East Side Oral History Project: Interview with Clarence N. and Katherine "Kitty" Anderson

Titles: East Side Oral History Project: Interview with Clarence N. and Katherine "Kitty" Anderson (Supplied title)

Description: BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: Clarence Anderson was a life long resident of St. Paul, Minnesota. He began work at the Church Book Store on Payne Avenue in the mid-1930s and bought the store a couple years later. He served in the military and attended school during the 1940s, otherwise he worked exclusively at the bookstore. Katherine "Kitty" Anderson was from South Dakota and moved to St. Paul in 1945. She and Clarence married in the early 1950s and ran the store together from then on. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: The start of the Church Book Store in 1936 by Emil Johnson. The affiliation of the store with the First Lutheran Church. Some history of the church. Clarence's early life on Payne Avenue and the life long friendships that ensued. Kitty's early life and her move to St. Paul. Description of the store before it moved in 1959. Buying the store in 1939 and running it. Discussion of the business: the types of items they sold and how much they cost, kinds of customers and suppliers. Some discussion on the Lutheran Church in the 1950s and its relationship to other denominations. Intra-Christian prejudice. The decline of the small church affiliated bookstore. Description of the Radar Chef restaurant. Description of proper dress in the 1950s. Ethnic changes in the neighborhood. Counseling troubled people as owners of a religious bookstore. Changes in theology from the 1950s to present. The role of the Salvation Army in the neighborhood.

Dates

• 03/07/1991 (Creation)

Creation

• interviewee: Anderson, Clarence N.
• interviewee: Anderson, Katherine
• interviewer: Galt, Margot Fortunato

Identifiers

• Library Call Number: OH 99
• Accession Number: AV2003.92.4

Holding Type: Oral History - Interview

Project

• Oral History - Project, MHS Collection, project: 'East Side Oral History Project' <OH 99>

Quantity: 1.5 hours sound cassette 25 pages transcript

Format

• Content Category: sound recordings
• Content Category: text

Measurements

• 01:32:22 running time

Subjects

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