Sarah Tubby - April 16,1927-October 17,1996
Sarah Tubby was a Southern Mississippi Choctaw. She was born on the Pearl River Choctaw Reservation. She lost her parents when she was young to tuberculosis, and was raised by her grandmother.
Tubby was fluent in English and Choctaw. She attended Haskell Indian Junior College and graduated in 1952. She had become a proficient seamstress before graduating. KU Professor Robert Rankin, an associate professor of linguistics, discovered she could speak Choctaw. Tubby would assist Rankin in a number of Choctaw projects.
She had a three-hour weekly seminar, on her own time and with flexibility in her schedule with the library, teaching and practicing her native language with interested students. She had diverse attendance of students of all nationalities, including some from Nigeria, Greece, and Korea.
Tubby stated, "The more I talk in class, the more it comes back."
Sarah Tubby began working in the Bindery Department in 1952. In 2018, the Conservation Services moved into a new lab in Kenneth Spencer Research Library, but the Bindery remains in Watson.
Left: Photograph of Tubby leaning on counter taken for an article in the Oread, 1981 (Call Number: RG 41/0 Photographs).
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Left: Young Sarah Tubby operating a Smyth sewing machine, 1955 (Call Number: SB 32/ vol. 1).
Left: Sarah Tubby smiling as she demonstrates how she binds books using a guillotine, 1979 (Call Number: RG 41/0 Photographs).
Left: Sarah Tubby demonstrates how the bindery uses a board shear, 1979 (Call Number: RG 41/0 Photographs).
Sarah Tubby retired in 1995. She shared a brief statement about her work.
“When my hand roams through the books, it says, 'Where are you hurting?' and the books say ‘My spine sometimes. My head, face, foot, ‘til I couldn’t hardly stand up on the shelf.' My hand lets me do minor surgery or take a little white glue that looks like Milk of Magnesia. If this doesn’t work, call me back later. My hand will try to perform miracles sometimes, [but] not always succeed. Now my hand will wave ‘Goodbye’.”
Left: Sara Tubby at her retirement, shaking hands with Chancellor Robert Hemenway, October 24, 1995 Call Number: RG 41/0 Photographs