Interview with Suzanne M. Bennett

CAROLYN CRABTREE: This is Carolyn Crabtree. I am with Suzanne Bennett at -- what is the name of this school?

SUZANNE BENNETT: Green County Intermediate School.

CRABTREE: In Greensburg, Kentucky, and we are doing an interview for the McDowell House project and the date is November the 13th 2009. Thank you Suzanne; I'm glad you could take a few minutes out of your day to do this for me. We're here to talk about Jane Todd Crawford and how you got interested in doing a presentation of Jane Todd Crawford. How long have you been doing that?

BENNETT: This is our fifth year. This is our fifth year doing it and I was recruited by a friend of mine and we also serve on the Arts Council together, Peggy Jones. It was her brainchild, her idea and I've had some acting experience and she contacted me to see if I would be interested. That's how it started.

C: So you have had other acting experiences?

B: Yes, I have a drama minor from Campbellsville College, which is now Campbellsville University, but my father was also a retired professor of theatre at Campbellsville, so I was in a lot of his plays even before I was in college and since I've been in college. I did some community theatre in Somerset when I lived there and I guess pretty much all my life. I mean, I'm nothing official but I've been involved in theatre.

C: Tell me what you enjoy most about doing your presentation of Jane Todd Crawford.

B: I think there are many things, but the first thing that comes to mind is it's just such a fantastic story that needs to be told and needs to be heard, and 2:00,you know, I knew of Jane Todd Crawford; I didn't grow up in Green County. I lived here my adult life and actually I knew about her from my children who were involved in academic team and history club and those types of things at middle school. That's where I really knew about her but the more you have learned about the story is just incredible and when you think about her courage and what she was willing to go through, it's just really inspiring. To be able to get this story out to people has really been a privilege.

C: How many people do you feel like have been touched with her story since you've been doing this?

B: Well, we -- One thing and, again, this is Peggy Jones' idea, we present a 3:00condensed version of our bigger program to public school, all fifth graders, so this is the fourth year we've been doing that. That's, I don't know, 150 kids roughly each year; they're telling their parents. We also sponsor a writing contest and so that gets them involved at home and we get a nice crowd at our annual program in December, but I really think the greatest impact has been getting the story to the children.

C: So many children seem to be so far removed from history. Do you feel like 4:00this has brought children into an interest in history in other areas as well?

B: Well, I hope so; I don't know that I see that necessarily directly but I know when we go into the classrooms, there have been times we've done it with just one classroom. I've also done it like with three or four classrooms in a bigger area. But they're attentive, and I know, being a teacher, I know that they can tune out even when they look attentive. The way I'm doing my monologue, I'm looking into their eyes and they're listening, it's peaking their interest and even part of my monologue, towards the end, is encouraging the students to learn 5:00more about their history or Kentucky history. So, you know, you pray the impact is being made and I have to believe that it is.

C: Do you have any interaction with the students while you're doing your monologue?

B: Just the eye contact. Now this year, I have a musician that accompanies me. He's a very talented classical musician and he brings his guitar, and plays period music. We've kind of interspersed that with the monologue, and this year was the first time he invited a couple of students from each class to kind of act out. He sings a ballad and, you know, they're usually love songs and that really -- that was fun. And he'll have a boy and a girl up there and that gets them involved but the other kids are watching and they act out the song as he 6:00sings it. That really wasn't about the Jane Todd Crawford but it was involving them in the period and the time and the history of it. Anyway, as far as that we just have the kids, as far as the Jane Todd Crawford goes, we invite them to participate in a writing contest. But as far as me directly, no I'm just presenting as I'm talking to them in the monologue, I'm talking to them as, not necessarily as Jane's ghost, but as if she was able to come back and be with them for a day. It's kind of presented in that, so she's there with them in the classroom.

C: What is this man's name?

B: Warren Wolfe is the musician.

C: Ok.

B: He's very talented; he writes, he has a large repertoire of this classical 7:00music. Scotch-Irish ballads and songs.

C: Does he do concerts in the area, other than with you?

B: Well, I think he has quite a full plate. I think he's well known throughout the state and probably elsewhere. I don't know exactly all that he has done, but I know he's the one we go to in this community. Everyone knows Warren Wolfe and his expertise in history and music.

C: Now do you see any future expansion of what you do? Do you see going to other communities?

B: Actually, year before last I applied to the Kentucky Chautauqua. We were 8:00turned down and I didn't reapply for this next year. I'm not the historian, I don't know if I, you know, if my efforts were what were lacking. I can't imagine that the story wouldn't be compelling and to me everything that I know about Chautauqua, and I've seen other Chautauqua performances, I think this would fit right in there. But, and I'll just say it, I don't know if there are politics are involved, but they weren't interested in our first proposal.

C: I would hope that you would please try that again because I agree with you, 9:00it's a beautiful story and it needs to be told statewide and not just here.

B: And it's Kentucky history--

C: Um-hmm.

B: It's a Kentucky story; she wasn't a native, but other -- I know other actors that I've seen, they don't have to necessarily be a native. The history involving her happened while she lived in Kentucky and it's worldwide. I even had one of our maintenance people a few years ago, when he saw what we were doing and he saw my picture in the paper for Jane Todd Crawford, and he came up to me and he said, "You know, when I had my wife at her doctor in Elizabethtown, when he realized I was from Green County he got all excited" and was questioning him about Jane Todd Crawford, so people elsewhere know about her in the medical community.

C: They certainly do.

B: We're doing our effort her in Green County for her to be remembered and, yes, 10:00the next step is to get the state to embrace her story as well, and we'll try again.

C: Please. Well, as far as being a native, Daniel Boone wasn't a native, and he didn't live here all of his life.

B: Right.

C: But they do have a Chautauqua speaker.

B: That's right.

C: That is Daniel Boone, and some other pioneers who were not natives of Kentucky.

B: Right.

C: Very few of the pioneers were natives.

B: That's right. None of them were natives. They had to get here.

C: Well, tell me a little bit about the way you dress, the way you do this.

B: Well, the wealth we have here in Green County -- Warren, our musician's wife, Karen Wolfe, is an expert seamstress and she has made the costumes I've worn and 11:00she's a historian, as well, and she designs the costume exactly to period. I know we recently -- the community I'm involved in a historic play about Jane Todd Crawford which Karen did the costumes for that as well, but, of course, when I portray Jane in my monologue I'm like she's speaking from a memory at a later point in her life and the costume I have for that reflects that period but when we did the play Karen had a whole different costume that would reflect 20 years earlier. What's fascinating to me is she does all her sewing by hand as 12:00they would have done at that time.

C: Wow.

B: So not only is it period visually, she has made it as they would have and that's incredible to me.

C: Tell me a little bit about the play that we did.

B: We also have a local historian and his name is Lanny Tucker and he writes plays, historical plays, and this year he chose the Jane Todd Crawford story and we portrayed mainly the point of her illness when they were in Green County and her meeting with Dr. Ephraim McDowell and he actually wrote the play with the surgery. We were able to perform that for middle-schoolers. It's very graphic so we didn't want to go to the younger audience for that and we also had a 13:00community performance; it was very well received.

C: So the people who were in the play were all community people?

B: Yes. Yes, ma'am. They were all community.

C: They were not professional actors?

B: No, it's just volunteer people in the community that are interested and available.

C: Do you feel like your community here in Green County supports what you're doing very well?

B: Well, yes and no. I think there's a spirit of support, you know. We'd always like to have greater numbers at any of our performances, but everybody's busy.

C: Now, where do you do these performances at Christmas or in December?

B: The annual Jane Todd Crawford Story is performed at our also historic 14:00courthouse that's right in the middle of the square.

C: How many people can get into the courthouse?

B: Well--

C: For that?

Peggy Jones: They said they could get 100 the other night, but like 60 or so comfortably.

B: Yeah, probably, comfortably, sixty; and I don't think we've had 60, but we've had a good full audience for all our performances. Each year I think it's grown.

Jones: And this is our 200th anniversary.

B: And this is our 200 anniversary, we're planning a 2-day performance and have invited a speaker.

Jones: Dr. Charles Martin.

B: Dr. Charles Martin and so--.

C: In Lexington?

B: Yes, ma'am, from Lexington.

C: Now he is on the board of the McDowell House -- he and his wife both. Do you get support for what you're doing from doctors? Like the McDowell House is connected with the Kentucky Medical Association, I believe to some degree. Have you applied for any funds or any help from those people?

B: No, we haven't at this point. It's just been a community effort through the arts council, the Greensburg Arts Council.

C: Ok. What about your local medical people here, do they come out in support of this?

B: Dr. DeSimone and his wife were in attendance last year.

Jones: Our auxiliary.

B: Yes, our hospital auxiliary is always involved and, of course, our hospital is named Jane Todd Crawford Memorial Hospital and they are very involved in the annual program.

C: Well, I witnessed your performance at the Constitution Square Festival this year; it was excellent.

B: Thank you.

C: I guess I would like to know if you intend to do more of those types of 16:00performances in other areas than Green County.

B: I would be willing, as I said I'm committed to the story. I've fallen in love with Jane; she's been an inspiration to me and in that vein, I would be glad -- I would go anywhere that we were asked. Now I guess I'm unlike a lot of performers in that I like the limelight but I'm not gonna toot my own horn, and maybe that's been a negative in getting our story out because I depend on others to get the word out. But I would be willing and would love to go anywhere that 17:00anyone would invite us.

C: How is the word gotten out about you? How has that progressed over the last five years?

B: Locally we do advertise in the paper; we've had mailings. Year before last, I think, we got addresses for every doctor in, I think, maybe a three or four county area, but that wasn't real successful.

Jones: This year we have the McDowell Board people that we're going to invite.

B: Yes, it has involved to a nice relationship with the McDowell House and I think that's helped us in the past year to get more known about Jane Todd 18:00Crawford or that our endeavors to get her story out. Just that we've been working with the McDowell House, I think that has helped us, and we will be inviting the board members to our performance this year.

C: I tried to get on to a website to see if I could find information about your play and things like that on the website, and I had a hard time, I have to admit.

B: Ok.

C: So are you planning to do more with media type of things like the web, internet?

Jones: It will be; it should be on there next week.

B: I know our, what's it called, the city--

Jones: Greensburgonline.com

B: Greensburgonline.com. I think this past few months they've really been trying to update that.

Jones: We met this week.

B: Ok, oh good; so that's in the works. Unbeknownst to me.

C: Do you have a future plan for having your own website for this or do you think it's that big yet?

W: I hadn't thought that far ahead, but that's a good idea.

C: People do, it seems to me -- I worked in tourism for several years. They do seem to be going more in that direction to get their information now, rather than brochures and things.

B: Well that's a great idea. Like I said, we're just, I don't know, I haven't put a lot of the PR thought into it.

C: Do you have a committee that works with this?

B: Yes, we do. Peggy Jones has done most of it herself, but I think this past year we actually formed a committee.

Jones: Through the Arts Council.

B: Yes, through the Greensburg Arts Council.

C: Do you have anything else you'd like to share with us about this?

B: No I just appreciate your interest.

C: I will ask you one more question. You said that she inspires you. In what way?

B: Just her courage and knowing that what she went through, the pain she must have endured for months before she even met Dr. McDowell, and living in a time that you don't have the conveniences that we have. You just go to your medicine cabinet and take some Tylenol. She had four children; I have three children of my own and you know especially when they were all in the house -- two of mine are grown now. Just being a mother to a house full of children is a big job and she was trying to be a farmer's wife and raise children and in that incredible 21:00pain. Well it grew, I'm sure it didn't start out that way, but as it grew and then, and I've heard some people say it was in desperation. Well, I'm sure part of her agreeing to the surgery was desperation; there was no other way, but still that was such a courageous act and you know she couldn't just hop in a car and drive to Danville. She had to mount a horse in her condition, in her pain and fatigue and, and --

Jones: And in the middle of December.

B: -- the cold. You know, she didn't have a heater, and, again, just thinking from the mother aspect, you know, leaving your children, not knowing if you're going to see them. You might die -- it's one thing, I think, especially at that time, to have died at home as opposed to 60 miles away and just all the 22:00uncertainties. She did it. She just did it and I really feel like, again I've heard, it the play our director said, "Well she was just desperate, you know. You need to be more desperate." Well yes, I think she was desperate but, I think she was thinking beyond herself -- her children, her husband. Yes, she wanted to not have pain, but I don't think it was just, "I'm hurting and I need help." I think she knew she was needed in her family and she was going to go to any length that it would take to be there for them. She was able to trust Dr. McDowell and I think her faith, from my understanding, was very strong also, her 23:00spiritual side and all that coupled. But again, just as a woman living in the 21st century, I just think we're not worthy, you know, she have a lot to learn; we can learn a lot from her. And keeping that in mind can get you through what we may think is a hard time or a bad day.

C: Now how old was she when this happened? I don't remember.

B: Forty-three? I could look it up specifically because that's one of the questions, you know, when I first went into schools I was just performing the monologue and the information I had in the monologue was what I knew. Well, after the monologue the fifth graders would start raising those hands and "How 24:00old was she? This and all the little specifics, so I made a little cheat sheet because that wasn't my area of expertise. I was there just to interpret the words and so I've had to bone up a little bit but I think she was about forty-three; she lived to be seventy-eight, I'm thinking again off the top of my head.

C: And her husband died several years after, right?

B: Yeah.

C: And did she remarry?

B: Never remarried. She outlived her husband and Dr. McDowell and his nephew who assisted that we know of assisted in the surgeries. You know, a lot of the history, and I am not a historian, is vague. You know, she wasn't some big, you know, famous person, so you have to piece together a lot of the information, but that's the story.

C: Now they did a play at Pioneer Playhouse last year about Dr. McDowell.

B: Yes.

C: And the story. Did you attend that?

B: I wanted to and was not able to. Time--

C: I was going to ask you what you thought about that performance.

B: I was out of town during one of the performances that our council was going to and I never, I didn't get there.

C: Ok.

B: I would've; I regret that.

C: Well, I was curious to see what your reaction was to the way they approached this whole thing.

Jones: I hope they'll do it again.

C: I think they plan to, probably. Well, I know you're in school and you have to get to class. Thank you so much.

B: Thank you.

C: I appreciate you doing this.

B: Well, thank you.