Living History at Your Library: Aunt Molly Jackson

Feisty, funny, and completely fearless, Aunt Molly Jackson lived for nearly 50 years in the coal camps of southeastern Kentucky, where her father, brothers, husband, and sons were miners. In the camps, Aunt Molly delivered babies, nursed the sick, and wrote and sang songs about the miner's lives. Aunt Molly's songs, her eloquence, and her intimate knowledge of the live in the camps impressed Theodore Dreiser and his committee of writers when they visited Kentucky in 1931. Dreiser encouraged Aunt Molly to move to New York City, where her heartfelt songs and lively stories made her a popular and well-known spokesperson for the Kentucky miners. Today, Aunt Molly's songs and stories take us back to the eastern and western Kentucky coalfields of the early 20th century.

This event is free and open to the public. It occurs on Thursday, August 29 at 6 PM.

This program was funded in part by Kentucky Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities.