The Greenwood County Historical Society recipient of Volunteer of the Quarter is Linda Sobieski of Emporia.
Sobieski is a lifelong friend of board member Gib Rhodes. Her involvement with the Historical Society began approximately 15 years ago when she came to the museum for the presentation of the silent film taken by Ed Ladd when he traveled to the county schools with County Superintendent Bessie Lindamood. Rhodes and John Bills were planning to provide a narration to the film, but people in the audience began to share their memories of times spent in the old schools and Rhodes and Bills “just let them talk.” From that evening, the idea for the School Research Project at the Greenwood County Historical Society evolved, beginning first with oral histories. The original plan for the project was to do a PowerPoint for each school, embedding the oral histories into each PowerPoint. Rhodes and Bills were fortunate to find a box of still photographs taken by Lindamood when she was on her travels through the county. These, along with photos from people in the county and still photos taken from the film, have been combined with footage to make three DVD presentations that have been shared with many organizations in the area. The presentations are: 1) every school in Greenwood County; 2) schools that are in the order that they appear in the film; and 3) town schools.
Sobieski, Rhodes and Bills are currently working on a School Family Tree project – compiling information about the country schools that consolidated into the town schools of Hamilton, Madison and Eureka.
The Greenwood County Historical Society is indebted to Sobieski for the hours that she has invested in this project.
Submitted by Museum Director, Robin Himes (Courtesy photo)
