JONESTOWN SURVIVOR – Submits Presentation Proposal to Oral History Association
JONESTOWN SURVIVOR I have submitted my proposal for a Presentation at the Oral History Association Conference in Tampa, Florida in October, 2015. Here is a look: Title: Peoples Temple through Oral History Abstract: I will reflect on my collection of Oral History recordings of Peoples Temple survivors. I am a survivor of Jonestown, a member of the Board of the Communal Studies Association and annual Presenter, a newly-retired California teacher, the author of JONESTOWN SURVIVOR: An Insider’s Look, and a collector of Oral History. I have been involved with The Jonestown Institute for the past fifteen years, and have written numerous articles and ...
» continue readingJONESTOWN SURVIVOR Setting up Spring 2015 and Fall 2015 Speaking Events
Dear Colleague: I am a survivor of Jonestown, a member of the Board of the Communal Studies Association and annual Presenter, a newly-retired California teacher, the author of JONESTOWN SURVIVOR: An Insider’s Look, and a collector of Oral History. I have been involved with The Jonestown Institute for the past fifteen years, and have written numerous articles and participated in many documentaries and interviews in every format. My website is www.jonestownsurvivor.com. My Oral History project is blossoming. I have completed ten recorded interviews, and plan ten more this year. Additionally, I plan to be the Project Director of a new Oral ...
» continue readingJONESTOWN SURVIVOR REFLECTS AND LOOKS AHEAD 2014-2015
JONESTOWN SURVIVOR - REFLECTIONS AND EXPECTATIONS – 2014 and 2015 This past year has been a spontaneous combustion. So much has happened, so much that I didn’t see coming. Thankfully, I have a solid base with a wonderful husband, and awesome son – who keep me humble. After teaching everything from Bilingual Kindergarten to Computer Skills in Spanish to people on Disability, to CPR in Spanish in factories for the Red Cross, to Adult ESL, and then back to teaching 6th grade Language Arts – I retired from full-time teaching. I have traveled around the country to conferences, libraries, universities, and ...
» continue readingJONESTOWN SURVIVOR Interviewed by Justin Rohrlich for his article in the on-line magazine Hazlitt
‘How Did This Happen, and How Did I Not See It Coming?’ BY JUSTIN ROHRLICH Over 900 members of Jim Jones’s Peoples Temple died on November 18, 1978. Here, in their own words, are some of the people who made it out alive. DECEMBER 10, 2014 Share on facebookShare on twitterShare on google_plusone_shareShare on linkedinShare on print “For god sakes let’s get on with it. We’ve lived, we’ve lived as no other people have lived and loved, we’ve had as much of this world as you’re going to get. Let’s just be done with it.” Convinced that the agricultural commune he’d established in a remote plot ...
» continue readingJONESTOWN SURVIVOR VISITS HEALDSBURG LIBRARY
An Insider’s Look at Jonestown on NOVEMBER 21, 2014 Thirty-four years after Jonestown, the repercussions of the mass suicide in Guyana still resonate. Over 900 members of the People’s Temple and four visiting Americans – including a member of the U.S. House of Representatives – died literally “drinking the kool-aid.” For Laura Kohl, a survivor of the Peoples Temple calamity, it was as personal as it could be. An idealist and activist for civil rights, Kohl met Jim Jones, the head of the People’s Temple, and joined the cult first in California, later following the messianic leader to South America. Her survival was a “fluke” she says today, of ...
» continue readingJONESTOWN SURVIVOR HAS BUSY SCHEDULE ON NOVEMBER 18, 2014
November 18, 2014 Here is the schedule for this November 18, the 36th anniversary. BOOK LAUNCH 10 a.m. (details of location are being worked out as we speak) Kathy Tropp Barbour has created a book of photos called Who Died, with photos of all of our friends and family from Jonestown. Kathy will be there with proofs of her Who Died book pages, and order forms to order a book. The books will be available by the end of November, for $39.82 (includes tax and shipping). Take a look at the attachments. EVERGREEN CEMETERY, 6450 Camden St., Oakland, California 94605 We will gather at Evergreen ...
» continue readingJONESTOWN ANNIVERSARIES
JONESTOWN ANNIVERSARIES The 36th anniversary of Jonestown just passed. As the anniversaries move in to the more distant past, the ceremonies at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland change too. We have two groups of former members, family members, and friends who gather each November 18. The morning group meets at 11 a.m. and is led by Reverend Jynona Norwood. She drives up from LA with a group of her parishioners, shares messages from some local or regional political leaders, and gathers with a handful of people more closely involved with the past. She lost many relatives in Jonestown. From Day 1, ...
» continue readingWanda King – One Set of Cremains found in Dover, Delaware over the Summer of 2014
WANDA KING Wanda's Cremains were found in a Dover, Delaware abandoned funeral home. Her cremains were buried at Evergreen Cemetery on October 20, 2014. I can remember Wanda King very well. She was a little older than me, about eight years. We shared a job in Peoples Temple, in San Francisco and Los Angeles for several years, between 1974 and 1976. We were “Greeters” at the doors. As services were beginning inside, or as people were gathering at least, we Greeters stood outside. In fact, we would “greet” all newcomers who came up the steps in Los Angeles, or who came ...
» continue readingJONESTOWN SURVIVOR TAKES A GLOBAL LOOK, FINALLY
JONESTOWN SURVIVOR TAKES A GLOBAL LOOK, FINALLY Thirty-six years ago this month, 918 people died in Guyana, members of Peoples Temple or visitors in the Jonestown community. Both good-timing, and plans gone awry, left me as one of the few survivors. From when I first returned, through at least the first two decades, my journey was about survival. It took all of my energy rebuilding a life, one that I was reluctant to rebuild, at first. I did live for years in another community, Synanon, where I was taken care of. I got married and my son was born while in ...
» continue readingDOVER CREMAINS Join Remains of Jonestown Remains at Evergreen Cemetery
DOVER CREMAINS In July 2014, in an abandoned funeral home in Dover, Delaware, nine cremains were found of Peoples Temple members who died in Jonestown. The relatives for seven of the victims were located. Families of four of them – Maud Ester Perkins, Katherine Martha Domineck, Mary Johnson Rodgers, and Irra Jean Johnson – worked directly with the state of Delaware transfer the cremains for their own disposition. The families of three people – Irene Mason, Tony Gerard Walker, and Wanda Bonita King – requested that the cremains be interred adjacent to the existing Jonestown memorial at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, California. Efforts ...
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