For much of her adult life, Jennifer Mack has had two primary roles, as a single mother and as a member of the military. She and her daughter Whitney Cotten came to the StoryCorps mobile booth in Oklahoma City to talk about how sometimes those roles have conflicted, especially after a deployment in 2004, but also how those challenges have allowed Jennifer to pass on the value of strength and resiliency to her daughter.

This story was produced for KOSU by Rachel Hubbard and Dustin Drew, with interviews recorded at StoryCorps, a renowned nonprofit organization celebrating the stories of everyday Americans.

Thank you to Phillips Murrah law firm for sponsoring StoryCorps' visit to Oklahoma City.

Eighty-six-year-old George Hill's family mastered frontier survival skills. When his father was born prematurely in 1889, his grandmother made an incubator out of their wood stove. So, when George was born in the Texas panhandle in the middle of the depression, his family was ready to tap those ingenious survival skills and start again. George and his wife Patricia came to the StoryCorps mobile booth in Oklahoma City to talk about what he experienced. This story was produced for KOSU by Rachel Hubbard and Dustin Drew, with interviews recorded at StoryCorps, a renowned nonprofit organization celebrating the stories of everyday Americans. Thank you to Phillips Murrah law firm for sponsoring StoryCorps' visit to Oklahoma City.

When refugees arrive in the United States, they spend many of the early years trying to understand the culture, find a job and build a life. But what happens a generation later? How do they pass on the legacy of survival and grit to their children? Michelle Bui brought her mom Mai Nguyen to the Oklahoma City StoryCorps mobile booth to talk about her pride in being the daughter of a Vietnamese refugee…and her fear of not measuring up. This story was produced for KOSU by Rachel Hubbard and Dustin Drew, with interviews recorded at StoryCorps, a renowned nonprofit organization celebrating the stories of everyday Americans. Thank you to Phillips Murrah law firm for sponsoring StoryCorps' visit to Oklahoma City.

Relationships with parents often change in adulthood. Jeff and Blaze McKenzie, father and son, visited the StoryCorps mobile booth in Oklahoma City and reflected on their evolving relationship. This story was produced for KOSU by Rachel Hubbard and Dustin Drew, with interviews recorded at StoryCorps, a renowned nonprofit organization celebrating the stories of everyday Americans. Thank you to Phillips Murrah law firm for sponsoring StoryCorps' visit to Oklahoma City.

There are points in life that can force or inspire a change of course. Even though he’s a spunky and scrappy 9-year-old today, when Jason and Vanessa Hart heard that their son had cancer... in an instant, everything changed. This story was produced for KOSU by Rachel Hubbard and Dustin Drew, with interviews recorded at StoryCorps, a renowned nonprofit organization celebrating the stories of everyday Americans. Thank you to Phillips Murrah law firm for sponsoring StoryCorps' visit to Oklahoma City.

Jonathan Jackson was working as a contractor in Erbil, in the northern part of Iraq…not exactly the place most people would find love. When Jonathan first saw Rigien Bagekany, he thought she was the coffee lady, not his counterpart in the meeting. But he couldn’t take his eyes off her. They figured out dating in two different cultures and decided to get married, but then they had to tell their families. This story was produced for KOSU by Rachel Hubbard and Dustin Drew, with interviews recorded at StoryCorps, a renowned nonprofit organization celebrating the stories of everyday Americans. Thank you to Phillips Murrah law firm in Oklahoma City for sponsoring StoryCorps' visit to Oklahoma City.