0:06 - Introduction
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Partial Transcript: Today is March 23rd, 1985. My name is Teka Ward. I am at 4511 South Third Street. I am talking with Kitty Mather. Our topic is Lou Tate and the Little Loomhouse.
Segment Synopsis: Ward introduces the interview by giving the date, her name, her interviewee's name (Mather), their location, and the topic.
Keywords: Kitty Mather; Lou Tate; Lou Tate Bousman; Louisa Tate Bousman; The Little Loomhouse
Subjects: Kentucky--History; Louisville (Ky.)--History; Weaving
0:18 - Background / Little looms
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Partial Transcript: Kitty, as we begin, tell us something about yourself.
Segment Synopsis: Mrs. Mather shares briefly about her background and recites the story of the invention of the Little Loom, which was a collaboration between Lou Tate and her husband, Dr. S.W. Mather.
Keywords: Beaten Biscuit; Bobby McKnight; Dr. S.W. Mather; Faces of the Muse; Kitty Mather; Kitty Samuels Mather; Little looms; Lou Tate; Lou Tate Bousman; Louisa Tate Bousman; The Little Loomhouse
Subjects: Kentucky--History; Looms; Louisville (Ky.)--History; Poets; Teachers; Weaving
1:34 - Neighbor of the Bousmans / Description of Lou Tate
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Partial Transcript: I understand you lived one block down the street from the Bousman family.
Segment Synopsis: Mrs. Mather talks about living down the street from the Bousman family, and about her childhood memories of when the Bousmans moved to Louisville. She describes her first memory of seeing Lou Tate, and tells about how Lou Tate raised her nephew, Wood, and took care of her aunt. She also mentions that Lou Tate loved to throw parties, and talks about her family's relationship with Lou Tate. She lists some of the items her family received from Lou Tate, and ends with the qualities she appreciated most about Lou Tate.
Keywords: Berea College; Eleanor Roosevelt; First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt; Lou Tate; Lou Tate Bousman; Louisa Tate Bousman; Mrs. Roosevelt; Party; The Little Loomhouse; Whig Rose; Wood Bousman
Subjects: Bridge (Game); Card games; First ladies; Kentucky--History; Looms; Louisville (Ky.)--History; Neighbors; Parties; Presidents' spouses; Universities and colleges; Weaving
Lou Tate Foundation
Kitty Mather, March 23, 1985
Verbal History Tape Transcription
Interviewer- Teka Ward
Transcribed May 16, 2007
Interview with Kitty Mather, March 23, 1985 - Transcribed/Edited by Jean
Randles, May 16, 2007Teka Ward: Today is March 23, 1985. My name is Teka Ward. I am at 45ll South
Third Street. I am talking with Kitty Mather. Our Topic is Lou Tate and the Little Loomhouse.Kitty, as we begin, tell us something about yourself.
Kitty: I am Kitty Samuels Mather, maker of the famous Kentucky Thoroughbred
Beaten Biscuits, teacher and published poetess, my book being Faces of the New.Teka: To start, would you tell us something concerning the making of the
portable Little Loom.Kitty: My husband, Dr. S. W. Mather, who was top honor graduate in the dental
school and somewhat of a mechanical genius was asked by Lou Tate to make a small portable loom. There was a little boy who spent a lot of time with him, who loved to play hooky from school; Bobby McKnight, who had a very bright mind. After Lou Tate gave him some reeds, he bought some three-fourth inch plywood for the frame. And together they devised the first little loom. They made around fifty, selling them to Lou Tate.Teka: I understand you lived one block down the street from the Bousman family.
Kitty: Yes, and I can remember when I was small and they moved there from the
mountains. The father had been with the railroad. Their mother was not too highly educated but very intelligent. She was very trim and neat and had a proud bearing. They learned to play bridge and played in my home.The first time I saw Lou Tate, she was crossing the street in front of my house.
She was on leave from college, Berea. She had blonde hair, braided and wound around her head and looked rather handsome.Then, I think, she taught school and it was not to her liking. So she came home
and started her weaving.Louise, as I called her before she took her weaving name of Lou Tate, was very
kind to her older parents. Her brother had a child, Wood, whom he was not able to raise, so Louise and her parents took him as a baby. Her mother even took a course in child rearing, to do a better job. Later, when her parents died, Lou Tate adopted Wood, her nephew, and raised him as her own.Wood was small in statue; he had a fine intellect, but did not relate to people
well and I am sure Louise had some problems but she never voiced them.Then there was an old aunt in the family whom no one wanted and who had a mental
deficiency. Lou took her in, dressed her up, and made her part of the family. I can remember her sitting in a chair at her party staring vacantly into space in a beautiful velvet dress with a lace collar, seemingly happy. Lou delighted in giving little informal parties and befriending many lonely and different people.At times, Louise seemed visionary to me and was very hard to pin down. She was
not a business woman. And then I remember when her parents gave her her first cabin. I think it was for her birthday.When my father lost his business during the Depression I finished the edges of
Lou Tate’s weaving pieces for a small sum. My younger sister wove with Lou Tate and did some exhibition work before she became ill. We had a large loom in our home and it was part of our life. My daughter went to the Loomhouse when she was about ten and took weaving lessons and fell in love with Lou Tate and weaving. She became very proficient and has a loom in her home today. She was interested in all aspects of her work, especially her genius with patterns.Since I was not the genius that my daughter and sister were I could not fully
appreciate Lou’s work and fathom the depth of it. Before Lou Tate died, she gave my daughter one of her father’s first looms, which she prizes. I still have several pieces of Lou Tate’s weaving which I enjoy: a small tablecloth made in the pattern which was made for Eleanor Roosevelt, who visited her, and named in honor of her. I have a beautiful coverlet made in the Wig Rose pattern which was payment for one of my husband’s looms and which he gave me for Christmas when he had nothing. Aside from Lou Tate’s genius the quality I admired the most was her loyalty to her family and being a humanitarian.Teka: This is the end of the interview with Kitty Mather, taking place at her
home, May 23, 1985. 1:00