Kern, William F., Junior

Date:
1993-03-10
Length:
50 min.
Interviewer:
Peloff, James H.
Transcription available:
no
Series:
1937 Flood (1993)
Series ID:
2014_037
Interview Number(s):
2014_37_2
Summary:
William F. Kern, Junior was thirty-six years old at the time of the 1937 flood. He lived with his wife and four children upstairs over the tavern he ran at Thirty-fourth Street and Michigan Avenue (now called Muhammad Ali Boulevard) in Louisville's West End. When Mr. Kern's home became flooded, he moved his family to Preston Street and Eastern Parkway in Louisville. He then returned to his home where he and two other men operated a dispatching station for police and other officials in boats since his building had the only operating phone in the area. He also was an auixiliary policeman deputized by the City of Louisville and as such went on patrols in boats in the flooded area. He was forced to leave his home when a fire on Fourteeenth Street threatened to set the floodwaters ablaze. Mr. Kern tells of his experiences in the flood such as shooting at rats floating by from the second floor of his home. He also tells of going to Washington, D.C. to meet with government officials about problems in Louisville from the flood. He describes meeting President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Oval Office of the White House. Index available.
Topic(s):
Floods--Kentucky--Louisville