University of North Carolina at Asheville
D. Hiden Ramsey Library
Special Collections/University Archives

Oral History Register
for

Florence Iddings Ryan, 1894-1994

OH-VOA R93 Fl
Interview Two

Florence Ryan (far right) at ERA Demonstration
Voices of Asheville Oral History Collection
D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, UNCA

Title

Creator

Dorothy Joynes for Voices of Asheville Oral History Collection

Subject

LCSH ;
Ryan, Florence Iddings,1894-1994
Asheville (N.C.) -- History
League of Women Voters -- North Carolina -- Asheville
Equal Rights Amendments -- North Carolina
Social integration -- North Carolina -- Asheville

Subject:

Keyword: Princess Ann Hotel ; St. Joseph's Hospital ; Rhododendron Festival ; League of Women Voters ; Community Relations Council ; VA Hospital ; United Nations Association

Description

Abstract: Ryan describes her youth in Nebraska and her choice to attend Bryn Mawr College.  Her political and social welfare activities are discussed. Ryan discusses her involvement with the women's suffrage movement during her college years and efforts during the 1970's and 80's to achieve passage of the 19th Amendment (Equal Rights Amendment).  She discusses her children and other family members. She describes many facets of life in Asheville from 1920 to the present, including the Depression years, the development of Biltmore Forest, Kenilworth, and Beaver Lake, and various aspects of daily life, including streets, stores, transportation, and city-wide festivals such as the Rhododendron Festival. She discusses her work with the League of Women Voters, and the activities of groups such as the Community Relations Council. She was a charter member of the Asheville United Nations chapter and describes a visit to the city by Eleanor Roosevelt at the time the first chapters were being formed; Asheville had one of the first such groups. She also describes the awards she has received, and discusses the Florence Ryan Education Fund of the Asheville/Buncombe League of Women Voters.

Publisher

D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville, NC, 28804

Contributor

Date

Electronic Record Issued: 2002-05-30

Type

Sound ; Text ; Image

Format

Physical Description: 5-page abstract ; 2 90-minute audiocassettes and 2 copies ; 10 black and white photographs ; 2 sets of negatives ; newspaper articles

Identifier

Source

OH-VOA R93 Fl

Language

English

Relation

References: VOA Helen Reed Oral History ; VOA Marjorie Lockwood Oral History ; VOA Thelma Caldwell Oral History

Coverage

Acquisition

Donor number: 146 ;  Date of acquisition: 1998

Processed By

Dorothy Joynes, Ruth Beard and staff

Interview Date

Interview Location

Biography

List of names

Tape I, Side 1:

[I/1/6]  The Florence Ryan Fund was established at a dinner honoring her birthday at the Biltmore Forest Town Hall to cover special educational projects the League of Women Voters could not budget. [Leah Karpen]

[I/1/44]  She was gratified to see many young members at the League 's annual luncheon meeting at the Asheville Country Club, June 6.

[I/1/52]  Discussion of the ERA and women's willingness to leave decisions up to husbands.

[I/1/61]  She just sent two checks to NOW and considers this the year of the woman. [Carol Braun, Geraldine Ferraro, Josie Heath, Betty Freidan]

[I/1/89]  She feels ERA was defeated because North Carolina was one vote short. [Senator Sam Ervin (in Morganton)]

[I/1/105]  Although 18-year-olds have been given the right to vote she does not believe they take it seriously.

[I/1/125] She describes her trip to Raleigh to attend ERA meeting (see file).

[I/1/133]  She has just returned from granddaughter's wedding and describes her family. [Nancy Watkins, Betsy Stanton Webb, Richard Iddings]

[I/1/163]  She tells about taking a Civil War veteran to polls to vote.  The president of her college who felt that women could do anything invited her, as she was a political science student, to attend a meeting with the English suffragette (see file). [Mary Carey Thomas, Emily Pankhurst]

[I/1/231]  She discusses the passage of the 19th amendment.  There was a feeling that women were uneducated.  They worked only out of necessity and married women would only vote as their husbands did. [President Woodrow Wilson]

[I/1/287]  To escape the Florida heat she and her baby came to Asheville to stay with her mother on 94 Edwin Place.  While here the 19th amendment was passed and she returned to Florida to vote.

[I/1/356]  She went to Smith College to get her degree in social work and lived in Transylvania with her 4 children.  Her son was killed in WWII.  She discusses more about the ERA bill. [Richard Ryan, Margaret Ryan Watkins, Elizabeth Ryan Wiviott, Sarah Ryan Demetrowitz]

[I/1/400]  She has had a cataract removed but does not think her drivers license will be renewed when she is 100.  She sent a donation to Stevens' campaign and will go to the bar-b-q on July 6. [Jack Stevens]

[I/1/506]  She discusses the NRA and her various jobs - Winston-Salem Child Guidance, Child Welfare Department in Virginia and for 4 years she traveled for the Red Cross.  She worked at Oteen 18 years.

[I/1/550]  She always came back to Asheville and stayed with her mother, then her sister, at 74 Wembley Road. [Nanine Iddings]

[I/1/583]  The pro-choice march on Washington April 5, 1992 is described.

Tape 1, Side 2:

[I/2/1]  She attended the pro-choice meeting by the Lincoln Memorial with her daughters, granddaughter and great-granddaughter.  She describes the march, her introduction and her reactions.  There were many men in the crowd (see clipping from GreenLine). [Margaret Ryan Watkins, Monica Hinton, Sarah Ryan Demetrowitz, Nancy Watkins]

[I/2/85]  League of Women Voters has always had male members, though the name stays the same.

[I/2/97]  She compares the ERA convention with the pro-choice rally.

[I/2/121]  Abortion is the "bottom line" politically now.  The Lambs of God and position of the churches is discussed.

[I/2/185]  We discuss people who know her in the community.  She still takes people to vote.  She has always been a Democrat but does not influence people when she drives them. [James W. "Red" Hoyle Sr.), Virginia Bradley, Leah Karpen]

[I/2/270]  The forthcoming election is discussed. [Ross Perot, William Clinton]

[I/2/310]  Asheville used to have the old "ring crowd."  A group of women went early to precinct #5 and the men knew they were beaten. [Mary Lloyd Frank, Norma Price, Marie Colton, Bob Swain]

[I/2/339]  It is difficult for a woman to run for office unless her husband is behind her and her children are at least partly grown.  Patsy Keever is a homemaker and teacher but says she has as much time as a man has. [Patsy Keever]

[I/2/363]  She reviews her early schooling, Bryn Mawr College and return, after 20 years, to Smith to get a graduate degree in social work.  She retired at age 70 from the VA Medical Center in Oteen. 

[I/2/540]  Her life on Wembley Rd. is discussed.

[I/2/624]  Thanks - will return. (see tape 2, June 23, 1992)

Tape 2, Side 1:

[II/1/1]  Introduction and review of her visit to Asheville in 1920.

[II/1/68]  Memories of the city, street cars, roads and houses. [William Jennings Bryan]

[II/1/88]  Because cattle were no longer raised on the Biltmore Estate and the blacks in Shilo lost jobs they would not vote for Mimi Cecil - she was defeated. [Mimi Cecil]

[II/1/127]  Jews were not admitted in Biltmore Forest.  They built in the Beaverdam area.

[II/1/136]  The "ring crowd" in the 20's supported the president of the Central Bank, which went bankrupt. [Wallace Davis]

[II/1/150]  Biltmore Forest and Lake View Park were developed.

[II/1/168]  Swimming pool at the end of Beaver Lake described.

[II/1/200]  Friendships were not restricted to neighborhoods.  People met all over town because of common interests.

[II/1/211]  There was no great concern about the big banks being built in the middle of Biltmore Village.  The city was in severe Depression.

[II/1/237]  Daily life and labor saving devices described.  Produce wagons came from farmers as far away as South Carolina.

[II/1/300]  Clothing and housewares stores are described. [Bon Marché, Ivey's, Carroll's, Belk, Fains]

[II/1/371]  Grocery stores - interior and delivery - described.  When large stores introduced the carts some women were embarrassed to push them. [Gray Supply]

[II/1/410]  Laundry, seamstresses, and household help discussed.

[II/1/444]  Pregnant women were not to be seen on the street.

[II/1/475]  Most teachers were unmarried or widowed.  Married women rarely taught.  She discusses attitude toward working women.

[II/1/543]  In the 30's it was realized that trained workers were needed for certain jobs.

Tape 2, Side 2:

[II/2/2]  Social service workers were needed to give emergency relief.  She went to Transylvania.

[II/2/16]  IN 1928 the Republicans appointed a woman to head the Buncombe County Welfare Department because she needed the job.  The National Association of Social Workers, which required more than a college education, was formed.

[II/2/41]  All stores up to 20 years ago were located in the center of the city.  Westgate was the first mall. [Penny's, Asheville Mall, Biltmore, Westgate, Innsbrook, River Ridge, Wamsutta]

[II/2/85]  There was opposition to the cut (she says tunnel) because people thought the wind would get sucked through.

[II/2/110]  Oteen was built for TB soldiers after WWI.  Before that there were a series of small cottages to house them.

[II/2/121]  There were many TB hospitals.  The Princess Ann Hotel was built by a nurse for relatives who were visiting patients.  Grove Park wouldn't take children and the Manor was expensive. [Princess Ann Hotel, Grove Park, Manor]

[II/2/136]  St. Joseph Hospital was built for TB patients. [St. Joseph Hospital]

[II/2/150]  People in the community began to fear contagion. [Edwin Wiley Grove]

[II/2/163]  Boarding houses were open to people who came from the south during the summer.  Motels have taken their place. [Thomas Wolfe]

[II/2/187]  With the advent of air conditioners, people are not forced to leave the south.

[II/2/199]  This was a junction point for trains.

[II/2/215]  Battery Park was a social gathering place.

[II/2/259]  The people in Wolfe's book were well identified. [Mrs. Wolfe, Tom Wolfe, D. Hiden Ramsey, Mabel Wolfe]

[II/2/299]  The Ryan daughters went to camp near Wolfe's cabin. [Tom Wolfe]

[II/2/319]  The librarian would not allow Wolfe's book on the shelf.

[II/2/322]  Library system, city development, parking and freedom of city from debt discussed. [Pack Square, Mary Lloyd Frank, Eone Harger]

[II/2/399]  She spends her time reading, watching TV, and playing scrabble.

[II/2/406]  The effect of  TV on voting and attitudes toward candidates is discussed. [Richard Nixon, John Kennedy]

[II/2/463]  The League of Women Voters gets people out to register and vote.

Tape 3, Side 1:

[III/1/1]  She was given Woman of the Year award in 1985 by the Community Relations Council in Asheville; showed it to me. [Edward Schell, Robert Jones]

[III/1/35]  Black and white citizens work together.  The YMCA was the only place they could meet together when Mrs. Roosevelt came to talk about the United Nations.  Asheville is one of the first places to start a United Nations chapter.  Tryon students attended the meeting and had to sit on the floor. [Eleanor Roosevelt]

[III/1/70]  She was treasurer of the U.N. for a number of years.  Women's clubs backed her up.  New people moving to town are taking the responsibility.  [John Fobes, Paul Limbert]

[III/1/125]  YMI was built by Vanderbilt for black workers. [George Vanderbilt]

[III/1/163]  The Community [Relations] Council was created to discuss problems between blacks and whites and privacy in the projects. [Thelma Caldwell]

[III/1/216]  Projects were built after WWII with funds from the U.S. government for public housing.  The first houses were given to returning veterans - then to blacks.

[III/1/261]  Women's groups described - "Emily's List," NOW, Church Women United, Leauge of Women Voters, AAUW. [Carol Mosley Braun]

[III/1/339]  Changes reviewed - minimum wage law, household help, boarding houses, modern machinery, social security reporting, change in size of houses and life style. [Mrs. Wolfe]

[III/1/413]  Overview of  city - Montford, Grove Park, Biltmore Forest, Lakeview Park, Chicken Hill, Valley Street, cobble stones, street cars.

[III/1/502]  Bele Chere started about 7 years ago.  Rhododendron Festival in the 20's became a debut party called "Brigade of Guards."

Tape 3, Side 2:

[III/2/4]  The Kenilworth area described.  It was outside city limits and developed without zoning in the 20's.

[III/2/20]  Signs and zoning discussed.

[III/2/50]  Vanderbilt was staying at the Appalachian Inn [Kenilworth Inn] when he overlooked the mountains and decided to build the estate - not Battery Park Hotel as it is reported.  He stayed at Battery Park while building, however. [Joynes note: Kenilworth Inn NOT constructed before Biltmore House construction.]

[III/2/77]  Oteen and St. Joseph's Hospitals (built by nuns as a TB hospital) discussed.

[III/2/93]  Drug developed to treat TB.  Social workers added to Oteen to track patients' progress.

[III/2/123]  With proper medication patients could leave Oteen.  The hospital is no longer a TB sanatorium.

[III/2/173]  When the Central Bank and Trust went bankrupt, the only asset belonging to the city was the water department.  She feels that revenues from water financed city expenses, and explains why the water pipes could not be well maintained.  [Wallace Davis]

[III/2/227]  With the Depression, many left town.  ERA supplied jobs - canning, sewing, rooms etc for $13.50 a week.

[III/2/260]  WPA came later.  Bridges in Pisgah Parkway were built by CCC.

[III/2/285]  There was concern about rocks left from blasting the cut but feels piles are now overgrown with bushes and no longer objectionable.

[III/2/346]  The League works with the Salvation Army for Christmas in July.  She worked with them at Wal-Mart last Saturday. 

[III/2/379]  The black YMCA on the French Broad River had housing for women coming into town. [YWCA?] [Elspeth Clarke, Edward Schell, Thelma Caldwell]

[III/2/428]  She will be a guide at the Theatre for the July 4 opening of Pack Place and went in for instruction last week.

[III/2/464]  She doesn't like malls, hopes downtown area will build up and thinks there is adequate parking.

[III/2/470]  She has gone to the South Eastern World Institute since beginning.  Date conflicts with Bele Chere - so has never seen it.

Thanks.

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