She was a well-spoken lady of class and grace, who had a beautiful gentle voice with no trace of any discernible accent.
The thing is, she was born in Knoxville, TN, and told me that she grew up speaking with what she called a "Tennessee Twang."
She told me that in her late teens, she came up north to New York to study at a summer chamber music program, and that everybody made fun of her accent. She told me how bad that made her feel, and how ashamed and defensive she was because of her Appalachian roots. So she resolved to get rid of her "twang" and, as I've indicated, was completely successful in doing so. And she remained too embarrassed to speak about or acknowledge her own Appalachian heritage.
Personally, being a lifelong Yankee myself, I always had a kind of romantic fascination with southern culture, which I had never actually experienced.
So I kept telling her how cool I found it that she was from (what was for me) an exotic place like Tennessee. I told her about the role that the Appalachian "Mountain Men" played in the American Revolution.
Naturally, being a university professor, she had bought into all the "liberal" PC crap and stereotypes about conservatives, although at heart she really was pretty apolitical. So I pointed out the absolute hypocritical intolerance of all those northern classical music-loving liberals in stereotyping her and looking down on her because of her Appalachian heritage.
During the two and a half years we had together before her passing, she did a 180 degree turn and became very comfortable and supportive of my conservatism, although at heart she remained all about the music and stayed pretty apolitical. But I used to tell her that given her core values (which I greatly admired), she was really a conservative at heart. She would smile and say: "I guess so."
She said that being with me was the first time anyone ever gave her a reason to feel proud of her southern heritage, and it was my great privilege before she went into the final phase of her illness that I got to accompany her and her quartet to their performance in Oak Ridge, TN.
She and I spent the following four days touring east Tennessee, while she introduced me to her roots, which included a wonderful visit to the Museum of Appalachia as well as a two-day sojourn that took us to Pigeon Forge and Smokey Mountains National Park.
I am saddened to see that now, these southern students are still so ashamed of their southern accents. Colleges are all about "diversity" accept when it comes to any aspect of white American culture that makes leftist feel superior.
Be gay, be a transexual, flaunt your minority race -- but be ashamed of your white cultural heritage, especially if you're from the south.
It's just sickening. Honestly, I hate the thought of my high-school age daughter actually attending one of these bastions of leftist bigotry known as college.
Fortunately, though, I've prepared her well. She has an admiral appreciation of her American heritage and the principles of freedom, limited government and the Constitution. And she also has a wonderful disrespect for the totalitarian leftist doctrines of so-called "social justice" and the appalling bigotry of Leftist GroupThink (otherwise known as Political Correctness), although there is nothing correct about it."
For many it is not a question of shame, it is one of survival. Not only is there a communication barrier, but one must reestablish academic credibility at every turn because the default mode of the listener is to NOT listen, presuming ignorance.
When I realized the prejudice existed--and it is even stronger in some circles than any against ebonics--I watched Johnny Carson and learned a 'neutral' accent to use as a working language. It made a significant difference.
Is that an unfair situation? Certainly.
Life isn't fair.
You’ve shared this with me(us) before and I again heartfelt salute her memory that still lives in your heart
God bless
Very well done
A lot of posters here have never known love you know
You can tell how they lash out
well said
A few of my Carroll ancestors were involved in a battle that preceded King’s Mountain by a bit- ‘Huck’s Defeat’, the first in the series of battles in the southern campaign that began to turn the tide of the Revolution in favor of the Patriots.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huck’s_Defeat
http://www.chmuseums.org/battle-of-hucks-defeat-hb/