Lynn Hensley

Partial Transcript: My name is Lynn English Hensley. I’m a native of Yancey County and still live there, but I have very strong Henderson County connections through our mother, Juanita Pryor English. She was born in 1913, here in Henderson County. And I think she enjoyed knowing that she had one of the lowest birth certificate numbers in the county, because her mother was well-informed and was a schoolteacher and particularly made sure she did things the right way. And so I think the kids in this family had very low numbers on their Henderson County records, which had probably been in existence for a while, but she just knew that our grandmother made the trip—pretty hard trip—into town to record the births, when probably most folks didn’t do, back in that particular time.

We enjoyed coming here. Now, I don’t have remembrances of my grandmother. She died when I was three. I remember her death. My sister would remember way more about coming to the family home during that time. But our mother kept close connection to Henderson County. We were raised in her faith here, which is the Church of God of the Abrahamic Faith, which is a small church still in existence here. So we made lots of trips to Henderson County back in those days. That took a long time from Burnsville, around the old road, and through Asheville—through Weaverville, through Asheville, through Hendersonville. It was quite an effort just to get here, particularly on Sundays, I guess. And then we always enjoyed time at our uncle and aunt’s house out in the Edneyville community, which is close to the homeplace.

Our parents—which we could do a whole series on our father, by the way. He’s from Yancey County, and you say you’re an environmentalist. Well, he was the first forest ranger and has the whole history of the North Carolina Forest Service. It’s a part of our very important past, so. He—I sort of got off track about coming over here. But nevertheless, we came here quite a bit during our growing-up years. After our father’s career with the North Carolina Forest Service, they retired to our mother’s old homeplace that we’re particularly talking about today and lived the rest of each of their lives out at the old homeplace here. So the lifelong connection became an everyday connection when our parents actually retired here. And for me in particular, living in Yancey County, it was almost like a second home. So we’re pretty strong on Henderson County connections, even though living—being raised in Yancey, and I currently live there as well.

Partial Transcript: Well, our grandfather—and I’m so glad that my sister’s involved in this, learning about the history and the heritage in Henderson County, because what it’s done for us is put a lot of shape and form to things that we just sort of grew up knowing. But it’s inspired, particularly in my sister, a lot of research into knowing about our grandparents. And as we’ve said, I’ve joined in on a couple of field trips. So going to Middle Fork, where we learned that our grandfather was born, we now sort of have a concept of his life, and how he ended up in Edneyville, and actually how our grand—how they met, how they married.

My sister’s the one knowledgeable and who’s enjoyed so much learning about that, so I will defer the questions about their life to her. I think that I would want to just say about the flood, which of course is one of your primary topics at the present, that we each grew up knowing—and certainly I knew that Mother from time to time would just make a reference to the flood. But I think only recently I have some concept of the monumental meaning to the flood in all of western North Carolina. And I know she has mentioned a number of times—well, our house washed away, or washed off the foundation. Now, I don’t think the structure just disappeared, but I think it was rendered unlivable by the flood waters. And I think I even have a little bit of a concept of knowledge of where the house was. I’ve actually asked my husband recently if Daddy took him—because remember, I’m saying our parents retired back to the original homeplace. I know that there was a chimney structure still remaining from the original house. I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen it, or I’ve just pictured in my mind where I think it might have been. And I’d like to go exploring and see if we can find it. I really do think there’s somewhere still—there should be the structure to the chimney still there.

But the whole story about the flood has just taken on such shape and form, particularly recently, and specifically the day that—you’re going to have to cut this. I’m sorry. On one of the field trips, Jenny reads the story of the family. And it’s such vivid writing. And I’m not sure now—was that the father—I mean the gentleman who—I’m not really sure who wrote the story. Joy, can you recall that from your class? I believe that’s the same story you referred to a few minutes ago.
Yeah. So when she reads this story, this firsthand account of going out into the night, away from the warmth of the fire, into the blackness—you know, I said to my sister, “Well, that would be our mother’s story as well.” Just to think of the noises and the sounds that would take a house from its foundation—must have been horrifying. So I’m sorry I’m doing all this. But the beauty of this class is that it really has given an appreciation for—even though our mother spoke of the flood from time to time, it was never a real detailed story, or it was just a few facts, you know, that Grandmother and Granddaddy and an aunt carried them to the mountain, and they found safety under a rock. And Joy can read the paragraph in her portion of this, as our mother described it. So it’s very—just a small, factual paragraph. But this experience of hearing someone else’s far more detailed—and as an adult, I’m sure, talking about the experience of sounds and the darkness and all of that, truly would be the very same experience, I feel sure. So that’s just given a tremendous appreciation to this class, to the field trips, and to your work, to put a lot of human touch to these factual paragraphs.

Partial Transcript: Well, we only—and Joy can take the paragraph—we know that their family then had to take up residence in the Clay Freeman home, which she can talk about, but which is the family home that we now still enjoy and appreciate. And we think the grandparents would—our mother’s grandparents were living there, is that right, Joy, at that time? And so this family just had to move in with them after their home was removed from the foundations. And they would have continued living there. I’m sure the older folks then would have died along the way, and our grandparents continued to stay there. And again, my older sister can talk a bit more about her recollections of that place as a child.

Partial Transcript: I truly believe and applaud you and others who are trying to preserve the history of this area and of western North Carolina. I lived with folks who grew up in the—I was born to parents who lived through the Depression and all of those eras. We have such a rich history within our own family and with the community in which we were born and raised in, and I’m just delighted to know that folks really want to learn about it and want to help us preserve. It’s just who we are. So to pass this on to other generations, I believe is just beyond—I don’t know how to describe how important I think it is. It’s the values that we were taught. It’s the work ethic that we were shown. I think we’ve each demonstrated in our own careers that what we saw in our parents is certainly what we emulate, and I hope, what we will pass on to generations to come. But you’re talking about things that are just sort of everyday things to us—growing gardens and knowing how to do all those things. That’s what our parents did. And we understand the value of all of that, and applaud your efforts to help us make sure that that goes forward.

Partial Transcript: If young people have no appreciation or knowledge of what happened before—and I hope those in our family do—then they have no sense of who they are. They have no sense of what’s truly important. They don’t have the values that were instilled in us. And it cannot be good for society to lose all of that. It just will totally change the way the world functions and will eliminate the good things, the good characteristics in people. Neighbors helping neighbors—that’s just what our parents did. Now it’s a social event or it’s something really remarkable for volunteers to do this and that and the other. Our parents just did it, and they weren’t part of any organized group. It’s just—neighbors came together and did things. You didn’t have a club name or any of those things, but it was the desire to be good to people and help people, whatever the need was.

Partial Transcript: Well, no, except I do seriously want to say that I think it is wonderful that you are working to preserve all this. There are efforts around. And anything—and I am sorry because I don’t want to be this emotional person—but I guess if anything, I wanted that to underscore the value of this experience that we’re having through this class now, because when factual things become real to you as this has, it’s a joy. It’s tears of joy, not sadness.