- Collection:
- Archives for Research on Women and Gender
- Title:
- Carolyn Curry oral history interview, 2009-11-17
- Creator:
- Curry, Carolyn Newton
- Contributor to Resource:
- Gerrard, Morna
- Publisher:
- Atlanta, Ga. : Georgia State University Library
- Date of Original:
- 2009-11-17
- Subject:
- Feminism
Women--Social conditions
Women historians
Football coaches
Self-help groups
Nonprofit organizations
Families - Location:
- United States, Georgia, DeKalb County, 33.77153, -84.22641
United States, Georgia, DeKalb County, Decatur, 33.77483, -84.29631
United States, Georgia, Fulton County, 33.79025, -84.46702
United States, Georgia, Fulton County, Atlanta, 33.749, -84.38798
United States, Maryland, City of Baltimore, 39.29038, -76.61219
United States, Wisconsin, Brown County, Green Bay, 44.51916, -88.01983 - Medium:
- oral histories (literary works)
interviews - Type:
- Sound
- Format:
- audio/mpeg
- Description:
- Born in Mobile, Ala., in 1942, Carolyn Curry earned a B.A. in English from Agnes Scott College (1966), and an M.A. and Ph.D. in history at Georgia State University (1979; 1987). She has taught at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky and the Westminster Schools in Atlanta, Georgia. Compelled by women's stories shared with her during years of research and teaching, Curry founded Women Alone Together in Atlanta in 2002. Curry is the Founder and Director of Women Alone Together, a 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation that addresses the special needs of women who are alone because of the death of a spouse, divorce, single by choice, or alone in a marriage because of separation or estrangement. In addition to writing papers on significant women's issues, she often speaks to various groups around the country on those issues and about Women Alone Together. Curry is the author of Suffer and Grow Strong: The Life of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas 1834-1907 (Mercer University Press, Macon Georgia 2014). For more than 50 years, she has been married to Bill Curry, the former head football coach at Georgia Tech, the University of Alabama, the University of Kentucky, and Georgia State University.
In this interview, Carolyn Curry begins by discussing her family background, particularly her mother and grandmother, who were independent, opinionated women. She describes her own education--she attended Agnes Scott College for two years, then left when her husband, Bill, was drafted to play for the Green Bay Packers and she moved with him to Wisconsin. She resumed her studies at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin and eventually returned to finish her undergraduate degree at Agnes Scott. Over the next several years, Curry gave birth to two children and Bill was traded to the Baltimore Colts; the Curry family divided their time between Baltimore and Atlanta. Curry earned a master's degree and a Ph.D. in history at Georgia State University. Curry discusses her dissertation, a biography of Civil War diarist and feminist Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas. She also talks about the role of feminism in her life and the lives of the women she has known, including discussions of the Equal Rights Amendment, gender dynamics in marriages, and trends she has witnessed in academia. Curry talks at length about her husband's career in football playing, coaching, and broadcasting, including the effect that moving frequently had on her and her children. She talks about her work teaching history in various locales, and about how seeing a close friend's husband die suddenly inspired her to found the nonprofit organization Women Alone Together, which supports women who are alone because of the death of a spouse, divorce, single by choice, or alone in a marriage because of separation or estrangement. - Metadata URL:
- http://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/arwg/id/20424
- IIIF manifest:
- https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/iiif/2/arwg:20424/manifest.json
- Language:
- eng
- Additional Rights Information:
- Copyright to this item is owned by Georgia State University Library. Georgia State University Library has made this item available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. For more information see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
- Bibliographic Citation (Cite As):
- Cite as: Carolyn Curry, interviewed by Morna Gerrard, November 17, 2009, Activist Women Oral History Project, Archives for Research for Women and Gender. Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University.
- Extent:
- 03:04:20
- Original Collection:
- Activist Women Oral History Project
Archives for Research on Women and Gender - Holding Institution:
- Georgia State University. Special Collections
- Rights:
-
