Vance Randolph
The Ozarks has always had its own culture, dialect, music, and folklore. The isolation of the mountain area led the natives to develop their own ways. But, this unique culture is gradually dying out as modern transportation and the media make us a more homogenous society. Fortunately, many of the Ozarks traditions have been preserved by one of the country's preeminent folklorists, Vance Randolph.
Vance was born in 1892 in Pittsburg, Kansas, a town on the fringe of the Ozarks region. His father was a lawyer, educator, and frequent political speaker. He died at the early age of 44. Vance's mother was a teacher before her marriage. When she was widowed, she took a job as head librarian of the Pittsburg Public Library, a position she held for nearly thirty years. Education was important in the Randolph family but strangely, Vance did poorly in school. He struggled with shyness and felt that his teachers were poorly educated. Finally, he quit high school and went to work in a pool hall. After three years of working, Vance decided he needed more schooling. He enrolled at what is now Pittsburg State University where he eventually graduated in 1914 with emphases in the natural sciences, sociology, psychology, literature, and education. He then moved on to Massachusetts where he in enrolled at Clark University to study psychology. He was awarded a master's degree in 1915.
Vance wanted to continue on in a doctoral program in anthropology but his preferred fieldwork in the Ozarks region was not approved. So, Vance returned to Kansas where he had been promised a job selling insurance. But salesmanship was not for Vance so he got a job teaching at the local high school. However, Vance resigned when faced with an investigation on morals charges. He began to write for magazines and published some poetry. He was inducted into the Army in 1917 but spent most of his service time in the hospital being treated for various ailments. Eventually the Army awarded Vance a disability discharge after three months. Vance began traveling across the country, listening to stories and talking to people. By 1920 he was in Pineville, Missouri located in Stone County. "He was ready for the [folklore] work that would occupy the rest of his days. He had all the tools-the observational skills of the scientist, the resourcefulness of the hobo, and the reportorial gifts of the scientist" (Cochran 64).
Vance began collecting information about the Ozarks. He listened to the old stories. He explored archeological sites. He recorded the tunes of old songs. He took pictures of Ozarks natives. And, he published this information in various journals and began to establish a reputation for himself. Vance also began to publish books about the Ozarks that were well received in the press. The Ozarks: An American Survival of Primitive Society came out in 1931. Ozark Mountain Folks followed it in 1932. Vance wrote fiction as well and spent time in Hollywood working on scripts for movies.
But the Great Depression was hard on Vance, so he turned to writing for newspapers and "Little Blue Books," a series of essays on a variety of topics. Vance was also plagued with personal problems; his marriage failed, his mother died, and he sought treatment for alcoholism. Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal offered Vance the chance to get back to writing about his beloved Ozarkers. He got a job with the Federal Writers' Project, but the job fizzled out and he found himself selling insurance again.
Still he continued to collect folklore and was able to publish Ozark Folksongs and Ozark Superstitions in 1946 and 1947. They are his most prominent books. Vance became good friends with Rose O'Neill, another renowned citizen of the Stone-Taney county area. He spent the next thirty years writing and publishing books about the Ozarks. He died on Nov. 1, 1980, in Fayetteville, Arkansas during his eighty-eighth year. His work preserved the Ozarks culture for all future generations.
Works Cited
Cochran, Robert. Vance Randolph: An Ozark Life. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985.
Photograph of Vance Randolph from Godsey Collection, Lyons Memorial Library, College of the Ozarks
