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Larry Kibble interview by Peter Westwick, 15 May 2014
WESTWICK: Do you prefer to go by Larry or Lawrence?
KIBBLE: Larry.
WESTWICK: We're here speaking with Larry Kibble in his home in Palmdale. It is May 15th, 2014. Just to go back to the beginning, give us a little bit of background: when you were born, where you were born, where you grew up, and a little bit of your background growing up.
KIBBLE: Well, I was born in Los Angeles at the General Hospital, on February 10th, 1948. The home that we were in at the time of my birth, we were in the projects of Watts. My father started working at Lockheed in '42 and was able to buy our first home in '52, on 839 East 33rd Street in LA, where we all grew up. I was the third of four sons, and the fourth son was my brother Perry, who was born on June 10th of '49. I'll talk about him later, but do you see the gold plaques on the wall there? That's for my brother. He won a Grammy. The group was called Taste of Honey.
WESTWICK: Oh, yeah?
KIBBLE: You know the tune “Boogie Oogie Oogie”? I'll give you a story about that later. WESTWICK: I'll remember to cycle back to that.
KIBBLE: Again, my father was able to buy a home in LA at 839 East 33rd Street. At the time there were four of us in the house, and then my sister came along in the early '60s, which I understand today was an absolute accident. [laughter] She's in Texas.
WESTWICK: Does she know this? Does she know that she was an accident?
Object Description
| Title | Oral history interview with Larry Kibble. |
| Creator | Westwick, Peter J. (Interviewer) |
| Physical Description | 1 transcript |
| Biographical Note | Larry Kibble was an African-American manufacturing worker and manager for Lockheed. His father worked for Lockheed from 1942 to the late 1960s. Larry graduated high school and took classes at L.A. City College before joining Lockheed as a tooling assistant in 1967. The following year he was drafted and entered the Air Force as a radar operator and weapons tech on a Lockheed EC-121. After four years in the service he returned to the Lockheed shop floor in 1972, working his way up to line supervisor in 1975 and department manager in 1978; in 1980 he joined the Skunk Works, where he worked on production of the F-117A. In 1996 he became director of manufacturing at the Skunk Works and in 2001 director of quality assurance. He retired in 2008 and lives in Palmdale. One of his sons now works for Lockheed in Fort Worth. Topics covered in the interview include: manufacturing in aerospace industry; training of shop floor workers; minority groups in aerospace; and labor relations in aerospace. |
| Notes | This an edited transcript of an oral history interview of Larry Kibble conducted by Peter J. Westwick. |
| Date | May 15, 2014 |
| Subject |
Aerospace industries -- California, Southern -- History -- 20th century. African-American engineers. Aircraft industry -- California, Southern. California -- History -- 1950-. F-117 (Jet attack plane) Lockheed aircraft. |
| Form/Genre | Oral histories. (aat) |
| Contributors | Kibble, Larry. (Interviewee) |
| Department | The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Manuscripts Department |
| Call Number | mssHM 80611 (22) |
| Physical Collection | Aerospace Oral History Project |
| Digital Collection | Manuscripts, Huntington Digital Library |
| Date Digital | 2015-06-26 |
| Digital Format | |
| Citation Information | [Object file name], Aerospace Oral History Project, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California. |
| Restrictions | For information on using Huntington Library materials, please see Reproductions of Huntington Library Holdings: http://www.huntington.org/WebAssets/Templates/content.aspx?id=588 . |
| Language | English [eng] |
| Cataloging Notes | This transcript has been edited. |
Description
| Title | page 1 |
| Department | The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Manuscripts Department |
| Digital Collection | Manuscripts, Huntington Digital Library |
| Restrictions | For information on using Huntington Library materials, please see Reproductions of Huntington Library Holdings: http://www.huntington.org/WebAssets/Templates/content.aspx?id=588 . |
| Full Text | Larry Kibble interview by Peter Westwick, 15 May 2014 WESTWICK: Do you prefer to go by Larry or Lawrence? KIBBLE: Larry. WESTWICK: We're here speaking with Larry Kibble in his home in Palmdale. It is May 15th, 2014. Just to go back to the beginning, give us a little bit of background: when you were born, where you were born, where you grew up, and a little bit of your background growing up. KIBBLE: Well, I was born in Los Angeles at the General Hospital, on February 10th, 1948. The home that we were in at the time of my birth, we were in the projects of Watts. My father started working at Lockheed in '42 and was able to buy our first home in '52, on 839 East 33rd Street in LA, where we all grew up. I was the third of four sons, and the fourth son was my brother Perry, who was born on June 10th of '49. I'll talk about him later, but do you see the gold plaques on the wall there? That's for my brother. He won a Grammy. The group was called Taste of Honey. WESTWICK: Oh, yeah? KIBBLE: You know the tune “Boogie Oogie Oogie”? I'll give you a story about that later. WESTWICK: I'll remember to cycle back to that. KIBBLE: Again, my father was able to buy a home in LA at 839 East 33rd Street. At the time there were four of us in the house, and then my sister came along in the early '60s, which I understand today was an absolute accident. [laughter] She's in Texas. WESTWICK: Does she know this? Does she know that she was an accident? |
