Abstract
In this interview, Katherine Perkins talks about her family and her upbringing in East Providence and how she came to attend Pembroke College. She discusses her travel as a day student to campus, the courses she took, extracurricular activities, the one Black woman in her class, and the Great Depression. Perkins describes her first career as a social worker and her later work as a French teacher at East Providence High School. At the end of the interview she discusses her activities in retirement, including the Brown Street Series and the Pembroke Club.
Recorded on November 19, 1982
Interviewed by Heather Gaye Campbell
Suggested Chicago style citation: Perkins, Katherine. Interview. By Heather Gaye Campbell. Pembroke Center Oral History Project, Brown University. November 19, 1982.
Biography
Katherine Perkins was born in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. After attending school in East Providence, she entered Pembroke College in 1928, taking the trolley car to campus for her classes. She worked in the East Providence Library and as a social worker before becoming a French teacher at East Providence High School, where she taught for 35 years. Perkins died on November 27, 2005 at age 94.