Frison, Rosie
Rosie Frison: Oklahoma Life During the
Jim Crow Era
Interviewed by Rocinda Dangerfield (student interview)
Interview date: May 15, 2002
Abstract
Rosie Frison was born during the age of the Jim Crow Laws. She cleaned white folks' houses for a living because at the time that was one of the few jobs a black woman could do. Her family is racially mixed with French, white, black, and Indian. She was married three times in her lifetime. All of her husbands served terms in various wars, World War II being one of the wars mentioned. She has five children and lots of grandchildren.
Q: When were you born?
A: Ah, January 12, 1923.
Q: Where in Oklahoma were you born?
A: I wasn’t born in Oklahoma. I was born in Louisiana, but I got an education in Oklahoma.
Q: OK, were you an only child?
A: Ah-huh.
Q: What did your parents do for a living?
A: My father, he was a railroad man.
Q: And your mother?
A: She lived on a farm.
Q: What racial background were your parents?
A: Oh, Lord, you want me to say it?
Q: Yes.
A: All mixed up.
Q: All mixed up how? What were they mixed with?
A: White, my grandmother was a white lady. And my mother was half Indian.
Q: And your dad?
A: My father, he was part French and Indian.
Q: What grade did you enter school?
A: I don’t know, but I could read and write when I was five years old.
Q: OK. What was the name of the school?
A: Booker T. Washington.
Q: Where was it located?
A: Down at Chile Flat.
Q: Where?
A: Chile Flat.
Q: Oklahoma? (inaudible response). Was it far from your home?
A: Ah-huh. It was a mile and a half. Had to walk.
Q: Was the school segregated?
A: No.
Q: Were the Jim Crow laws in effect?
A: No, they hadn’t started up by then.
Q: Were you allowed to vote when you finished school?
A: Ah-huh.
Q: How old were you when you started dating?
A: Ah, I don’t know about that! I must have been about ten or twelve.
Q: Who was your first boyfriend.
A: One of those fellows who stayed right there close to us, a big family, the Bledsoe family.
Q: What was his name?
A: I don’t know what his name was. We all had nicknames.
Q: Did your parents like him?
A: I’m sure if Dad had met him, he would have liked him, but he never did meet.
Q: What year did you get married the first time?
A: Let’s see, I was eighteen years old. Ah, let’s say it was ’41.
Q: 1941?
A: We’ll say that was the date.
Q: How old were you when you got married?
A: I was eighteen.
Q: What was your husband’s name?
A: Arthur.
Q: Arthur what?
A: Ah, well, we called him what his momma was called, Arthur Rogers.
Q: What were you doing for a living at the time?
A: Working cleaning houses and washing for people and different things.
Q: How did you meet your first husband?
A: He was in the community – moved to the community and I met him.
Q: What did he do for a living?
A: He worked on a farm.
Q: What were his parents like?
A: He had nice folks – drunkards – all of them drank. Do you want me to tell that?
Q: Go ahead and tell the truth. Did your husband fight in the war?
A: Yea, World War II.
Q: Was that the only one?
A: He was in the army.
Q: Did he receive any medals?
A: Yea.
Q: Which ones?
A: One conduct medal. I don’t know – a silver medal.
Q: OK, did you all have any children?
A: Ah-huh.
Q: How many?
A: Two.
Q: How long did you stay married to him?
A: Long, long, long, long time.
Q: How many years?
A: Fifty years, I think.
Q: When did he die?
A: 1970.
Q: How did he die?
A: Well, they say he had a massive heart clog, but, ah. . .
Q: How old were your children during his death?
A: He died 1970. Our children – the youngest was twelve, a boy in high school.
Q: Were schools integrated or segregated?
A: At that time, yes they was.
Q: They were what?
A: Segregated, ah-huh.
Q: What was your first job?
A: Ah, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.
Q: What was your boss’ name?
A: Different names. I didn’t work for only one person. I worked for several in that community.
Q: You don’t remember who?
A: One was Mary Grant. She was a school teacher.
Q: What was your next job?
A: Well, after my child was born, me and my first husband separated, but I went on to work, then to my Dad’s. And I worked in Oklahoma City a while. I worked for Delores Striven.
Q: OK.
A: And then I worked at a wash – at a laundromat.
Q: What was she like?
A: Oh, they were just white folks.
Q: Which boss out of the two did you respect the most and why?
A: I didn’t – I respected them all, but as far as liking them, they was just people.
Q: Did you get remarried after your first husband died?
A: Ah-huh.
Q: When did you remarry?
A: Ah, probably two or three years from then. I married Turner Frison.
Q: Probably about 1973?
A: I married him in 19 – he died in ’70, and I married him in ’48.
Q: OK. How did you meet him?
A: I met him at church.
Q: What did he do for a living?
A: He was a soldier.
Q: Did he ever fight in any wars?
A: Yes, he did.
Q: What were your grandparents like?
A: My grandfather was very nice. He was a Frenchman.
Q: And your grandmother?
A: She was a white lady. She was real nice. She was real small.
Q: Was slavery still existing at the time?
A: She was born in slavery time.
Q: What about your grandpa?
A: He was born in slavery.
Q: Did your grandfather fight in any wars?
A: I don’t remember. I don’t think so.
Q: What state were they from?
A: They were from Paris, France. He was – grandpa.
Q: When did they migrate to Oklahoma?
A: They came to Louisiana in the early ages of the Spanish war.
Q: When did they come to Oklahoma?
A: I don’t know.
Q: Are you still married to your second husband?
A: He’s dead.
Q: (question too faint to hear)
A: I ain’t going to tell you.
Q: Are you still with him (third husband)?
A: No.
Q: When did you divorce him?
A: I divorced him in year before last.
Q: So, in 2000?
A: No, before 2000.
Q: 1999?
A: Yea.
Q: How old are your kinds now?
A: One will be fifty his birthday, the oldest. The second one, she’s 43. (garbled) was born in 1937, my oldest daughter.
Q: What year did you vote for the first time?
A: Oh, I was young.
Q: What candidate did you vote for?
A: The president.
Q: Which one?
A: Ah, the first one was Kennedy.
Q: You voted for Kennedy?
A: Ah-huh.
Q: How old were you during the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.?
A: I was about sixty-six.
Q: How did you find out about it?
A: Heard it on the news.
Q: On television?
A: (garbled)
Q: Was it in color?
A: Ah-huh.
Q: How old were you during the assassination of John F. Kennedy?
A: Let’s see, he got killed in fifty – sixty-three, ah-huh. Sixty-three, yea.
Q: How old were you then?
A: I was about thirty-six.
Q: How did you find out about it? (can’t hear the rest of question)
A: Yea.
Q: (can’t hear question)
A: I don’t know – they had all kinds.
Q: Do you have any grandchildren?
A: Yes Mam.
Q: When did you receive your first grandchild?
A: In 1950 – no, and let’ see . . . (mumbling), we’ll say he was born in ’49.
Q: 1949?
A: Ah-huh.
Q: Do you have any great-grandchildren?
A: Ah-huh, a lot of them.
Q: How old were you when you first became a grandmother?
A: 1949, I was, oh, I must have been around thirty-seven.
Q: Thirty-seven?
A: Ah-huh.
Q: And you say you have great-grandchildren?
A: Ah-huh.
Q: When did you receive your first great-grandchild?
A: Let me see. . . (mumbling). . . I’d say about eight years ago.
Q: Who had your first grandchild? (discussion in background too faint to hear)
A: Janice and Don.
Q: Are any of your sisters or brothers alive today?
A: Ah-huh, one sister.
Q: Is she older or younger than you?
A: She’ll be ninety-six.
Q: So she’s older?
A: Ah-huh.
Q: Where is she living at now?
A: In Idabel at a rest home.
Q: Idabel, Oklahoma?
A: Ah-huh.
Q: Do you have any uncles or aunts that are alive today?
A: I have one married auntie, Los Angeles, California.
Q: Did you vote in the last election?
A: No, I’d had a stroke.
Q: Who’s in the White House now?
A: Bush.
