Customer Reviews

Hillbilly Women

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This is a great book to read and to learn how the "hillbilly" women grew up. My mother Marie Chandler, and grandmothers Wyoming Wilson and Artie Chandler has their stories told, their chapter is titled Blue Ridge Mountain Refugees. I have only read their story so far, but plan to read the others. I learned a lot about my family through reading this book, and I really enjoyed it. I recommend that anyone who was a hillbilly or a woman should read this book.

I found this to be an incredible armchair journey into the lives of hillbilly women in the 1970's. I am searching for a follow up report...what came of these women, how their lives continued to change. Thank you Kathy Kahn for your efforts!

I loved reading this, what these woman went through....
my only problem is I can't find my copy!!! Want to read it again.

It is a shame that this book has been out of print for so long and people are not reading and keeping in mind that there is a huge population of white people who are just as ignorant and oppressed and kept as a permanent serf class, just like the blacks, the Mexicans, and the Chinese railroad workers were.

It is a raw, unfiltered oral history collection where different women tell it like it is, seemingly in stream of consciousness mode, not in response to specific questions. Because it is entertaining and a joy to read (even when someone is telling the most depressing story about young hope cut short by unwanted pregnancy, spousal abandonment, etc.), I suspect that there was good editing done, but in the most unobtrusive way.

I will never use the term Hillbilly lightly again.

Good to read in conjunction with Warmth of Other Suns; that way I got the deep sense that there is "immigration" within America, between the states. Backwards blacks and whites had to escape from their backgrounds to the cities to improve themselves. Just because someone is a poor white doesn't mean they had it easier. Life is deadly cruel to everyone poor.

I came across this book at a local charity book sale.My copy is a paperback published in 1972;no less than 33 years ago.I thumbed it open and just happened to land on page 54;and here's what I got:
"While I was working in a restaurant,this guy come in here and he was drunk.He ordered ham and eggs.He ate about half the eggs and then he just laid his face right down in the plate,right in the eggs.I went over to him and I said,"You better better get your face up out of those eggs." Well,he raised up and looked at me,then he reached over and pinched me.So I hit him over the head with a ketchup bottle.I never did have too much trouble when I worked in the restaurant."
So,I picked up the book and thought it would be folksy and humorous.Such was not the case,I happened to fall on the only thing funny in the book.
This is a very serious book and is a series of interviews of 19 women telling about their dreams,hopes,fears,trials and tribulations,happiness,but more often sorrow and disappointment in thying to live,work,raise families,and obtain the great American promise of Life,Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
What we see it that promise was far from attainable for many who lived in those mountains of Southern Appalacia for several generations and continues today.
The same thing has gone on,and continues to prevail in many parts of North America.Ghettos of many cities,Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl,isonated fishing villages in Newfoundland,Indian Reservations,and rural areas too numerous to list.
It seems that the greatest barrier for these people to really change their situation is their great love of their countryside
coupled with their love of family and friends.
The only solution is migration and any idea that the government will look after you and solve the problems where you are is nothing short of fantasy.
This has been proven by countless waves of emmigration from all kinds of oppressive systems and even governments around the world.
I have experienced the same hopelesness of enjoying the good life where I was born.The solution was to get a good education and go to where the opportunities and justice can be found.
I have no personal experiences with the Appalacians, but everyone knows that was where Dolly Parton,Lorretta Lynn and all kinds of successful people originated.I am sure there are all kinds of similar successes in every walk of life.
Nobody who is mired down in these areas will tell you that you should pack up and leave;you have to figure it out for yourself.
Overall an excellent portrayal but unfortunately no solutions are addressed.It would be a good topic for the author to find people who moved on and improved their lots and write a follow up book.
The 19 women covered in this book are all beautiful people all in their own way.Shirley Summerour has a striking resembelance to Shania Twain ,another person who didn't have it handed to her on a silver platter.She knew from a very early age that the only one who was going to look after her --was herself!

Im looking for a copy of Hillbilly Women to buy for myself. My mother has a hardcopy signed by Kathy Kahn. If you have read the book, then you came across the story Blue Ridge Mountain Refugees written about my grandmothers Wyoming Wilson and Artie Chandler. And my mother Marie Chandler. Plus it shows there pictures. The picture of Wyoming Wilson holding a little girl eating a donut would be me.