Carolyn’s childhood was filled with change. From birth to age twelve she moved nine times from Pittsburgh, PA to between Charleston, WV and Huntington, WV, living in nine different houses. This was challenging for Carolyn, the moving meant constantly making new friends. However, looking back Carolyn believes that this change was for the best. She was fortunate enough to have a stable home, where her mother and father were always a strong guiding education force and although the change was difficult, she values the experiences and varied adventures she had. Moving schools allowed her to interact with different people and learn how to make friends. She spent much of her time with her mother and with her father at home. They played games together, like Parcheesi, Chinese Checkers, Sorry and Monopoly. She enjoyed solitary projects like coloring books, playing with dolls, and playing with cut out dolls. Her favorite dolls were the Dy-Dee doll which you could feed a bottle and a Snow White doll she got at seven years old. Carolyn and her mother would go to the store to buy fabric and look at pattern books and deciding what clothes she wanted. Her mother was a professional grade seamstress and made all of Carolyn’s dresses and dance costumes. At four years old she idolized Shirley Temple and at age seven she admired the singers Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddie. Despite moving, her mother sought to add some normalcy to her daughter’s life by encouraging her to take dance lessons.
With each move, Mother brought two brass candle sticks, a green fruit bowl, and a brass candelabra, which were fixated on the mantle of every house. This was a source of comfort for Carolyn through the moves.
The first time Carolyn and her parents moved to Charleston, WVa. they moved into a large beautiful house up in South Hills on Bridge Road. The house was near the top of the hill. It had eight large rooms and a huge full basement, with a steeply inclined driveway that ended at the bottom twenty feet from a wall with an abrupt ten foot drop off to a deep ravine and stream running below. From the driveway ran a path, which and wound up and over away from the back of the house and into the woods to a small cabin, where a little black girl lived, with whom Carolyn became friends with in 1933. The girls played many games together, just as children do, and it was this experience that planted in Carolyn the seeds of acceptance activism. Throughout her teen years, she spent much time working with the Methodist Church to try to integrate churches.
In 1937, Carolyn moved to Huntington for the first time and lived on West Forth Street. She was thrilled to find neighborhood girlfriends to play with. In March of 1937, Carolyn met her group of friends, neighbor girls around her age with whom she became very close. Claire Sue was Carolyn’s best friend who lived 5 doors down and Jacqueline lived in between. Martha Jane, who went by Cherry, was the youngest of the girls and she lived on the street behind Carolyn on West Fifth.
Carolyn grew up with very few playmates, and as mentioned before was very grown-up for her age. Her father was an intellectual man- a former school teacher and superintendent. Carolyn ’s childhood was filled with educational trips and experiences such as going to the San Francisco World Fair and tooling around National Parks along the way. Upon meeting Cherry for the first time, Carolyn exclaimed, “Oh, you’re Cherry, I presume.” The other girls were stunned, looking at her as if she had six heads, because it was surprising to hear a seven-year-old speak with such big words. Despite Carolyn having a more adult vocabulary than the other girls, they all got along well, and Carolyn was finally able to feel like a normal girl.
The first time Carolyn and her parents moved to Charleston, WVa. they moved into a large beautiful house up in South Hills on Bridge Road. The house was near the top of the hill. It had eight large rooms and a huge full basement, with a steeply inclined driveway that ended at the bottom twenty feet from a wall with an abrupt ten foot drop off to a deep ravine and stream running below. From the driveway ran a path, which and wound up and over away from the back of the house and into the woods to a small cabin, where a little black girl lived, with whom Carolyn became friends with in 1933. The girls played many games together, just as children do, and it was this experience that planted in Carolyn the seeds of acceptance activism. Throughout her teen years, she spent much time working with the Methodist Church to try to integrate churches.
In 1937, Carolyn moved to Huntington for the first time and lived on West Forth Street. She was thrilled to find neighborhood girlfriends to play with. In March of 1937, Carolyn met her group of friends, neighbor girls around her age with whom she became very close. Claire Sue was Carolyn’s best friend who lived 5 doors down and Jacqueline lived in between. Martha Jane, who went by Cherry, was the youngest of the girls and she lived on the street behind Carolyn on West Fifth.
Carolyn grew up with very few playmates, and as mentioned before was very grown-up for her age. Her father was an intellectual man- a former school teacher and superintendent. Carolyn ’s childhood was filled with educational trips and experiences such as going to the San Francisco World Fair and tooling around National Parks along the way. Upon meeting Cherry for the first time, Carolyn exclaimed, “Oh, you’re Cherry, I presume.” The other girls were stunned, looking at her as if she had six heads, because it was surprising to hear a seven-year-old speak with such big words. Despite Carolyn having a more adult vocabulary than the other girls, they all got along well, and Carolyn was finally able to feel like a normal girl.