Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Summer/105/Section 06/Test Page

Overview
Clara Garber was white woman from Tennessee. She was a bootlegger in Tennessee during the 1930s. She was interviewed by the Federal Writer's Project on December 19th, 1938.[1]

Personal Life
Garber was born on an unknown date in Tennessee. Little is known about her early life. She was married young and had a child with her first husband. Her child, who she called Sonny Boy, suffered infantile paralysis at the age of two, and had been immobile and unable to speak since. Garber contacted the government in an attempt to recieve financial aid to help with Sonny Boy's disabilities, but was denied. Garber remarried shortly after to Shin Badgett. Badgett was wounded in World War 1, and was receiving government aid of $28 a month until 1933. Due to his injuries and alcoholism, Badgett was unable to have a job. Though Garber and Badgett divorced a few years into their marriage, Garber continued to take care of Badgett. Garber, though a bootlegger, never drank, and considered herself a religious person according to an interview with the Federal Writers Project, but never went to church. Instead, she took Sundays off from her business.