{"id":6546,"date":"2014-02-02T13:59:20","date_gmt":"2014-02-02T18:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getitright.pmss.net\/?page_id=6546"},"modified":"2019-09-12T10:33:56","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T14:33:56","slug":"leonard-ward-roberts","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/staging.pinemountainsettlement.net\/?page_id=6546","title":{"rendered":"LEONARD WARD ROBERTS"},"content":{"rendered":"
Pine Mountain Settlement School
\nSeries 09: Biography – Staff\/Personnel<\/h5>\n

LEONARD WARD ROBERTS
\n<\/strong>English Teacher (7th & 8th grades), 1950 – 1953<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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TAGS:<\/strong> Leonard Ward Roberts ;\u00a0Berea College ; Folklore studies ; dissertations ; folk narratives ; sound recordings ; folktales ; folk songs ; folklore ; Couch family ; Hutchins Library ; magic tales ; folk collections ; audio-recorded tales ; literary journals ; Twigs (Cumberland) ; Pike County Historical Society ; Edith Reynolds Roberts ;<\/p>\n

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Dr. Leonard Ward Roberts was born in Floyd County, Kentucky, in 1912. His education began in a one-room schoolhouse, followed by grades 7 through 12 at Pikeville High School. His high school years were interrupted by a stint in the U.S. Army before he returned to graduate.<\/p>\n

After receiving a BA in English and Music in 1939 at Berea (Kentucky) College, he taught in several Kentucky and North Carolina schools. He went on to study creative writing at the University of Iowa, earning a Master’s degree in 1943, and then taught in the Army V-12 program at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. There he also pursued a doctoral degree in Folklore Studies, which he later continued at Indiana University, then at University of Kentucky.<\/p>\n

His dissertation, completed in 1953, focused on his collection of folk narratives, mostly sound recordings from Leslie and Perry Counties. It was published in 1953 by the University of Kentucky Press as\u00a0South from Hell-fer-Sartin: Kentucky Mountain Folktales<\/em> and highly regarded by his professional peers.<\/p>\n

In 1945 Dr. Roberts returned to Berea College, teaching English in the Foundation School (Berea College’s elementary and secondary school, discontinued in 1968)\u00a0and later at Pine Mountain Settlement School (1950-1953). During this time, he encouraged his students to collect folktales and songs from their families, particularly the Couch family. As noted in the history written for the “Guide to the Leonard Ward Roberts\u00a0Collection” at Berea College’s Hutchins Library website,<\/p>\n

Roberts’ folklore scholarship was distinctive in at least three respects. Although he included instrumental music and songs in his collecting, as did most of his fellows, his primary focus was on magic tales and other stories. For a considerable time, he was one of only a few scholars collecting and publishing such material. He is also notable for having included a large number of children among his informants and having made extensive use of electrical sound recording. Of particular significance are his recordings from the late 1940s through the 1950s, a time for which such documentation of southeastern Kentucky’s folklore is otherwise quite rare. The hundreds of items he recorded constitute perhaps the nation’s largest collection of such audio-recorded tales. Much of this material has neither been published nor transcribed. Some of these tales are available as audio files in the Digital Library of Appalachia.<\/em><\/p>\n

After Pine Mountain, Dr. Roberts taught at various colleges, finally accepting a teaching position and becoming Chairman of Humanities in 1968 at Pikeville College. He continued his involvement with research and publication of eastern Kentucky folklore and history, founding Pikeville College Press and Appalachian Studies Center, as well as\u00a0a literary journal, “Twigs” (later known as “Cumberland”). He also wrote for and edited the Pike County Historical Society’s annual journal, focusing mainly on local genealogy. Dr. Roberts died April 29, 1983, as a result of injuries he received in a car-coal truck collision.<\/p>\n

Dr. Roberts was married to Edith Reynolds Roberts <\/strong><\/a>(1915-2010),\u00a0<\/strong>a teacher of second and third-grade students at Pine Mountain Settlement School from September 1950 until May 1953. Dr. and Mrs. Roberts are survived by their four daughters: Sue Carolyn Atkins (Jeffersonville, IN), Margaret Ann Biller (Harold, KY), Rita Helen Kelly (Sanford, NC), and Lynneda Jane Denny (Pikeville, KY).<\/span><\/p>\n

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See Also: Edith Reynolds Roberts<\/a> Biography<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Title<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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Leonard Ward Roberts<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Dr. Roberts ; Dr. Leonard Roberts ;<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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LEONARD WARD ROBERTS<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n