{"id":8734,"date":"2014-04-04T01:44:06","date_gmt":"2014-04-04T05:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getitright.pmss.net\/?page_id=8734"},"modified":"2018-06-13T14:20:48","modified_gmt":"2018-06-13T18:20:48","slug":"dorothy-nace","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/staging.pinemountainsettlement.net\/?page_id=8734","title":{"rendered":"DOROTHY NACE"},"content":{"rendered":"
Pine Mountain Settlement School
\nSeries 9:\u00a0STAFF\/PERSONNEL<\/h5>\n

DOROTHY NACE\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Dorothy Nace:
\n<\/strong>Secretary & Bookkeeper, June 1944-1949<\/strong>
\n Teacher, 3rd & 4th Grades, 1949<\/strong>
\n Publicity, 1950 – July 1957<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Dorothy<\/a>

Dorothy Nace and Margaret Nace working on crafts. [X_100_workers_2590a_mod.jpg]<\/p><\/div>\n

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TAGS:\u00a0<\/strong>Dorothy Nace\u00a0(Tharpe) ; Margaret Nace\u00a0(Starbuck) ; folk tales ; folk songs ; folk dancing ; education ; Berea College ; hand-loom weaving ; teaching ; Harriette\u00a0Howard ; Edna Spinney\u00a0; farm work ; kitchen ; hospital ; gardening ; \u00a0secretaries ; bookkeepers ; L&N Railroad ; John A. Lewis ; post offices ; rural electrification ; logging trails ; \u00a0public relations ; teachers ; students ; Infirmary ; day schools ; preschool education ;<\/p>\n

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One of the highlights of Dorothy A. Nace\u2019s life, according to her autobiography, was the time she spent at Pine Mountain Settlement School, from 1944 through 1957. Even during her retirement in the 1990s, she continued to promote Pine Mountain\u2019s art and culture by presenting programs on Southern Mountain folk tales and songs to schools and other organizations in the area of Roberts, Wisconsin, where she lived at the time.<\/p>\n

Dorothy\u00a0Nace\u00a0and her sister, Margaret, were born in Pennsylvania c. 1920 and c. 1918 respectively. They were the last of four children born to Edwin Allen Nace\u00a0(1880-1957) and Ida Margaret Roeder\u00a0(1882-1981). Both parents were from Pennsylvania German families. At the time of Dorothy’s birth, her father was teaching high school math in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. Beginning in 1920 the family lived near Cleveland, Ohio, where Edwin Nace worked for the Cleveland Public School system and where the children grew up.<\/p>\n

Dorothy and\u00a0Margaret were educated\u00a0in the Cleveland Public School System and each of them earned a BS in Education at Western Reserve University in Cleveland. After two years of teaching, Dorothy and Margaret were required to work toward a Master\u2019s Degree in education during their summers. They heard about a highly regarded artisan program at Berea (Kentucky) College from a friend and, lured by the promise of adventure in a new place, attended Berea\u2019s hand-loom weaving classes for four weeks in 1942.<\/p>\n

The following summer, when they returned for advanced classes in teaching weaving, the sisters learned about Pine Mountain Settlement School from their teacher, Harriette\u00a0Howard, who was a former student at the School, and a classmate, Edna Spinney, originally a PMSS\u00a0housemother. Hearing that the School was \u201cheaven on earth\u201d was enough for the sisters to\u00a0want to see the campus for themselves. Dorothy recalls their\u00a0visit:<\/p>\n

School was not in session, but students were there, earning their school fees. Boys did farm work and repairs; girls cleaned and worked in the kitchen or in the small hospital. When beans and tomatoes came in from the fields by the bushel, staff, students, and visitors helped can them into half-gallon jars. We sat under the trees behind the kitchen, peeling tomatoes or \u2018busting\u2019 beans and had a great time.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

We went home determined that Pine Mountain must be a part of our future.<\/em><\/p>\n

Because Margaret and Dorothy held degrees in primary education they were not qualified to teach Pine Mountain\u2019s high school students. Instead they applied for work as secretary and bookkeeper at the School and were accepted. \u201cWe were paid $75.00 a month and our room and board. In June of 1944 we left to begin our new life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Traveling from Ohio by bus, then on the Louisville and Nashville (L&N) train, they arrived in Harlan County.<\/p>\n

We left the train at Putney, a small sawmill town. There John A. Lewis met the train and took mail sacks across the mountain to several post offices. Riding in the cab or in back on the mail sacks was a common way for visitors or staff to get to the school. Even after 24 hours of exhausting travel, we didn\u2019t mind riding in the back, but John A\u2019s conversation was so entertaining it was more fun to ride with him <\/em>[in the cab of\u00a0his truck].<\/p>\n

The sisters arrived at a time when the rural electric associations had moved through and greatly improved life in the area, but the main road to and from the School was still a logging trail winding over the mountain. A 1996 article about her life, published in The Shopper<\/em> (Roberts, Wisconsin), records Dorothy\u2019s memories:<\/p>\n

…the school was 20 miles from the nearest town with no real road leading to it. But it was supported\u00a0by a large group of people all the way from Massachusetts to Florida to Kansas City. There was a certain romantic appeal about the area at the time, with a unique quality that people relished, and they were interested in helping out.<\/em><\/p>\n

Eventually, Dorothy\u2019s secretarial position grew to include public relations work for the School. She traveled Kentucky and other states, giving presentations and raising money on behalf of the School. At each gathering, she described the credentials of Pine Mountain teachers, the beauty of the School\u2019s natural environment, and the students who not only attended classes, but also worked on the farm and in the hospital and kitchen that were located on site. The November 1950 issue of\u00a0Notes of Pine Mountain Settlement School<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0describes her activity:<\/p>\n

Miss Dorothy Nace is traveling about telling the story of Pine Mountain. She has a set of colorful Kodachrome slides which make her story more vivid. After Christmas she plans in one northern trip to visit Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, and Muncie. Later she is visiting Louisville, Lexington, Frankfort and other points in Kentucky.<\/em><\/p>\n

Miss Nace\u00a0has prepared a set of 40 slides for lending to groups which she cannot visit personally. These slides have with them a manuscript which tells their story. They are available without any charge but return postage. If you are interested\u00a0in having a Pine Mountain speaker at your club or small home gathering, or if you would like to borrow the slides, Miss Nace\u00a0will be pleased to hear from you.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dorothy’s\u00a0favorite extracurricular activity was the Saturday night folk dances at Pine Mountain. They reminded her of the English country dancing classes she attended, taught by Olive Whitworth as part of\u00a0her early\u00a0elementary school gym program. In her autobiography, she wrote, “…When I was on the staff at Pine Mountain School, that [folk dance] was our major social activity. It was my great love and one of the only physical activities in which I excelled.”<\/p>\n\n\t\t