Oral History Interview Earle B. Fowler

Interviewer: Today is April 3, 1985.

My name is Teka Ward.

I’m interviewing Earl B. Fowler, Jr.

We are at 17 West Main Street, Louisville, Kentucky

Our topic is Lou Tate and the Little Loomhouse.

As we begin, I’d like you to tell me a little something about yourself.

Earl B. Fowler: I presume you know that my name is Earl B. Fowler; I was born in Western Kentucky and moved to Louisville with my parents when I was about five years old.

In the Louisville area, we lived in the Highlands and I attended school in the public schools; went to Louisville Male High School and graduated in ’31. I waited awhile to go to college and wounded up graduating from the University of Louisville in 1941, from the Jefferson School of Law in 1948, and practiced law and public accounting as a Certified Public Accountant until about 1980.

The first contacts that I had, in the, with the property which later became Lou Tate’s, was back in the late 30’s when it was occupied by a lady named Mrs. Wulff. All three cabins were there and we referred to them as Mrs. Wulff’s cabins.

I used to pass by there on my hikes up the Kenwood Hill and once in a while, my mother was with me, she would exchange a few words with Mrs. Wulff, but that’s been a long time ago.

It was maybe 45 years later, after I’d spent most of my life practicing law and public accounting, that the manner of Lou Tate’s death brought about a renewed interest on my part in the cabins which had become known as Lou Tate’s cabins.

It happened that my law partner, Arnold Lynch, had been her lawyer. Handled some matters for her, and among other things, had written her will. So when she died, I think was about 1979, Mr. Lynch tended to the affairs of her estate and talked with some of the people who had been very much interested in Lou Tate’s operations, her school for weavers up in her cabins.

As I remember, it was Sue Kendrick and a lady named Mrs. Quiggins who first consulted with Arnold about what to do with the things around there; Lou Tate had no family members who could come in and look after things.

Arnold Lynch was her executor, but an executor of (? indistinct) normally doesn’t take on a lot of detailed responsibility for personal possessions. So, this (indistinct - happily ?) thing that Sue Kendrick, Mrs. Quiggins, and other people whom I later came to know were very busy looking after these possessions that were so highly important to what happened later.

I think it was perhaps as much as a year and a half or maybe nearly two years after Lou Tate had died, that Arnold said to me one day, knowing as he did, that I was on the verge of retiring from the practice of law, he said, “Would you like to look into this situation in Lou Tate’s will?”

And I said, “What is that?”

And he said, “Well, the will provides that if a, some sort of non-profit organization is set up after her death, for the purpose of carrying on the teaching of weaving and the management of her property, that she provided an annulment that that foundation or trust or non-profit organization should have the property.”

Well, I said that sounds very interesting. So I looked into it and there appeared that there was a long list of people which had been primarily in the possession of, at least came to me, through Sue Kendrick. I don’t remember. there were several hundred names – maybe as many as 6, 7, 8 hundred, people who had passed through there and had become acquainted with what Lou Tate was doing. Some had been students; some had just had other contact with her. So I said, “Well, maybe we can work with this.”

So I drafted a letter and it was sent out to this long mailing list of people. In the letter we set a place at the University of Louisville that they allowed us use, where we could have a meeting. And it was announced in the letter that the meeting was for the purpose of deciding whether or not to set up an organization that would fit the definition in Lou Tate’s will; and be a non-profit organization to carry on the work of the weavers.

And so we held that meeting and some, something slightly over 25 people showed up. Came to that meeting, took time from their affairs, knowing that it was an exploratory meeting and came back to decide whether or not there should be such an organization.

So we opened it, somebody in the family asked Mr. Lynch to explain the situation in the will, and then the group was asked to speak. Anyone who wanted to say something, to say it. And a few of them spoke up and indicated that they thought this was a great thing that ought to be done.

We said, “Alright, if you feel that way, we have prepared articles of incorporation which we can use for the purpose of setting up the Lou Tate Foundation.”

And they said, “Well, we would like to do that.”

So, we took a vote, it was unanimous, everyone felt this should be done.

So they elected nine people, if I remember correctly, to be the first Board of Directors of The Lou Tate Foundation. They then authorized, by the group, to go ahead and form this non-profit organization. And on the basis of that meeting, the Lou Tate Foundation came into existence.

That, of course, was only the formal beginning. What had to happen after that was that there had to be responsibility assumed by these directors, had to elect some officers, and there had to be detailed arrangements made for the organization, the foundation, to take over the responsibilities that had carried on, you must remember, for nearly two years by Sue Kendrick, and her friend Vivian Hyatt, and to some extent with the help of Ms. Quiggens, and there were undoubtedly others that I did not have personal knowledge of, people I remember being associated with that period.

So the organization took shape, the first thing that had to happen was that we had to have a president, of course and if I remember correctly, Robert Douglas was the first president of the Lou Tate Foundation. Bob Douglas had a history of having learned something of weaving from Lou Tate, but also of having been a friend who helped her in a number of ways with little things that came up. And his contact with the Lou Tate Foundation was vitally important in these early stages, we really needed someone like him. And he did a great job that first year, and saw to it that a lot of things came together which had to happen if we were going to have a continuing organization. So, this is really the way it happened. And from then on, I’m sure you have a number of people who can tell you how things went.

Interviewer: You were the first Executive Director of the Board.

Earl B. Fowler: Well yes, there seemed to be a need for me to have some kind of formal connection with this and so they assigned me the title of Executive Director. An Executive Secretary or Executive Director of a non-profit organization has a particular kind job that there’s almost nothing else like it in our society.

You are supposed to see to it that things are done, but you make sure that the people who are really doing them are recognized for that. Because this is the way a non-profit organization has to work. The people, they hired me, they paid me at some point, not right away, but at some point, $100 a month. And it was my job as the hired man, to see to it that certain things got done, but of course to make certain that everybody knew the role and responsibility that was taken by these volunteers who were working so hard, to make sure that this dream of Lou Tate’s really come to fruition.

I think the (? Indistinct) like uh having by-laws, and getting property deeds made, and all that, was done at our office, the firm of Lynch, Sherman, and Fowler. The real detailed efforts had to be done by the Board of Directors. It was established very quickly that the Board of Directors was not just a bunch of names on letterhead, it was a working Board. Everybody who was on the Board had something they needed to do and they were very responsible and in most cases, those things were done.

Of course, Sue Kendrick was one of the first board members and Vivian Hyatt, and there were a number of others, whom I can’t recall all of the names now, but uh, along with Bob Douglas. But all of these people took on responsibility and saw to it that things were done.

The most important thing to everyone, and one of, yet one of those most difficult was to keep the teaching going on, to make sure that there were classes, that people would come and learn.

This was the way we worked it: When I would go to a Board of Directors meeting, I would find that the president had done, Bob Douglas, was the first president, everything was laid out ahead of time, we talked about it, got the things decided, went back to work for another month and do it, and then have another Board meeting. That practice followed as time went on and successor presidents were elected.

We had a gentleman from the Courier-Journal who was a photographer there, (? female whisper “Lee Ebner”), it was Lee Ebner, who was the President for a year. And as Vice President was Sally Moss, who actively participated even in that first year while Lee Ebner was president, in getting things done and later assumed the presidency, and continued in it for several years.

Sally was really doubling in brass, she would not only take on responsibility for some of the executive jobs, but she also teaching for a time, was really a moving spirit in this thing for long enough that we can say that between Bob Douglas and Sally Moss, here is where we built the real backbone of the Lou Tate Foundation.

Of course, they had the help which everybody has to have. It was always fascinating to me to see how people somehow drifted in and either Bob or Sally or somebody would tap them on the shoulder and find a little job for ‘em to do, whether it was painting something, or cleaning up, or helping with the food, which they now and again tapped my wife to do. She would, Gracie would bring out picnic stuff for us to eat while the work crews were working.

It was always beautiful, that place is, there is so few like it left. You think of places in the suburbs of Louisville as being grassy lawns and houses and that sort of thing, but Lou Tate’s cabins were left in its sort of its wilderness state. Sure there were flowers there, that had been planted, but the grounds were like they were when the hill, the way I remember the hill in 1930, and before and after. It has been a fascinating place to see restored in part.

There is more restoration that is needed, of course, but the first big job that was done on, was Wisteria, no, the one above it, the little (female whisper – “Tophouse”), Tophouse.

Tophouse was the one in the greatest need and we were actually trying use it, so we had to use the first money we got from the City of Louisville, to make the uh, through the federal funds, to get that rehabilitation done. And it has been very gratifying to have that in shape to use, and to have meetings in, and that sort of thing.

But there is a great deal more that needs to be done on the cabins themselves and I hope it can all be done and that this place can continue to be the kind of inspiration it should be to people from everywhere, not just Louisville, or Kentucky, United States but all over the world.

One of the things of interest to some of the later persons who become associated with the Lou Tate Foundation, may be our early position in respect to Board members. I said that the early Board members were a working board, and they were; indeed they were.

But we also had to think about the desirability of having more participation in the organization other than just our small group of hard working people. So we considered the idea that we would try to attract the interest of some people that might not be able to work particularly at the job that some of our working board did originally, but have some direct interest and willingness to take on some small responsibility and conduct the affairs of the Board.

So we instituted the practice, for at least for a couple of years, of trying to interview a number of people before time for the nominations to be made, and obtain their consent, if they would, to be placed in nomination. And this practice resulted in adding one or two members to the Board we otherwise might not have known about because we did take the trouble to sit down with them somewhere, talk about the Foundation, determine whether or not if they really had an affirmative interest, and attempt to bring them into the Board of Directors. I don’t know if that has been maintained, that approach has been maintained, but I think it deserves some further consideration, would hope that something of that sort is done because it is very important to a small organization have some avenue to broaden its impact.

There are people indeed that would be interested in this sort of thing if someone would talk to them about it. But they might never become interested unless they are approached and invited to say whether or not if they would like to serve on the Board after how they hear about how it works, you see. So that’s what we tried and I think that it should be interesting.

I do hope the Foundation will continue to arrange for interesting speakers to come to their annual meeting. This is the time when it’s best, most possible to get attention from the press and therefore from the public and if the Foundations will continue to be successful of managing the Lou Tate cabins, Lou Tate property, its going to need more and more public support and that’s I am looking forward to the Lou Tate Foundation.

Interviewer: This is the end of the interview with Earl Fowler.