Shyla Atkisson: This is Shyla Atkisson. I am interviewing Rosemary Temple. WE are
conducting this interview at Parkview Christian Church, Springfield, Missouri. The date is
4/25/2010. This interview is for the Religious Lives of Ozark Women, Intergenerational
Storytelling from the Older to the Younger, conducted through Missouri State University, in
Springfield, Missouri. Ok, question one: how long have you been a member of this church?
Rosemary Temple: 45 years.
S: How’d you get involved here?
R: My husband brought me to this church.
S: Did he work here?
R: No, this was just the kind of church he’d always went to.
S: Oh. Have you been involved with other churches or religious organizations?
R: Yes. I was raised a Baptist.
S: Oh really?
R: And my hometown until I got married.
S: Where?
R: Morgan, Missouri.
S: Oh.
R: And I was [inaudible].
S: What’s a Baptist church like?
R: It’s just about like this one. We just take communion once a quarter instead of every Sunday.
S: Have you been-oh, I just read that. What role of religion in your home when, what was the
role of religion in your home when you were growing up?
R: It was very important. My mom and dad were strong-strong Christians. My dad was a deacon
in the Baptist Church. And their lives were centered around Christianity. So, it was very
important for that part of my life.
S: So you’ve grown up as a Christian.
R: Yes, I became a Christian at eight. I was eight years of age.
S: Wow. What’s your strongest childhood memory related to God or religion?
R: Childhood memory, I think, I remember seeing my mother on her knees every night down in
front of the chair praying. And that made a big impression on me, that was God was that
important to her. And so I wanted that to be my life too, I wanted Him to be very important in
my life.
S: Hmm, what was your family like? Like, you went to church every Sunday.
R: Went to church every Sunday, Sunday night and Wednesday night. And I had one sisters, who
was 6 ½ years older. And my mom and dad, she and I went to church all the time, and my mom
cleaned the church and I would help her a lot.
S: Did your dad work in the church?
R: Yes, he was the deacon and he was, and my mom taught Sunday school. And my dad-they
were involved in all aspects of the church.
S: What do you, do you remember recall any times as a child that things were different for you
and your religious world because you were a girl and not a boy?
R: A girl, not a boy. I don’t think really so, the kids that I was with were just a small town and
they all went to either that church or a Lutheran church there in town. And they were all
Christians and as growing up it was just same boys and girls were just the same in the church. It
was always men preachers, so I knew that was probably wasn’t something that I would aspire to
be because I didn’t ever see women preachers at that time.
S: Yeah. What about like mission trips?
R: I didn’t get to go on any mission trips when I was young. You mean? Or later?
S: Yeah, or any time.
R: Yes, when I was younger we didn’t have that opportunity because we grew up in the country
and they didn’t take them. But since I been married, I’ve been to Haiti and Honduras—both on
mission trips. And I worked, worked with my daughter there, and then when she would organize
them, and then we went to China and helped with some orphanages. But our sonS: Wasn’t that a couple years ago?
R: Uh huh. That was when you’re grandma went along.
S: Yeah, what differences have you experienced in your religious life because you’re a woman?
R: You know really, I think women can serve and just the same as men, I think that maybe
there’s some jobs that men do that women don’t, but most of us here all serve together men and
women. We have men elders and a man pastor, but you can all serve in different capacities. So I
really don’t see too much difference. I know a long time ago, maybe they did, but I think that
we’ve kind got away from that because scripture says that were all created equal.
S: Yeah.
R: In God’s eyes, so I think we can all serve in different situations.
S: What challenges or struggles have you faced in your religious life?
R: Challenges or struggles? Sometimes I think especially when you’re really, when you’re
raising your children, that you’re just so busy that you don’t take as much time to spend with
God as you do. A little later, so you have to work on that in time for that. It’s probably sad that I
don’t, I’m not with a lot of Christian people, a lot of the time. That’s kind of bad because you
should interact with them to where we could witness to them, but I don’t, I don’t feel like that I
have very many challenges because of my Christian life. It may not be good thing but there’s just
always a lot to be done, like bases to serve and choose the ones you would fit best in and not
making yourself too, thin-too spread out until you can’t do any one thing good, you have to
choose what you think would be best for you, your best place to serve.
S: What do you do in the church, like what do you help out with?
R: Ok, I help out with the Benevolence-giving that out on Monday mornings. I work in the
nursery. I organize the funeral dinners and I see that food is brought in here for the family or
whatever died, I get that organized. All the different classes to bring different things, and I
always fix food for the funerals. I fix a lot of food for the sick. Rex and I have been greeters.
When we had the chicken dinners I always fried chicken. Worked in that. I’ve always, when I
was young, younger I taught Sunday school and I always worked in Vacation Bible School and
go calling on Thursday mornings on the shut ins. There’s 5 of us that do that. I’m sure there’s
some other things because I’m always busy, but I can’t think right now, but, I’m involved in
some of the fun things too that goes as groups sometimes. Bike rides and bowling and stuff, but
the service projects I think I’ve mostly mentioned.
S: What do you do with the shut-ins?
R: Yeah, we do that on Thursday mornings, and we’ll go to rest homes or their homes or the
hospital if someone’s in the hospital.
S: How many people are shut-ins right now, do you know?
R: I think there’s about ten, we have to teams and we split up and different places on Thursdays.
We used to go from 9-12.
S: Cool. What person has influenced your religious life and how?
R: My mother. My mom and my dad. They just were always, they just taught me the Christian
way and about God. And as I said, I became Christian, then was baptized at the age of eight in a
river. And I, they were just really good people and I saw them doing things for others and living
Christian life so they-and your mom probably has more influence on a girl, so they were very
influential in teaching me the right way.
S: How do you think religious life is different for kids today than it was for you?
R: I think kids today have a lot more opportunities to stray away from the church because I was
kind of sheltered with-it was a small town and I didn’t have a car until I got married so we went
to church that was most of our activities. Today the young people can see so much on television
and the computers and the world is all open to them now, where I didn’t see any of that, none of
that. We didn’t have a television at that time. So I didn’t know all that stuff that was going on,
young people today are faced with a lot more temptations than I had because we just weren’t
around any of that.
S: What kind of temptations?
R: With the young people?
S: Mmhmm.
R: Drugs. I didn’t even know what they were. Alcohol, never had any chance with that-to get
involved with that. The movies, a lot of them have things in them that , if I’d have heard when I
was young, I’d have been shocked, I think every once a while see on television that’s on there
now, they would really be appalled at it. But there’s just so much more chances for them to get
involved in things because of the world the way it is.
S: Okay. How would you like this church to remember you?
R: First of all, as a willing servant. As a good mother. A good wife. And someone that cared for
people that would do things for others without expecting something in return.
S: Ok. What’s your full name, including your maiden name, and or a nickname if you have any.
R: Rosemary Jackson Temple. And I don’t have a middle name.
S: So, Jackson, -S-O-N?
R: Mmhmm. And my nickname, I never was called one until here and couple people sometimes
call me Rosie.
S: With a “y”?
R: “ie” I think, R-O-S-I-E.
S: I don’t hear that much.
R: No, Carl used to call me that.
S: Oh. Where were you born?
R: In Morgan, Missouri.
S: Current place of residence? That’d be Springfield, right?
R: Springfield.
S: When did you move up here?
R: 1961
S: And you’ve lived here since. So you haven’t moved anywhere else?
R: I moved in different houses, no but I’ve lived here.
S: So how long did you live in Morgan, Missouri?
R: Until I was seventeen. I got married at age seventeen.
S: And then you moved here?
R: I lived in Conway, and then when I got married for, let’s see, three years. Three years in
Conway.
S: Ok, I know someone who lives in Conway.
R: You do?
S: Mmhmm. We used-you met her when you wereR: Oh yes.
S: Remember that? And then you lived there, moved here?
R: In ’61 I lived here. That’s, that’d be 49 years in September, that I’ve lived here in Springfield.
S: Wow, so the only time you left Springfie--Missouri is when you went on mission trips, huh?
R: Yes and we traveled-Rex and I traveled on trips.
S: Oh yeah. What’s your current age?
R: 69.
S: And your date of birth?
R: October 10--10-23-40. The 23rd. 1940.
S: Where’d you get your education?
R: All of it like grade school?
S: I think it’s just like, locations , degrees, dates.
R: Ok. I graduated from Conway High School.
S: I heard that’s a good school.
R: Mmhmm it is. And then I, after Rick and Renee were raised I took classes at Missouri State,
but I didn’t get a degree, I just took some classes that I was interested in.
S: Like what classes?
R: Biology, Chemistry, Anatomy, Physiology. Hard classes. I thought that I wanted to go ahead
and be a nurse, but I was upper forties, almost fifty and Rick started talking about retiring then so
I didn’t go ahead, but I did take all of the prerequisites for nursing school.
S: Those are the classes you have to take to be a nurse? Wow.
R: They were very hard and they and I men, I did real well and I got a scholarship to go on to St.
Johns school of nursing, but I decided not to, but it was great I learning, learning those things.
S: Oh yeah, well at least you’ll know them if something happens.
R: Mmhmm, so I did that, I was called the, what did they call students that aren’t the same age.
They’re the, I don’t know what the name is but older student that goes back and take classes with
all the younger ones.
S: My grandma does that.
R: I-it was good for me and I really enjoyed doing it.
S: Which was the hardest class in your opinion?
R: Probably Anatomy.
S: What’s anatomy about?
R: Well, the bones and you have to lay out bones on the table and you have to identify them. And
physiology and biology were very hard. And chemistry was very hard for me. It was just all hard
classes. Probably some of the hardest there, but I made them good grades
S: What kind of nurse did you want to be?
R: An RN, just a regular nurse, I didn’t have any specialties, but I wanted to go ahead and be an
RN?
S: So you’d take any kind of place that they’d give you?
R: Yeah, and nursed they’re Registered Nurses are very much in demand right now and so it
wouldn’t be any trouble getting a job.
S: That’s what I want to be.
R: An RN?
S: Mmhmm.
R: It’s really good field to go in.
S: Yeah. Do have any occupations?
R: Just homemaker, most of my life I’ve been a homemaker.
S: What do you do as a homemaker?
R: It was just raising my children.
S: Oh, like stay at home mom?
R: Yeah, stay at home, but also I had did bookwork, because we had an auto parts business and I
did all the book work, for it for 18 years. And the quarter reports everything [inaudible] for the
government, so I did that for 18 years.
S: Was that hard?
R: No, I just had to learn how to do it because I had never done that before.
S: Mmhmm.
R: It worked out fine.
S: Your current religion is Christian?
R: Mmhmm.
S: What would I put for sponsor’s name?
R: Spouse’s? You would put Rex.
S: Rex. –E-?
R: X.
S: What’s his occupation?
R: He’s retired, but he worked for Kraft Foods
S: What’s that?
R: Kraft Foods, it makes cheese.
S: Oh like theR: The plant out there, yeah.
S: I bet his business made him travel a lot.
R: Well, he took a part time job after he left, after he retired
S: Uh huh.
R: Took a part time that he travels and he gets called a consultant for a company out of Georgia,
he goes around the different plants and checks to see that their machines are working right.
S: Uh huh, that would be a nice job.
R: Mmhmm. Yeah, he gets to fly all over.
S: Do you miss him when he’s gone?
R: Yes.
S: Do you stay with Rick or something?
R: No, I stay at home, he, I can go with him.
S: Oh ok.
R: If I chose to so that’s been good retirement.
S: Oh yeah. So for you decide that you want to go wherever, that sounds nice.
R: Yeah, we’ve been to Poland
S: Oh really?
R: And Canada.
S: What was Poland like?
R: We were there in January, weren’t you in my class when I brought back that that little box?
S: Oh yeah, I still have it, I put jewelry in it.
R: Yeah I brought that back from Krakow Poland. It was like 30 below 0, when we were there
because it was January and I was at a shop it was an outdoor market when I bought those for you
girls. And Poland was where the concentration camps were during the Holocaust for the Jews,
and in Germany, and we got to go to one. The name slipped my mind, I’ll think of it in a minute,
we got to go to one of those concentration camps, and it was absolutely, terrible thing to get to
hear about what the Jews went through.
S: Yeah.
R: But I wanted to go on that trip, because I had about and I wanted to be able to see that.
Auschwitz, Auschwitz concentration camp.
S: I’ve heard of that when we studied Anne Frank.
R: Yeah, so it was, it was so cold and I can imagine those-they showed us where those people
had to sleep, go do the bathrooms, all just right there together and they’d have to go out and
work without hardly any clothes on, it just really a sad thing, but I was glad I saw it.
S: Yeah, what’s your most favorite place you’ve been to with Rex?
R: Well, I loved the beach so I would say Playa Del Carmen in Mexico, or we enjoyed China.
And let’s see, we’ve been up east to Nova Scotia, Halifax, I liked that. And for the beach-wise,
Playa Del Carmen and then [inaudible] Beach. We loved Hawaii.
S: Hawaii?
R: Mmhmm.
S: I want to go, but grandma doesn’t like water.
R: Oh, yeah.
S: How many times have you been to China?
R: Three.
S: And were those for mission trips?
R: One we went to and I worked in an orphanage, the others were, we visited orphanages but we
also got to sightsee so that wasn’t really considered a mission trip.
S: So I heard from my grandma what you guys did on China, but what’s your opinion the
mission trip when you went to China?
R: It’s a change of your food just the living, the way they live, but see-since Rick has the adopted
four from China, it has special meaning for us.
S: Oh, yeah.
R: To come and see what their living conditions were like before he brought them over here.
S: Mmhmm.
R: Kind of get a taste for their culture, so we can kind of relate to them, because they were older
when we got all of them, except Whitney, so they spent fifteen years in China, so it was good for
us to learn about China.
S: Mmhmm.
R: It’s really different and they don’t get a chance for Christianity over there.
S: Yeah, who was, which one was adopted first?
R: Whitney
S: Whitney, then?
R: Then Conner, and Madison and then Olivia.
S: That’s what I thought but, I wasn’t quite sure.
R: Had to stop think a minute.
S: Yeah. How was your trip to Haiti?
R: Haiti? That was a-really a work trip. In Haiti
S: What did you do?
R: We helped build a school.
S: Oh really?
R: And the women were right outside with the men, laying blocks and carried the mud for them
and worked hard just men and women worked side by side on the Haiti and Honduras trip.
S: What’s Honduras like?
R: It’s, we stayed in the Mission, so where, our conditions were good there, but you go out a way
from that, you, the poverty is just unbelievable in Haiti and Honduras and some live in, all the
floors there are dirt floors in their houses. And some of them are cardboard boxes for houses and
it’s just, a third world country so it’s just real bad living conditions. But beautiful scenery out
around them.
S: Yeah. What’s your kid’s names?
R: Rick.
S: Ok, and.
R: Renee, R-E-N-E-E.
S: Is it two N’s?
R: No, one N, R-E-N-E-E. Two E’s.
S: My sister’s name’s Renne but we spell it differently.
R: How do you spell it? R-E-N-N-E?
S: Yeah, I think that’s how we spell it. Is there a line over the E? We have a little accent.
R: Yeah.
S: Is she married?
R: No.
S: Ok, it’s still Temple. What’s your favorite Bible verse?
R: Probably Jeremiah 33:3. “If my people call on my name, will humble themselves and pray
then I’ll open-” I’m not saying it just right, but if we humble ourselves for God, He’ll hear our
prayer.
S: Why is it your favorite?
R: There’s been times in my life when I just felt like I really needed God’s help and I would
always think of that scripture, I humble myself before Him and pray.
S: Is there anything else you would like to say, is there any more, can you think?
R: No, I am glad you asked me I feel honored that you asked me to do that, you’re special in my
life and I’ve known you since you were little and I had you in class and I love you and I
appreciate you doing this.
S: I love you, too.
R: Thank you, is that it?
S: Yep.
R: I wanted to correct something on my tape, I think I said Jeremiah 33.3 and then gave the
scripture for Chronicles 7:14, but anyway, I like both of those scriptures a lot, and they both talk
about that we can call on God and He’ll answer, Jeremiah 33:3 is “Call to me and I’ll answer you
and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” And Chronicles 7:14 is “If my
people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn
from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their
land.” And I love both of those scriptures and I think I said the reference for one and quoted the
other, so anyway, I wanted to correct that, so thanks.
S: Ok.