Katherine Council - On home, family, and changes in Chapel Hill

In this interview, Katherine “Mama Kat” Council talks about home and family. She discusses her parents, including her father’s death and her mother’s garden, and she describes where she grew up in rural Chapel Hill. Growing up was very different when Mama Kat was a child; she went to work and started a family early. She talks about the houses she owned, the first one without running water that burned down in a fire started by a lightning strike, and the second house which her uncle helped her find (with no stairs). With the houses came family, one brief marriage followed by one that was much longer, and five kids who all went in very different directions in their lives. Some of them were involved in the Civil Rights Movement and early school integration in Chapel Hill. Mama Kat talks about how Chapel Hill has changed over the years, and in the end she is most proud of taking care of her son Odell who struggled with seizures in the latter portion of his life.