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ORAL HISTORY
Margaret
Inez Hundley was born on February 9, 1920 to Caroline McKay Hundley and
Jasper “Jack” Hundley at Griffith Station, Kentucky. They were
both twenty five years old. She was the second child in a close knit
family of eight. Dorothy was her oldest living sibling but
her mother had previously given birth to a son who died at birth.
The other siblings in the family were Charles, Louise, Harold, Jimmy, Billy,
Hattie Marian (passed away at age three months), and Donnie.
Her memories begin at the age of three when her brother Charles was a baby
in 1923. Although faint, she can still hear her mother and aunts discussing
his hiccups. Nez, as her family called her, was always her
mother’s helper and one of her papa’s most devoted admirers.
Although life
was not easy, her childhood remains one of her most indelible memories.
She remembers her Granddaddy Charles McKay calling her “gypsy” as a very
young child. He said it was because she would go around with a tied
cloth diaper swinging from her little arm jammed full of Charles’s
baby items. As she grew up, more brothers and sisters arrived on
the homestead. Nez welcomed each and everyone of them with
love and an undying devotion.
Her papa worked for Owensboro National Bank managing their 3,500 acres of farmland. Jack Hundley was a hot headed democrat who would discuss politics with his wife, who was also a democrat. However, he was a very fair and loving man who took good care of his family and helped out anyone in need. Her mama worked at home raising her family, maintaining her house, and attending Homemakers. She belonged to the Roman Catholic church and raised each of her children to be good Catholics with a strong moral code to live by.
Playtime around
the farm consisted of jacks, 500 rummy, hop-scotch (drawn in the dirt),
and hide and seek. The family had one bicycle to use between all
the children and one red wagon. When Nez was growing up kids did not have
as many toys to play with so they had to be inventive and use their surroundings
to play.
Even though
the children had plenty of time to play growing up, they also had chores
that had to be completed. She can remember taking turns washing dishes
with her sister, Dorothy. One would wash one week and the next week would
be the others turn. There were always babies in the house so she
would often help her mother care for them.
As she grew up, the garden provided much of the food that was put on the table at dinner time. They had good food to eat each day. The family had lots of garden vegetables and their own meat to eat. The meat was stored in a meat house and her mama canned many meats. However, in 1936, the family had a refrigerator that was ran by kerosene and they began storing some of the meat in the refrigerator.
She can remember
living in a house that had electricity that ran on batteries. Her
papa finally quit using it because there was a lot of maintenance work
involved and it was dangerous. The house also had an indoor bathroom
as well as outdoor toilets. At the age of fourteen, Nez began driving.
In 1934, drivers license were not issued so there was not a specific driving
age. Her papa felt she was ready at fourteen. Her mama wanted
a loaf of bread from the store so her papa sent Nez to get it. She
asked him to back the car out of the garage for her and he told her she
had to learn herself. If she tore the fenders off the car so
be it. She successfully backed the car out of the garage and went
to get the bread. Her mama had no idea that he had sent Nez to the
store by herself and she had a fit when she returned. When
it became a law that each person must have a drivers license to drive,
she was able to get one without taking a test. Her papa knew the
man who issued the drivers licenses in Daviess County. The man gave Nez
a lecture about the importance of driving safely and then he gave her a
drivers
license.
As a child, she attended school at Griffith Station. It was a one room school where all of her brothers and sisters attended with the exception of Dorothy. Dorothy attended the school at St. Peter’s Church and she went onto become nun. Nez can remember a couple of her teachers and she thought they were good, even though they were strict. She studied reading, writing, and arithmetic. School would begin at 8:00 and end at 3:00. Her favorite subject was English and her least favorite was arithmetic. She would go home for lunch each day because their house was across the street from the school. Her mama always had a big lunch prepared because her papa would come out of the fields to eat lunch each day.
When she reached the 10th grade she decided to quit school because she did not like attending Daviess County High. Her parents did not mind in the least and her mama was actually glad that she quit school. She had been sick a lot during her teenage years with a bad kidney and that’s why her papa did not mind that she quit school. If she had decided to continue, her papa would have helped her get the best education possible. After leaving school, Nez joined the Homemakers and helped her mama piece quilts. Now she wishes that she had continued with school to become a nurse.
Jack Hundley died on October 13, 1938 at the age of forty three from strep throat. Caroline Hundley was four months pregnant with their last child, Donnie, at the time of his death. His death was very sudden and the family took it very hard. They were in the process of building a new home and he passed away before the family ever moved. Life became very difficult for Nez. Her sister, Dorothy, was already at Mt. St. Joseph attending classes to become a nun and that left Nez at home. As the oldest child, she assumed many duties and responsibilities to keep the household running as the family grieved over Jack Hundley’s death.
As a teenager, Nez would attend pound parties at her friends houses. This is where each person would bring a pound of candy or cookies the to party house and they would play games. She cannot remember all the games they played but she knows that they played hide and seek until they were grown ups. They would even play at night time. She began dating when she was nineteen years old. Her first date was with Delbert A. and they went to a movie. Her mama never gave her any advice before going out because she knew she could trust her.
On February 12, 1941, she took her first job out of the house working at Ken-Rad which became part of General Electric. She worked there for twelve years and this is the only job she ever had outside of the home. Her mother was upset when she went to work. Her Uncle Buzz McKay bet that she would not continue to work because she couldn’t stay away from her little brother, Donnie. She kept working so that he wouldn’t win his bet. However, Nez would have loved to have quit work and stayed at home but she would not give Uncle Buzz the satisfaction of being right.
Nez meet her future husband in 1948 when Shorty, her sister Louise’s husband, brought Ben Roby (everyone called him Roby) home from work one day. They worked together for the state doing road work. On their first date, they went to a basketball game between Daviess County High and Owensboro Senior High at the Owensboro Sportscenter . They dated for two years and then Roby went to Peoria, Illinois for a job at Caterpillar. They continued dating even after he moved to Illinois. During a visit to Peoria, the couple were driving down a street and Roby told her he thought it was about time they got married. She agreed.
They married on Tuesday July 14, 1953 at St. Peter’s Church in Stanley, Kentucky. Their wedding was attended by several people. Instead of a honeymoon, the newlyweds returned to Peoria and their new home which they purchased prior to getting married. Roby was also on vacation and he was due back at work on the following Monday. She would return to Kentucky for visits two or three times a year.
After the couple married, Nez became pregnant but she lost the child early on in the pregnancy. She became pregnant again and carried that child for six months before she had a miscarriage. In all, she became pregnant three times but could never carry the baby to term due to her thyroid. She had a surgery on her thyroid earlier and it contributed to her not being able to have children. In 1958, Roby and Nez adopted a thirteen month old girl, Lesa. She was the child of Nez’s Aunt Christine who had died of cancer of the kidney and bone. Christine asked them prior to her death to take Lesa and raise her. Even though, Christine was survived by her husband, Lesa’s birth dad, and other children she wanted Nez and Roby to adopt Lesa. It was a difficult decision for all the parties involved but everyone wanted what was best for Lesa.
When Lesa was four years old, she began crying for a little brother or sister. Nez and Roby decided adopt another child. Before they began the adoption process, it was suggested to them that they keep foster children to see what age child would be best for Lesa. The first and let them adopt Timmy. Nez and Roby would not break the children up so the children went back to their birth mother. They had lived as a family for five years so when the children left it was like a death had occurred. Due to the stress of the children leaving, Nez had a minor stroke. After a little time past, she fully recovered. It was too much to go through again so they decided not to try adoption again. They did continue to keep foster children. From 1961 to 1980, they welcomed a total of thirty eight children.
Nez and Roby had a wonderful life together. He retire at age sixty four on January 31, 1980. Lesa was grown and living on her own so they decided it was time to return to Kentucky. On January 1, 1981, they made the move but neither of them anticipated how difficult it would be to leave Peoria and Lesa. Nez didn’t like it in Owensbor for a long time after they moved back. The couple discussed moving back to Peoria and then in 1983 Lesa moved to Evansville, Indiana. That ended any discussion of moving back because they wanted to be close to their daughter. After Roby retired, they began to travel around the United States. During their early years together, they had really never traveled except to come home to Kentucky. Her favorite vacation was going out West. They drove across the country twice. Her favorite places out West are the Grand Canyon and Yosemite Park. She also loves the Florida Keys but she would not want to live there.
Nez developed breast cancer in 1996 and had her right breast removed as well as a section of her left breast. She did not have to take any radiation treatments. During this time, she was also diagnosed with cancer of the blood for which she takes a chemotherapy pill daily. Roby was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1997 and he passed away on November 10, 1998. Even though Nez misses him more than anyone can imagine, she has continued her life.
She attends
Immaculate Parish and visits her sister Louise every week. She is
now eighty one years old and continues to drive, clean her house, take
care of her flowers, and her remaining family. She is an inspiration
to any young person on what life should be like at eighty one.