Josephine Virginia Slaughter was born on the 16th of April, 1912 in Elkins, West Virginia, the same town but two years earlier than her cousin, Donna Lenora.

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"Mother used to take walks down the street...and had me all dressed up in the buggy. And we'd say, 'Aww, look at the doggy, he's so pretty! And she'd say, 'It isn't a he; it's a she.'"

"She [Rose] used to comb my hair back...she said I was so good all the time. I wouldn't cry, I'd go to sleep...she'd forget to feed me..."

"They used to say, "Let's go up and...go to the salt house [to fool around]...they'd tease us and say, 'Let's go up to the salt house'..."

"My mother used to get mad at me; she'd say, 'Oh, you're just like old John Slaughter'...she'd get so mad at me. I said, 'I can't help it..."

"[Dad] was very well educated...I don't know why none of it rubbed off on me, but it didn't..."

"I'm telling you, I'm sorry I never finished school. Eight months, and I quit and went to work. It was Depression days, and I felt like I had to help...had to help my mother...Mother was divorced then..." (mid-1980's interviews with Jo Meadows)

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Jo quit high school while living in Charleston, and went to work in a five and dime, where she met John Meadows. "He kept coming in to buy hankies..."

"I met John at the Newberry five and ten cent store (where) I was working. He wanted my phone number, but I wouldn't give it to him. Some girl (I knew) did, and he called me. I had eight dates with him, and we were married (on) October 18th, 1931."

"We didn't have but three at our wedding. It was in my mother's apartment."

"Mother, and Buck, and Geri was at our wedding. It was October 18th, 1931, on a Sunday."

"We lived with his people for six months. John was a surveyor for the government for three years and was laid off. John got laid off three weeks after we were married. He was called to the carbide plant later. $16.00 a week. We moved into two rooms in a lady's house for $5.00 a week. We sure had a hard time in the Depression days. I guess we all did. John worked for the government, and we moved a lot. I had Darrell and Betty then, [in] Dover, and other small towns in Ohio. We moved a lot then. He was a boss over a crew of men. We lived in furnished rooms, $5.00 a week...we lived in ten houses off and on [over the years]. We moved back to Dover three times. We sure loved Dover, Ohio, John and I. We had a house full about every day. We all went to the Christian Missionary Alliance Church."

"They [Rose, Paul and Geri] wanted to take me to Washington, D.C. one time. They come over, said 'Every time we come over you're pregnant. We can't take you any place, we'd expect you to fall down.' They was going to take me to Washington, D.C. and I couldn't go. I was about five months along. They all went to Washington, D.C., and I couldn't go..."

"Your mother, Donna used to come to my house in Dover with Ronald and you. We sure had a good time. We would take you two kids and my Darrell and Betty to the show...

Aunt Gay used to bring you and Ron to see us about every other month. She would come by bus on a Friday evening [and stay] until Sunday night."

"John was laid off at Reeve's Mills [in Dover]. They laid off [frequently] in those days. That was when we lost our home. We moved to Columbus when Carla was two and a half years old. Mother got [John] in at Westinghouse, and he worked there for 12 years. He worked at Republic Steel in Canton, and in Massillon for eight years before."

"I was married 15 months and had Darrell. But three months after we were married John got laid off." (Interview with Jo Meadows, 1988)

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