Fran King, 8 June 2012

In this 2012 interview, Fran King, a longtime resident of Shaker Heights, describes her experience in the Ludlow community. Moving from Boston to Cleveland with her husband and her children, Mrs. King remembers the early days of the Ludlow Community Association. Becoming more active in civil rights, she details Ludlow's fight against white flight, and the attraction of Shaker schools for surrounding communities. Throughout her memories, the Van Sweringens are mentioned often. Mrs. King, also the founder of the Shaker Heights Youth Center, remembers how she felt compelled to educate people on the growing drug and alcohol abuse among teenagers. She then founded the Youth Center in 1970 in response to this concern. She ends with describing her favorite locations in Cleveland, and some of the many fundraisers that the Ludlow Community Association sponsored.

Participants: King, Fran (Interviewee) / Halligan-Taylor, Gabriela (Interviewer)
Collection: Shaker Heights Centennial
Institutional Repository: Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection

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Shaker Heights Centennial

Shaker Heights Centennial

These interviews, conducted by students as part of a CSU Provost-funded Undergraduate Summer Research Award project led by Drs. Mark Souther and Mark Tebeau, supported commemoration of the Shaker Heights Centennial in 2012. For more information, please visit: historicshaker.com.