I recently enjoyed a weekend gathering with my surviving siblings. Somehow conversation turned to the special quilt our mother made for her last baby, triggering some very special memories about the quilt's claim to fame...
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| Fig. 1: Stuart's Baby Quilt, photographed by Judy Vining in 2024 |
Components: Top layer composed of 12 patchwork squares of white cotton fabric decorated with applique and embroidery in children’s themes of animals and nursery rhymes, set up with blue stripes and pink corner squares. Solid cotton fabric backing and batting, quilted by hand.
Made by: Quilt top designed and sewn by Blanche (Haddix) Landrum and Irene Crowe in Clark County, Kentucky. Quilter in eastern Kentucky, name unknown.
Made for: Stuart Craig Landrum, born January 3, 1963, son of Ollie James and Blanche (Haddix) Landrum.
When made: 1962-1964.
Background: The new mother woke and stirred quietly. She
reached for the glass of water she left on the floor beside the bed last
night. Frozen solid, again. This upstairs bedroom in the big old Clark County farmhouse
had no heat except an open metal ‘register’ that allowed heat from the
downstairs fireplace to rise. It was January 1963 in Kentucky, marked by a late
blizzard and sub-zero temperatures. The mother, Blanche, snuggled up to Stuart,
her new baby boy, for just a tiny bit longer; he was as warm as toast. Soon
they were up and about. Dad OJ worked the second shift at the local newspaper
and required a bit later wake-up time.
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| Fig 2: Blanche (Haddix) & OJ Landrum, 1944 |
Stuart’s two sisters, Judy (age fifteen-and-a-half) and Mona (age seven-and-four-months), slept nearby in the same room. Eldest sibling James (age seventeen-and-a-half) had his own adjacent bedroom. Waking up was the start of a mad dash to the single bathroom and a big hurry-up to get dressed and down to the warm kitchen, where Mommy and baby had the stove going and biscuits on the way. Teens James and Judy had chores… Mona may have performed a small task or two, but she was still getting used to the idea of no longer being the baby of the family.
School was out
again today because of the snow. After the breakfast dishes were done, James
and Judy bundled up heavily for sledding in the deep snow with friends from the
small country neighborhood. Mona was a bashful ‘sickly child’ and generally didn’t participate much in outdoor winter activities. Stuart
would grow up to become the most athletic, outdoorsy sibling. They discussed
making snow cream but were discouraged due to “possible radioactivity of the
snow.” Instead they would all help make a special treat tonight – a big batch
of delicious popcorn balls, made with sorghum molasses made by Blanche’s dad (Arthur Haddix, in Breathitt County), and mixed in a large metal tub.[1]
Between
household chores Blanche’s thoughts turned to sewing. She enjoyed creating
pretty, practical things with her hand needles and Singer treadle sewing
machine. She spent years making a huge, braided floor rug using only scrapped wool
clothing. Recent projects included dresses for Mona with organza pinafores that
had long strings for big bows on the back (best tied by Daddy!). Blanche also taught
sewing classes to a group of girls at Judy’s school.
Her latest sewing
project was very special – a quilt for Stuart, started last year when the baby news
arrived. Years ago she made a quilt for Judy in the popular Sunbonnet Sue/Dutch
Girl pattern,[2] and now she wanted a new design. She was ‘not
much’ on freehand drawing but decided to trace outlines of drawings from
children’s coloring books for decorating individual blocks. Most of the blocks depicted
cute animals – kitten, puppy, cow, duck, chickens, squirrels, etc., and even a
kangaroo! There was no way to know the baby’s gender before its arrival, so two
blocks were special – Little Boy Blue and Little Bo Peep, with extra
embroidery. Bo Peep even had a 3-D apron on her dress. Blanche worked on the
blocks for months, in stolen moments while awaiting the baby’s birth. A neighbor,
Irene Crowe, was a great admirer of this quilt – and this baby! She enjoyed
helping out by finding and tracing new block designs.
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| Fig. 3: Stuart Craig Landrum, Winchester, Ky., 1963 |
Working on the quilt top was fun but slow. Baby Stuart Craig arrived on January 3, 1963; months later when he was crawling around, the time-consuming process of hand quilting was yet to be started. This involved layering the decorated, pieced quilt top with a layer of batting and a back layer of solid fabric, then stitching them together with tiny hand stitches in various designs – all while the whole quilt ‘sandwich’ was stretched and held tight in a special wooden quilting frame. Blanche could do it, had done it, but simply didn’t have time to do this one right now.
Irene came up
with a highly recommended quilter in eastern Kentucky, so Blanche agreed to
send the top out and pay to have it quilted, maybe at least partly because the quilter
was “from up home.” Unfortunately, the name of that talented quilter has been
lost to time… she might have lived in or near Breathitt County, where both OJ
and Blanche were born and raised – or as a dim memory suggests, possibly in
Martin County? Weeks turned slowly into months while the quilt was away.
In April 1964,
President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife Lady Bird visited the eastern Kentucky
Appalachian towns of Paintsville in Johnson County and Inez in Martin County
(both heavily Republican) to help publicize and gain support for his War on
Poverty program.[3] In May 1964, Lady Bird
returned to eastern Kentucky “to take a longer look, a woman’s look, at
Kentucky and the problems of attacking poverty.”[4]
Lady Bird was very warmly received in heavily Democratic Breathitt County. During her visit, she dedicated a new Breathitt County High School Gymnasium at the same school dedicated by Eleanor Roosevelt some years before. Both dedications were attended and orchestrated by local politico Marie R. Turner. Blanche’s cousin and good friend, Marie was the powerful local Superintendent of Schools and eventually served three times as the Chair of the state Democratic Party. Marie led Lady Bird around the area that day, visiting schools and homes. In the course of this trip, Lady Bird was gifted with a lovely hand-made Sunbonnet Sue quilt.[5]
At one point, the plan was to visit a particular farmer who lived ‘up the holler a piece.’ Unfazed, Lady Bird – the farm girl from Texas – declined a ride on a waiting school bus. Instead she pulled out some well-worn black boots, easily crossed a log footbridge over a creek and hiked about a mile to get to the house.[4] She displayed genuine interest in meeting with people, learning about their lives and needs, and discussing how government programs were helping them.
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| Fig. 4: Lady Bird Johnson crossing the footbridge, Breathitt County, Ky., 1964 [4] |
In the Landrum family, Blanche often repeated the rest of the story with a smile: On one of her home visits in April or May, Lady Bird saw a different quilt, still set into quilting frames that took up most of the main room of a small mountain home. It was a 12-patch, crib size baby quilt with embroidered and appliqued designs of animals and nursery rhymes… yes, Stuart’s quilt!
“Lady Bird took a real shine
to that quilt!” She very much wanted to buy it from the quilter – maybe with an
eye to her own future grandchildren? But it did not belong to the quilter to
sell, and she soon confirmed that it was not for sale at any price. There was
even a follow-up call later from Washington, after the trip, again trying to
purchase that particular quilt. Still No Sale. It was soon completed with
lovely results and returned to the Landrum family, to be used, loved, displayed
and admired along with the story of its ‘claim to fame.’
[ Author’s
Note: I wonder if or how much the very politically motivated Marie Turner knew
about that request… her own cousin’s quilt top, highly desired by national political
royalty of the time but not.for.sale. Betcha she did not know about it, or
Stuart and family might not have the quilt today, which we do! Or maybe she did
know, hmm… if Stuart’s quilt was admired during the first trip in April, then possibly
it could have inspired the gift of a quickly located Sunbonnet Sue quilt during
the next trip in May? ]
_Judy,_Mona3.jpg "Judy, Stuart, Mona, 1963") |
| Fig. 6: Judy, Stuart, Mona, 1963, in Winchester, Ky. |
...and sixty years later...
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| Fig. 7: Mona, Stuart, Judy, 2024, in Frankfort, Ky. |
Notes About Family
Stuart’s first Landrum ancestor in Kentucky was Reuben Landrum – his ancestors originally came from Scotland by way of Ireland and Virginia. Reuben lived for a time at Fort Boonesborough, Kentucky, and his name is carved on the monument there today. He settled in Clark County near an area called Pilot View – coincidentally, not far from the big old farmhouse that was Stuart’s first home. One of Rueben’s sons became a Methodist circuit rider – The Rev. Reuben Washington Landrum. He eventually settled in Breathitt County. His son Reuben Samuel, a teacher, was the father of Albert Sidney, a farmer, who was the father of OJ (Ollie James), who was father of Stuart. OJ moved the family from Breathitt to Clark County ca. 1957, and later to Fayette County, for employment as a highly skilled linotype operator.
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| Fig. 5: Stuart and Laurie |
Stuart now lives on a small farm in central Kentucky/Woodford County with his wife, Dr. Laurie Garner. He is a Senior Sales Engineer for Turing AI, a company offering cloud video security surveillance solutions and platforms. Stuart and Laurie help run a Doberman dog rescue group, and they have helped direct horse riders to the show ring at the world-class Three-Day Event in Kentucky for nearly 30 years.
Written by
Mona Landrum Proctor
September 10, 2024
Fun Facts from 1963
The weather in
Kentucky in 1963 was marked by a late January blizzard and cold
temperatures. A blizzard began on January 23 and brought dangerously blowing
snow and cold temperatures. The low temperature was -20°F below zero on
January 24 and -15°F below zero on January 28. From December 1, 1962, to
February 28, 1963, Kentucky received 11.2 inches of snow. The winter of 1962-63
was the fourth coldest winter on record in Louisville. January 1963 was
the 10th coldest January on record.[6]
Lexington’s
all-time coldest temperature was recorded on January 24, 1963, when it dropped
to -21°F. This record followed the greatest 24-hour (midnight to midnight)
temperature drop. During the previous day the temperature dropped 64 degrees
from 44°F to -20°F. This polar blast lasted nearly a week.[7]
A loaf of bread
cost 22 cents and a gallon of gas was 30 cents. The cost of postage stamps rose
from 4 to 5 cents each. The ‘Mona Lisa’ painting was on exhibit in the U.S. for
the first time. A volcano erupted in Bali, killing about 1,500 people. Diane
Sawyer was America’s Junior Miss. Mercury Atlas 9, the final manned space
mission of the U.S. Mercury program, completed 22 orbits before splashing down
in the Pacific Ocean. The first clinical Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD)
was implanted in a human patient. Anti-segregation marches were happening in
Birmingham and around the country. George Wallace was ordered to step aside
from blocking two African American students from enrolling in the University of
Alabama. Medgar Evers was assassinated.
The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham was bombed, killing
four young girls and injuring 22 others. Joan Baez and Bob Dylan fell in love
and performed during civil rights rallies. Nearly 16,000 American military
personnel were deployed in South Vietnam. John F. Kennedy famously declared,
“Ich bin ein Berliner!” and was later assassinated in Dallas in November. In
December, Walter Cronkite’s decision to broadcast a report on The Beatles
triggered a domino effect causing Beatlemania to explode in America.[8]
[1] Nana’s Molasses Popcorn Balls, Instructables,
accessed September 10, 2024. https://www.instructables.com/Nanas-Molasses-Popcorn-Balls/
[2] The History and Mystery of Sunbonnet Sue, Scrapdash.com,
June 20, 2022, accessed September 10, 2024. https://scrapdash.com/here-comes-the-sun/
[3] Our History | LBJ visits E. Kentucky in 1964, by Martha Elson, The Courier Journal, April
17, 2015, accessed September 10, 2024. https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/history/river-city-retro/2015/04/17/history-lbj-visits-kentucky/
25929287/
[4] Folder, “Kentucky Trip – May 21, 1964 – Mrs.
Johnson [Clippings],” White House Social Files, Liz Carpenter Subject Files,
Box 5, LBJ Presidential Library, accessed September 10, 2024.
https://www.discoverlbj.org/item/whsf-lc-subject-b05-f8
[5] Audio diary and annotated transcript, Lady Bird
Johnson, 5/21/1964 (Thursday), Lady Bird Johnson's White House Diary Collection,
LBJ Presidential Library, accessed September 10, 2024. An edited transcript
for this day was included in Lady Bird Johnson’s book “A White House Diary,”
published in 1970. https://www.discoverlbj.org/item/ctjd-19640521
[6] Blizzard of ’63 Saw Biggest Temp Drop in One Day,
by Kathryn Gregory, The Courier Journal, February 25, 2015, accessed
September 10, 2024. https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/neighborhoods/2015/02/25/blizzard-saw-biggest-temp-drop-day/24001861/
[7] Kentucky’s All-Time Coldest Temperature, Lex18,
January 18, 2020, accessed September 10, 2024.
https://www.lex18.com/kentuckys-all-time-coldest-temperature
[8] 50 Years Ago: The World in 1963, by Alan
Taylor, The Atlantic, February 15, 2013, accessed September 10, 2024. https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2013/02/50-years-ago-the-world-in-1963/100460/
