Shirley Corn

Partial Transcript: . I'm Shirley Ruff Corn. I was born in Gerton, came to Bat Cave probably in the 19—late sixties—lived in Bat Cave all the rest of my life up to this point.

Partial Transcript: The 1930s. My family originally came from Polk County.
That I don't know. As far as I can trace them back, they just—everybody was in Polk County.
My grandparents were very talented. They made handmade chairs. My grandfather was Grady Laughter. He lived in Polk County. He could—he made—he could see a tree grow in the woods, and he would say, "That tree would make excellent splits." He would take—saw the straight tree down and saw it up and split it, make handmade oak splits to bottom chairs with. That's how they made their living. They made all kinds of chairs, cradles, doll beds, any kind of chair. That was my mother's father, and my dad's grandfather, Larkin Ruff, and his wife, Lonnie Ruff—they did the same thing. That's how my parents actually met. They—my dad's parents, Larkin and Lonnie Ruff, they had a shop in Gerton. And my mom's parents—they would bring chairs up there to sell to them. That's how my parents met. They did all this by hand, no machines, everything with the draw horse, knobs, handmade splits—you know. I still have some of those; they're beautiful.

Partial Transcript: Mostly, they just made a living with chairs. They grew gardens, of course, to survive and eat and feed their families, but they didn't make a living with that.
My father had his own business in Bat Cave, Ulys Ruff. He had a service station and grocery store in Bat Cave for almost thirty years. And my mom, she ran the grocery store, and they did that until they retired. My dad was the Assistant Chief of the Bat Cave Fire Department for twenty-six years. Also, my mom was in the fire department in the Ladies Auxiliary. So they were both very active in the community.

Partial Transcript: Since Bat Cave is a small community, we know just about everybody. A lot of the people that was affected by the flood lived up on Middle Fork. A lot of the Huntleys lost some of their families due to mudslides. That was a sad time for them. One whole family—the husband had just stepped off the porch, and he saw a mudslide coming. And it destroyed the whole house and took the wife and their children on down the mountain with the mud. That's the—really the only one I know of that was. I think there was one more that was trying to—had a baby in her arms. She thought she had a baby wrapped up in a quilt, and she was trying to cross a flood-swelled river. And when she got to the other side, her baby was gone.
Just from the history that I've read about, it was just such a sad time that they lost their lives, but they lost all their crops. I mean, in July—that was a peak time for everybody's garden coming in. So everybody lost their crops, their milk cows, their chickens, pigs. You know, it was a really hard time after the flood because people lost all their food.

Partial Transcript: Everybody helped one another. That's the way it's always been. Any disaster in that small little town, people will help each other to get themselves back on their feet.
No. I knew our Middle Fork Church was completely destroyed. So they had to rebuild that church. But the Bat Cave Church is set up on a hill, so we were good. Our church was okay.

Partial Transcript: Why is it important to remember the flood? I think to preserve the history, so we won't forget the ones who did lose their lives, and I guess to be more conscious of building too close to rivers, that it could happen again.

Partial Transcript: I think with any disaster that we've had in our little community, everybody is still just—even since the 1916s—people helped each other then. They still do it today. It's a very close, loving, tight-knit community, that we honestly care about people who live there.