Summary:
Isabel Board Foshee was interviewed in her home on September 17, 2002 by Tom Owen. Foshee, a native Louisvillian, was born in 1909 and spent her entire girlhood in the Old Louisville neighborhood. Her father, Milton Board, was a psychiatrist who, for several years, ran a private mental sanatorium in the "slate house" on South Sixth Street. Isabel describes the hospital, patient care, and the African-American neighborhood called Black Hills to the rear. She also describes neighborhood life in the Belgravia - St. James Court area and attendance at Cochran Elementary and Louisville Girls High. She provides significant insight into the life of a comfortable, profession-class family living in a city in the 1910s to the 1930s. Ms. Foshee describes her college years at Vassar and her subsequent employment as a substitute teacher in the Louisville Public Schools. Her description of the policy that prohibited marriage for public school teachers is especially interesting. She also recalled employment in her cousin's folk-craft store, The Withers, at Third and Broadway. Finally the narrator describes her marriage to Dr. Clyde H. Foshee and the raising of several children.
