Well, just what do you want to know about my family history and
upbringing. I was born in Asheville, North Carolina, March 9, 1922, on
Ridge Street. Both of my parents were the sons and daughters,
respectively, of ministers. So consequently I had a very good religious
influence in my life and an excellent social life because in the black
community the church and all of its programs, that was, in a segregated
community, represented the society in which we lived at that time. I had
good parents. My father was Ernest Boice McKissick. He was originally
from Kellton, South Carolina, Union County. The McKissicks had been on
the McKissick plantations down there from slavery all the way on, and
the other McKissicks were president, I think, respectively, of the
University of South Carolina at one time, the other part of the family.
The mother and father met at a Methodist college, Livingston College, in
Salisbury, North Carolina and married, and of course, I am the second
child of four children that they had. My father, at that time, mother
and father finished what was called Normal School. It would be
equivalent to a little more than high school. Because at time high
school didn't go very far, not the twelve grades that you've got now, of
course. But both mother and father worked hard. Asheville, North
Carolina is a tourist town, and my father did hotel work and also worked
for North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, which was a fledgling
company. He was an agent for North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance
Company. Mother could sew. We had a sign on the house, Seamstress. She
could sew very well and make all kinds of clothes. Made my clothes of
which I was real proud of, one of my first suits. She could sew and she
worked at a department store, [unclear] , a
department store in Asheville at one time. And then she went back to
school and took a business course and then went to work for North
Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company and she began a cashier-clerk.
She worked there until she retired at North Carolina Mutual. My father,
on the other hand, worked at North Carolina Mutual and the hotels, and
then he later went into the government service that's there. I think at
the time that he died he was with the Veteran's Administration, I think
at [unclear] Hospital in Asheville. I
don't know how much to tell you about the backgrounds, but I had good
parents. There's no way that I can blame anything, that any of the
children could ever say anything about their parents didn't try to do
for them. Our parents did. Can't blame them for anything. They helped us
go to school. They pushed us through school. We were taught to sacrifice
to support the family, to go to church, to do what was right, and what
was wrong, we were punished if we didn't do it. We were raised, I would
think that some of my very years were my childhood, were my family life
as a child in Asheville, some of my very, very happy years. So I can't
complain about that part of my life. I think the struggle parts of my
life were the fact that I was black, which oft time interfered with so
much of the happiness that I might be enjoying when there's some abrupt
change would come about to tell you that you were black and not wanted.
I think most of my fights as a child came about issues growing out of
that.