Title: Lea Heine Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1966-2006

Creator:

• Heine, Lea, 1911-

Call Number: Mss 484; Audio 620A; EA 001; M2007-104

Quantity: 0.4 cubic feet (1 archives box), 14 tape recordings, and 1 film; plus additions of 0.6 cubic feet and 4 tape recordings

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers of Lea Heine, a resident of Madison, Wisconsin, who served as a VISTA volunteer teacher in Lancaster, South Carolina. The core of the collection is a tape-recorded autobiography which contains information on her youth in post-World War I Germany and later life in Madison during the Depression, as well as her experiences as a VISTA volunteer. References to her volunteer activities are bolstered by diaries; students' work; printed copies of Me, a booklet she prepared utilizing a pupil's drawings which was used by VISTA as a recruiting tool; drafts of unpublished writings; a tape recording of an interview on the Today program about Me; and an additional tape recording and a home movie she made in Lancaster.

Note:

There is a restriction on use of this material; see the Administrative/Restriction Information portion of this finding aid for details.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00484

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Lea Heine was born in Augsburg, Germany, in 1911. As a child she personally experienced the inflation and impoverishment of post-World War I Germany. Often unhappy, she lived with an unloving mother and a domineering step-father. In 1928, she and her parents immigrated to America and settled in Madison, Wisconsin. With the advent of the Depression however, their poverty continued. Lea worked as a maid and a waitress while attempting to pursue a career as a singer.

In 1934 she married a Hawaiian musician, lived in Chicago, and had one son before returning to Madison and seeking a divorce. In 1935, she married Ernst Heine and as the economy improved her life became more settled. She had two more sons, then suddenly Ernst died of a heart attack in 1945. A third marriage in 1951 ended in divorce in 1955.

After Ernst's death, Lea returned to work, first at a ceramics studio, then for the Union Labor News, in 1955 for a research laboratory, and in 1963 for Central Wisconsin Colony. At the beginning of this period, she was actively involved in the union movement and in a campaign for adequate day care centers in Madison.

In 1966, Lea volunteered to become a VISTA volunteer. After training in a migrant labor camp in Florida, she was assigned to a community action program in South Carolina. Urged to develop her own project in the area, she decided to establish a remedial reading program at one of the all-Black elementary schools in Lancaster, South Carolina. While there, she also helped to establish a community center and aided generally with problems encountered by local residents. At one point she testified at hearings in Washington on segregation of the schools in Lancaster. In the spring of 1967, her VISTA term expired but she returned on her own in the summer of 1968 and again taught reading.

The impact of conditions among Blacks in Lancaster led her to publish a booklet entitled Me, which combined commentary with drawings by one of her students, Hattie Mae Clark. The success of the booklet led to an interview on national television's Today show and to the decision by VISTA to re-publish Me as a recruiting tool. Since 1968, Mrs. Heine has visited Lancaster several times.

This collection was received in multiple parts from the donor(s) and is organized into major parts. These materials have not been physically interfiled and researchers might need to consult more than one part to locate similar materials.

• Part 1 (Mss 484, Audio 620A, EA 001): Original Collection, 1966-1979
• Part 2 (M2007-104, Audio 620A): Additions, 1966-2006

Use Restrictions

Lea Heine retains all literary rights. No quotation or reproduction from the tape recordings is permitted without her written permission.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Lea Heine, Madison, Wisconsin, 1975-1979. Accession Number: M75-588, M77-009, M79-185, M2007-104

Processing Information

Original Collection processed by David Tambo and Karen Baumann, November 7, 1979.

Mss 484	Part 1 (Mss 484, Audio 620A, EA 001): Original Collection, 1966-1979 Physical Description: 0.4 cubic feet (1 archives box), 14 tape recordings, and 1 film  Scope and Content Note The papers of Lea Heine consist of a tape-recorded autobiography supported by manuscripts and other tape recordings concerning her VISTA experiences. Though the greatest quantity of material concerns VISTA, Mrs. Heine's earlier life is described at length and with candor in the autobiography. Her observations on the turmoil of post-World War I Germany and of the stern social setting of that time are revealing. Her comments on the United States pertain to racial attitudes, the Great Depression, the Prohibition Era, the seamier side of the entertainment world, the American South, and Madison, Wisconsin. Also included is a taped interview with Jim Cavanaugh, a Society staff member, clarifying points in the autobiography, and an indexed abstract he prepared summarizing the autobiography and the interview. The manuscripts in the collection include clippings primarily from Wisconsin papers about Mrs. Heine's VISTA experiences, diaries she kept while in Florida and Lancaster, booklets drawn by her pupils, printed copies of Me and drafts of unpublished writings, and other papers. Besides the autobiography and interview, the tapes contain her interview on the Today show and her later reflections on that appearance, an interview on Norma Simpson's WHA radio program Accent on Living, and “talks with young people on a street corner in Jacob's Hollow [Lancaster].” The single film in the collection is a home movie shot by Mrs. Heine in Jacob's Hollow in the summer of 1968.
Box   1 Folder   1	Abstract of Autobiography and Interview (620A/1-11)
Box   1 Folder   2	Clippings about Lea Heine, 1967-1969
Box   1 Folder   3	Diaries, 1966 June 21 - 1967 May 12
	Lancaster, South Carolina, Papers, 1966-1968
Box   1 Folder   4	General Papers
Box   1 Folder   5	Pupils' Booklets
Box   1 Folder   6	Mimeo Materials primarily regarding Community Action Programs
	Writings
Box   1 Folder   7	General and Me (includes correspondence on Me)
Box   1 Folder   8	What Do A Butterfly Eat?
Box   1 Folder   9	Burs, Band-Aides and Butterflies
Box   1 Folder   10	, Post-1967 Miscellany
	Tape Recordings Physical Description: Cassette tapes
620A/1-9	Autobiography, 1976 Note: See abstract in Folder 1.
620A/10-11	Cavanaugh Interview with Lea Heine, 1977 Note: See abstract in Folder 1.
620A/12	Today Show Interview, 1969 May 23 Physical Description: 9 minutes, 10 seconds
620A/12 (continued)	Later reflections by Lea Heine on that interview Physical Description: 38 minutes, 15 seconds
620A/13	Interview on Norma Simpson's WHA radio program Accent on Living, undated Physical Description: 30 minutes
620A/14	Jacob's Hollow street corner talks Physical Description: 60 minutes
EA 001	Home movies, 1968 Physical Description: 1 reel; circa 250 feet; silent; color; 8 mm archival positive  Scope and Content Note: Home movies shot by Lea Heine in Jacobs Hollow in the summer of 1968. Shots of schoolhouse, children, dump, community center(?), homes, family groups. One sequence of a picnic where the children receive books; another sequence contrasts new suburban ranch homes with the older run-down homes of the area.
M2007-104	Part 2 (M2007-104, Audio 620A): Additions, 1966-2006 Physical Description: 0.6 cubic feet (2 archives boxes) and 4 tape recordings  Scope and Content Note: Additions, 1966-2006, consisting of disassembled scrapbooks, draft of a memoir, and 4 cassette recordings. The scrapbooks include photographs of Heine, colleagues, family and friends, and notes from students in Lancaster, South Carolina. Other materials include general correspondence, photographs and newspaper articles relating to her work with VISTA in Lancaster, and correspondence and records regarding her printed booklet, Me, and Hattie Mae Clark, the girl who illustrated the booklet. The tape recordings correspond with the memoir draft (Folder 75). The memoir and recordings document her childhood in Europe to her late adult years in Madison, Wisconsin. Materials relating to a return trip to Lancaster as well as general newspaper articles are also included.	⇧
Box   1 Folder   1-74	Scrapbook
Box   1 Folder   75	Memoir
Box   2 Folder   1	Biographical information and correspondence, 1980-2000
Box   1 Folder   2	Vista, 1966
Box   1 Folder   3	Ella McDow, “My Book”
Box   1 Folder   4	Scrapbook, 1969
Box   1 Folder   5	Vista Volunteer interview, 1969
	Me
Box   1 Folder   6	Drawings
Box   1 Folder   7	Manuscript
Box   1 Folder   8	Submission, rejection letters
Box   1 Folder   9	Correspondence from readers
Box   1 Folder   10	Financial records
Box   1 Folder   11	Today show news
Box   1 Folder   12	VISTA Lancaster photos
Box   1 Folder   13	Cureton family correspondence and photos
Box   1 Folder   14	Lancaster visit, 1986 May
	Tape Recordings
620A/15-18	Memoir Physical Description: 4 cassette tapes