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Ritchie family portrait (9 people) – Standing in front of shingle-roofed building with wreath on outside wall. [FN Vl_35_1149.jpg]<\/p><\/div>Kitty Ritchie came from one of the most well-known ballad-singing families of Kentucky; the ‘Singing Family of the Cumberlands.”\u00a0<\/span>Music was central to the lives of the Ritchie family. They sang as they went about their house and gardening chores and at family gatherings, a custom that continues in the extended family to this day. Kitty’s youngest sister, Jean Ritchie, became the most well-known of her siblings as a commercial performer, author, recording artist, composer and folk music collector.<\/span><\/p>\n Kitty Ritchie was one of six Ritchie children who\u00a0<\/span>attended<\/span> Pine Mountain School throughout the 1920s. (Others in her family of 14 children attended nearby Hindman Settlement School<\/a><\/span>.)\u00a0 Evelyn K. Wells,<\/a> a PMSS secretary from 1919 to 1931 and acting director in 1931, described in her 1955\u00a0Harvard University talk<\/a>, “Appalachian Folksongs,” how the Ritchie children contributed to the musical culture at Pine Mountain:<\/span><\/p>\n \u2026[It] was from the children that we learned most of our songs … And most all, <\/span>songs from the Ritchies. Sabrina [Ritchie]<\/strong>, Uncle Jason\u2018s daughter [Jason Ritchie, was first cousin to Jean Ritchie\u2019s father] and our weaving teacher, taught us \u201cThe Little Devils,\u201d and \u201cNottamun [sic] Town,\u201d and \u201cThe Wife Wrapt in Wether\u2019s Skin.\u201d <\/span>May [Ritchie Deschamps]<\/a> <\/strong>taught us \u201cThe Little Family.\u201d <\/span>Truman [Ritchie<\/b>] led us in \u201cGoing to Boston,\u201d and \u201cCedar Swamp.\u201d Every Ritchie that came our way \u2014 they alternated between the Hindman and the Pine Mountain Schools and of the 14 [children] we drew May<\/strong> and Raymond<\/strong> and Truman<\/strong> and Kitty<\/strong> and Patty<\/strong> and Jewel[l]<\/strong> \u2014 they all made contributions to our repertoire.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n In turn, Craig Evan Royce, in his book, Country Miles are Longer Than City Miles<\/em> (W. Ritchie Press, 1976; AuthorHouse, 2007). <\/span><\/span> quotes Kitty’s recollections of the influence PMSS had on the family’s interest in music:<\/p>\n \u2026[W]hen we went to the Pine Mountain Settlement School, they played up song and dulcimer very much. Edna [Ritchie] was presented a dulcimer there for knowing the most songs and the most ballads. Jean [Ritchie] was little\u2026 and then when we would come back from Pine Mountain, several of us, we would meet on the front porch at night…and sing and teach the songs we learned at Pine Mountain. I was at Pine Mountain when Cecil Sharp came<\/a>, and he taught us a lot and gathered a lot of our songs. Dad learned to play on the Thomas dulcimer Edna won at Pine Mountain.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n While attending eighth grade at Pine Mountain, Kitty played the part of Viola in Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” a performance that was described by teacher Marguerite Butler<\/a> in her 1920 letter<\/a> home as “just about perfect.”<\/p>\n In 1922 Kitty was one of two Girl Scouts at Pine Mountain who received a scholarship to attend\u00a0the First National Girl Scout Leaders’ Training School at Long Pond in Plymouth, Massachusetts.<\/span>\u00a0This opportunity was funded by Helen Osborne Storrow<\/a> of Boston, an early Girl Scout leader who\u00a0owned Long Pond and was the founder of the training school.<\/span><\/p>\n Kitty Ritchie was part of the first graduating class from Pine Mountain Settlement School’s new high school, as reported in Notes from the Pine Mountain Settlement School,<\/em> May 1924<\/a>, page 3:<\/p>\n Pine Mountain graduates its first High School class this year, and whatever the future of our high school course, we cannot fail to take pride in these graduates, — two girls. One is Kitty Ritchie, the great-grand-daughter of Solomon Everidge, the Uncle Ephraim Kent of Miss Lucy Furman\u2019s \u201cQuare Women\u201d; the other is Elva Lewis, grand-daughter of Uncle William Creech, founder of the Pine Mountain School.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n After graduating from Pine Mountain School, Kitty went on to study at Berea (Kentucky) College.<\/p>\n Besides their musical\u00a0talent, “[n]o<\/em>\u00a0thorough study of the traditional handicrafts of the southern highlands has ever been made without the inclusion of some member of the Ritchie family,”<\/em> writes Craig Evan Royce. Several of the Ritchies were adept at spinning, weaving, quilting, and basket making.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Kitty and her sister Mallie learned from their older sister, May Belle Ritchie (Deschamps<\/a>) a very special craft that she first saw at Hindman Settlement School. It consisted of the construction of dolls, usually in pioneer costume averaging 10 inches in height, from corn shucks, the dried leaves or “husks” of corn cobs.<\/span><\/p>\n Cornshuck dolls by Kitty Ritchie Singleton. Image courtesy of Craig Evan Royce from his book, “Country Miles Are Longer Than City Miles.”\u00a0 [w\/ permission of author.] [pmss_ritchie_dolls.png]<\/p><\/div>\n Kitty Ritchie was born on\u00a0March 2, 1904, the sixth child of the\u00a0<\/span>14 children of\u00a0Abigail (Hall) Ritchie (1877<\/span>\u20131972<\/span>) and Balis W. Ritchie (1869<\/span>\u20131958)<\/span>. Her siblings were May Belle (born 1896), Ollie M. (1897), Mallie (1899), Una (1900), Raymond (1902), Truman (1906), Patty (1908), Edna (1910), Jewel and Opal (1914), Pauline (1916), Balis Wilmer Jr. (1919) and Jean R. (1922). All the children were born and raised in Viper, Kentucky. <\/span><\/p>\n Kitty married Cornelius Singleton. She died on October 3, 1989, at the age of 85 and was buried in the Ritchie Cemetery, Viper, Kentucky.<\/span><\/p>\nKitty Ritchie STUDENT: AT PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL<\/h3>\n
Kitty Ritchie STUDENT: HANDICRAFTS<\/h3>\n
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KITTY RITCHIE Student: FAMILY HISTORY<\/h3>\n
KITTY RITCHIE Student: GALLERY<\/h3>\n\n\t\t