The Daily Reflector, Sunday, June 20, 2004, p. F9

Louise Anderson’s marvelous stories still live in the minds of those who were fortunate enough to know her. Others may watch her tell family stories and recite poetry in the documentary film “When My Work is Over: The Life and Stories of Louise Anderson,” which was made in the last years before her death on Aug. 25, 1994.        This delightful woman, a native North Carolinian who was known for her brightly colored clothes, turbans and jewelry, had a magnificent voice that captivated audiences with her stories about “slick snakes, mad dogs and weird people” in an effort to cross barriers of sex, religion, age, and race.        Louise Anderson became a professional storyteller during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. When she noticed that her young neighbors in Jacksonville knew very little about black history, Anderson developed a drama, “It’s Time to Tell the Children,” which incorporated storytelling with the black history and poetry that she had learned to recite in high school in the 1930s.      One of her reasons for encouraging people to tell their stories was so that others would get to know them. She felt that younger

people would care about older people if they got know them through their stories.        Her talent for sharing stories won Anderson an appointment to the Visiting Artist program at the Headlands Center or the Arts near San Francisco. One of her projects at Headlands was to develop a questionnaire to help people develop their life stories.        Anderson felt that telling stories about one’s life was a way to record the local history of a place during a particular time. She recognized storytelling as a way to preserve a culture for future generations and always encouraged audiences to tell their stories.        In 1983, this nationally known African-American storyteller won the North Carolina Folk Heritage Award, following many years of telling stories at libraries, schools and festivals throughout the state. She often reminded her audiences that you have to talk to know each other and that telling stories was a good way to do that.     The North Carolina Periodical Index on the Web site of Joyner Library’s Verona Joyner Langford North Carolina Collection http://www.ecu.edu/cs-lib/ncc/scope2.cfm

lists several sources about Louise Anderson that are available in the North Carolina Collection: North Carolina Folklore Journal, North Carolina Literary Review, Newsletter of the North Carolina Folklore Society, and NC Arts.        Also available at Joyner Library is the video “Ashpet: an American Cinderella,” in which Anderson tell riddles and a tale-within-a-tale in the role of the fairy godmother or wise witch name Dark Sally. Additional information about African-Americans in North Carolina, North Carolina folklore or local history, and genealogy may be found through the library’s Web site (http://www.ecu.edu/cs-lib/).      Area residents, as well as members of the ECU community, are encouraged to use the North Carolina Collection on the third floor of Joyner Library. Call 328-6601 or visit our Web site  (http://www.ecu.edu/cs-lib/ncc/) for hours.      Elizabeth H. Smith is a librarian in the North Carolina Collection at Joyner Library.