UK Oral History Project documents Mayfield tornado victims

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - Tuesday marks the third anniversary of the 2021 western Kentucky tornado outbreak that claimed the lives of 81 Kentuckians.

One of the hardest hit communities was Mayfield, which had its historic downtown flattened.

“I still get angry, and I was trying so hard to be positive,” said Tanna Thompson, a victim of the Mayfield tornado.

Dr. Doug Boyd has worked for the University of Kentucky Libraries for 16 years, helping document historic moments through oral history interviews.

“History really matters at the individual level. People’s experiences do matter. What oral history does really well is tell the story about the ordinary, really developing a repository of that looks at history from a different perspective,” said Dr. Boyd.

So when a former student of his, Dr Rebecca Freihaut, reached out to tell the oral history of the 2021 Mayfield Tornado, they interviewed 22 people with varying perspectives about the impact of the event, once immediately in the 6 months after, another interview a year later.

“People forget. These are the voices that don’t usually make it to the historical record – usually, it’s the data, it’s the large overhead pictures of the catastrophe. We are building an archive of these stories that we want people to look at years from now,” said Dr. Boyd.

The interviews are publicly available online, and with this Monday marking the 3rd anniversary of the devastation – Dr. Boyd hopes the community can do more than just reflect – but they can also listen

“Hearing those individual stories, I think, is really transforming. And what oral history does is put those experiences on the historical record – because unless it’s recorded, it just becomes part of memory,” said Dr. Boyd.