Search Interviews

Recording November 18, 2018 -- Amy Alkema describes her early experiences of going to the library in California and finding a 'happy place to read. As a mother she has continued the tradition of taking her children to libraries including...

Recording September 18, 2018 – With two enthusiastic fans of the Makerspace movement, the St. George Library is fortunate to have just the right circumstances for the Washington County Library System to add its second and larger Makerspace to the...

Recording November 18, 2017 – These two women were instrumental in the process of Washington County opening a library in Hildale. Tamara Barlow had this dream and shared it with her friend Rachel Timpson, both residents of the twin communities...

Recording November 18, 2017 – This date of Amanda Reeve’s interview was an open house with activities, catered food and even a cake to celebrate the first year of operation of the Hildale Library, which is part of the Washington...

Recording November 18, 2017--As a resident of Colorado City, Arizona, Ruth Barlow was one of the first patrons to apply for a library card at the Hildale Library Branch’s on its opening day. Libraries were important to her while growing...

Recording Sept. 18, 2018 – Karen Losee patronized both the original St. George Carnegie Library as well as the St. George Library which replaced the previous, at 50 South Main Street in Utah. She said it was knick-named the Pizza...

Recording September 24, 2017 – Cynthia Hawk discovered an anime club at the Hurricane Branch Library in Hurricane, Utah during her elementary years. It was created by WCLS employees Natalie Daniel and Sarah Hall, called Anime Fannatiku and Manga Club....

Recording February 27, 2018 – When the Haslam Family moved to St. George, Utah in the summer for her father’s work, Maureen Haslam Booth was homesick for her friends and grandparents. St. George didn’t even have television, she said. It...

Growing up on the family farm in the 30s and 40s in Peck, Kansas. On the southwest corner of Highway 81 and Clearwater Rd. The John Booth family farm. Several generations lived on the property. Interview was done on John‘s...

Recording November 14, 2017 -- Elizabeth Meyers works in the Technical Services at the St. George Library and was instrumental in helping to order books and DVDs for the new Hildale Branch Library, the newest branch in the Washington County...

In this interview, on November 28th, 2019 in Oregon Wisconsin, Donna Hillmann talks about her childhood on a farm in Milton Wisconsin, her family (siblings, parents, origin) , growing up and raising a family ( husband Friedo Hillmann, children Jeff,...

Recorded May 8, 2018 -- With a lifetime love of books and learning, Bonnie Blackburn Henrie described her introduction to a library when she attended first grade in the basement of the St. George Library, Bonnie stands in front of...

Recording February 5, 2018 – As a newly elected Washington County Commissioner in 2015, Zachary Renstrom wanted to serve the citizens of Hildale, Utah better. He kicked around a few ideas but the best one was a library. This thought...

Recording November 14, 2017 – As a young child at about the age of three, going to the library is one of Michelle ‘Micki’ Clements’ earliest memories. While visiting her grandmother in St. George, Utah, Micki went with her Grandmother...

Recording March 27, 2018 – The earliest memory of a library for Winona Crosby Stanley was dropping by the Judd’s Store to spend a nickel on a candy bar and crossing the street to the St. George Library for story...

Recorded August 14, 2018 -- Libraries and reading set the stage for the continued education of a brother and sister. Janice McArthur Hepworth and E. Durant McArthur grew up in the St. George, Utah area and the local library had...

Recording February 6, 2018 – What began as a supposed patron complaint, ended up being the beginning of a very large project and dream come true. Joel Tucker and Alan Anderson reminisced about the journey of an idea—to the fruition...

Recording February 27, 2018 – The Leavitt sisters grew up in St. George, Utah and have many memories of the library. Ann Leavitt Jacob’s first vivid memories of the library are of attending 2nd grade there, though she admitted “the...

a few thing my grandmother faced while growing up. also how the world has changed

Recording March 27, 2018 – To Billie Bleak [pronounced Blake] Frei, the St. George Library basement was a wonderful way to spend a hot summer afternoon in the cool of the children’s section. She grew up in St. George, Utah,...

Recording April 24, 2018 – In a day before television, reading was important to best friends Leslie Empey Johnson and Cynthia Cox Shepherd. They reminisced about dropping by the Thomas Judd’s Store for candy and heading across the street to...

Recording February 13, 2018 – Carol Miles Vincent grew up in St. George, Utah in the 1950s and began using the St. George Library while attending the Vernon Worthen Elementary. The children’s section was in the basement. As an older...

Recorded April 30, 2018 – Ann talks about her Aunt Helen Starr Harris, a children’s librarian at the St. George, Utah Carnegie Library circa 1940. Helen worked for approximately seven years until she married Dr. Parley Harris and became a...

Recording April 24, 2018 – As a child, Laura Kay Paxman Frei and her sister, Vickie Ann Paxman Hatch, walked two miles with an armload of books to the St. George Library. After returning books, the girls loaded back up...

Recording August 14, 2018 –After graduating from Southern Utah State College (now S.U.U.), Cedar City resident David Huskinson became the St. George Library audio/visual and periodicals librarian. In 1990 when he was hired, the new library building was nine years...