Theirs is the kind of devotion that has fortified the people of Eastern Kentucky for decades. Mountain families once labored together on small farms. Closeness was necessary then, and it remained so when coal brought wrenching cycles of boom and bust to the region. In the old camps today, grown-up sisters call each other daily. Brothers own businesses together.
Relatives live in clusters of four or five homes.
Family ties are treasured here, but there is a down side. The more intense a relationship, the greater its potential for conflict and violence, says Shaunna Scott, a sociologist who grew up in Eastern Kentucky. Trouble has pulled apart some of the families photographed by Russell Lee in 1946. But others have managed to avoid the dark side of close ties. Every other month, Geraldine Fain drives to Floyd County from Columbus, Ohio, to visit her mother.