Interview with Gladys Knox; an one-time event with a Davidson College employee

An interview that scrutinized Gladys Knox general life with a focus on her experiences with work environments and education. She has ten siblings including herself. Also, she has a daughter and a grandson that works in BSC. The interviewer, Drew Cardwell, was a hardworking individual and graduate of the 2013 class that promoted events to help students better themselves and had the opportunity to interview Gladys Knox for an informative class. The interview took place in Union Café on October 24, 2012. Gladys was born in Mooresville, NC, Iredell County. She grew up with both parents, her mother dropped out in eleventh grade at Amity Hill in Statesville because she was pregnant with Gladys. Her mother died recently in 2023 with Alzheimer’s. She was raised by her grandparents who were not educated but taught her more than what she learned in high school. Growing up she went to an all-black school, Dunbar Elementary School, and before school she would have to pick cotton some days and some days would not even make it to school because of it. She did not see color, she had white neighbors that would even help them pick cotton and go fishing with them. Gladys is a very caring person and loved to talk to people, she met no strangers. Her grandfather did not let her go to stores or restaurants because he feared what would happen during the racially intense times, although Gladys never felt discriminated against throughout her life. She always got along with everyone despite race. She worked at Mooresville Hospital, Shoney’s, Nursing Home, and Davidson college for 8 years before she retired. Although she’s not working anymore, I know she’s still out making others smile!

Commemorative Events

October 24, 2012

2000-Present: Confederate Memorialization in the Era of Universities Studying Slavery and the Black Lives Matter Movement

Davidson College; Davidson, North Carolina

Union Café

Davidson College; Davidson, North Carolina

Interview with Gladys Knox, 2012, in Interviews with Davidson College Staff, Fall Semester 2012, Oral history interviews of EDU 340- Education in African American Society (RG 19), Archives and Special Collections, Davidson College, Davidson, NC.

Faculty and Staff Directory (Davidson, NC), 2008-2009, 62.

Davidson College, Quips and Cranks (Davidson, NC), 2013, 55.

Ancestry.com. U.S., Index to Public Records, 1994-2019 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2020.