Abstract

Jewel Murphy-Kirkland describes her life in the Moreland neighborhood, including the neighborhood, proximity of shops to their home, the help the city provided to homeowners, the importance of East View Church, and her work as a nurse practitioner.

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Interviewee

Murphy-Kirkland, Jewel (interviewee)

Interviewer

Dawson, Virginia (interviewer)

Project

Moreland History Project

Date

2017

Document Type

Oral History

Duration

18 minutes

Transcript

Virginia Dawson [00:00:01] This is a test. This is recording. Da-da-da-da. Da-da-da-da. [blows on microphone] Okay.

Jewel Murphy-Kirkland [00:00:23] Let’s start with my name.

Virginia Dawson [00:00:25] Okay, we are interviewing Jewel Kirkland, and her name is spelled K-I-R-K-L-A-N-D. And she prefers to have her first-

Jewel Murphy-Kirkland [00:00:44] Jewel Murphy–Kirkland. It’s hyphenated.

Virginia Dawson [00:00:47] And that would be M-U-R-P-H-Y dash K-I-R-K-L-A-N-D. Okay, great. So could you tell me first when you were born?

Jewel Murphy-Kirkland [00:01:01] Okay. I was born … 1929. A daughter of Nina and Arlen Clemens and three brothers, Arlyn, Arthur and Burton. And I was born in a small African American town named Lovejoy, Illinois. We moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1940 where my mom’s sister owned a beauty salon. I attended Glenville High School in Cleveland where I met my husband and later married. We had eight children, five born in Cleveland. My husband was later promoted to a job in Buffalo, New York, and three children were born in Buffalo, New York. I was able to attend the School of Nursing in Buffalo and I was valedictorian of my class. I also attended the University of Buffalo in nursing and where I later graduated as a nurse practitioner which one of the first states to give that license to RNs. Later I moved back to Cleveland, where I was employed at Mount Sinai Hospital, Cleveland Clinic, and later moved to Shaker. Known for an exclusive and exceptional school system diversity with many working class and professional blacks, we were able to purchase homes especially in the Moreland area. I purchased two homes in Shaker, one single-family brick Van Sweringen home and it was built in 1936, and also a two-family front porch Shaker on Chelton Road in Moreland - it was built in 1926 - where I presently live. We like Moreland as there are many benefits and amenities there. The library, Stephanie Tubbs Jones Center. We can walk to many stores at Shaker Town Center. There’s the Chelton Park. Little League. Kids are there, soccer teams in the spring and summer and fall. Residents of these unusual homes decorate the porches with flowers, manicured lawns, and sit outside the chat with close friends and enjoy the shady streetscape and block clubs. Our grandchildren have done well in the school system. My son Andrew has a master’s degree. He teaches English. Alexis has a master’s degree and she’ll soon have a 20-year military as a first lieutenant. My granddaughter Sarah graduated from Laurel School. She attended Princeton and also graduated from Boston University. And she will receive a Ph.D. in the next several months. We have been active in Moreland on the Move Community Association where my husband Edwards was past treasurer. Mayor Mearns, Nancy Moore, Al Foster was the first Black councilman supported and attended our meetings. Marsha Fudge lived across the street on Chelton Road. Lou Stokes had a home on Chelton as well as Marsha Fudge became the first Black congressman for Ohio. We also like our area because- I call it downtown Shaker because we have one block where we can go and see everything. Heinen’s, gas station, the old Shaker Theater has been removed. The Shaker Hardware that caters to old homes in Shaker. The Cleveland Trust bank has moved and now we have Huntington Bank. The Brown’s Funeral Home is here. And so many, many things that I love about Shaker and Moreland on the Move.

Virginia Dawson [00:05:07] Wonderful.

Jewel Murphy-Kirkland [00:05:08] What else can I say? [crosstalk]

Jewel Murphy-Kirkland [00:05:25] Okay. Another thing about Front Porch Shaker. Many homes, as I said, were built in the 1920s and this area was recognized by the porches on both stories. The Neighborhood Revitalization Department offers eligible residents financial and technical assistance for repairing the front porches, as well as for other home repairs and landscaping. The city awarded landscaping grants to 40 homeowners on Chelton and Pennington. And also residents may also take advantage of free home improvement workshops and one-on-one technical advice given them from the city for housing rehabilitation specialists. Spring, summer, and fall, the residents of these unusual homes decorate their porches with flowers and sit outside to chat with friends or enjoy the shady streetscape. Many of them have eagerly participated in the landscape programs and also reinvest in their Front Porch Shaker homes. Jewel and Edward Kirkland are now retired and they bought their two-family home in 1977, initially rented it out, but moved back several years ago, many years ago and converted into a senior single family home. We like Moreland as there are so many benefits and amenities here, Jules says. We like the closeness of public library. Of course, we can walk to that and all the stores in Shaker Town Center. Again, we enjoy Chelton Park because of the kids. They love to come and play there. Chelton Park also boasts a baseball diamond and a new playground, as well as benches and picnic tables. The Kirklands have made many improvements to their home, adding a third full bathroom and new garage doors and gutters, updating electrical wiring and installing new water heaters and furnaces. The couple appreciates their front porch as well as the leaded glass windows and beautiful brick masonry and have been meticulous about maintaining the original architecture We were delighted to be accepted in the landscape program at that time because my husband likes to be out in the garden every day. And the Kirklands have also been the recipients of a 50–50 senior grant. Another city program to redo their driveway and sidewalks. The Kirklands love their home and the friendly feel of the area. We enjoy the closest neighborhood, and we’re both active members, as I mentioned before, at the Moreland on the Move Community Association, where my husband was past treasurer and as our grandchildren grew up in Shaker. And they’ve done very well, as I mentioned, in the Shaker school system. We like everything around us.

Virginia Dawson [00:08:19] That’s wonderful. Well, you know, the one thing you’ve left out?

Jewel Murphy-Kirkland [00:08:24] What?

Virginia Dawson [00:08:25] East View Church.

Jewel Murphy-Kirkland [00:08:26] Oh, and I’m a member of East View. Yeah- [crosstalk] Okay, you can add it on.

Virginia Dawson [00:08:32] Why don’t you just talk about it? Tell me- You don’t have to write it.

Jewel Murphy-Kirkland [00:08:36] We joined East View-

Virginia Dawson [00:08:41] Let me just be sure this is going. Okay, it is. Yeah.

Jewel Murphy-Kirkland [00:08:45] We enjoyed East View United Church of Christ. We joined the church about 20 years ago, and they had several pastors and one pastor, the recent pastor that passed, was Reverend Lassiter, and he was a great pastor, and he accepted all religions in the church. And they have reached out to people in the area. They have done great things for us. And it’s a Christian church, and people love it. And we have people from everywhere that attend the church, and we sadly miss him, that have lived in this area for many, many years. And I was chaplain at East View United Church for the past 19 years and recently retired.

Virginia Dawson [00:09:29] My goodness! Really? That’s wonderful.

Jewel Murphy-Kirkland [00:09:30] And I belong to the Women’s Guild there as well.

Virginia Dawson [00:09:34] Really? Really? How lovely.

Jewel Murphy-Kirkland [00:09:37] So what else can I say?

Virginia Dawson [00:09:39] Well, you know, I wonder if you could talk a little bit about nursing, some of your experiences, just, that you remember because you did talk about your background. But I would like to hear a little bit more about the things that you got into.

Jewel Murphy-Kirkland [00:09:57] Okay. As a nurse practitioner. And the first thing on the scene when I came back to Cleveland, the doctors were happy to have a nurse practitioner because their job was to work with young adult physicians that came into the area from out of the country who wanted to be, wanted to move into the United States. And some of them, their fathers were Jewish doctors that lived in the Jewish area of Shaker Heights, and they wanted their sons to be doctors. But so they sent their sons to some of the foreign schools in other countries, Puerto Rico, and different schools so that they could get their beginning classes that they needed, and then they could come back to Cleveland, and then they could finish their 18 months so they could get past their license and become a doctor so they could follow their father in becoming doctors. And my job was to mentor these young men as they came in. And some were women, but mostly they came- [recording ends abruptly]

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