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From: "Karey Bresenhan" <KareyB@quilts.com>
To: "'H-Net Discussion List on Quilt Documentation and Research'"
<H-QUILTS@H-NET.MSU.EDU>
Subject: RE: Query: Quilts and WPA Emergency Schools
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 2009 21:33:01 -0500
Thread-Index: AcpGGEe5+WH+ALStR/myvgp4+7ee2AAE6Xog
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From: "Karey Bresenhan" <KareyB@quilts.com>
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 2009 21:33:01 -0500
I've never heard of these emergency schools, but I know for a fact that my
grandmother in Gilmer, Texas sent many quilts to a WPA quilting bee there in
Upshur County. They charged 10 cents a spool. A rural area, Gilmer was hit
very hard by the Depression. As a little girl, I heard Gran Patterson talk
about the WPA quilts many times. I also heard my mother, Jewel Patterson,
talk about the same thing since she lived there in Gilmer at the time. But
schools? Never heard of them, and I don't have anyone to ask now. I have one
or two of those quilts still in my possession, but unfortunately, Gran
stored many of these quilts in her washhouse, which burned down before I was
born. Then when she died in 1959, my uncle took bags of her quilts down to
the poor section of town and just tossed them out beside the road for people
to pick up. My mother never forgave him!
Hope this anecdotal information helps.
Karey Bresenhan
Director, International Quilt Festival--Houston, Chicago, Long Beach
 Humanities & Social Sciences Online 
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