HomeMy WebLinkAboutJudy Riley on Mabel Thomas Transcript, WTAW First 100 YearsProject HOLD
WTAW Interview
Judy Riley | Granddaughter of Former WTAW Storybook Person and Poet
Mabel Thomas
Tom Turbiville | WTAW Radio Host
Laura Quezada | Transcriber
00:00:00 Dick Bolin (DB)
College Station, Texas, April 24th, 1947, Dick Bolin talking. Here's the latest news from the
Associated Press…
[Unintelligible news broadcaster speaking]
00:00:07 Speaker 2
Aggies win 74-72! Here's your…
00:00:12 Speaker 3
…1620 WTAW.
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00:00:18 Tom Turbiville (TT)
This is WTAW, the First 100 Years, I'm Tom Turbiville. Judy Riley has fond memories of Mabel
Thomas, not just because Mabel Clare Thomas was her grandmother, but because for more than
20 years before Judy was born, Mabel Thomas was a radio star of WTAW. Yep, Mabel Thomas
was the storybook lady in the early 1940s, besides being a nationally published poet. Mabel
started her church gigs on WTAW in the 1930s.
00:00:50 Judy Riley (JR)
I really don't remember her on the radio. That's why I wish that you all had anything in your
archives so I could hear her voice again. We do have a recording, and it was put on... a--, a
record, the old timey, 78. You put the needle on the inside, and it ran to the outside. I think the
name of it was, Wag the Wall. Since we loaned it to a cousin, we have not seen it since. I haven't
talked to that cousin in ages.
00:01:20 (TT)
So, if you're out there and you are Judy Riley's cousin, please return the records. In the
meantime, Mabel's stories will have to live in her granddaughter's memories.
00:01:30 (JR)
They were comparable to the Aesop's fables. Each story had a message. I didn't know it then.
They had a message that you could draw from it. She always made time for all the kids. We had
tea parties, and… we had rose petal sandwiches and honeybee tea, and these were made out of
real rose petals.
00:01:51 Speaker 2
And we'll gladly stick with those memories of Mabel and WTAW, the First 100 Years.