From Roots to Roses The Autobiography of Tilda Kemplen

From Roots to Roses is the autobiography of teacher and activist Tilda Kemplen. Hailed in her native Tennessee as "the Mother Teresa of the coal country," Kemplen is founder and executive director of Mountain Communities Child Care and Development Centers (MCCCDC). For almost two decades, MCCCDC has responded to the needs of impoverished central Appalachia through its child care, education, health, nutrition, and economic and agricultural development programs. In a region where such enterprises routinely fail--and where unemployment rarely falls below fifty percent--MCCCDC has succeeded by fostering community involvement in its undertakings. This approach has helped restore esteem and self-reliance to a despondent populace and has also ensured MCCCDC of a degree of autonomy in its operations. In recognition of her achievements, Kemplen was presented in 1980 with the American Institute for Public Service's Jefferson Award for Outstanding Public Service Benefiting Local Communities.
Tilda Kemplen was born into a coal-mining family and married a miner. She knew how crippling the work could be, in more than one sense and to more than just the miners. Long before the incorporation of MCCCDC in 1973, long before the "bottom dropped out" of coal markets and the mines began shutting down for good, Kemplen was already committed to her vision of a better life for miners and their families--especially the children.
From Roots to Roses follows the gradual flowering of that vision from Kemplen's early struggles to educate herself through her years as an elementary and special-education teacher in rural schools and mining camps; from the establishment of MCCCDC's daycare program to the expansion of the organization's services to involve the area's Native Americans and to include adult activities.
The book is more, however, than a catalog of Kemplen's accomplishments; it is a testament to the personal qualities that fueled them. Kemplen's straightforward observations on her life and work offer an understanding of a range of topics related to Appalachian and Native American culture, government and private relief programs, education, religion, family life, and women's issues.

Tilda Kemplen--known as the "Mother Teresa of the coal country"--celebrates the root system she put down as a young woman in the mountain hollows of Tennessee. In a narrative that unfolds in unadorned, reflective prose, recorded over the years by freelance editor Herzberg, she tells the inspiring story of a life of service. Founder and director of Mountain Communities Child Care and Development Centers, Kemplen describes the unlikely beginnings of her extraordinary career. A teacher despite the great odds against becoming one--without a high school education, she entered college at age 32--this wife and mother saw the needs of the ill-served people of her community. She recalls the years of struggle and hardship to establish special-education, child-welfare and medical-care programs that were in place by the '70s. Kempen, who lives in rural Campbell County, eloquently appreciates her natural surroundings, her feelings of kinship with Native American culture and her oneness with the beloved mountains. Photos.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Born in 1925, Kemplen gives a genuine personal account of growing up in the isolated mountain region of eastern Tennessee. Unable to attend high school, she later earned a degree in education and fulfilled her dream of becoming a teacher. Concerned about the lack of basic necessities for the people in her community, whom she views not as inferior--as stereotypically depicted--but rather as "environmentally deprived," Kemplen dedicated herself to enriching the quality of their lives. She founded, and still directs, the Mountain Communities Child Care and Development Centers, which provide an array of social services encompassing education, health, and economic programs. Highly recommended for Appalachian and women's studies collections.
- Eloise R. Hitchcock, Tennessee Technological Univ. Lib., Cookeville
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.