Celebrate Older Americans Month with Centenarian Interviews

"Lectures and Story-telling by Roy Edwin Thomas, Ph.D" brochure, circa 1968. Roy Edwin Thomas Collection (MC 1474), Box 1, Folder 8. Special Collections, University Libraries.

In celebration of Older Americans Month in May, the University Libraries invite the campus community to listen to interviews with centenarians from the Roy Edwin Thomas Collection. 

"Roy Edwin Thomas made it his life's mission to interview those he called 'old timers' of the Ozarks and Appalachia," said Katrina Windon, collections management and processing unit head for the University Libraries Special Collections. "Well into his 80s, he traveled the region asking people to tell him their stories — about everything from courtship to war to folklore — and collecting and retelling them in various forms. Ultimately he conducted more than 1,000 interviews that now reside in Special Collections and offer rich firsthand insight into life and culture dating back to the late 19th century."

Thomas was a folklorist, oral historian and writer from Conway. Born Jan. 21, 1917, he grew up on a farm at Bee Branch. Thomas graduated from the U of A with a bachelor's degree in marketing in 1941. He enlisted in the military in 1943 and served during World War II before being honorably discharged in 1945. In September 1970, he began interviewing "old-timers" in Arkansas, and he later expanded his scope to cover the broader Ozarks region and the Appalachians. His oral history interviews provided the basis for most of his writings over the next several decades, which focused primarily on regional dialect and culture. Thomas' publications include Popular Folk Dictionary of Ozarks Talk (1972), Authentic Ozarks Stories (1972) and Come Go with Me: Old-Timer Stories from the Southern Mountains (1994). Thomas passed away Oct. 25, 1999, at the age of 82. His sister, Zelda E. Thomas, donated his materials to Special Collections on March 30, 2000. 

The collection consists primarily of Thomas' oral history interview projects, writings and research materials. From 1970-1994, Thomas conducted more than 1,000 oral history interviews across Arkansas, the Ozarks and Appalachia, primarily with those born from 1870-1910. Notably among these interviewees is musician Jimmy Driftwood. The collection includes audiocassette tapes with recordings of these interviews, as well as Thomas' transcriptions, indexes and writings based on them. The majority of Thomas' writings revolve around stories of Ozarks and Appalachian culture and folklore, most of which were derived from his interviews.

"For all the retrospective offered from people with a century or more of life to reflect on, though, there are also continuous promises of more to come," Windon said, "Like from Eva Boone Hight, who started writing a book age 95, and when interviewed at age 100 was still determined to finish it."

The Special Collections division, located on the first floor of Mullins Library, is currently open to U of A students, faculty and staff by appointment only.