EMMITT PATTERSON Correspondence

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Students
Series 17: STUDENTS
Emmitt Patterson Correspondence, 1945-1946

003 Boy’s House 1949. First row: Carlos Banks, Walter Blackson, Ray Bird, Earl Brown, Ralph Scott, Rex Reynolds, Olen Rose, Emmitt Patterson. Second row: Chester Lewis, Rufus Fugate, Fred Baker, Darwin Lewis, Harold Caudill, Bob Hall, Carl Whitehead, LeRoy Baker, Bill Howard, Ozal Caldwell, Clayton Sturgiel (Sturgill?), Goble Thomas, Clarence Tolliver. [097_students_003.jpg]

TAGS: Emmitt Patterson, correspondence, William Emmitt Patterson, Jess Patterson, Edna Mae Metcalf Patterson, application blanks, H.R.S. Benjamin, vacation school, Pine Mountain Valley,

EMMITT PATTERSON Correspondence, July 1945 – December 1945 & April 1946

PMSS Student 1945-1949

[Note: Letters from PMSS staff are carbon copies, typewritten, unsigned and meant for the Office files. The original signed copies were sent to the correspondents.]

1945

[003] July 28, 1945. Application blank: “HOME AND PARENTS RECORD”

Father: J.L. Patterson, age 36
Birthplace: Windsor, KY
Education: 8
Occupation: Railroad
Previous Occupation: Bus driving
Acres rented: 1/2 acre
Length of time in present community: three years
Other places of residence: Pine Mt. KY

Mother: Edna Patterson, age 34
Birthplace: Pine Mt., KY
Education: 8
Previous occupation: Housework
Length of time in present community: three years
Other places of residence: Pine Mt., KY

[003A] Home and Parents Record, page 2.
Children: William Emitt (sic), age 14, grade 9, Keith, KY
Glyn Edwin, age 3 mos. ….

[003B] Home and Parents Record, page 3.
Livestock: 2 hogs ….

[004] NO IMAGE
[001] NO IMAGE

[002] July 30, 1945. Application blank for entry to PMSS Boarding School with handwritten entries: “MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY”

William Emmitt Patterson
Address: Keith, KY [Harlan Co.]
Born: December 4, 1930, at Pine Mt., Harlan County, KY
Father: Jess Patterson, 36 years old, born in Windsor, KY
Present occupation railroading; previously, bus driving.
Mother: Edna Metcalf [Patterson], 34 years old, born at Pine Mt., KY; completed 8 grades.

[002A] Application blank, page 2.
Brother: Glyn Edwin, 3 months
Lives one mile from school and reaches it by walking.

[002B] Application blank, page 3.

Our house is of painted frame; heated by coal and lighted by electric[ity]. We have running water from the city. We have 25 books and take these publications: Lad[ies] Home Journal, Progressive Farms, Harlan Enterprise. I attended Little Laurel and Loyal schools. …

[002C] NO IMAGE

[002D] Application blank, page 5. Attends the Christian Church in Loyall.

[005], [005A] December 20, 1945. Two pages of a handwritten letter to “Mom and Dad” (Mr. J.L. Patterson, Loyall, KY) from Emmitt, who is “required to write this letter about how I am doing at Pine Mountain.” He is not pleased with his work in English and will ”try harder next semester”; he is “about average” in Civics and Science, and “good” in Woodwork. Both supervisors gave him “good work reports”; learned about the Bible in R.B.H. [missing next page].

[006] September 28, 1945. To Mr. and Mrs. Jess Patterson in Keith, KY, from [unsigned], Principal, reassuring them that Emmitt “has adjusted nicely to campus life, seems to be well satisfied, and his teachers say that a good beginning has been made in his studies and in his industrial work.”

1946

[007] April 1, 1946. To Mr. and Mrs. Jess Patterson, Pine Mountain, KY, from [unsigned, apparently Mr. H.R.S. Benjamin, Director]. “We are glad that you have moved back into the Pine Mountain community, and we hope that you may counsel with Emmitt about his smoking.” State law forbids smoking in a building with school children; PMSS usually dismisses such smokers. Describes Emmitt’s smoking incident.