Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2019/Fall/Section 1/Mary Louise Fickling

= Mary Louise Fickling =

Overview
Mary Louise Fickling, affectionately known to others as the “Coffee Grounds Woman”, was interviewed for the Federal Writers’ Project on December 21, 1938, at the age of 42, by Muriel Mann. At the time, her address was 49 Spring Street, Charleston, S.C. and she had nine children: Erline (23), Ethel (21), Virginia (20), Tom (18), Martha (16), Mary (14), Vera (10), Rosalie (8), and Henry (5).

Early Life
Born to a mother from Georgia and a father from Boston, Fickling moved South at the age of two, where her father, a streetcar conductor, soon passed away from typhoid fever. A sickly child amongst 13 siblings, she was sent to an orphanage to be raised and did not obtain much in ways of an education. Her tuberculosis of the knee could not be treated by the 11 doctors she saw, and afflicted her well into her adult life. From the ages of fourteen to seventeen, Fickling worked in a cigar factory until she married a railroad brakeman seven years her senior. She became a mother at the age of eighteen, and went on to have a total of nine living children. Fickling was burdened, however, with instances of infant and child mortality. At the age of twenty three, she began to read cups of coffee grounds for mere fun with her friends in the telephone exchange. Soon, Fickling transitioned into charity work for churches and schools, becoming known as the “Coffee Grounds Woman”.

Later Life
It was not until her husband, Charles, got laid off for nine months during the Great Depression that Fickling started charging for her fortune telling. She was prompted to begin this practice after a failed suicide attempt left her with a vivid vision to do so. Ultimately, Fickling supported a family of sixteen, including her children, grandchildren, and mother during this period. Her pay often fluctuated, but some weeks she made up to sixty dollars. Fickling took great pride in her children, namely their education and religious practices. She also held that a woman’s place was in the home and never took much to politics. Fickling praised her husband for his own work in supporting the family, and claimed to love her own, as it allowed her to help problem solve for others.

Mortality Trends During the Great Depression
Population health made general improvements during the era of the Great Depression. Both infant and age-specific mortality, namely, decreased amongst across all age groups under 20 years old. Moreover, life expectancy increased in all groups: males, females, whites, and nonwhites. With this, mortality due to the most prevalent six causes of death during the 1930’s, including the flu, pneumonia, and tuberculosis, generally decreased. Suicide mortality, on the otherhand, peaked with unemployment. Other peaks in mortality, relative to cardiovascular and tuberculosis related illnesses, occurred during periods of economic expansion. The trends observed suggest that economic growth, during the Great Depression, was associated with either declining health or “a slowing of secular improvements in health”.

The prevalence of these trends led people during this time period to speculate regarding the considerable advantages involved in facing adversity and the return to simpler living. Others, on the other hand, credited President Roosevelt’s social relief programs, such as the National Cancer Institute Act (1937), for a more responsive public health system.

Critics of these trends often hold that mortality is not an accurate measure of health in a society at a given time, as it cannot assess the extent of either sickness or other impairments, and is not immediately affected by unfavorable living conditions, poverty, unemployment, and other circumstances familiar to the Great Depression.

Female Employment During the Great Depression
During the era of the Great Depression, Women found themselves to be employed at an increasing rate, though the opposite was true of their male counterparts. In fact, “from 1930 to 1940, the number of employed women in the United States rose 24 percent from 10.5 million to 13 million”. These women often found job opportunities outside of the economic mainstream, in the informal sector, that provided a security not present in certain male dominated markets, such as production. Women, as an underprivileged group during this time, tended to be self-employed, especially in major cities of developing societies. In these cities, black women, more inclined to be entrepreneurial in the informal sector, often offered domestic services. White women, on the other hand, contributed more to entrepreneurial efforts in the wholesale and retail markets, as well as nursing, teaching, and civil service.

Differences in the experiences of urban black and white women regarding employment during the depression were evident in occupation, but perceptible similarities are present regarding family life. The increase in female employment was highly controversial during the Great Depression, and was only expected to “stave off the effects of joblessness, poverty, and uncertainty” at times when men could not be the breadwinners of their family. Thus, the employment gap between men and women, paired with economic insecurity, placed a burden of emotional work on employed women.