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Ellis Taylor and Barbara Woodall – Rabun County, GA
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Interviewed on Sept. 9, 2017
Ellis and Barbara are brother and sister. I traveled to Rabun County, Georgia, to interview Barbara about conjuring and faith healing. I learned about her from a book she authored titled Not My Mountain Anymore, which is a first-hand account of growing up in the changing times of Appalachia. When I arrived at her house, she took me in her golf cart to her brother’s house where I was able to talk to both of them. Ms. Woodall is a well-known participant of the first class of the Foxfire Program and speaks about the dying out of her culture as more “outsiders” move in. I thought she might provide an interesting perspective on my research, and I was not disappointed. Along with writing books, she was a member of the 1966 Foxfire Class.
They were the first people I had talked to in this area. Ellis was recovering from a stroke, where he actually was “dead” for 23 minutes before doctors revived him. Being a very religious and spiritual person, he told me about the bright light and love he felt on his short trip to heaven. Ellis grew up around conjuring and thought nothing of it growing up. He told many stories of babies getting the thrush cured by his father. They were similar to stories I had heard from other people I had interviewed. His father would go in a private area and breathe or spit in the baby’s mouth to give it the bacteria it needed.
Unlike my other subjects, Barbara and Ellis were very open and willing to divulge any details or secrets they knew about how the healing was done. Ellis also mentioned stories where animals were healed; this was something I had not heard before. He told of warts being bought off of cows and a mule that had bleeding stopped. When I asked them if they thought the practice was dying out, they both responded that they believe when their generation dies, it will be lost forever. They think children are “too busy playing on them phones” to pay attention to things and people around them. They also mentioned that on their current road, they don’t know a majority of their neighbors, something unheard of when they were growing up. People from all over and all cultures have moved into these communities and don’t understand the native culture or practices. This leads to a massive miscommunication and misconceptions of faith healing. It is seen as evil or backwards instead of spiritual or kind. Ellis also mentioned that it was never done for money. Healers were always discreet, humble, and kind, a trend I have noticed in all of my interviews. After the filming of the movie Deliverance, the locals of Rabun County were not open to outsiders. They had been taken advantage of and portrayed as savages and “inbreds” by the movie. Their trust had been betrayed, something they would never get over. This led to locals shutting themselves off from the outside world and the people it brought with it. They were so afraid of being taken advantage of or slandered that way again, that they no longer shared their culture with people outside of it. Thus, leading to the dwindling population of people in the area that believe and practice.
