001_A_002_RLOW 1_2008_01_01.mp3
This is Kate Holland. I’m interviewing Nancy Sneed. We’re conducting this interview at the Billings Christian Church in Billings, Missouri. The date is November 15, 2009. This interview is for the, the Religious Lives of Ozarks Women Archives conducted through Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri.
K: O.k. So, what is your full name?
N: Nancy Jane Sneed.
K: What was your maiden name?
N: Nancy Jane Counts.
K: O.k. And where were you born?
N: I was actually born in San Antonio, Texas.
K: And, where do you live now?
N: I live between Billings and Marionville on a farm.
K: O.k. Where have you lived, like, and moved around, and what years, approximately? (laughs)
N: Well, when the war was over with, my parents returned to Marshall, Missoura. And I lived in Marshall, Missoura until I was a second-grader. Then we moved out to Kansas for about five years and I moved back to Marshall when I was a seventh-grader, and I grew up in Marshall. I came to SMS, MSU, to go to college. I met and married my husband, who was from the Ozarks. He told me he never lived north of 54 Highway. So, (laughs) I’ve been living in southern Missoura since then. We moved for our jobs, fist job we had was at Republic. And then we moved, my husband went back to school and I moved to Marionville, to work at Marionville while he was in school. And then I moved to Buffalo to teach at Buffalo. And then I moved back to where I live now to teach at Billings. And, although I’ve continued to live in that, well, I’ve lived temporarily off and on at Sarcoxie, when I taught at Sarcoxie. And then when I retired I moved back full time to where I’ve lived, to the farm where I live.
K: O.k., and, what’s your current age? (laughs)
N: (laughs) I have to think about that… (laughter)… let’s see, I believe I’m going to be sixty-seven (?). (laughs) I don’t think about age too much.
K: Yeah. What’s your birthday?
N: December seventeenth.
K: O.k. What year?
N: 1943.
K: Yeah.
N: Three or nine, I can, yeah, three, I’ll be sixty-seven7.
K: (laughs) O.k. And, what’s your education, like, institutions, locations, degrees, dates?
N: Well, I, I graduated from Marshall high school, I graduated with my BS in Education from SMS, I went back and started my Master’s through MU at SMS, but, but finally got an MA in History at SMS. So, I finished my MA in History at SMS and then I took classes toward the specialist after that but I never did finish those, so.
K: O.k. And, you were a teacher?
N: Yes.
K: O.k., what did you teach?
N: Well, let’s see, I had a double major, so I taught both speech and history when I first started teaching, but when I went back I knew I wanted, there were a lot of good speech teachers, but I didn’t think as many dedicated history teachers, so I got my Master’s in history and after that I taught primarily history, rather than mixing the two. I taught in other social sciences because I taught in small schools, and one thing you learn in small schools, you have to be a jack-of-all-trades. So I have taught Soc, I have taught psychology, let’s see, what else have I taught… current events, geography, I really enjoyed teaching geography…
K: Yeah.
N: …as well as American and World History. And then I always, I taught at SMS part-time for, I don’t know, ten years, something like that, little longer, off and on. So.
K: O.k. And, what’s your current religion?
N: I’m a Christian, I hope!
K: (laughs) O.k.
N: I try to be, I don’t know that I’m always the best at it…
K: (laughs)
N: ..but, I try to be.
K: (laughs) O.k. And what’s your spouse’s name?
N: Ward.
K: O.k. And, what is his, his occupation?
N: He was a educator, superintendent of schools, but he al-, he was always a farmer, too, on the side, and he farms pretty full-time now. He farms too much for someone his age.
K: (laughs) And do you have any children?
N: No.
K: O.k.
N: I guess I have hundreds, really.
K: (laughs) Yeah! O.k. And how long have you been a member of this church?
N: Let’s see, I started coming here in ninety-eight.
K: O.k. And how did you get involved here?
N: Well, I have belonged to different Christian Churches, depending on where I was living. So, I probably would have come to this church when I taught at Billings, except my husband always thought it made it more difficult to go to church in the community where you were teaching. And so, when I was teaching here, I actually went to the Christian Church at Republic. And then when I retired, and moved back home, I went between my mind, since I lived between Marionville and Billings, which one I would attend. And I decided I knew an awful lot of people here that I had been to school with and taught in school, and so on, so I thought, well, I believe I’ll go up there and see if I like it first, and I just never did check out any other church after I came here.
K: Yeah. O.k. So, you’ve been involved with other churches…
N: Mm-hmm.
K: ….but you’ve been involved with other religious organizations or any, anything?
N: Well, I don’t know exactly what you mean by that.
K: Well, you’ve been in other Disciples Churches…
N: Uh-huh.
K: …have you been to any other denominations?
N: Yeah, when we lived out in Kansas, we lived in, in a, right outside a little-bitty town, and when I was, well, I got to be a second-grader, we lived across the street from the Christian Church, so I always went to the Christian Church, my fa-, when I was little.
K: Yeah.
N: And, but when we moved to this little town in Kansas, we, there was no Christian Church for probably twenty-some miles, so we went to a Methodist church there. And it was a nice church. It was a little community church and they did all the little community things like the suppers and the Bible schools, and the Christmas programs and everything…
K: Yeah.
N: …it was a nice little church. But when we moved back to Marshall, I started going back to the Christian Church, so.
K: Yeah. What was the role of religion in your home when you were growing up?
N: Well, I don’t know, we always, you know, my mother read to us a lot, and one of the most precious things I have, when I was younger, is the children’s Bible, and it’s almost worn out. And I learned to read at a really early age and I, you know, she read Bible stories to us, or we read for ourselves. And most of the lessons that she tried to teach us about to be right or wrong, she based on, I think moral principles, from the Bible. And, I, I had one great-grandfather that was a minister. I, you know, I would say my father’s family was much more church-oriented. I had an aunt that was kind of one of these people that was a pillar in a huge church, so. But, I don’t know, my parents didn’t go to church as often, but as time went by they got to where they went more and it meant more to them, and everything, but they always saw that we went, as children. And I think that’s real important. And my mother always brought faith into the daily lessons that she tried to teach us, and so on. So, I think it always played a role in my upbringing, very definitely.
K: Yeah. What’s your strongest childhood memory related to God or religion?
N: Oh, gee, I don’t (?) an awful lot, or things tied to that.
K: (laughs)
N: I don’t know, just a lot of the activities at church, you know, I don’t know, being in choir, I was real blessed in that, at Marshall, we had two outstanding ministers. The first one, when I was real young, was really not a good speaker, but he truly was, lived his life, the most example of a Christian person I have ever known, and everybody just loved him. Harley Baker Smith. Then my second minister was so dynamic. He went on to be the state treasurer of (?). His name was Jay Spadehauer. And he was just, I don’t know, he just could really reach people of all ages. And I, the youngsters of the church, there were a lot of kids that joined that church during his time because his message just seemed to be timely and fit in and everything, and I remember going to church camp, and I remember going to Cairo (?), and then CYF of Sunday evenings and belonging to the church choir, and, I just, I just remember all the church activities then. One of the, I remember, you know, a lot of times when you’re getting ready to get married, you know, people have these meltdowns and breakdowns at [?] time, I really, really, really cried. My church burned down about two or three months before I was to get married. It was a gorgeous church, too, and I was going to have to get married somewhere else. Now, Reverend Spadehauer was going to marry me and everything, but I just hated not being married in that church because it’d been so much a part of my life for so long. And they built it back on the same location and everything and when I was taking care of my mother and seeing about her over these last three or four years, I’ll always kind of want to go to church on Sunday, it just, it made me feel grounded again…
K: Yeah.
N: …so.
K: Yeah. Do you recall any times as a child that things were different for you in your religious world because you were a girl and not a boy?
N: Not really.
K: (laughs) Yeah. What differences have you experienced in your religious life because you’re a woman?
N: Well, to me, one of the reasons I like the Christian Church is I’ve always, even when I was young, I just, I don’t know, I felt like it was more progressive, or something. I just, and certainly as I got older and got to be observant and everything, my, in my town, there was a lot, in central Missoura there was quite a bit of discrimination against blacks. And I go back to Harvey Baker Smith, that first minister? And I remember he just almost faced a firestorm in the town because he allowed a Negro man’s funeral to be held there. But I remember how many people in my church turned out for that funeral, to show there was support of that and everything. It just seemed like my church wasn’t discriminatory, really. I think there was some well-to-do, very well-to-do people, that went there, but it just seemed like we just went on and, just, you know (laughs) that kind of stuff.
K: (laughs)
N: I don’t know how to explain it, but I mean, like, you just felt like you belonged there, you know, it didn’t matter if you had a lot or you didn’t have much, and so on. And so, I didn’t really notice any male – female thing. I know there are sects that, I mean I’ve had, talked to other women that belonged to other denominations and I remember that I was kind of sheltered because I’ve always belonged to the Christian Church and I was so shocked to find out some of the things like, I remember once when I was speaking here, when Micki was coming on, this young woman that was helping to take care of my sister-in-law had gone up to set with her and make sure Mona (?) was still there, and I was working on what I was going to say, and this woman just, young woman just tore into me about how I was going against the Bible and everything, getting up and talking in church, and, I mean, you know, and I was just, even as old as I am now, I was just floored there was still churches that didn’t feel like, that, you know, that Jesus fully embraced women, and, and wanted equality for them and everything. I just hardly knew what to say back to her, really, you know, because I mean I didn’t want to argue with her faith, but I just couldn’t believe there was, you know, still sects that thought like that and, and you know, and then I just instead started quizzing her and just found out a lot of things that I just, I really kind of thought had gone by the wayside, and so on, so I would say I’ve been sheltered from that by always going to Christian Churches because they’ve always been pretty progressive and pretty open.
K: Yeah.
N: I won’t say within individual churches there isn’t pecking orders and that kind of thing because I’m afraid there is. Because I have been in two churches that later broke apart and, fortunately I was gone from there by the time that happened. And I always thought that was so sad, you know, that, and there are certain denominations that seem to have quite a history of breaking apart, you know, because of people’s differences and I, I sort of see Christianity as a coming together of ideas, not a splitting apart…
K: Yeah.
N: … so.
K: What challenges or struggles have you faced in your religious life?
N: I, we were just, we just talked about that in Sunday School today, we were talking about the message of Peter’s about, you know, being persecuted for Christians and I, I cannot say how lucky we are to, to be where we are, I mean if you look, if you read the books of early saints and things, I mean the tortures and things they endured is beyond belief. And people today who, who are still willing to sacrifice their lives and everything they own to profess their faith. I think it’s easier to be a Christian in this country than any other place. I mean I really do. I know there are some times when you may think it’s difficult to act in a Christian way, but very few places, I mean, in the world, are, they’re open to allowing people to practice their faith as in this country. And I just don’t think we appreciate that. Maybe it’s too easy and because we don’t have to struggle, we don’t appreciate being able to be a Christian as much as if we lived in some other parts of the world.
K: Yeah.
N: So.
K: What person has most influenced your religious life and how?
N: I think there’s been an awful lot of people.
K: (laughs)
N: There really is.
K: Yeah.
N: That first minister, my one aunt, I just, I mean she just, I remember she was a teacher, too, but, she started, she (lived?) (taught?) the slums of Kansas City and she started a youth center there, on her own, rented the house and paid for everything. Mainly because she felt that there were a lot of them that weren’t getting enough Christian instruction and she got fire from all sides, I mean, you know, there were those at school that didn’t think, you know, wasn’t part of school, they felt like that was wrong to be using religion, and then there was those parents who weren’t religious, and I don’t know, didn’t want their children to come there and everything, and I mean, she got, that house got broke into and robbed and, I mean she, I mean she just, she suffered to do what she thought was right. And she was, and continues to be still an example for me. She’s still living. She’s about eighty-eight. And she and her husband literally shouldered the church in the little town where they lived and, and I, I just, you know, I really, really do admire her a lot. And like I said, I’ve had a lot of, of people that I think really influenced me.
K: Yeah.
N: And they did it because, there was a time when I listened more but now I, I, you know, I came to, to be influenced more by example, I think, than by what people said.
K: Yeah.
N: So.
K: How do you think religious life today is different for kids than it was for you?
N: Well, I have said for the last twenty years, when I first started teaching I was nineteen, so I was a kid myself, and I kind of knew what all those kids were thinking and facing and everything. But as time went on, one of the things that I noticed that changed was the pillars that held up society begin to crumble one by one. In sociology you learn, you k now, you have your community, you have your church, you have your family and, you know, you have these basic institutions. And when I was growing up, basically, they were intact. But as time has gone on, those have crumbled away. And, one of the things I really, really noticed was that there was so many kids, towards the end, that they just had no belief structure at all. And it was no longer that they were angry, and upset, and confused about what was the right thing to do because they didn’t go to church, they didn’t have a family structure to really support them like they needed, they didn’t have any institution, the school was really more and more losing its power to be able to try to teach morals, any kind of moral thing. In fact, it got to be where I had to really watch in history, a lot of the times that I didn’t, in teaching world history and ancient world, that I didn’t in some way interject, you know, my beliefs to the point of getting in trouble over it, and so on. And one of the big things I really begin to notice was when I first taught, I could say, like, something Moses, or the troubles of Job or whatever, and ninety percent of the kids would know what I was talking about, or more. Towards the end they didn’t, which simply told me they got no religious instruction or help or support, and you know, I just, I, I just feel like, to be a good kid today, it is so much harder than it was to be a good kid when I was younger. We always have temptations, but kids today have so many adults showing them the wrong way, and so few showing them the right way that if you can come up being a decent kid, you ought to really get a pat on the back. And it’s adults that I blame for kids’ problems today, because they’re the ones that put all the violence and sex and drugs and everything before them. Kids didn’t do that themselves, adults did that.