Life Lines

About the Book

This is the story of two lives and a marriage that span a period of great changes in the way we live. Rose’s family home on a small farm in East Tennessee didn’t have electricity until she was in her teens. Bill was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where his father was a steelworker, when not unemployed, who became a labor leader. Indoor plumbing was introduced to their homes when they were youngsters. Telephones, radios, and cars were novelties. They experienced and participated in improvements in medicine, technology, and communications. They also experienced upheavals in civil rights and race relations, family life patterns, and even basic values. Their story, memories, and reflections represent happy, productive, and blessed lives, in contrast to the superficial, hollow, and broken lives featured on the news every day. While this book is primarily a record of one family, it includes observations and insights about life, not particular limited to one family’s experience. A life span of eighty-six years, including a marriage of sixty-five years, has seen many changes. Bill and Rose have reflected on the changes that have affected their lives and that they have seen. What changes have been for the better? Where have we gone wrong? Looking back from the distance of age gives a perspective to culture and values. Their reflections on the civil rights struggle and race relations, on the way women experience childbirth and view their roles, on changing family values, on faith, and on what is important in life are thoughtful commentaries. Reflections are recorded after each section of the book, placing the perspective of age in the context of life experience.

About the Author

Bill Ramsay and Rose Moore came to Berea College, Kentucky in 1948. They were seventeen years old. In four years they would marry and in eighteen more years, with a family of six children, move back to Berea. Born during the Great Depression, Rose came from a small farm family in East Tennessee and Bill grew up in a steel town in Pennsylvania and then on a small farm in Georgia. After military service and graduate school, they settled in Oak Ridge, Tennessee where Bill worked for the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies. Rose helped establish a childbirth education program in Oak Ridge and became active in the national movement, serving on the board of the International Childbirth Education Association. Both were involved in the struggle for civil rights. Rose also taught literacy to children and adults. In 1965, Bill and colleagues started community development internship programs, and they coined the term “service-learning” which has been adopted by programs across the country. They moved to Atlanta to expand service-learning at the Southern Regional Education Board. Rose became a certified “Laubach Teacher Trainer.” Moving to Berea College in 1970, Bill served as Dean of Labor and as a Vice President. Rose organized a host family program for international students. Bill was involved in the formation of NSEA, the National Student Employment Association, and served as president in 1988-89, He served on the Berea school board and, later, as president of the board of Pine Mountain Settlement School. Throughout their years they were active in church. Primarily, they were a family. They enjoyed their children, watching them grow, marry, and have children of their own. With 22 grandchildren and 28 great grandchildren as of January 2018, they are assured that their legacy of family values and Christian service will continue beyond their time.