Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Staff
Series 19: STUDENTS
Edna Mae Patterson, Student & Teacher, 1930s-1960s
Edna Mae Metcalf Patterson (1910-2001)

EDNA MAE METCALF PATTERSON Student Staff
Student 1937-1938
Teacher 1939-1960s

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TAGS: Edna Mae Metcalf, Edna Mae Patterson, Edna Mae Metcalf Patterson, Jess Patterson, Metcalf Family, Nolan Family, Patterson Family, Pine Mountain Settlement School, Katherine Pettit, Fireside Industries, Berea College, weaving, crafts, William and Dora Blevins Metcalf, Glyn Patterson, Emmit Patterson, Jess L. Patterson, nursing, students, Craig Evan Royce, Country Miles Are Longer Than City Miles

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Edna Mae Metcalf was a student at Pine Mountain Settlement School from 1937 to 1938, and remained at the School as a vital part of the welcoming staff for over 25 years. Edna Mae’s roles at the School were varied but she was primarily known as the weaving teacher at the School. She also worked as a health aide in 1953, a kindergarten teacher in 1968, and assisted with kitchen work, housekeeping, and in the Community School classrooms.

EDNA MAE METCALF PATTERSON Student Staff: Weaving

Craig Evan Royce, in his book, Country Miles Are Longer Than City Miles: 30th Anniversary Edition (AuthorHouse, 2007), pays tribute to Edna Mae Metcalf Patterson as “[o]ne who has been upon the mountains gathering the roots and barks, weeds and petals to create color as close to the natural as nature itself will allow… ”

According to Royce, her education in using “nature’s pure colors” to dye cloth began as early as six years of age, when she remembers

…traveling with her mother and grandmother upon the mountains and creek bottoms of the area around Little Laurel, just off Greasy Branch, in search of the materials necessary for dyeing the sweaters and socks and blankets and shirts of her family.

Edna Mae recalls “We didn’t have all these things we use as mordant now. Then we used vinegar and salt to set the dye. As I grew older and became connected with the Settlement School, they did vegetable dyeing.”

Her interest was further developed at the age of nine, when she stayed with Katherine Pettit, co-founder and co-director of the Pine Mountain Settlement School, and walked with her in search of plants. At age 12 in 1922, Edna Mae began learning the art of weaving from a weaver known for producing fine cloth.

At the time, Pettit was developing the craft of weaving and natural dyeing techniques at Pine Mountain School, wishing to preserve mountain handicraft as well as envisioning weaving as a viable livelihood for mountain homes. This led to a partnership with Fireside Industries, a craft sales strategy begun by Berea College that spread to many Appalachian settlement institutions.

In the 1930s, Edna Mae and the other girls at the school were required to do a certain amount of weaving as part of their work schedule. They then sold their products, such as blankets and coverlets, curtains and placemats, through the Fireside Industries. Royce writes:

Looking at the fine work produced at Berea College and the Settlement School in the late 1920s and early 1930s, one is overwhelmed by the delicacy and craftsmanship displayed. Perhaps nowhere else in the United States was finer weaving done for public consumption than in this environment during that era. Edna Patterson and her sisters from the valley of the Laurel and the Greasy learned from extraordinary master weavers.

As of 1976, the date that the first edition of Country Miles Are Longer Than City Miles was published, Royce writes that Edna Patterson was traveling with her husband “to the small summer festivals in surrounding counties to teach the children from the vales and glades of eastern Kentucky much of their heritage in action and word….”

EDNA MAE METCALF PATTERSON Student Staff: Her Family

Upon graduation from PMSS, she married Jess L. Patterson (1909-1983), also a student at the School who later became a well-known dulcimer-maker. Edna Mae and Jess had two sons, Glynn (Glyn, Glenn?) E. Patterson (born c. 1931; married Kay of Titusville, Florida) and William Emmit (Emmit, Emmett, Emmitte?) Patterson. William (1930-1993) was a member of the 1949 PMSS graduating class. He married Christine Kinnaird, who was PMSS teacher from 1953 to 1956.

Edna Mae was born on August 19, 1910, in Harlan, Kentucky, to William “Willie” Metcalf (1885-1977) and Dora (Blevins) Metcalf (1891-1969). She was the oldest of 10 sisters and brothers (plus a half-sibling, Jeff Scearce Metcalf from William’s first marriage to Lizzie Nolan Metcalf).

Edna Mae (Metcalf) Patterson (1910 – 2001)
George W. Metcalf (1912 – 1974)
Martha Metcalf (1914 – 1916)
Oceana (Metcalf) Mead (1916 – 1980)
Lincoln Metcalf (1918 – 1972)
Ruth Ellen (Metcalf) Kreiling (1920 – 2002)
Pearl Ambrose Metcalf (1923 – 1949)
Brutus Metcalf (1924 – ____)
Mary Winifred (Metcalf) Turner (1927 – 2009)
Swanee (Suanee) Sue (Metcalf) Hacker (1929 – 2002)
Herbert Hoover Metcalf (1931 – 1982)

Besides Edna Mae, two other sisters attended Pine Mountain Settlement School: Ruth Ellen in 1935-1936 and Mary Winifred in 1941.

Edna Mae (Metcalf) Patterson died on September 2, 2001, in Titusville, Florida, at the age of 91, and was buried in Resthaven Cemetery, Keith, Kentucky. She was preceded in death by her parents and her husband; a son, William E. Patterson; five of her brothers: Dillard, George, Lincoln, Ambrose and Herbert; and two sisters, Martha and Oceanna.

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See Also:

EMMITT PATTERSON Student – Biography

         JESS PATTERSON Staff – Biography

        METCALF FAMILY

ANN METCALF – Biography
WILLIAM METCALF – Biography

NOLAN FAMILY
CALVIN NOLAN – Biography
ELHANNON MURPHY NOLAN – Biography
LIZZIE (NOLAN) METCALF SCEARCE – Biography
NOLAN FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE

       OBJECT COLLECTIONS: Weaving Guide 

SCEARSE (SCEARCE) FAMILY

Return To: GUIDE TO FAMILIES IN THE PINE MOUNTAIN VALLEY COMMUNITY

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EDNA MAE METCALF PATTERSON: Gallery

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Title	Edna Mae Metcalf Patterson
Alt. Title	Edna May Metcalf Patterson ; Edna Mae Metcalf ; Edna Mae Patterson ;
Identifier	EDNA MAE METCALF PATTERSON
Creator	Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY
Alt. Creator	Ann Angel Eberhardt ; Helen Hayes Wykle ;
Subject Keyword	Edna Mae Metcalf ; Edna Mae Patterson ; Edna Mae Metcalf Patterson ; Jess Patterson ; Metcalf Family ; Nolan Family ; Patterson Family ; Katherine Pettit ; Fireside Industries ; Pine Mountain Settlement School ; Berea College ; weaving ; crafts ; William and Dora Blevins Metcalf ; Glyn Patterson ; Emmit Patterson ; Jess L. Patterson ; nursing; students ; Craig Evan Royce ; Country Miles Are Longer Than City Miles ;
Subject LCSH	Patterson, Edna Mae Metcalf Patterson, — 1910 – 2001. Pine Mountain Settlement School (Pine Mountain, Ky.) — History. Harlan County (Ky.) — History. Education — Kentucky — Harlan County. Rural schools — Kentucky — History. Artisans — Kentucky — Biography. Schools — Appalachian Region, Southern. Weaving — Appalachian Mountains.
Date	2017-09-26
Publisher	Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY
Contributor	Cora Richardson
Type	Collections ; text ; image ;
Format	Original and copies of documents and correspondence in file folders in filing cabinet.
Source	Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Students, Workers
Language	English
Relation	Is related to: Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections, Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Students, Workers.
Coverage Temporal	1885 – 2001
Coverage Spatial	Pine Mountain, KY ; Berea, KY ; Harlan County, KY ; Titusville, FL ;
Rights	Any display, publication, or public use must credit the Pine Mountain Settlement School. Copyright retained by the creators of certain items in the collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Donor	n/a
Description	Core documents, correspondence, writings, and administrative papers of Edna Mae Metcalf Patterson ; clippings, photographs, books by or about Edna Mae Metcalf Patterson ;
Acquisition	n/d
Citation	“[Identification of Item],” [Collection Name] [Series Number, if applicable]. Pine Mountain Settlement School Institutional Papers. Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY.
Processed By	Helen Hayes Wykle ; Ann Angel Eberhardt ;
Last Updated	2018-07-15 aae ; 9218-08-24 aae ;
Bibliography	Sources  “Edna Mae (Metcalf) Patterson.” BOARDING SCHOOL STUDENTS 1929-1949 ; GUIDE TO PMSS WORKERS 1913- 2000s. Series 09: Biography – Students, Workers. Pine Mountain Settlement School Institutional Papers. Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY. “Find A Grave Index,” database, FamilySearch   (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q29T-B441 : accessed 24 August 2018), Edna Mae Metcalf Patterson, 2001; Burial, Keith, Harlan, Kentucky, United States of America, Resthaven Cemetery; citing record ID 153797740, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com. Internet resource. Royce, Craig E. Country Miles Are Longer Than City Miles: 30th Anniversary Edition. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2007. Print. PENDING PERMISSION.

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