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StoryCorps: Recording The Lives And Stories Of Everyday Americans StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit project whose mission is to honor and celebrate the lives of everyday Americans by listening to their stories.
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StoryCorps

Sharing And Preserving The Stories Of Our Lives
From The Son Of Ex-Slaves, The Gift Of A Hospital

Diane Kenney (left) and Linda Kenney Miller, ages 66 and 65 respectively, visited StoryCorps in Montgomery, Ala. StoryCorps hide caption

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StoryCorps

Opinion

From The Son Of Ex-Slaves, The Gift Of A Hospital

Dr. John A. Kenney may be best known as Booker T. Washington's personal physician. But Kenney's granddaughters recall something different about the doctor: how he moved from Alabama to New Jersey and set up Newark's first hospital for blacks.

From The Son Of Ex-Slaves, The Gift Of A Hospital

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Family Breadwinner Finds Her Place: With The Men

At StoryCorps in Biloxi, Miss., Dee Dickson, 59, told the story of how she got her first job at the shipyards. StoryCorps hide caption

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StoryCorps

Opinion

Family Breadwinner Finds Her Place: With The Men

In 1974, Dee Dickson was raising her two children by herself in Biloxi, Miss. She set her sights on becoming an electrician at a shipyard. But she soon found out that it wasn't so easy to get hired.

Family Breadwinner Finds Her Place: With The Men

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Opinion

Love Story: From A Gas Station To Married With Kids

Majid Al-Bahadli grew up in Iraq; he came to the United States after the first Gulf War. But it was his job as a gas station cashier — and a problematic ATM machine — that helped him meet the woman he would later marry.

Love Story: From A Gas Station To Married With Kids

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Opinion

Even In Her Struggles, A Mother Taught Life Lessons

When Mary Van Beke was growing up in the 1920s, she was the oldest of four children. Her parents were immigrants from Europe. And as Mary tells her son, Charles, the family managed a modest life, until an accident changed everything.

Even In Her Struggles, A Mother Taught Life Lessons

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Astronaut's Brother Recalls A Man Who Dreamed Big

Ronald McNair (third in line) and his fellow Challenger astronauts head to the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center to board the space shuttle on Jan. 27, 1986. Steve Helber/AP hide caption

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Steve Helber/AP

Opinion

Astronaut's Brother Recalls A Man Who Dreamed Big

Ronald McNair was one of the astronauts killed 25 years ago on Jan. 28, when the space shuttle Challenger exploded. As his brother recalls, McNair's life was all about exploring boundaries — and exceeding them.

Astronaut's Brother Recalls A Man Who Dreamed Big

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A Mother Reflects On Her Not-So-Normal Family

Laura Greenberg (left) and her daughter Rebecca chatted at StoryCorps in Atlanta. StoryCorps hide caption

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StoryCorps

Opinion

A Mother Reflects On Her Not-So-Normal Family

Growing up, Laura Greenberg didn't know from normal. Her dad was emperor of the road and her mom liked boys with underbites who wore their pants really high. Today, she's still learning how to be "normal."

A Mother Reflects On Her Not-So-Normal Family

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Rep. Leo Ryan's Daughter Recalls His 1978 Murder

Erin Ryan, daughter of the late Rep. Leo Ryan, spoke with StoryCorps at NPR's Washington headquarters this week. She had dinner with her father the night before he left for Jonestown. Erin C. Schwartz/NPR hide caption

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Erin C. Schwartz/NPR

Opinion

Rep. Leo Ryan's Daughter Recalls His 1978 Murder

The recent attack on Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords brought back a flood of memories for Erin Ryan. Her father, the late California Rep. Leo Ryan, was killed in Guyana in 1978 while investigating the Jim Jones religious settlement.

Rep. Leo Ryan's Daughter Recalls His 1978 Murder

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Opinion

Looking Back At The 'Tremendous Hate' Of Bullies

Recent stories about bullying -- and the people who have spoken out publicly against it -- inspired Rob Littlefield to tell his own story. The abuse started in middle school, he says, but its effects are still felt today.

Looking Back At The 'Tremendous Hate' Of Bullies

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A U.S.-Cuban Airlift Of Precious Cargo: Children

George Guarch greets children at the Miami airport in the early 1960s. His daughter, Lynn, says George would carry the youngest children off the planes. Lynn Guarch Pardo hide caption

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Lynn Guarch Pardo

A U.S.-Cuban Airlift Of Precious Cargo: Children

In the early 1960s, thousands of Cuban parents put their children on airplanes bound for America. And as they fled Fidel Castro's regime, the kids were often met in the United States by George Guarch. Fifty years later, his daughter speaks with a man her father helped.

A U.S.-Cuban Airlift Of Precious Cargo: Children

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One Student's Christmas Lesson

Jennifer Michaels recently interviewed her dad, Don, at StoryCorps in Bellefonte, Pa. StoryCorps hide caption

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StoryCorps

Opinion

One Student's Christmas Lesson

Don Michaels hated school so much he got migraine headaches. But a visit from a teacher one year helped cure his headaches and make school less painful.

One Student's Christmas Lesson

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Opinion

A Runaway Boy's Temptation: The Train Tracks

Bud Norton was a restless young man in the 1940s. And he often made his life into an adventure. As he told his nephew recently, "I ran away about once a week."

A Runaway Boy's Temptation: The Train Tracks

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Lessons From 'Aunties' And The AIDS Epidemic

Ed Jackson, Gerald Hannon, Bill Lewis and Robert Trow during a trip to France in the early 1980s. Lewis, who is now deceased, was Stefan's stepfather, and the other men played the role of his "aunties." Courtesy of Stefan Lynch Strassfeld hide caption

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Courtesy of Stefan Lynch Strassfeld

Lessons From 'Aunties' And The AIDS Epidemic

Stefan Lynch Strassfeld's gay parents and "aunties" gave him a large extended family and showed him how love can help people survive an epidemic.

Lessons From 'Aunties' And The AIDS Epidemic

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StoryCorps' National Day Of Listening

A Street Fight Leads To Love

Guest host Mary Louise Kelly speaks with her dad, Jim Kelly, for the StoryCorps National Day of Listening project. She asks him how he met her mother and for advice to pass along to her own children.

A Street Fight Leads To Love

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Sean Lennon And Yoko Ono: DNA Memory

Sean Lennon and Yoko Ono. StoryCorps hide caption

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StoryCorps

StoryCorps' National Day Of Listening

Sean Lennon And Yoko Ono: DNA Memory

Lennon recently sat down with his mother, Yoko Ono -- not to talk about John Lennon or The Beatles, but to talk about her life and a strange coincidence involving limo drivers in their past.

Sean Lennon And Yoko Ono: DNA Memory

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