Cotton Mill Kid Tackles Duke And Nebraska

Abstract

Maude Bullard and Jehu Stewart grew up on farms in central North Carolina. They left that life to work in a Duke Township, North Carolina cotton mill. Maude and Jehu met while working in that mill in their late teens and married six months later. Socially and economically, their three sons, Cecil, Tom, and Ken, are best described as southern smalltown cotton mill kids. This memoir focuses on Ken’s experiences as an undergraduate at Duke, a graduate student at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (UNL), and during a pre-doctoral internship at Duke University Medical School. Despite economic disadvantages and self-doubts, Ken tackled every challenge head-on and succeeded through determination and the caring support of many Duke and UNL faculty members.