Old Guard performs in Port Royal
By Ed Simmons, Jr.
cpreporter@lcs.net
Preparing the way for a quiet, peaceful July 4th last Sunday, Caroline's Independence Day celebrations on Saturday were rich with patriotic commemoration which included the opening of the historic Portrait Gallery in Port Royal and an exciting visit to the Colonial town from the President's own U.S. Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps. Visitors to Caroline could keep busy all day beginning with a visit to the historic Penola Store in southern Caroline, then traveling north for the Independence Day Celebration in Port Royal, and then heading back south for the Ruritan Independence Day Celebration at the old Edmund Pendleton School that evening.
Penola Store
At 8 a.m. Saturday morning visitors were lined up to step into the vintage atmosphere of the Victorian-era Penola Store located at the RF&P tracks on Penola Road. This is the 39th year Kitty Gordon has opened the beautiful old flag-draped, two-story general store to the public, which happens each year only for Independence Day. Inside is a museum-like treasury of heirlooms for sale, collected by Kitty and her daughters Valerie Gordon and Nancy Carson, assistant principal at Lewis and Clark Elementary School. If you haven't yet been to the picturesque and intriguing old Penola Store, don't miss it next July 4th. It's a Caroline treasure.
Old Guard marches into Caroline
After Kenneth Paige sang a rousing and hauntingly beautiful "Star-Spangled Banner" and Supervisor Floyd Thomas gave the opening prayer, the highlight of patriotic festivities at St. Peter's Episcopal Church for this year's Port Royal Independence Day Celebration was the incomparable U.S. Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps. With their trim scarlet coats, precision marching and splendid music, they delighted the crowd gathered in the churchyard where earlier the stalwart Michael Newman proclaimed the Declaration of Independence, the St. Andrew's Legion Pipe and Drum Corps performed a patriotic medley, and Dolly Roy (portrayed by Linda Ward) told of her entrepreneurial stratagems that created the Colonial town. At St. Peter's too, Dal Mallory told of his ancestor Captain Sally Tompkins who attended the Episcopal church in years following the Civil War, when she operated the Robertson Hospital in Richmond for the wounded. Famous throughout the South, she was the only woman, North or South, commissioned as an officer.
Historic Portrait Gallery opens
Climaxing the Port Royal Celebration, visitors packed Town Hall for the opening of the Portrait Gallery displaying the images of 16 Caroline personages, the gift of county historian and Smithsonian curator emeritus Herbert Ridgeway Collins. As the faces of county greats such as General William Woodford, Judge Edmund Pendleton, John Taylor of Caroline and the venerable Rev. James Cyrus of Shiloh Baptist shone from the walls, the assembled heard letters of commendation read from Delegates Albert Pollard and Chris Peace, and together the crowd standing shoulder-to-shelter raised their voices to sing "America The Beautiful." "Kenneth Paige led the song and the crowd which must have been a hundred people joined in and it just soared," said Cleo Coleman, president of Historic Port Royal. She said she had received many calls about opening the gallery again soon, and will be discussing that with Town Council. She has in mind a docent clothed in historic attire discussing the persons portrayed. With three more museums planned for succeeding years in Port Royal, last Saturday was indeed a golden day.
Ronnie Williams at Edmund Pendleton
By evening the Ruritans of Reedy Church, as is their Independence Day tradition, hosted a sumptuous chicken barbecue, and the much-beloved Ronnie Williams returned once again with The Carter Family Sound to delight the after-dinner audience with vintage songs. Williams paid tribute to singer Patsy Verling, 59, a long-time member of the group who passed on in January. The Edmond Pendleton School, home of the Reedy Church Ruritans, is locally famous for hosting many times in the late 1940's Mother Maybelle Carter and her daughters Helen, Anita and June, wife of Johnny Cash. Ronnie Williams, who learned to play from Mother Maybelle herself, continues to perform her favorites, such as "Keep on the Sunnyside" and "You Are My Sunshine."