Carolyn Curry oral history interview, November 17, 2009

Interviewed by Morna Gerrard. In this interview, Carolyn Curry begins by discussing her family background, particularly her mother and grandmother, who were independent, opinionated women. She describes her own education--she attended Agnes Scott College for two years, then left when her husband, Bill, was drafted to play for the Green Bay Packers and she moved with him to Wisconsin. She resumed her studies at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin and eventually returned to finish her undergraduate degree at Agnes Scott. Over the next several years, Curry gave birth to two children and Bill was traded to the Baltimore Colts; the Curry family divided their time between Baltimore and Atlanta. Curry earned a master's degree and a Ph.D. in history at Georgia State University. Curry discusses her dissertation, a biography of Civil War diarist and feminist Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas. She also talks about the role of feminism in her life and the lives of the women she has known, including discussions of the Equal Rights Amendment, gender dynamics in marriages, and trends she has witnessed in academia. Curry talks at length about her husband's career in football playing, coaching, and broadcasting, including the effect that moving frequently had on her and her children. She talks about her work teaching history in various locales, and about how seeing a close friend's husband die suddenly inspired her to found the nonprofit organization Women Alone Together, which supports women who are alone because of the death of a spouse, divorce, single by choice, or alone in a marriage because of separation or estrangement.