[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 10094-10096]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO OPAL OVERBEY

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to a 
devoted and hardworking Kentuckian. Ms. Opal Overbey has been honored 
in her hometown and will have her life story submitted to the Library 
of Congress for being an extraordinary woman who dedicated her life to 
her family and her work.
  Born December 2, 1929, on Tom Cat Trail in Laurel County, KY, Opal 
was the fourth of eight children. Growing up, Opal remembers a 
childhood filled with love, laughter and hard work. Following the 
guidance of her parents--her mother, a committed housewife and her dad, 
a diligent farmer--she learned that a little hard work and 
determination goes a long way. Driven by a desire to be independent and 
earn her own money, Opal worked two jobs. After many years at the local 
laundromat as well as working part time at the Crystal Kitchen, Opal 
moved into a small room in a house behind a jeweler with her cousins. 
Soon after, she met her husband of 62 years, Virgil Overbey.
  When Opal was 17 she and Virgil got married. Together they had four 
children. Being a mother at a young age was a difficult feat to master, 
but Opal was determined to give her children a childhood similar to her 
own. As they got older, her eldest son Jim found a common interest with 
his mom, and together they built a greenhouse supplying flowers and 
crops for the community. After Virgil Overbey's unfortunate death on 
November 24, 2008, the greenhouse was a way for the family to stay 
together and enjoy each other's company while doing something they all 
loved.

[[Page 10095]]

  Opal's greenhouse business continues today. She says that working at 
the greenhouse has always been a pleasurable experience, but it's the 
people and the customers that make it worthwhile: ``I think in life you 
have to just work and treat people right, and be honest and the Lord 
will bless you.'' Her children have grown up and started families of 
their own, and Opal continues to help in any way that she can.
  Kentucky is fortunate to have a hardworking and devoted woman like 
Opal Overbey. At 81 years of age, Opal has lived a lifetime of service 
to her community. I am sure her children Jim, Denver, Glenda, and 
Evelyn, as well as her whole family, are very proud of everything that 
she has accomplished and provided for her loved ones.
  Mr. President, the Laurel County Sentinel Echo recently published an 
article highlighting Ms. Opal Overbey's life and career. I ask 
unanimous consent that the full article be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record as follows:

          [From the Sentinel Echo, Laurel County, June 8, 2011

                   London's Living Treasures: Part 3

       In the third installment of the Living Treasures project, 
     we meet 81-year-old Opal Overbey, a fixture at Overbey's 
     Greenhouse on Ky. 229. The only Living Treasure nominee who 
     is a native of Laurel County, Overbey shared her life story, 
     one that is characterized by love of family, love of the land 
     and a tireless work ethic.
       ``I was born Dec. 2, 1929 here in Laurel County on Tom Cat 
     Trail near Bush. My mother just raised all us youngin's, she 
     was a housewife, and my dad farmed everything, tobacco, corn, 
     whatever people grew then. He had about 80 acres of 
     pastureland. He was a good, honest man. My mom was the same. 
     There was eight of us, six sisters and two brothers. I was 
     the fourth child down.
       I had a happy childhood. Honey, we just played and had fun 
     and worked also. Dad always made us hoe corn and whatever he 
     was doing. He learned us to work. But we would play Hoopy 
     Hide, tag, hopscotch, whatever kids played at that time. We 
     used to take washes down to the creek where the water was. 
     And we'd swim, we had a good swimming hole place. That was 
     fun-fun, we loved that. We had a childhood that was as normal 
     as normal could be.
       I went to Weaver School, a one-room school. We would walk 
     to school, to and from it was probably about three miles. I 
     wasn't in particularly a great student. I really didn't like 
     school; I would rather stay home and wash clothes or 
     something, if she would let me. I didn't really like any 
     subject, except recess.
       Whenever I was a kid you didn't go to the store to get what 
     you needed, you put it up in the summertime. That was what 
     she fed us on. She had a big garden, potatoes. corn, beans, 
     cucumbers, just anything she could get seed for. She saved 
     quite a lot of seed and kids used to go around and sell 
     packets of seed back then and that's how she would get 
     cucumber and beets and stuff like that.
       My chores were milking, gathering the eggs, cleaning up, 
     dishes, drawing water, we drew our water out of a well, you 
     know. Mom caught her wash water when it came off the house. 
     No plumbing, not when I was home, no electricity.
       We had a big house with plenty of room. It was like 
     everybody else's house then. It was made of weatherboarding. 
     Our nearest neighbors were about a quarter of a mile away. A 
     lot of them was my relatives. Uncle Perry and Aunt Rhilde 
     Root and Ed and Polly Jones lived real close to us.
       I had an uncle, Charlie, that got a radio, and we would go 
     listen to the Grand Ole Opry at Uncle Charlie's on Saturday 
     night. I was probably 6 or 8 years old. We would just sit 
     around and listen at the radio.
       We went to Flatwoods Christian Church. That was the only 
     place we had to go. We went there quite a lot. I liked to go 
     to church. Everybody in the community went, it was just a 
     gathering place. You didn't have no movies or anything like 
     that back then. Sometimes mom would take us all to a 
     neighbor's house and we'd have dinner. Sometimes they went 
     over with us. We had a real close neighborhood there, very 
     good people.
       Our mother basically made all of our dresses until we were 
     big enough to work and earn them ourselves. I remember one 
     dress in particular. Back then, I don't know if I was a state 
     thing or something, anyway, we got some free clothes. That 
     was my first ready-made dress and I never forgot that. It was 
     just a solid brown, cotton summer dress, but it was made 
     pretty and I loved it.
       I was probably about 12 when I stopped going to school. I 
     didn't get very much schooling. I wasn't interested in 
     continuing. I just wanted to work.
       I went to London and got me a little job in the laundry, 
     and I worked there for Mr. Terry until me and Virgil got 
     married. They had these presses and usually I pressed jeans 
     and passed them on to somebody else. Me and a couple of my 
     cousins, Eula Mao Smith and Deloris Smith, we got us a room 
     in a big house that sat back from Barton's Jewelry Store and 
     I worked, part-time now, not all the time.
       London was pretty low back then. I remember when they had 
     boards for the sidewalks. People tied their horses and their 
     wagons at the foot of Manchester Street, where it started 
     leveling out. Going out from London, it was on the left. Then 
     they finally got Black Brothers buses running from Manchester 
     to London, and then we still had to walk two or three miles 
     down to catch that bus. A lot of walking went on back in them 
     days. I went home every weekend on that bus.
       I guess I got grown before my time and I wanted to work. 
     I'm thinking I made about 20 cents an hour. I believe, best I 
     can remember. I made $18 to $25 a week, but that was good 
     money then. I always tried to buy me an outfit. You could buy 
     one for a little bit of nothing, and I'd get me a new dress 
     or a new something or other each week. I liked working. 
     Honey, I liked making money, that's mostly what you worked 
     for, ain't it? I worked off and on at the laundry for three 
     or four years. I also worked at a restaurant part-time too, 
     Crystal Kitchen. It was right by the bank, it was First 
     National then. I would serve cheeseburgers and hot dogs and 
     that's basically what we did. But when dad had gardening and 
     stuff going on, I worked at home. That's why I only worked 
     part-time. He'd let me work if we didn't have anything to do 
     on the farm.
       Honey, I met Virgil, who would become my husband, about 
     three times. Before I even knew who he was, he'd always try 
     to take me home. The first time I met him it was way on 
     Blackwater or Cane Creek. We had took a cousin home and 
     that's where I met him first. I was very young, probably 15.
       When I first went out with him was probably maybe six or 
     eights months after that. He was the nephew of my aunt that 
     lived across the creek there. That was a great courtship. 
     First place we went was to Renfro Valley. That was actually 
     my first date with him. Honey, we got there too late for the 
     first show so we just didn't wait for the second one, we come 
     back home. Didn't even get to go in. I was sort of 
     disappointed, but was having a good time. I knew right away 
     that I liked Virgil. He was just a nice person. He was 
     someone you was comfortable with.
       I was barely 17 when we married. He was 23. He had just got 
     out of the Army, he was in World War II. He asked me to marry 
     him when I was 16, but I said, ``Wait 'til I get 17.'' When I 
     was, he just plain asked, we just set the date right after he 
     asked me. I think maybe then I was staying with one of my 
     aunts where she was having baby. I did that a lot when I was 
     a kid. I worked all the time. I think that was my hobby.
       We married Jan. 23, 1943. Lived here ever since. He had a 
     couple of uncles that drove taxis and that's how we got to 
     London to get married. Back then, you didn't have a big 
     wedding. We got married by Morgan Williams, he was a preacher 
     back then, at the courthouse. My aunt and uncle went with us 
     to sign me. Honey, I wore a pretty, little, blue cotton 
     dress, don't remember what I paid for it but it wasn't much. 
     Then we took a taxi back.
       We lived together almost 62 years. We stayed with his 
     mother and dad for a week or two and we moved in this house. 
     Virgil built it. Over the years, we just done things we 
     wanted to the house. At the time, he went to work at a 
     sawmill and worked there for a few years and then he went to 
     Chaney's logging. Then he went straight into farming. That's 
     basically what we've always done.
       I was 18 when had my first child, my son Jim. Then three 
     years later, I had Denver. Later on, I had two girls, Glenda 
     and Evelyn was the baby. I had Evelyn six years after Glenda. 
     I spread 'em out. I had little children there for about 20 
     years.
       I remember having Jim. It was terrible. I had him at home, 
     you know. Doctor Walthen, he came to the house. I think he 
     was born about 2 in the morning. Doctor Walthen stayed I 
     think a couple of nights because I had false labor. He hunted 
     him a bed and went to sleep and stayed until Jim was born.
       Once he was born, I just loved him to death--like any 
     mother that's a good mother loves her children. Being a young 
     mother, that took a little training. Virgil's mother, Nanny 
     Overbey, she come every day and bathed the baby and did 
     whatever needed to be done. I was grateful for her help 
     because I didn't know the first thing.
       I raised my children how I was raised. My kids played 
     outside a lot. My days were getting up and cooking for them 
     and doing my washing. I always cooked 'em three meals a day 
     so that takes a good part of your day right there. Honey, I 
     canned a lot, and potatoes saved a lot of lives back then. Of 
     a morning, you'd fry eggs. Virgil always kept us plenty of 
     meat in the freezer, so I'd fix meat and gravy, everybody 
     always had gravy then, and biscuits. I cooked full meals 
     then. That was how I was raised too. That's one thing you 
     done, you ate good.
       Honey, we had enough to get by on. You didn't have any 
     bills back then. There was

[[Page 10096]]

     no bills to pay, so you just fed your family and bought what 
     you had to buy and did whatever you had to do. We sure wasn't 
     rich by no means, but we got by.
       We got electricity the evening after Jim was born, on the 
     19th of October in '43. Oh, that was great. Got a 
     refrigerator and a washer and the few things you had to have 
     then. That beat washing on the board.
       Jim was the leader. He always made sure they caught the bus 
     on time; he was very reliable. They went to Camp Ground. They 
     liked school pretty well. Well, Denver didn't, but Jim 
     graduated from high school. My oldest girl got married about 
     15 and Evelyn started high school, and quit.
       When Jim was about 9, he sold the first bushel of beans we 
     ever sold. Set up on the road, it was just a gravel road back 
     then. I think he got $1.50 or $2. Jim was like me, he liked 
     to make money, he liked to have something going all the time. 
     He was very inventive. From there, we just kept planting 
     other stuff. It was right up my alley because we like to do 
     the same thing. Selling, I was better at selling than 
     anything else, that's what I liked to do. Both of my grandads 
     had little country stores so I had that in me.
       When Jim and his wife come back from Indiana, he started a 
     greenhouse on the porch. Of an evening, we'd go and pick 
     beans after we'd close from selling. We'd sell up near the 
     road at first and several years ago, we backed off of the 
     road when the main road come through, it got too dangerous. 
     It got so hot that one year we put fans in the greenhouse 
     there and that cooled us. It was a lot more comfortable when 
     we moved off the road.
       Having a greenhouse wasn't common back then, not in this 
     community. It took a while. We even sold in the yard under a 
     tree for a while. And we'd roll our wagon with the shade as 
     the day wore on.
       Virgil died Nov. 24, '08. We lived together 62 years and 
     that was a great loss for me. He always farmed, that's what 
     he loved to do. And he loved working in the greenhouse and he 
     watered and did a lot of the greenhouse work. It was always a 
     family affair, we all worked.
       Jim still runs the greenhouse and I just help him a little 
     whenever I can, which is basically every day, except Sunday. 
     Honey, I still work anywhere from eight to 10 hours a day. I 
     go over there at 8 and we was closing at 6, but now we're 
     there 'til 7 or 7:30. But I don't do a lot of work back in 
     the greenhouse. I like visiting with people. It's just what I 
     like.
       Since Virgil's gone, we don't do a whole lot of gardening. 
     He was our plower, our planter, everything. He was a good 
     farmer, Virgil was. I've worked ever since just for my 
     children, help my youngin's, that's what I like to do. I like 
     to talk and visit with people and I meet so many nice people. 
     I do anything I can to help someone who comes along, that's 
     my nature. I think in life you have to just work and treat 
     people right, and be honest and the Lord will bless you.''

                          ____________________