True stories of everyday people
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Martha Annexton Karatz
After graduating from Northwestern with a teaching degree and working in England for a while Martha Karatz moved to Paris. There she landed a luxurious job as a private teacher for a wealthy family in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. But how long could this last…?
Vop Osil
Vop Osilli’s earliest memories are from Nigeria at the beginning of civil war when his mother, an American, decided it was time to leave.
Karl Lee Manders
In an excerpt of his oral history Dr. Karl Manders describes his early work in Indianapolis finding non-surgical treatments for patients with chronic pain.
Stephanie Annette Holman
Stephanie Holman’s grandmother, Katherine Reece, a beloved English teacher in Shelbyville, had a pioneering spirit when facing breast cancer. Though she died when Stephanie was only five, she saved her granddaughter’s life!
Frances Whitener
After a childhood in Martinsville, North Carolina, reading plays and dreaming of being a teacher of drama, Frances faced the frightening real life drama of serious heath issues. When Frances and her husband Rick came to Indianapolis they found job opportunities,...
John William Sauffer
Born in the 1930’s, John Sauffer reflects on growing up in Richmond, Indiana and coming to the big city of Indianapolis. He describes simpler times when more was left to your imagination.
Lou Ann Homan
All that her three little boys wished for Christmas was a pony. But in order to raise the $75 dollars to pay for it their homesteading mother would have to bake THIRTY PUMPKIN PIES for Thanksgiving … with no electricity, no running water and a wood burning stove! This...
Shari Lyn Finnell
How did growing up in Gary, Indiana help Shari Finnell, a journalist with a degree from Northwestern University, to see the world as a place where anything was possible? Shari explains.
Sherril Lyn Adkins
In the Summer of 1966 Sherril Adkins got a job as a waitress at Catfish King in Birmingham, Alabama. Having grown up on integrated military bases she had not yet experienced the racism of ordinary white folks of the South. When the restaurant would not serve an...