© 2026 WUKY

Donate

Play Live Radio

Next Up:

0:00

0:00

0:00 0:00

Available On Air Stations

Saving Stories

Saving Stories: Peace Corps @ 65, Kentuckians remember joining JFK's 'New Frontier' initiative

By Alan Lytle

Published March 18, 2026 at 7:05 AM EDT

Ways To Subscribe

Apple

Jack and Angene Wilson on assignment for the Peace Corps in Liberia — Jack and Angene Wilson on assignment for the Peace Corps in Liberia in the early 1960's

March 2026 marks the 65th anniversary of the start of the Peace Corps and in this latest edition of WUKY's Saving Stories, Doug Boyd with the Nunn Center for Oral History in the UK Libraries shares audio from a Kentuckian who was one of the program's earliest participants. Angene Hopkins Wilson and her eventual husband Jack Wilson got accepted into the program and in 1962 were sent to Liberia. Angene talks about what happened next.

To commemorate the 65^th anniversary of the United States Peace Corps, the Kentucky Peace Corps Association is highlighting the service of Kentucky's returned Peace Corps volunteers in a new traveling exhibit that opened at the William T. Young Library on March 1, 2026.

https://libraries.uky.edu/news/new-exhibit-celebrates-65-years-united-states-peace-corps

Access the Nunn Center’s full interview with Angene Wilson online: https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/ark:/16417/xt7bnz80kq5n

Access the Nunn Center’s full interview with Jack Wilson online: https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/ark:/16417/xt7brv0cvx7w

Access the Nunn Center’s Peace Corps: The Returned Peace Corps Volunteers Oral History Project online: https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/ark:/16417/xt7bdw2tkjfs9

Access the Nunn Center’s Peace Corps: Covid-19 Evacuated Peace Corps Volunteers Oral History Project online: https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/ark:/16417/xt71d42445pn2

Saving Stories

Alan Lytle

See stories by Alan Lytle