Poor as a Church Mouse in Appalachia

i'm sitting here with mr bill yance who's kind enough to sit down with us and talk for a little while so i'm gonna i'm gonna ask bill if you will just tell us a little bit about yourself bill and your your life and kind of growing up here in appalachia well thank you very much i love your family back from your granddad and your dad and waiting friends to my dad and things back when i was a kid and i grew up in uh they used to call it porn church house mouth that's about the way we were you know we made a live no we don't have nothing to complain about and then i grew up and i dropped out of high school and finished high school and i went to work we moved to this area from nantahala back in uh 51 i guess it was and we moved here in 51 and and i worked peachtree farm home with spline and farm which i loved farming i still love farming and did that and then uh when the air force and i'm 1953 uh february 1953 and and again didn't have a high school education but air force one thing about them they give you a chance and they sent me the i was in albuquerque new mexico after got about a basic trainer and uh they sent me three months the university of new mexico and i school and finished my high school education on almost on time in 53 and then while we were waiting to go on those atomic bomb tests back then uh we've i've done everything for pool permanent kp i mean i was never proud i just tickled death to have a good job you know i make eighty dollars a month or something like that right you know right and that was great to me and then i was on the uh first we went down to wootock out in the south pacific in the latter part of 53 after i got a break come home and it always just amazed me being able to do something like that as always said a barefoot boyfriend and a halo right but i had a decent iq as they always said and something i learned about an iq that guy told me they did away with the iqtist i think in 53 but they said uh and iq is not what you know or anything it's your ability to learn right and that like and you being a school teacher you know that yes sir and then uh i learned what that meant something to me and i went in the air force if you had an iq of 110 or above if you were qualified for cadets or which to go to flying school and i had registered a year early and i went ahead and and took you you didn't have to go if you had an iq of 110 about surprisingly look i had an iq of 128. now i know you know more about that that's pretty much what i do but uh and without not mentioning the guy about me that's why he told me that don't mean what you know it means your ability to learn right and that was a long time ago but i went ahead and applied for cadets and then they found out how old i was and i'd rested here early and but i still went done done went back and and that and uh then uh we went on those atomic bomb tests i saw uh all the atomic bomb tests at the end of we talked we were out there on a island that was uh three-quarters mile wide and three miles wide we had straightened up the lender b-52s back then and i saw all atomic bomb tests eighteen of them at that time i don't think that out of my secret curse until i top secret clearance and therefore yeah i guess some of them there's not many people go right and we uh then we come back to albuquerque i was in the 4931st test support group in albuquerque new mexico which if you probably know being a schoolteach that's special weapon centers of the world and i was signed there for five years and then we'd come back to albuquerque and stayed there about five or six months and then we went to nevada the desert out there always said they thought i was a desert rat you know we went out there and did 17 they signed the non-proliferation treaty back then and we didn't finish up and as on the first atomic bomb test it was and then we talked and i was i remember we were laying on uh iron like railroad track and that bomb went off it was like daylight coming up four o'clock morning about five times straight and i jumped up and i got it over it was my fault and i jumped up and i started knocking me that yeah but i still got an overdose of a radioactivity and they sent me back to that way but i mean that's one time then we come back and stayed in albuquerque for four or five months and then we went to the uh uh yucca flats and uh and went out there and uh i got my eyes burned on that but you know i've tried to get through my middle turret but they have no record of me being in those of course i understand that and they said if i could find one guy that would say that you knew me but there's nobody left i'm 83 years old and they don't nobody else left them that'd be hard to do hard to track down for sure but you know i told this guy in franklin uh that and he said i don't believe that he got on a computer right there and so and he said there's no record have you just been signed to the 49th 31st tesla out of albuquerque new mexico they don't have no record of you being on yeah and i said you didn't dream it no but i understand too sure you know back then uh like they talked about giving the time i'm telling something you know it was it was stopped oh yeah yeah top secret i remember we said to stay in california six weeks before we got cleared to get i had a sick and my brother just got out of the army at that time and uh he read my records he redirected he said it says you have a secret clearance and pending top he said what in the world would you do i said ask therefore yeah that's all you didn't tell anything you know that man you know i said yes therefore yeah right but i mean things like that you just didn't tell right you knew better that's a long way from nantahala all those places in mexico university and you you mentioned you graduated from maryland university also and uh one thing i failed to mention when i introduced you that as far as my life i've known you as really the most prominent uh disc jockey or radio announcer in kind of our whole tri-county area here you know of western north carolina and north georgia you're kind of legendary as a as a disc jockey so you want to tell us a little bit about how you got to got involved with radio and maybe your early experiences with broadcasting and radio well i can tell you that uh the guy's name was boyd whitney and he was from uh uh and by milestones it used to be beaumont texas and uh he uh was beaumont texas and albuquerque new mexico i was in the air force but i always had a part-time job i had to have that to make a living i had i was making allotment out i think i drew 68 dollars a month or and i had a lot more that was my mom and daddy for 60. and i made my own and just and i worked part-time yeah and late and i know you come up the same way basically on your daddy ray and i and jury without her friends all were alive and not earlier my life anyway uh but boyd whitney and i was working at kd you know on this side of the mississippi river it's uh like wkrk on the other side of this it's k d e f k d in in albuquerque new mexico is kde and radio tv eyes work but i was just a record for uh this dj's come in but i was always interested in radio and said as a kid as i said that was going to be a diss track right now i don't know if i believe that or not but i made it except not much of one i never was one i said i was going to be a follower i was never much to follow that i made both cases of the united states air force but what i was in there for and i was working at kdef radio tv as a record filing record and boyd whitney come there in baltimore out of beaumont texas and uh he was a big-time radio announcer back there and uh about an hour a day he bought his 15 minutes never forget it and i'd like to talk with him and and he said i'm going to build my own radio station here in albuquerque and he was like me like talk a lot and i was pretty you know i just took well i like the man he liked me just stuck to me and i was just like 21 i don't know 21 22 years old and uh and boyd uh said uh i'm gonna make a radio announcer out of you i'm gonna build my radio saying i've got equipment in tennessee and i'm gonna do this you know and you think like that you take for granted sometimes you know you appreciate a guy and he did the same thing and i went to work for him and and got started off got briefed in that and radio just hypothetical not enough radio to where you got a job anywhere but i went overseas and they had opened this in bentwater's england and they just opened this closed-based circuit for two bases there and i had a little i was i was administrative that's what i was in and i've worked in my afs did your paperwork obviously and and and we uh and boyd just one day said uh amos scouts was the guy that will forget he made music the and did the 12 to one uh show and he said bill um boyd said hey it's not going to show up today he ate make music at night he somehow and they said i'm going to let you and i'll watch you and i said now lord i i've watched you and i i've never been on a controlled war in my life right and i looked around he was gone all that he lived he's there that's the way they know to have a teacher you know yeah and he come back he went to lunch ago i did that ever ever since then it's kind of history i just went while i was in air force i worked in corvallis oregon and i worked in in in like i said corvallis oregon in albuquerque and then i went over there and they started that station and i got started i had a different job we handled the funds for the clubs and things like that but we got and bill fowler uh he stayed in the air force 12 years and he started as a young airman i was a sergeant i guess then he said you started my first work he later years uh 20 30 years ago he said his wife asked him said uh who do you remember an old time in your life he's a millionaire now so uh oh bill you're listening to worse that makes some money he sends me twenty dollar i gave him twenty dollars one time he's you know and he sends me twenty dollars my birthday every year that's neat now you take a guy in 60 50 something you're remembering things like that yeah and uh he said that i give him his break in the radio yeah and i don't remember it but he worked for me in my regular job taking care of the funds for the clubs and things like that uh if i get too worse with my and talk here you can get out anything you want to but and but uh he still we're still a good friend 50 some years later and things like that and then i went armed forces radio then i came back here and my last year i was secretary general leahy who was military adviser of prince sultan and uh commander of you submit a united states military training commission to saudi arabia but again my affc air force was uh administration yeah but i went over there and we had uh four guys in there uh a colonel at that time and a general and a stenographer and the air force or a regular administrative guy to sony and art brown i'll never forget him i mean forgot him and uh then when after sony left he was a photographer and i stayed and i was secretary and uh a word colonel colonel miller out of the pentagon and we were assigned to the pentagon i had to go to the pentagon and i got paid out of the pentagon and they got paid to the pentagon in washington but we were used to them headquarters in saudi arabia but we had 11 air force bases there that big enough to have a high of their own high school yeah in saudi arabia wow and and we uh through that you know and uh then to sony left and they sent two different guys from washington and the old man we had a general then he's army general and general leahy and colonel miller was the chief of staff and i was a little theon the sergeant you know but three of us were in that one office this is a big organization but that was my last year in the air force sure and anything you want to ask me well i appreciate bill because obviously i didn't know about any of that that background and and it makes sense you know to think about you being on all those different stations of course my whole life i've known of you as being the voice of wkrk how's their 50 you're like three months and uh you know uh i think you're so popular on that program one for your voice you just have a great on-air voice and then more than that i feel like you know your personality and running uh uh party party line and things like that over the years i i know that number of times folks uh outsiders might call in on the air and they might not be the most polite folks and and you had an uncanny way of kind of uh putting them in their place if they if they were trying to be short you know we had regulars down through the years who would call in a lot like is it mrs franny or miss fannie that this is kind of a staple and she might call on there and she might talk for a while about what's growing in her garden and the local people you know that's local color they enjoy it but then you might have somebody from uh from a bigger more metropolitan background and they might call in and complain i can remember a gentleman called in one one time i don't you probably won't remember this having fielded so many calls but he was uh being critical of things like that and talking about how everything should be run around here but he was mispronouncing cherokee county he was actually saying rocky character and after a while you said well you know if you're such an expert on this place you think by now you know how to pronounce the name of the county that we're in thank you very much for calling party line you all remember i remember telling that story i was coming out i think when mcdonald's come here years ago and these people were coming through here and we talked about that a lot on the radio but they were coming outside and they asked me as i was coming out was i from here and one of those other guys said he's on the radio he knows all you know just that kind of kind of just general conversation and he said we're going to go up to cherokee and uh we're sitting outside he said we want to go up to churwaki and i said you mean surely so that's an indian name you know i said you know we told we talked about it on the radio a lot and people enjoyed you know oh yeah but really when you look at the word and i thought about a lot and i'm i just love restoration words and being in my business different things i have it for somebody here to rock it it sounds more than cherokee yeah i mean well i mispronounced a lot of things but you wouldn't have called that that guy on that it was his attitude was was out of line um and you mentioned my dad and my uncle of course both my uncles uh jerry ray and henry the wilson brothers they made music they were two of my best friends in the world probably 45 years thereabouts gospel music and i know you spun their records a lot and we appreciate that and you actually gave dad and ray my favorite compliment of all time on the air one time you said they didn't have enough ambition to get out of a mud hole you know that was my favorite compliment because at around about you you're saying these guys are talented and they ought to go somewhere they ought to do something you know but they just stayed around here and worked a job and raised family and things like that and that's nothing wrong with that but that was my favorite compliment that they ever you know the first album that they caught and if you've got one i've got one know my house burn nothing but i wrote first album jerry and ray recorded and my brother was a good musician i made music and had a band for 60 years but i was never a good musician but i mean i got by for 60s carl green said one time said bill uh you don't play a mandolin you just use two things and then i said quote while i got by the way for 60 years playing the band and running the band you know yeah i don't do it like everybody else does i play music all the way but i played manly guitar my brother gave me my first mandolin and i was 12 years old he wanted me to learn the chords on the guitar and things and i've told many people what they said what would you do i said learn to play guitar for at least the chord and then evangel whatever you're going to do nice yeah you've been able to look professional you know what i'm talking about yeah that's a good foundation the guitar exactly from there now you know what chords you're in and what chords right and things like that it's just good advice it's uh uh just think about jury and ray well i were just friends over all well after i come back from the air force and jury and ray and wade your daddy granddaddy and my daddy was the best friends in the world and uh things like that just means so much to me well and then you and eric winding up friends and like blind tennis so everybody has an interest in life but you and eric not interested in me not uh about music yeah different connection connection yeah they're what people are and that's always amazing to me you know how people in life and the way i've been in a lot and the things that i've started off from nanohalo i would never have believed that i'd have wound up my twift here in the air force as secretary to the general military advisor to prince saltine i would never dreamed of that i would have dreamed of being a pilot and i made it more difficult a guy putting me on there and not even knowing what's going on right just sitting and watching him and i took off and did an hour program yeah and that was been 60 years ago it may have been meant to be bill but it was my want to be right well you uh growing up as you did and probably not poor like i was i hope not uh but not the richest people in the world right uh but did you ever think about becoming principal so how many seriously like me did i ever think about did you ever really think about it i never even thought i would be a teacher really right much less a principal but like you were saying it's funny how life can can work out for you and maybe uh what you want to do or what you're planning to do you might wind up doing something different but it might be a better situation for you i've been really blessed you know blessed by my family my friends good friends like eric um and just the way the lord had everything worked out for me i you know i'm i'm really blessed and really fortunate well uh like uh people ask me and i've said uh i i can't believe that me being a barefoot boy on nanahala poorly i mean you don't get no more we we've made a good nine kids and my daddy is a sawmill worker i mean well your granddaddy was too because he wasn't bothered and and my daddy was real educated back in his day he uh spent uh he got out of the he was in acl belgium france germany wow world war one all that and and you got a commission become something you don't ever dream of becoming right and i i never anticipated doing that myself uh that uh i always liked the air force and and wanted to go in there and and the brakes andy the kid today uh that would wants to go in the middle army air force air force was mine uh when i remember my brother uh coming out of the army and they said bill you're in finished high school i don't think you can get in the airport and he went down and he said let me go there and talk to the recruiter with you and we talked to him he said let me give him a little 25 minute 25 questions tip or something like that and he's they talked army and therefore and talked and he came out he said if he'll do as good on this as he go to charlotte he said i'll get him in the air for him before he gets drafted i was and uh i mean that pleased me i and and she said you you know my brother he didn't even think i had much he's selling you short and that recruiter in two weeks they had me in charlotte taking the test and i was on my way in the air for you know short like but i mean look back on live uh in my hard life at nanohala uh the yachts has literally settled down the halo and not many but i mean we just uh always ambitioned my daddy went to school and he got out of the airport i got out of the army at 28 years old and mama had just finished teachers college in franklin back then they started teaching at 15 years old if you took a test miss dean she taught every one of us in high school and she got her i really cheated 103 that she got her master's degree at 54 years old wow but known back in 1954 she was older than that she had 1954 she told school probably 30 some years yeah then but always that ambition like my mama uh was teaching school at 17 years old sometimes you you go back to the old reading right in the arithmetic it's what miss dean always said that woman i was talking about really if you know that she said bill you'll go anywhere you want to go if you'll learn reading writing and arithmetic you'll go anywhere you want to go that foundation but if you put all of it basically goes right back to the same thing

Channel: Celebrating Appalachia

Views: 19,701

Rating: 4.9448819 out of 5

Keywords: Appalachian mountains, Appalachia, mountain folk, mountain talk, interview, life stories, history, stories-a history of Appalachia, inside Appalachia, musings from Appalachia, Reflections from Appalachia, Appalachian memories, the real Appalachia, Truths from Appalachia, Bill Yonce, Airforce, WKRK, Atomic test, Atomic bomb tests, Arizona, Nantahala, barefoot boy, poor as a church mouse, party line, WNC, Murphy NC, Cherokee county

Id: VzO-U61Mc9s

Length: 26min 15sec (1575 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 20 2020