Hattie Leeper [1], 2006 December 11

File

Identifier: OH-LE0436

Staff Only

"Chatty" Hattie Leeper oral history interview 1, 2006 December 11

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Scope and Contents

In the first of three interviews, radio DJ "Chatty" Hattie Leeper discusses her early life in the Third Ward and Brookhill neighborhoods in Charlotte, North Carolina. She describes her family and neighborhood, and her experiences attending the segregated Isabella Wyche Elementary School and Second Ward High School. While Mrs. Leeper speaks favorably about her time in school, she recounts painful episodes with a teacher in high school who would verbally and physically punish her for being shy, and describes how this experience sparked her determination to study hard and succeed in life. Mrs. Leeper discusses moving with her mother to Brookhill Village, where she developed a fascination with radio and began spending time at the nearby WGIV AM radio station around age fourteen. She explains how she organized record albums by genre, answered telephones, and paid gospel singers for performing on a Sunday program, and describes how she was very happy when the radio station began paying her for her contribution.

Dates

Creation: 2006 December 11

Biographical Note

Hattie Leeper was around 76 years old at the time of interview, which took place at her home in Charlotte, North Carolina. She was born in Edgemoor, South Carolina in 1930. She attended Central Piedmont Community College, earned a Master’s in Education Administration, and was employed as a disc jockey at WGIV, WRPL, and WAYS radio stations; the chair of the broadcasting department at Gaston College; and the founder and owner of Chatty School of Communication.