This week on From the Vault we present the first part of a three part series called Coal Country Women, a documentary exploring the lives of Appalachian women in the 1970's - as wives and mothers of miners, as miners themselves, and on life in mining country. In part one, An Ordinary Mornin,' we hear stories from mothers and wives of personal impact in the aftermath of a March 1976 disaster at the Scotia Mine in Oven Fork, Kentucky.
The original program was produced in 1980 by Mary Kasamatsu, with funds provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, through National Public Radio's Satellite Program Development Fund. Technical assistance was provided by Moira Rankin and Sharon Shapiro, with editorial assistance from Paul Datmond.
In 2016, this recording was preserved and made available for broadcast thanks to a grant from the NHPRC at the National Archives, and is part of the collection American Women Making History and Culture: 1963-1982.
From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.