Jacqueline Whitehouse (1945-2018) KYSOC Collection, 1961-1967

Held by The Filson Historical Society

Creator: Whitehouse, Jacqueline, 1945-2018

Title: KYSOC Collection, 1961-1967

Rights: For information regarding literary and copyright interest for these papers, contact the Collections Department.

Size of Collection:  0.19 cubic feet

Location Number: Mss. A W593

Biographical and Historical Note

Jacqueline “Jackie” Whitehouse (1945-2018) of Louisville, Kentucky, contracted polio in 1952 when she was seven. She attended Louisville’s Ahrens Trade School and was an active participant in the Kentucky Society of Crippled Children (KYSOC) Teenage Club in Louisville, Kentucky. According to the handbooks, Smallwood served as the Club’s Vice President and later, President. In 1964 she both “aged out” of KYSOC and married Jack Smallwood. The December 13, 1974, Louisville Courier Journal (CJ) contained an article regarding her inability to file a criminal complaint against a boarder at her house because the Police Court was not accessible by wheelchair; it also described her husband, Jack Smallwood, as paraplegic. He died in 1989. In 1993, a December 1 article in the CJ referring to her by as Jackie Whitehouse, explained that the “late effects” of polio, e.g., muscle weakening, had made it increasingly difficult for her to manage everyday tasks. It told of how fellow members of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints came to her aid when its volunteers built an accessible home. She died in 2018 at the age of 73.

The Kentucky Society for Crippled Children (KYSOC) was established in 1923. In 1934 the National Society for Crippled Children began conducting an annual “Easter Seals” campaign which achieved so much name recognition that by 1980 the organization became known as Easterseals. The organization changed its name to The Easter Seal Society in 1980. The Easterseals’ goal was to acknowledge that those it served asked “simply for the right to live a normal life.” The KYSOC’s Teenage Club, established in 1956, exemplified the national organization’s goal. It was a club for students aged 14 to 19; its handbook contained no limitations on what type of disability qualified a student for membership. The club had nine original members, but during the years covered by the collection, membership grew to 28. The club’s activities included hayrides, “beatnik” nights, talent nights, canteen nights, boat trips on the Ohio River, and annual Christmas parties and birthday banquets. In 1961, KYSOC opened Camp Kysoc in Carrollton, Kentucky and club members were able to participate in recreational camping.

Mary Ann Millet (1934-2010), the main KYSOC staff contact for the Teen Club during the era covered by this collection, eventually became a member of the faculty at the University of Louisville’s Kent School of Social Work; her papers are contained in the University of Louisville’s Archives and Special Collections (see: https://archivescatalog.library.louisville.edu/resources/millet).

Sources:

Louisville Courier Journal

KYSOC Handbooks, Jacqueline Whitehouse KYSOC Collection

 

Scope and Content Note

This collection consists of documents scrapbooked by Jacqueline “Jackie” Whitehouse, an active member of the Kentucky Society of Crippled Children (KYSOC) Teenage Club. Contents include the club’s handbooks (which incorporate lists of members and officers); correspondence; programs and speeches from the club’s annual birthday meeting; press clippings; and miscellaneous items that sporadically cover the period from October 1961 through January 1967. Clippings include photos in which members Kenny Ward, Don Taylor, and Jackie Whitehouse are identified in the captions. The documents reflect an insider’s view of a teen organization devoted to children with disabilities in the early 1960s. The KYSOC staff contact with the Teen Club for most of this period was Mary Ann Millet who was consistently referred to by the group as “Mother Hen.”

Related Collections:

022PC19 Jackie Whitehouse KYSOC Teen Club Photographs

2022.24.1-3 Jackie Whitehouse KYSOC Teen Club Museum Items

015PC3AV Easter Seal Camp Kysoc Audiovisual collection

 

Folder List

Folder 1: KYSOC Teenage Club Handbooks, 1961-1965

Folder 2: Correspondence, 1961-1966

Folder 3: Annual birthday banquet programs and speeches, 1962-1965

Folder 4: Newspaper clippings, 1962-1964

Folder 5: Miscellaneous             

 

Subject Headings

African Americans with disabilities – Kentucky

Braille

Camps for children with disabilities – Kentucky

Children with disabilities – Kentucky

High school clubs – Kentucky

Kentucky Society for Crippled Children and Adults

Kentucky Society for Crippled Children and Adults. Teen Club

Outdoor recreation for children with disabilities – Kentucky

People with disabilities – Kentucky

Scrapbooks

Teenagers with disabilities – Recreation – Kentucky

Women with disabilities – Kentucky

Youth with disabilities – Recreation – Kentucky