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0:06 - Introduction

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Partial Transcript: Today is October 14th, 1984. I am interviewing Sue Kendrick and Vivian Hyatt. We are at 104 Woodmore Avenue. The topic is Lou Tate and the Little Loomhouse.

Segment Synopsis: Ward introduces the interview by giving the date, her interviewees' names (Kendrick & Hyatt), their location, and their topic: Lou Tate and the Little Loomhouse.

Keywords: Lou Tate; Lou Tate Bousman; Louisa Tate Bousman; Louisville, Kentucky; Louisville, Ky; Sue Kendrick; Teka Ward; The Little Loomhouse; Vivian Hyatt; Woodmore Ave.; Woodmore Avenue

Subjects: Kentucky--History; Louisville (Ky.)--History; Weaving

0:19 - Friendship / Weaving guilds of Kentucky

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Partial Transcript: Before we start discussing Lou Tate...both of you all are weavers. You've both been involved with the Little Loomhouse. I want to know how you all first met.

Segment Synopsis: Hyatt and Kendrick recall how they first would have met over forty years prior to the interview. They also talk a bit about their involvement in weaving guilds and about how many weaving guilds there are in Kentucky.

Keywords: Agnes Stop; Brother Kim Malloy; Capital City Spinning and Weaving; Dr. Mather; Hobby Weavers; Lou Tate; Lou Tate Bousman; Louisa Tate Bousman; Louisville, Kentucky; Louisville, Ky; Sam Kendrick; Sue Kendrick; The Little Loomhouse; Vivian Hyatt

Subjects: Guilds; Kentucky--History; Louisville (Ky.)--History; Weaving

3:07 - Monthly birthday parties / Brother Kim Malloy

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Partial Transcript: After that first open house...earlier, I took a photograph of a planter which Vivian Hyatt had given Sue Kendrick as a result of a monthly birthday party that Lou Tate had...

Segment Synopsis: Hyatt and Kendrick recall the monthly birthday parties that Lou Tate would host at the Little Loomhouse. They also explain how Brother Kim Malloy brought spinning to the Little Loomhouse, which had not taken place there prior to him becoming acquainted with Lou Tate.

Keywords: Birthday party; Brother Kim Malloy; Lou Tate; Lou Tate Bousman; Louisa Tate Bousman; Louisville, Kentucky; Louisville, Ky; Saint Meinrad Archabbey; Saint Meinrad's; St. Meinrad Archabbey; St. Meinrad's; Sue Kendrick; The Little Loomhouse; Vivian Hyatt

Subjects: Birthday parties; Bridge (game); Card games; Kentucky--History; Louisville (Ky.)--History; Spinning; Weaving

8:08 - Lou Tate's methods of learning and teaching

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Partial Transcript: As you look back on these years with Lou Tate, if you had to describe the late 30s, the 40s, the 50s, and the 60s, and the 70s, how would you describe each of those periods of time in her life...your all's activity in it?

Segment Synopsis: Hyatt and Kendrick describe Lou Tate's tendency to research and learn a lot about weaving, but also to be slow to share that information with others. The say that Lou Tate did this to keep people coming back to the Little Loomhouse because she liked being surrounded by others. They talk about the various places that she taught in her lifetime. They also recall what they were able to learn about weaving from Lou Tate.

Keywords: Bob Douglas; Chicago, IL; Chicago, Illinois; Florida; Leno lace; Little looms; Lou Tate; Lou Tate Bousman; Louisa Tate Bousman; Louisville, Kentucky; Louisville, Ky; Nashville, Tennessee; Nashville, TN; Robert Douglas; Rose Pero; Sam Kendrick; Spalding College; Spalding University; Sue Kendrick; The Kentucky Derby; The Little Loomhouse; Vivian Hyatt

Subjects: Kentucky--History; Looms; Louisville (Ky.)--History; Teaching; Universities and colleges; Weaving

17:19 - Other weaving organizations / Kentucky Weaver magazine

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Partial Transcript: You're one of the few people who remained with Lou Tate over all the years...

Segment Synopsis: Hyatt and Kendrick talk about how some people would break away from The Little Loomhouse and form other weaving organizations due to occasional differences in opinion with Lou Tate. They also discuss how all the work they have done for the Little Loomhouse over the years has been volunteer work because Lou Tate's desire was to be a philanthropist -- this includes the work they did on the publication of the Kentucky Weaver magazine.

Keywords: Bob Landers; Hobby Weavers of the Ohio Valley; Kentucky Weaver; Lou Tate; Lou Tate Bousman; Louisa Tate Bousman; Louisville, Kentucky; Louisville, Ky; Sue Kendrick; Teka Ward; The Little Loomhouse; Wesley Community House; Wesley House; Woodmore Ave.; Woodmore Avenue

Subjects: Kentucky--History; Louisville (Ky.)--History; Spinning; Weaving; Wesley foundations

21:48 - Lou Tate's sickness and drive

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Partial Transcript: But you returned to her Vivian, didn't you?

Segment Synopsis: Vivian Hyatt talks about the ten years that she was not regularly involved with The Little Loomhouse. They also talk about when Lou Tate became sick, and that she was sick for a long time. Teka Ward asks about what drove Lou Tate to weave and do the work that she did.

Keywords: Lou Tate; Lou Tate Bousman; Louisa Tate Bousman; Louisville, Kentucky; Louisville, Ky; Sue Kendrick; The Little Loomhouse; Vivian Hyatt

Subjects: Kentucky--History; Louisville (Ky.)--History; Weaving

24:14 - Parties

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Partial Transcript: We were discussing the birthday parties that would be held for people who had taken part in the Loomhouse activities. In which of the three cabins would the party be held?

Segment Synopsis: Hyatt and Kendrick describe why Lou Tate would host parties. They also talk about where the parties were held and what they were like. Sue Kendrick explains how she wishes that the foundation would honor Lou Tate's birthday in October.

Keywords: Ann Kiper; Esta; Lou Tate; Lou Tate Bousman; Louisa Tate Bousman; Louisville, Kentucky; Louisville, Ky; Sue Kendrick; The Little Loomhouse; Top House; Vivian Hyatt

Subjects: Kentucky--History; Louisville (Ky.)--History; Parties; Weaving

27:54 - After Lou Tate's death

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Partial Transcript: When you went back, Vivian, you stayed after that ten years, you didn't leave again?

Segment Synopsis: Sue Kendrick recalls how she talked to the lawyers after Lou Tate's death to try to save The Little Loomhouse and Lou Tate's legacy. She and Vivian Hyatt had come up with a plan already to sell some of the items in the Loomhouse to make money to open it back up. They cleaned after Lou Tate's death and finished many of the children's projects to raise the money to save the Loomhouse. They also sold some of the looms. For a while, they were able to have The Little Loomhouse open on a daily basis. After a while, they started classes back up at The Little Loomhouse.

Keywords: Colonel Sanders; Lou Tate; Lou Tate Bousman; Louisa Tate Bousman; Louisville, Kentucky; Louisville, Ky; Open houses; Sue Kendrick; The Little Loomhouse; Vivian Hyatt

Subjects: Girl Scouts; Kentucky--History; Louisville (Ky.)--History; Weaving

0:00

Teka Ward: My name is Teka Ward. Today is October 14, 1984. I am interviewing Sue Kendrick and Vivian Hyatt. We are at 104 Woodmore Ave. The topic is Lou Tate and the Little Loomhouse.

Before we start discussing Lou Tate, both of you are our weavers. You’ve both been involved with the Little Loomhouse. I want you to know how you all first met.

(Laughter)

Vivian: I went to Open House and Sue was there. I guess that was it, but I don’t know the date.

Sue: I don’t know the date either, but it’s over forty years ago.

Vivian: Agnes Scott was teaching a workshop and I saw it in the paper. Then I went out and Sue was there.

Teka: Had both of you all gone, prior to this?

Vivian: No, I hadn’t, but Sue had.. That was my first time.

Sue: I became involved about 1936 possibly; possibly ‘37, but Sam and I came to Louisville in January of 1936. And, of course, the first thing I did was to look Lou Tate up.

And then she and Dr. Mather were working on the loom and then Sam became involved because he was working for a woodworking company and had tools available. Dr. Mather jokingly said, “I don’t have any tools except my dentist tools,” but that wasn’t true. He had a nice workshop. But it made a good joke.

Teka: How did you all become--I know that you are friends today, I know that you still do things today. Tell me some of the things that you all are still involved in today.

Sue: Well, the Hobby Weavers, for one thing, and just when I’m lonesome, I’ll call Vivian up (Laughter) and I just don’t know if she ever gets lonely, because she has her whole family here and I’m alone, but Vivian and I have always been able to…oh, just be good friends.

Teka: But now you just went to visit Brother Kim within the last two years, I would say.

Sue: Yes, but that was with Hobby Weavers…

Vivian and Sue: Yes, but that was Hobby Weavers and Fleece and Flax, a group. And the Home Spun; all of us weavers got together and went [to visit Brother Kim].

Teka: How many organizations are there in Louisville? Or Kentucky?

Sue: There’re four in Louisville and one in Frankfort, because I belong to that one. That’s the only reason I know there’s one there.

Vivian: There’s one in Lexington, but I’m not sure what the name is, well, of course, the Little Loomhouse is not included. These are guilds that we’re talking about kepta, city, (?) spinning and weaving with the one in Frankfort. Kepta (?)organized two years ago.

Teka; After that first Open House, earlier, I took a photograph of a planter which Vivian Hyatt had given to Sue Kendrick, as a result of a birthday; a monthly birthday party that Lou Tate had?

Vivian: Each month she would have a party and she’d fix a meal and everything and we’d put the tables together and decorate the table. Did we fix food or not?

Vivian: Yes, sometimes we did.

Sue: Sometimes we took it, you know, pot luck,

Vivian: And sometimes Tate made chili,

Sue: Yea, she made chili or a one-dish meal.

Vivian: A big pot of chili…

Sue: And then we took little gifts for whoever had birthdays during that month.

Teka: Because it would always turn out that somebody had a birthday.

Sue: I believe it was about the last Saturday--maybe- night in every month.

Vivian: We never had a party unless it was a birthday party.

Teka: So there would be one month when you wouldn’t have a party.

Sue and Vivian: Oh, it would be several months, because nobody had a birthday in that month. Some months, maybe two or three of us would have a birthday, then we’d skip a month.

Vivian: January was always the big one because it was my husband’s and Mary Walters, and…

Sue: …mine and Mr. Heimerdinger, was he in there?

Vivian: Yea, January, that was the big party.

Teka: I bet that was fun.

Vivian: It was loads of fun. We’d have the same people at the party, each time we’d have them. But it was fun.

Teka: And was this Lou Tate’s idea?

Sue: Yea, it was her idea to have them.

Teka: And would there be birthday cake?

Vivian: Oh, yes, (Laughter) it was usually a purchased cake with candles put on to it. And after Martha got to be four years old, she was allowed to light the candles. Before that Tate’s little brother, Wood, lighted the candles.

Teka: So young people would be there, too.

Vivian: Oh, yes, everybody that was connected with the Loomhouse that wanted to come. Aside: That’s up to you if you want to tell about it.

Teka: That’s an interesting side to Lou Tate.

Sue: We usually had the hand woven napkins.

Teka: You would use the hand woven napkins…

Sue: All different, of course. (Laughter)

Teka: No matching.

Vivian: …That the pupils had made.

Teka: Oh, so sometimes the students would come, too?

Sue: Sure, if they wanted to. I was considered a student, I guess, when I went the first time.

Vivian: Well, Mary was, too.

Tate’s father loved to play bridge. My husband adored bridge. He thought that was the next thing to I don’t know what, but he loved to play bridge. And so Mrs. Bousman and a friend would play Lou Tate and Mary Waters. And I would type letters or something of the sort and Virginia would play with my children when they were little. (Laughter)

Teka: Now, that’s fun

Vivian: We got together real often, either here or at the Walters’ house or at the Loomhouse.

Teka: What years would you say this took place?

Vivian: Oh, in the forties, no, the fifties, more likely.

Sue: Fifties was when I was there.

Vivian: Fifties, because Sally was born in forty-eight, and Tate had, in some of her books, pictures of Sally when she was two.

Teka: Oh, yes, we have those pictures.

Vivian: And Martha when she was eight.

Teka: What period was it when you all didn’t see each other for ten years? That’s when you were working, right? Both of you were working.

Sue: We’d just happen, maybe over the weekend, to run into one another occasionally.

Teka: At the supermarket, but not at the Loomhouse.

Vivian: No. If we saw each other at the Loomhouse during that long period that my girls were real small, it was because of both of us wanted to go to some special event.

Sue: She had Open House or something like that, you see.

Teka: You said that Brother Kim had done so much with spinning earlier that…

Sue: Yea, he started that out there. He was the first, I think.

Vivian: I’m sure he was.

Teka: How did she and Brother Kim get to know one another?

Sue and Vivian: I don’t know. I don’t know either. I don’t know, unless he came out to the Loomhouse to visit, I’m not sure.

Vivian: Well, he said, when we were over there in August, a year ago, that he wanted to learn more about weaving because he wanted to specialize in it. That was going to be his particular job at the Arch Abbey. And so he apparently contacted Lou Tate, instead of the other way around.

Teka: That was an important part in her life, though, the coming of Brother Kim.

Vivian, Sue: Yes, because he brought spinning. Up until that time she had done just weaving. I don’t remember any spinning at all. I don’t either, until Brother Kim came into the picture.

Teka: As you look back on these years with Lou Tate, if you had to describe the late thirties, the forties, the fifties, and the sixties, and the seventies, how would you describe each of those periods of time in her life and your activity in it?

Vivian and Sue: Well, they were periods of growth for her, as well as for the rest of us, because she was a person who loved to stick her nose in a book and find out something and Vivian was telling you she wasn’t always eager to tell you what she found out. No, she didn’t pass it on. No. She was kind of selfish with her information. But she studied hard and so she grew and advanced in those years, very much so.

Teka: But she didn’t pass on weaving knowledge?

Sue: Really, it was hard to get anything much out of her. She wanted to keep you coming back. because she liked to have people around her all the time.

Teka: So she’d…

Vivian: …hold out little tidbits of information and I’d just ask her, “Why does this thread come up and that one not; why is it that sometimes when you throw the shuttle through from the right, you have a gap and other times you do not have a gap?” And she’d say, “Oh, you’ll find out, just weave, and see for yourself.”

Sue: Yes, she was like that.

Teka: What do you think it was that kept the people who did come back coming back?

Sue: She had so much weaving around and they were so anxious to learn it, you see. That’s what kept them coming back.

Vivian and Sue: And her personal magnetism, too. She had a lot of it. She was good company. You had a good time with Tate.

Teka: She was fun.

Sue: Yes, she was a lot of fun. And there was always somebody there when you’d go out. And then she always had something new because she exchanged, you know; had traveling exhibits and things like that with the different weavers from over the country, and so you always saw something new each time that you went.

Vivian: Now during those years she taught at Spalding College, because I taught with her one semester before I went back to work, and she taught at Nashville, Tennessee, and she taught at a place in Florida--don’t ask me where, because I don’t know.

And she taught at various places around and wrote her book and her name became known all over. And when the word got out that she had a loom that was suitable for children, because it was sturdy and they couldn’t tear it up very easily, why, overseas became a portion of her territory.

Sue: Most people who came to Louisville, they’d heard of Lou Tate, you see, they wanted to come visit her, especially if they were weavers.

Vivian: And especially at Derby time. We always had loads of out of state company at Derby time. When people would come in at Derby time, they would come to visit at the Loomhouse and they might stay a half hour or they might come every day for two or three days, just to talk to Lou Tate, if not to do any thing. She was fascinating for conversation. As Vivian said, you could always talk to her.

Sue: She did so much research; she read continuously. She’d go to the library and just get a whole stack of books. I think she read about a book a night or day.

Vivian: But it wasn’t always on weaving.

Sue: No, it wasn’t. She liked detective stories. But she kept up with all the weaving; she kept up with all of that.

Vivian: The branch librarian here in Iroquois always notified her when they had a book in on weaving.

Teka: Automatically?

Vivian: Automatically.

Teka: Did she drive in those days?

Vivian: Yes, she had a Willis Overland station wagon and we called him Willy and she wore Willy out driving to teach in Bowling Green and at Nashville and Chicago, New York, yes, she went to all the conventions and things. She especially enjoyed Chicago. I have a little shuttle pin which was one of the things they gave her at Chicago. Shall I show you?

Sue: She was a friend of Elsie Ransden, who lived in Chicago.

Teka: And would she be here or would she go and meet her in Chicago?

Sue: She went to Chicago; she’d go up there for a workshop or something. She used to pile the station wagon full of looms and take some of them along with her. Rose Pero used to go with her quite a bit. I didn’t get to go.

Teka: You had the children and you had your work.

Sue: I had my work so I didn’t get to go with them.

Teka: Since you had trouble getting information out of Lou Tate on weaving, what kind of things do you remember learning about weaving that you keep with you and use today?

Vivian: Oh, how to thread a loom, because I threaded, lord only knows, how many for other people, as well as threading my own. And I helped with the children’s lessons on Saturday. We didn’t have time to help with those other people.

That’s how Bob Douglas got his start, was one of those Saturdays and he eventually wove one of the most beautiful sets of placemats with a runner through the center and gave them to his mother for her birthday. He wove them out of linen.

See, Tate could get thread cheaper than we could and so we would buy our thread from her at what she paid for it, maybe one penny or two pennies or something over.

She was a philanthropist and wanted to be known as one and did her best to be known as one. She struggled very hard to give everything that she could to as many people as she could.

But the fundamentals of weaving was all she wanted to give away and when it came to the tricky little things, why she kept those under her hat.

Teka: What did you take away with you, Vivian, about learning to weave from Lou Tate

Vivian: Well, I took the beginner’s course. I learned Leno lace. That was one thing I learned from her.

Teka: What kind of lace?

Vivian: Leno; that’s a two-harness technique.

Sue: That’s where the point is on the children’s shuttle. You pick up two or three threads and stick your shuttle in; can you see what I am doing? And then you pick up several more with it and make another twist, That’s Leno lace. L-E-N-O.

Vivian: It would be hem stitching your cloth, you see; very much like hem stitching.

Teka: That is pretty, isn’t it? What else did you learn besides that, do you think? You found she was hard to share what she knew how to do.

Vivian: I really learned how to weave from Bob Landers after I had been here.

Sue: I never went to anybody but Lou Tate.

Vivian: All her information was from Tate. Mine was from other people and books.

Teka: That’s good, though.

Sue: Sam started helping with the loom right shortly after we came to Louisville and so I was tied in with the Loomhouse from the start, but because I was the secretary, or stenographer, which ever you want to say, I did typing. Instead of learning to weave, my children learned to weave before I did.

Teka: How did you finally end up learning how to weave?

Sue: After Sam’s death I had time enough--well after I retired, I had time enough to go, but I retired two years before my husband did.

Teka: And then did you go to Lou Tate and say, “I want to learn how to weave.”

Sue: Sure. She said, “Well, I have some correspondence from way back, six months, that hasn’t been answered.” I said, “No way.” And so I paid for my lessons, so that I got them. She was a great hand at--“you clean off those shelves and set everything up and get everything in order and I’ll give you a weaving lesson.”

But I paid for mine so…

Teka: You just went ahead and paid her money and said, “I’m not going to clean off the shelves, here’s the money, teach me to weave.”

Sue: You bet I did. That’s the way I did it.

Teka: You’re one of the few people who remained with Lou Tate over all the years.

Sue: Well, we had been friends in college, and I knew her work and so when she used to get on her high horse and get mad about something, why, I stayed with her and most of the others just got mad, too and [left?].

Teka: And so some of them formed other groups, didn’t they? And tell me how you got involved in some of the other groups.

Vivian: When they started their other groups, right after I started there, they invited me to come to their meetings, and I went.

Teka: And what was the name of that group?

Vivian: Hobby Weavers.

Sue: Hobby Weavers of the Ohio Valley.

Teka: And was Landers in that group?

Vivian: Yes, he was for a while. From there, then I took classes with him at New Albany High School.

Teka: Did you know Doris Tipton?

Vivian: Yes, I met her at Wesley House before I went to the Little Loomhouse.

Teka: So your first introduction to weaving was at Wesley House.

Vivian: It was at Wesley House. Some of them at noon were leaving the Wesley House to come to Lou Tate’s and they were talking about taking their own looms on the streetcar, and about walking up that long hill.

So when I saw it in the paper one day about a workshop for two dollars out at Lou Tate‘s, then I decided that I would try the bus, then, I believe it was. I was kind of worried about finding my way up the hill, but when I transferred, why then, all along the way of the streetcar or bus or whatever it was-- trolley car, I believe it was-- were [weavers] going to the Little Loomhouse.

So then I walked up the hill with a whole lot of them. I was never a stranger anymore.

Teka: When you left the Loomhouse and a period of ten years went by, how did you go back to it again?

Vivian: Well, they were having spinning and they were having things in the paper and I decided that I would go out one day and I walked up and said, “Tate,“ and I offered her a dollar for visitors fee. “Oh, no,” she didn’t want that dollar. She wanted me to join our Kentucky Weavers, [and to] give her five dollars for the Kentucky Weavers, and they were going to the fair and she wanted me to help her with that. Then was when I started going back regularly.

Teka: And did you give her five dollars and join the Kentucky Weavers? (Laughter) I gave her five dollars to go out there and work for her.

Sue: After the Kentucky Weavers had been formed, then she formed the Kentucky Weavers, Jr. for twelve years and under, and the Kentucky Weavers received a page and I often cut stencils for them and ran them off on the mimeograph machine; a page a month. And that’s what Vivian and I were assembling into a group for the whole year.

Vivian: She usually about had twelve pages a month that went into a--say, like she had January and there’d be about twelve pages in the January issue and February would have on through, like that.

Teka: And this was in her publication named…

Vivian and Sue: Kentucky Weavers was the name of the magazine.

Teka: Now was it every month?

Vivian and Sue: For what, five years, or something like that. I don’t know how long. Four or five years.

Teka: And she had a mailing list?

Vivian: Yes, she sent them all over the country, overseas and everywhere.

Teka: And did people pay a subscription to join?

Sue and Vivian: Yes, they eventually paid ten dollars a year. It started out at five [dollars] and then there was too much connected with it. But she got free work. I got no pay for cutting the stencils and no pay for running the mimeograph machine, and whoever took them to the post office got no pay for their work. It was all volunteer all along, still is. All volunteer. It has been all along. Still is.

The Loomhouse is still run by volunteers. Because that Tate just wanted to be a great philanthropist. And she thought everybody else should want so too. She just expected you to do it. She did. And she sort of put the screws to you and so you did it. She really did. And so you did it.

Teka: Some people didn’t…

Sue and Vivian: Lots of people didn’t.

Teka: But you returned to her, Vivian, didn’t you?

Vivian: Yes.

Teka: And then how much longer was it after that that she died? For what ten years were you gone?

Sue and Vivian: The five or six years when the children were growing up, you see, I didn’t leave home. They had company running in and out and I was home all the time and then I belonged to the Eastern Star. And she was sick a long time before she died. She was sick three years, but she had arthritis a long time before that and didn’t get around too well. And gave her car away. Well, she didn’t drive for quite a while…

Teka: Other people drove her?

Sue: Yes, she’d ask you to come out--she wanted volunteers for one day a week. I know I volunteered to go out on Monday to keep the place open, but I usually took her places that she wanted to go to: the printers, the post office, the library, the grocery, and things like that.

Teka: What do you think drove her? What do you think her ambition was to continue to do this weaving, I wonder?

Vivian: She wanted to be noted as a weaver, all over.

Teka: But she was a little bit afraid to share some of these things because then maybe other people would know how to do those things.

Vivian: Yes, she thought everybody should work as hard as she did, yes. That was her idea. If I wanted to know how to do double weave. She was going to stand over my shoulder and see that I did it correctly. But she wasn’t going to tell me how to do it. I was going to have to figure it out for myself or get it from a book and then she would criticize.

Often, when she had a new pattern that she wanted you to do, she would tell you. You would throw your thread over or go under or you put so many on the harness number one, so many on two; she’d tell you what to do, but not why.

Teka: Would some of these things be projects that would then go into the publication?

Sue and Vivian: Yes, yes, they all would.

Teka: We were discussing the birthday parties that would be held for people who’d taken part in the Loomhouse activities. In which of the three cabins would the party be held?

Sue: When the weather was bad, it would be down at the bottom house, in Esta, or as we were taught to call it, the Little Loomhouse. And otherwise it would be outdoors at Tophouse which is why the picnic tables are there. There were three picnic tables and there was a barbeque grill. I have no idea, how many thousands of beans I took to those outdoor parties.

Vivian: Most of the time when she had these big outdoor parties there would be some celebrity weaver from some other state who’d come, you know, and visit. And then she’d throw a big party when they’d come and have…

Teka: In addition to the birthday party?

Sue, Vivian: Yes, that’s in addition to the birthday party. Possibly at a different time. Now, Ann Tiker’s husband used to cook ham, or he grilled some turkeys at one time--he did turkeys about four years ago. He grilled some turkeys at one time on that outside grill. We’ve had a lot of fun.

Teka: Four years ago, you mean right before she…

Vivian: That was after she died, but they had one.

Teka: Oh, you all had another gathering.

Vivian: Yes. I believe it was the third Sunday of the month, on Sunday afternoon, that we brought pot luck and we had a party at five o’clock after the visitors were gone. The members then had supper and that was about once a month in the summertime.

Sue: I wish they’d make more of Lou Tate’s birthday. October the nineteenth is, was her birthday. And we always celebrated her birthday.

Well, we celebrated in October, shall I say, with whoever’s birthdays were coming up. But we never missed October because that was Lou Tate’s birthday. And those of us who were in the habit of taking covered dishes anyway, we’d do something special on her birthday.

And you never knew what to give her because she never wanted anything. She was rather self-sufficient and she would get by on a needle and thread, if she had to. And we got to taking her sewing thread and she’d bring her little box of sewing thread over here and I would sew on my sewing machine, the edges of material that needed to be turned up.

And then after my father died, why, my sisters said, “Why don’t you take father’s butter bowl, which is a big wooden bowl and so I had father’s butter bowl full of colored thread that my husband and Lou Tate started giving me for birthday gifts. (Laughter)

And she’d come over because she could use my thread. Part of the time she brought her own, but not always, because she always pretty much needed what she brought in the sack and what I had in father‘s butter bowl.

So we had a lot of fun over that, but I do wish that the foundation would make some use of her birthday.

Teka: When you went back, Vivian, you stayed after that ten years. You didn’t leave again.

Vivian: No.

Teka: You stayed after you helped keep everything clean.

Sue, Vivian: Yes, the four years that Lou Tate was really very ill,-- I was there quite a bit after she got ill--, and then after she died, why, I went to the lawyer, and I asked him what they were going to do with the Loomhouse. He said, “I don’t know,…

Teka: After she died…

Sue: After she had died…

Teka: You went to Earl B. Fowler, who was the lawyer.

Sue: Right--no, not Mr. Fowler, another person in that organization, I can’t think of…right now, but the same law firm.

I asked them what they were going to do with the Loomhouse. And he said, “I don’t know. Nobody here knows anything at all about weaving.” And I said, “Well, I have talked to a friend of mine,-- who turned out to be Vivian, and she and I know that there’s a lot of material here that was woven by the children that is just being devoured by moths and squirrels. And we would like to do something with it. We might be able to use the money for some reason.

Tate died on June 2, 1979. In July I received a letter from the lawyer saying that Lou Tate had left some money to my daughter, Martha. Would I please come to his office and talk to him about it? So I went and I asked him what was going to happen to the Loomhouse.

In the meantime, I had called Vivian and told her that Martha had been left this money. We had already been to the Loomhouse and had seen how much damage was being done by things being thrown away, that should have been kept.

And I was quite concerned so I asked the lawyer what was going to happen to the Loomhouse. He said, “I don’t know, because no one here knows anything about weaving.” I said, “Are you just going to take everything and throw it away, over the hill, or burn it up, or what?” He said, “I don’t know. What would you suggest?”

And having already talked to Vivian, I suggested that since there were so many things there…

End of Side One, Tape One.

Beginning of Side Two, Tape One.

Teka: [Sue is speaking of events after] Lou Tate’s death on June 2, 1979.

Sue: After Lou Tate died in June, I began to wonder what in the world was going to happen to the Loomhouse so I called Vivian and we discussed it and on July 24, 1979-- No, first I went to the lawyer and talked to him and Mr. Fowler said that we could do pretty much what we wanted to at the Loomhouse because he didn’t know anything about weaving and neither did anybody in his law firm know about weaving.

So on July 24, 1979, Vivian and I went to the Loomhouse and began scrubbing and cleaning up. I washed windows and Vivian washed shelves. We moved looms around everywhere.

And the urn that had held Lou Tate’s ashes was sitting in the window. I finally told Vivian that I couldn’t work with Lou Tate watching me so I took the urn upstairs to get rid of her! (Laughter)

Teka and Sue: Now, I do want, though, for you all on this tape for get the credit for bringing the Loomhouse back to life. If it hadn’t been for the two of us the Loom house would be gone and probably never would have opened again. But Vivian and I took things home that the students had made: little purses, and little hot pads, and little runners, and things--first, though, let me say that everything that had a name on it, we mailed back to the children. That was my money that was spent for postage, but I didn’t mind [returning a child’s work ], but we couldn’t find addresses for lots and there were no names on just box after boxes of things with no names. So Vivian and I took them home, finished them, washed them, ironed them, brought them back and sold them the next day. Then we had to take more home.

Teka: But you not only rescued them from moth balls, but you also turned them into money to rescue and save the Loomhouse.

Vivian: That was the beginning of our bank account for the Loomhouse.

Teka: To save it, yes.

Sue: We sold some of the looms and then I wrote a friend of mine in Bowling Green that we were selling some, so she brought some of her friends up and they all bought looms and things. I’ve forgotten how much money they [spent], way over a hundred dollars worth of things, so we thought we’d had a big sale that day.

Vivian: And then we went to Colonel Sanders birthday party up on the Belvedere. A lady called and asked me to bring my weaving and everything. Sue and I were in together and I said, “I’m working out at the Loomhouse with Sue Kendricks; would it be all right to bring her and stuff from the Loomhouse?” She said, “Oh, great.”

And so then we took the stuff from the Loomhouse, you see, and so, I had five weavers and five spinners demonstrating that day.

Sue and Vivian: And we sold a lot of stuff that day. We had about two thousand dollars, wasn’t it, before the organization was formed? We had a treasurer, you know.

Teka, Sue, Vivian: You all had earned all that money for the Loomhouse from the little pieces of weaving and the draft drawings around plus some of the little looms…that you cleaned and put into commission to sell in order to keep the memory of Lou Tate. Yes. And saved some for demonstrations. And you started Open Houses again? Yes. You had it open on a daily basis there for a little while. Yes. And then after having it on a daily basis for several weeks, why, we had the first three days of the week off: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and if anybody wanted to come on Sunday, why, they had to let us know. Vivian and I both go to church and we don’t like spend every Sunday afternoon away from home.

Sue: Then we started teaching classes and we had the scouts.

Teka, Vivian, Sue: You taught scouts to weave? At the Loomhouse. And you two did this. Yes, for twenty-five cents a piece. Yes, sometimes we would have more scouts than we had loom stands and looms. One Saturday we had three bunches of them. Oh, we sure did. They’d come all the way from LaGrange.

Teka: This was one of Lou Tate’s loves.

Sue, Vivian: Oh yes, [working] with the young people and the children. Before she died, she wanted me to promise that I would help carry on the children’s tradition.

Teka: And so you did.

Sue, Vivian: Well, we told her no; both of us.

Teka: You ended up doing it! (Laughter).

Teka, Sue, Vivian: She knew we would. She ended up getting what she wanted out of you all, after all.

This is the end of interview on Side Two, Tape One.

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