Chapter 11: Family Background

Chapter 11: Family Background

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Description

When asked whether she came from a large family (which might explain her gregariousness), Mrs. Harrison says that she had many, many cousins. She also explains that she was married before she graduated from college, though eventually she finished her degree, earning a degree in Political Science from the University of Houston in 1951. He notes that her husband did not want her to work, but she did, teaching third grade. She explains some of the challenges of teaching and recalls an autistic child in her class. She speaks briefly about the television and radio appearances that she made while working with the Children’s Christmas Card Project. She tells an anecdote to demonstrate that she inherited her public speaking skills from her “daddy.”

Identifier

HarrisonK_02_20130607_C11

Publication Date

6-7-2013

City

Houston, Texas

Topics Covered

The Interview Subject's Story - Personal Background; Personal Background; Character, Values, Beliefs, Talents

Transcript

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

I don’t remember if I asked you if you have brothers and sisters. Do you come from a big family, an extended family?

Karen Harrison:

No, I have a brother, and I had a sister until last July. She died last July. She’s the artist. All the paintings I have in my house are her work, except about three, and she did them for me.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

She was a colorist, among other things.

Karen Harrison:

Portraits are her forte.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

I was curious. I was wondering if you had a big extended family or a lot of siblings, because you're so gregarious.

Karen Harrison:

I had seventeen first cousins, so there were eighteen in all. On both sides of my family we had that many first cousins, so it was my parents that had larger families.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

So family reunions must have been real zoos.

Karen Harrison:

Well, Kromer, which is my maiden name, my father’s—

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

How do you spell that?

Karen Harrison:

K-R-O-M-E-R. I think I got the invitation to the—I think it’s the 58th—I'm not positive—reunion. My mother’s family, just a few times and not really formally, but I kept up with the cousins and they with me and children of my cousins, because all my cousins just about are—I have a 92-year-old cousin who is still alive in Amarillo, and we chat, but most of my cousins are gone.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Did you do volunteer work when you were a young person, like in high school or in college? I was just curious.

Karen Harrison:

I did not in college because I married at eighteen, so then I had college to finish. My father had said that—marrying with his blessings—that he would want my promise that I would try to go to college, finish college. On our $270 a month, it wasn’t going to be easy, of course. He told me that he would continue to pay for the schooling. We didn’t even have a car when we first married.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

When did you marry? What was the year?

Karen Harrison:

December of ’47. When we did get a car, which was by the summer—I guess sometime in the summer—I would go to school Tuesdays and Thursdays and six weeks in the summer. I graduated with a degree in political science.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

And where did you go to school?

Karen Harrison:

Well, I went freshman year to the University of Texas, and I graduated from the University of Houston.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

What year did you get your degree?

Karen Harrison:

Let’s see. About ’51, I think.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Wow, so that took you about four years to finish it up, but still, with being married and starting a family and everything, that’s—

Karen Harrison:

I didn’t really start my family until afterwards, but I guess that included working one year. I wanted to work, and my husband said no. He didn’t want me to work. I said, “Yes, I want to. My degree will be more valuable with some experience in case I ever really need to work.” He gave in on it, and he said, “I'll do it, but I don’t want to see one penny of that money,” and I said, “I think I can handle that part of it.”

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

What was the job you held?

Karen Harrison:

I had had my student teaching in Government and American Problems, seniors in high school. I lived in the Spring Branch School District, and there were no such openings available or not many students that age. They had a job for me in third grade. I taught one year of third grade, and I sort of did it with a guilty conscience.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Why is that?

Karen Harrison:

Well, I had had a reading and a math course in elementary, and they were really good teachers, but I just didn’t want to— Spring Branch went from midterm entering and graduating and stuff to once a year. I had thirty-eight children.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

A huge class.

Karen Harrison:

Some of them were repeating the first half of third grade. Some of them were skipping the last half of second grade. Some of them were where they were supposed to be, and so it was highly—I think the term is—it just grew. Well, with some guidance, there wasn’t a child that hadn’t gained a year in their testing.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Well, congratulations on that, because that’s very challenging—plus being prepared to teach students who are so much older and then having to re-gear for younger kids.

Karen Harrison:

One of the things that I did that I think really helped them was after lunch every day, I told them to put their heads down and rest and I read aloud to them. I think that being read to is very valuable.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

It’s funny. I remember that from elementary school and just loving it. I do. It probably gave you a break too.

Karen Harrison:

My father, when I was in college and taking Texas history, would read my lessons to me because he was interested in history. He would read aloud to me. I was dyslexic without realizing it. I wanted very much to know what was in there, but I really didn’t want the labor of reading it.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Was there anything from your experience—training as a teacher or from that year teaching—that helped you when you started to volunteer?

Karen Harrison:

I'm sure that it did, because I think every instance in your life adds or detracts. I'm sure that it did. I had one little autistic child that liked me, evidently. I would arrive in the morning in Spring Branch, in the parking area, and he would step from behind a tree and follow me. If I stepped backwards suddenly, I would step on him.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

He did like you.

Karen Harrison:

It was something that I had never—it was a look at life that I had never seen and had no understanding about.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

You mean of someone who is autistic?

Karen Harrison:

Uh-hunh (affirmative).

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Was he very autistic or a high-functioning autistic?

Karen Harrison:

I think very autistic, maybe. Ultimately, I heard that he did die in a fire. His house burned, and he died in it. There was genius in that class too. It was very challenging and stretching.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

I’d find it terrifying to teach third grade, personally. I'd run. (laughter) I commend you. So why did you only teach one year?

Karen Harrison:

Well, I had, at that point, been married five years. It was time to have a child.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Time to start a family. Are there any other stories about MD Anderson that you'd like to share with me?

Karen Harrison:

Let me look.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Do you want me to pause the recorder for a second while we—? I'll do— (End of Audio 2 Session 2)

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

I think I ought to do that because I did want to ask you—you had mentioned after we turned the recorder off last time that one of the things you did when you were promoting the Children’s Art Project on TV and radio was you had this quite amazing TV appearance. Tell me about that, on the Today Show.

Karen Harrison:

Really, I just know I did it. That’s all.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Tell me about it. How did you get asked?

Karen Harrison:

It was probably through Steve Stuyck [Oral History Interview]. I don’t know. I really don’t know.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Okay, so this was sort of arranged behind the scenes for you. Did you fly to New York, or did someone come here?

Karen Harrison:

No, they just interviewed me here.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

When you do an interview like that to promote the Art Project, what were the kinds of things you said? What did you say to people when you were on air?

Karen Harrison:

I told about how the project really—the hospital was taking care of all their medical needs, but the art project’s aim was to improve their social, educational, and emotional needs. We did eventually have a camp. We did have ski trips. Anywhere that we could answer that need we tried to do it, and there was a committee from the volunteers and donors and stuff that helped allocate the money. It still is true, I guess. I presume it is.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Were you the only person who would appear, or did you have patients talking too?

Karen Harrison:

No, anytime that I talked I was interviewed briefly.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

You were kind of the face of the art project for a very long time.

Karen Harrison:

I don’t know. I wouldn’t go that far to say.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

But you were sort of the public representative of it. That was kind of exciting. Were you nervous about doing that? Are you a speak-in-public kind of person?

Karen Harrison:

I'm a speak-in-public kind of person. I liked Declamation in the seventh and eighth grade. Mr. Hilburn prepared me well.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

I wouldn’t have even known what that meant. Tell me what Declamation with Mr. Hilburn was all about, because obviously it did prepare you well.

Karen Harrison:

Well, I bet it all came from my daddy, because I lived in Shamrock, Texas, and we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with great interest and glee. One of the things they did was a production of Abie’s Irish Rose. My father played the part of the rabbi, so I was very proud of my actor father.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

And did you emulate him? You wanted to follow a bit in his footsteps?

Karen Harrison:

Without being aware of it, I guess so.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

But obviously you didn’t get that fear. Some people talk about this horrendous fear of speaking in public, and you obviously—

Karen Harrison:

No, I didn’t get that.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

So it sounds like Page Lawson was right when she said, “Yeah, you're the person who has what it takes.”

Karen Harrison:

She was very generous with me—very, very generous.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

I don’t have any more questions right now. Is there anything else that you'd like to tell me about your volunteer experience or working with the art project?

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Chapter 11: Family Background

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