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Leona (Mrs. Will) Stinnett was living in Emerts Cove, in Sevier County, Tennessee, when recorded in 1939.

[transcripption copyrigh Michael Montgomery and Paul Reed, 2017]

[S = Leona Stinnett; I = Interviewer Joseph Hall]

S: Uh, Leona Stinnett’s my name.

I: What was your father’s name?

S: Dallas James.

I: And your mother’s name?

S: Narsina, Narcissus uh Plemmons, no, Miles was my mother’s name, and my grandma was a Plemmons.

I: And where was your father born at?

S: He was borned in North Carolina.

I: What county?

S: Buncombe County.

I: And your mother?

S: Buncombe County.

I: Uh-huh, I believe that about two years ago you told me that uh some of your uh foreparents came from Virginia.

S: My great grandma on my father’s side t- uh, came from the eastern part of North Carolina.

I: The eastern part of North Carolina?

S: Yes sir.

I: What was her name?

S: Uh, I'd, can’t remember, Polly, uh.

I: Well, that’s all right, uh were you born in uh Emerts Cove?

S: No sir, I was borned in Buncombe County, North Carolina, and I came here when I was about seven years old.

I: What did uh Emerts Cove look like when you first came here?

S: Well, it looked uh kind of nice to me, for I wasn’t acquainted with uh nice level lands, you know, our farms was hilly back in North Carolina where I came from and, and uh this was level and nice, it looked quite interesting to me, you know, I was quite small.

I: Uh did you see a tree here that uh appealed to you particularly?

S: Why, yes, the, I seed some sycamore trees, something I never had seen before, you know, and they was uh white, you know, and I asked uh my father what made them paint them trees white, and he said "why they didn’t be, they wasn’t painted, they growed thataway," that they was sycamore trees, they uh it looked quite funny to me, you know, I was so small.

I: Yes, when you were a girl, there probably weren’t uh any doctors here, your mother probably uh treated you when you were sick.

S: Why yes, of course, she uh ...

I: How uh, what kind of remedies would she uh give to the family?

S: Well, teas, one kind and another.

I: What kind of teas?

S: Well, I couldn’t just exactly tell you what kind of teas altogether she made, burbine tea and, and uh spicewood teas and uh evergreen teas and sassafras teas, that was the ...

I: Boneset?

S: Boneset tea.

I: What was boneset tea used for?

S: Uh for colds.

I: For colds?

S: Yeah, that was the fever medicine.

I: Uh-.

S: Yes, that was fever medicine, and they’d make uh horehound candy for colds and coughs, that was our medicine.

I: And what was sassafras tea used for?

S: Well, I couldn’t uh tell you what they used it for, but when we’d get uh sick or anything, they’d make sassafras tea, you know, and have us to drink it.

I: Uh-huh.

S: And ...

 I: If uh, if someone uh in the family took sick with the pneumonia, how would your mother ...

S: Why, she’d uh doctor with boneset tea.

I: Boneset tea?

S: Yes sir.

I: Did she ever make a poultice of any sort?

S: I don’t remember whether she made poultices or not.

I: When you and Mister Stinnett were married, was there any celebration?

S: Not much, not so very much.

I: Uh what uh did they call those uh celebrations when people were married here way back, perhaps thirty or forty years ago?

S: Well, uh called them wedding dinner or something, wedding supper or something, that’s about all there was to that.

I: Uh did you have any serenading here in uh Emerts Cove?

S: Yes sir, they’d serenade people.

I: And what was a serenade like?

S: Well, they’d get bells and guns and old buckets and things and beat and bang on them and shoot around, run around the house a few times with old bells.

I: Uh did they make the bride jump the broom?

S: No, they never made the bride to jump the broom with me.

I: What did they call uh the man who was getting married, did they call him the bridegroom?

S: I think so.

I: And they’d call the uh woman who was getting married the bride, or ...?

S: Yes sir.

I: What did they call the best man?

S: xx.

            -----

I: Who were, who were waiters at the wedding, Missus Stinnett?

S: Well, the gentleman that would sit by the side of the, the one that was a-going to be married, and they, they would be a lady to sit by the side of the woman that was a-going to be married, that was called the waiters.

I: And uh what was the infares?

S: Well, it was when, when uh one would start from where they was married to go to their, their husband’s home, that was called the infare.

I: Uh how many uh children do you have, Missus Stinnett?

S: One daughter.

I: And what does that daughter do?

S: Well, she housekeeps, works all the time at something.

I: Is she a nurse that’s getting them better?

S: No sir, no nurse.

I: Uh did your mother sing any, any of these old love songs when you were a girl?

S: No sir, I never heard her sing love songs, I’ve heard her sing religious songs, I never did hear her sing any love songs.

I: She didn’t sing Barbry Allen or Pretty Polly?

S: No sir, no sir.

I: Uh did she just uh like the uh religious songs particularly?

S: Yes sir, yes sir.

I: How did the people uh here think about the uh, about love songs?

S: Well, I don’t know, some people likes them very well and some don’t like them so well.

I: But the uh church isn’t opposed to singing love songs, are they?

S: Well, I don’t know.

I: Hmm, uh what does the church uh feel about card playing with men?

S: Well, I expect the church would feel pretty cold about that.

I: What about dancing?

S: I don’t expect they’d approve of it very much and ...

I: But there’s a good deal of dancing and frolicking, I suppose, here.

S: Yes sir, there’s plenty of it, I guess.

I: Uh-huh, what kind of music did they have, the uh dances here?

S: I couldn’t tell you, I never was at one.

H: We'll just stop there.