Restrictions to Access

Access to audio materials may require production of listening copies.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the McKellar Israel Collection of Field Recordings #20176, Southern Folklife Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Acquisitions information unknown (Acc. 103752).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Anne Wells, January 2020

Encoded by: Anne Wells, January 2020

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

Archival processing of the McKellar Israel Collection of North Carolina Field Recordings was made possible through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• African American children's games--North Carolina.
• African American--Teachers--North Carolina.
• African Americans--Education--North Carolina.
• African Americans--North Carolina--Folklore.
• Ballads, English--North Carolina.
• Children's songs--North Carolina.
• Children--Folklore--North Carolina.
• Coal miners--Tennessee--Songs and music.
• Company towns--North Carolina.
• Education--North Carolina.
• Field recordings--North Carolina.
• Folk music--North Carolina.
• Folklore--North Carolina.
• Gospel music--North Carolina.
• Gospel musicians--North Carolina.
• Graybeal, Dawes B., 1929-2019.
• Hymns, English--North Carolina.
• Israel, McKellar.
• McPherson, David.
• McPherson, Marinda Dunnigan, 1904-1995.
• Primitive Baptists--North Carolina.
• Sandhills Community College--Students.
• Songs, English--North Carolina.
• Songs, English--Tennessee.
• Spirituals (Songs)--North Carolina.
• Story telling--North Carolina.
• Tales--North Carolina.
• Teachers--North Carolina.
• Textile industry--North Carolina--Interviews.
• Textile industry--North Carolina--Social conditions.
• Textile workers--North Carolina--Social conditions.
• Textile workers--North Carolina--Songs and music.
• Women singers--North Carolina.
• Women textile workers--North Carolina.

• Connie Jean Stone Collection (# 20247)

McKellar Israel, of Southern Pines, N.C., is a white music and piano instructor who taught courses at Sandhills Community College in Pinehurst, N.C. In the summer of 1972 McKellar Israel attended a folklore class taught by Dan Patterson at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As part of his class term paper, "The Folk Songs of Dawes B. Graybeal and Marinda Dunnigan McPherson", McKellar Israel recorded traditional songs and interviews with both Dawes B. Graybeal, a white Primitive Baptist preacher of Ashe County, N.C., and Marinda Dunnigan McPherson, an African American educator of Orange County, N.C. According to a note found in his collection, McKellar Israel would occasionally donate field recordings that his Sandhills Community College students made to the Southern Folklife Collection.

Field recordings of ballads, children's games, hymns, spirituals, recollections, and other spoken and sung material collected by McKellar Israel, white music instructor of Southern Pines, N.C., and his students at Sandhills Community College in Pinehurst, N.C. The collection contains dubs of field recordings that McKellar Israel created as part of his 1972 term paper on "The Folk Songs of Dawes B. Graybeal and Marinda Dunnigan McPherson", as well as dubs of field recordings made by McKellar Israel's students of their family members and neighbors. Dubbed field recordings are on audiocassette and 1/4" open reel audio. The collection also contains supporting documentation, such as tape logs, transcriptions, and scattered correspondence, that relate to the field recordings found in the collection.

Series 1 contains field recordings, 1972-1973, related to McKellar Israel's 1972 term paper on "The Folk Songs of Dawes B. Graybeal and Marinda Dunnigan McPherson", which he completed as part of a folklore class taught by Dan Patterson at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Audiocassettes FS-20176/1240, FS-20176/1241, and FS-20176/1242 include live recordings of Marinda Dunnigan McPherson, African American teacher and singer from Hillsborough, Orange County, N.C., recollecting and singing children's games, play party songs, and spirituals she learned from family members, and an interview with her and her husband, David McPherson of Chatham County, N.C., about their memories of community events and history. These field recordings were collected by McKellar Israel in the fall of 1972 and fall of 1973. According to biographical information found in folder 1, Marinda Dunnigan McPherson's "father's name was Arthur Dunnigan, son of Jerry and Carrie Dunnigan, tenants for the Bacon farm in Orange County. Her mother's maiden name was Mildred Cameron. Marinda's grandfather's name was Noah Latta, whose family worked for the Camerons in Hillsborough and Raleigh. Her grandmother's name was Marinda Hart, who was approximately 80 years old in 1920 when Marinda Dunnigan McPherson first recalls hearing her sing "Lord, I Ain't No Ways Weary".

Audiocassettes FS-20176/523 and FS-20178/1243 include live recordings of Reverend Dawes B. Graybeal (1929-2019), a white Primitive Baptist preacher and ballad and hymn singer from Eagle Springs, N.C., performing hymns and ballads he learned from members of his family and at community events. Dawes B. Graybeal preached for over 40 years throughout the state of North Carolina; they include Pine Hall, Sandy Ridge, Bensalem, Denver, Leaflet, and Raven Rock Presbyterian churches.

Series 2 contains field recordings, 1974-1975, created by McKellar Israel's students at the Sandhills Community College in Pinehurst, N.C. Student fieldworkers represented in the collection include Monica Braddock, Josephine Flowers, Frances Frazier, Eunice Edwards Gillmore, Thelma Hicks Rouse, Betty Hoyle, Raymond McCleaod, Lessie Millhouse, Pauline Morrison, Gene Oldham, and Connie Jean Stone. Students recorded their family members, neighbors, and/or selves performing ballads, children's games, dance calls, tales, gospel songs, and other spoken word material. Students recorded this material in Lansing, Ashe County; Chatham County; Harnett County; Raeford, Hoke County; Iredell County; Sanford, Lee County; Eagle Springs, Moore County; and Rockingham, Sampson County N.C.

Audiotape FT-20176/434 contains a 1974 performance by Solomon Worley, an African American singer and storyteller originally from Marion County, S.C., and living in Moncure, Chatham County, N.C. McKellar Israel's student, Pauline Morrison of Aberdeen, N.C., made the field recording, which includes gospel songs within an oral history interview, in which Solomon Worley also discusses biblical tales, riddles, and life stories.

Audiotape FT-20176/431 includes an interview with Lenoir Hale, a white textile worker of Rockingham, Richmond County, N.C., where she lived most of her life in the Pee Dee Mill village, working for the local textile mill. The interview, which was conducted by McKellar Israel’s student, Monica Braddock of Rockingham, N.C., includes reminiscences about life in a mill village with songs and a comic skit performed by Hale. Supporting documentation for this recordings includes transcriptions of the songs and notes taken by Monica Braddock.

Audiotape FT-20176/433 consists of live recordings of Thelma Hicks Rouse, a white ballad singer born in Rich Mountain, Tenn., and living in Eagle Springs, N.C., performing ballads and parlor songs she learned from family members and from growing up in a coal mining camp. Supporting documentation for this recording, which was created by Themla Hicks Rouse herself, includes lyrical transcriptions of the songs annotated by Rouse. Each annotation gives information about the history of the song and how Rouse learned it.

Audiotape FT-20176/436 is a dubbed compilation of fieldwork made by McKellar Israel's students at Sandhills Community College in Pinehurst, N.C., of their family members and neighbors performing ballads, children's games, dance calls, and gospel songs in 1975. This material was recorded in Lansing, Ashe County; Harnett County; Raeford, Hoke County; Sanford, Lee County; Rockingham, Sampson County; and Chatham County, N.C. Includes field recordings made by Lessie Millhouse, Gene Oldham, Raymond McCleaod, Frances Frazier, Josephine Flowers, Eunice Edwards Gillmore, and Betty Hoyle.

• Audiocassettes (FS-523, FS-1240-1243)
• Audiotapes (FT-431-436)