Edited interview with Sue Peacock (SP), daughter of William Fugate, conducted by Joe Manning (JM), on March 5, 2008.

JM: What did you think of the photos?

SP: I thought they were awesome. I didn't even know that any pictures existed of my father as a little child. I was strongly connected to my dad when he was an adult, but the photos connected me to my dad as a child, and that's the wonderful part of it. It's one thing to be told by him that he worked on a farm, but to see him there in these pictures is amazing.

I started to look at things differently. My niece started looking things up, and she said, "Oh, they were sharecroppers." But they weren't. They owned their farm, the house and the land. My dad described it as a two-story brick house with big, tall windows. They weren't wealthy, but they weren't poor either. They had 12 children, and everybody helped. (The caption says they rented it, and in the 1920 census, they are listed as renters.)

JM: When did your father leave Kentucky?

SP: I'm not sure, but he was already out on his own at 15 years old. For at least a couple of years, he lived with a sister and her husband on their farm. Then he moved to Cincinnati. He went to night school and finished high school. All my aunts and uncles were educated. He married Ollie Susan Watson on December 25, 1927. She was from Liberty, Kentucky. I was born in Cincinnati in 1938, and I have two sisters, Ramona and Alice. My dad had a garage and filling station, and then owned a body shop. But about 1945, we moved to Miami (Florida), and he worked in the body shop of a Chevrolet dealer. Later on, he was an apartment house manager in Coral Gables.

JM: Did your father talk much about growing up on the farm?

SP: My dad talked about the home and all the food that his mother used to make. She would cook for a week before Christmas. They had this big cabinet on the wall, and she would fill it with pies and cakes. They would have their big meal at noon, and then the leftovers for the evening. She would have a huge pan of cornbread and biscuits every day. She was 41 when my dad was born, and there were two more after him. I remember him talking about going on his first date. He had a team of horses and a buggy, and they went to church. Nowadays, that seems so ancient.

JM: What was your father like?

SP: The most important thing to him was his family. And he was a sweetheart, a gentle giant. He was six feet tall and very handsome. My mother said it was his wavy dark hair that attracted her. He was like magic with babies. There was a couple in one of the apartments that he managed. They had a baby daughter, and anytime Dad walked by, she would reach out, because she wanted Dad to hold her. One day, the doorbell rang, and it was the baby's grandfather. He asked my dad: "What do you do? It's like magic. She won't even let me hold her."

He loved to play games and cards. They got a new croquet set every year because they would wear one out quickly. They had a huge yard, and they would play croquet every evening. Dad was an expert croquet player all through his life and taught my sisters and me how to play. He had a great sense of humor. My husband told me once, "I never met anyone who enjoyed a joke as much as your dad." He would laugh until tears were rolling down his face.

JM: Did you go back to Kentucky a lot?

SP: Yes. We used to visit my aunt in Clark County, and we would play hide and seek in the tobacco. It's funny that some of the photos show them worming the tobacco. If I had known there were worms all over it, I probably wouldn't have played there.

JM: Did you ever see the house that your father lived in?

SP: No. The house was apparently torn down. My dad said he wished he could have had the beautiful curved banister that went up to the second floor. He died on August 5, 1977, and he's buried in Winchester, Kentucky, which is only a couple of miles from where he grew up.