Pinetop Slim, I dug up my statement to the KY Senate. It reads a bit sentimental- but doesn't this world need some sentimentality occasionally? Anyway:

"When I left home for my first real job- that was leaving Viper, Kentucky for a social work position in New York City, in 1947- I was carrying my dulcimer and a heartful of Kentucky songs, in case I got homesick. Nobody in New York had ever seen a dulcimer, and not too many people in Kentucky had, either... At that time I never dreamed that my little homemade instrument would ever become known well enough to be chosen the state instrument for my very own beloved state- Kentucky!

I feel personally honored- I can't help it- my dulcimer has been such a part of me all my life, and now the love of its music has spread in widening circles all around the country and the world, and maybe I have helped in some way to make that happen. I feel as my mother must have felt at the county fair, when her child got the blue ribbon for best ballad-singing. Someone once called me, 'The Mother of the Dulcimer-' well, here we are at a bigger fair, and this is my child you're honoring, and you have made me a mighty proud mama!"