's been nothin' here for anybody since the Flood(1977) and you know most of the people were forced to leave. They had to leave they had nothing, I mean they lost everything. So most of the people left at that time, which we would of also if we had been flooded. We would of left too.

B: How was that handled? Were people, I mean did people that say have their houses washed away did they just leave or did they clean up?

BS: Well, they uh...provided temporary shelter by small campers and stuff down at the new Matewan High School, where the new Matewan High School is out back and they lived there for a while and the ones that couldn't find uh...you know housing or couldn't rebuild. uh...They either made arrangements to leave or relocate to another place. But uh...I know right after this happened they sent in uh... National Guard Troops and I know they come here and they had a "X" on our home, they were goin' to burn it. If we had left durin' the time of the flood and we hadn't been here they would of burned our home even though it was not flooded. They was gettin' ready to mark an "X" with red spray paint. And uh...I caught him before he made a mark on it. I told him, "I said uh...You know this house wasn't flooded, you don't put no mark on it." And even though they didn't mark it they almost burned it because it was dry right after the flood (Liza Blakenship...You see that pine tree up there, the water was right up behind that wudn't it? Me and her got out of this house we was afraid it would come up from the basement under the floor and wash the building out and turn the house over. We left and went to the mountains. (Aunt talking...we stayed up here on a hill didn't we?

BS: We stayed up in the mountains that night I guess from 11 o'clock and I had my guitar packed up and had my parakeet with me and had a old coat throwed over him and we hung it up in the tree and stayed out from 11 o'clock that night probably 'till seven or eight o'clock that morning when the water started receding. And then we came back, because we were dead for sleep and we were soaking wet. But after the flood uh when they did burn the houses they did burn 'em the ones that were flooded they did burn 'em. And uh...they set one out from us on fire. It used to be the old V.T. Hatfield place. They burnt that and set the hills on fire and we nearly got burn up too in the process. I went out there to helped them put it out, maybe I shouldn't of done it, but uh...I tried.

B: Do you think um...the whole after the flood uh...clean up efforts was it handled well?

BS: Well, they done the best they could, because they never had anything in here quite that bad before, not at that depth level, I mean that was deep, and it came up rapid, uh...I think at one time there it was risin' a little foot over an hour. And it came up fast 'cause I was sittin' here out on the porch and watched it rise. And uh...they did the best they could under the circumstances they only thing I disagree with, was the debris from Matewan that wasn't burnt and they dumped it out back of uh...Matewan down here where the town hall is, and Mingo Lime and Lumber used to be. And filled the river in even more. And that is where well, right now where the the fill is, back there where its level behind Town Hall, that use to be river bed, because the reason I know is because when I was a small child, probably about five or six years old, me and my adopted mother was down there and they were in swimmin' and uh...I know that I stepped out a ledge and I went down in the water and I nearly drowned, and the reason why I know its filled back then right directly behind Mingo Lime and Lumber you would go straight down a bank, probably I'd say about fifteen feet straight down on a bank to the river, and now it's nothing but fill plum out and so that's the only thing that I say was done wrong at that time. Was instead of takin' that to the landfill, where they should of filled in behind the Town Hall and made it level.

B: Uh-huh. I know we've also talked about you being, something of a musician, would you like to play a song?

BS: Uh, well I play uh...keyboards and I play a guitar and uh I really taught myself that. Well, I play by hear but now I did take band in Grade School and High School. But uh...the music that I play I don't read music off of it and I just know it and hear it by ear by the way it sounds in my brain and that's the way I make it sound. When I play it, and most of the time if I hear somebody play somethin' once or twice I can copy it almost exactly, if not better than they do. So I'd be happy to play some for you.

B: Okay. Well uh before we do that were you saying when we first made contact that um... was it in the Hatfields to uh...to be musically gifted?

BS: Well, some...some are and some aren't, uh...it must be in a certain...type of the Hatfield's others are more talented in other areas, but mostly they are musically inclined.

B: Becky laughs.

BS: She's playing music.

Matewan Oral History Project Collection