1997 Spring Annual Meeting: Northern Neck

December 22, 2021

The 77th Annual Meeting was hosted by the Garden Club of the Northern Neck on May 13-15, 1997, at the Tides Inn in Irvington, co-chaired by Kay Cardwell and Mary Chester Griffith.

The Board of Directors met on Tuesday, May 13, 1997, at the Northern Neck home of Kathy Dunton, an eighteenth-century historic landmark called “Verville,” offering a spectacular view of the Corrotoman River.

Betty Schutte announced with great excitement that the Kent-Valentine House Campaign passed the $2,000,000 goal. She also told the committee of plans to present cause to the General Assembly for exemption from state sales tax. Finally, she shared a color printout of the Historic Garden Week webpage and pointed out that email for Susan Flowers and Suzanne Munson has the potential for saving hundreds of dollars, as that is the most efficient way of getting information out to publications and to the public. In other HGW news, Chairman Helen Hamilton reported she had received a letter from Virginia Beach and Princess Anne to inform GCV they are combining their 1998 HGW tours.

Jody Brinkley moved that board members not be required to sign a paper saying they had read the minutes of the board meetings, Annual Meeting and Board of Governors. Motion carried. Elizabeth Boetsch invited all husbands to the dinner prior to the Lily Show.

Following the board meeting, attendees were invited to cruise aboard the Tides Inn boat, “Miss Ann,” followed by a delicious seafood dinner.

Miss Ann was built by Pusey & Jones Shipyard of Wilmington, Delaware, in 1926 as the pleasure yacht Siele for John French of Detroit. In 1941, a subsequent owner sold her to the U.S. Navy, which pressed her into service as the USS Aquamarine during World War II. Retrofitted with military gear and painted battleship gray, she was used for underwater acoustics, radar research, and as a special tender to the presidential yachts Potomac and Williamsburg. In 1955, the decommissioned ship was purchased by E.A. Stephens, who renamed her Miss Ann for his wife and rehabilitated her for use at his resort, the Tides Inn, where the ship evoked her glamorous past with her teak cabin house and main decks, and walnut-paneled interiors. She served the guests at the Tides Inn for 52 years.

From www.dhr.virginia.gov/historic-registers/242-0034/

Betty called the Annual Meeting to order at the Tides Inn on Wednesday morning and thanked members of the Northern Neck Garden Club for their gracious hospitality. Northern Neck President Ann Terhune welcomed attendees and called on Helen Murphy, founding member of the Garden Club of the Northern Neck, former President of the Garden Club of Virginia and current Restoration Committee Chairman to present the club’s history. Originally an auxiliary club of the Rappahannock Valley Garden Club, the Garden Club of the Northern Neck was founded in 1966, with members from Lancaster, Northumberland, Richmond and Westmoreland counties living as far as 75 miles apart, and was invited to join the Garden Club of Virginia in 1969. The club has planted wildflowers on nature walks at Stratford Hall and at George Washington’s birthplace, created a planting around the Chinn House at Rappahannock Valley Community College in Warsaw, and a white garden at Rappahannock Westminster-Canterbury.

Helen continued, “Mary Lloyd Lay started a monthly club newsletter of announcements, plant news and club recipes. A contest winner provided the name ‘Hot Garden Flashes.’  Mary Lloyd also began the practice of wearing a sign around her neck with the Latin name of a plant on it and insisted she be addressed by that name during the meeting. We did fairly well with Mertensia virginica, but balked a bit when we got to Ilex vomitoria, especially during lunch.”

Helen closed her history, “We hope that this Annual Meeting will run a bit more smoothly than the 1983 one when the after-dinner entertainer enjoyed far too much before-dinner libation to perform and, at the business meeting the next morning, the chairman of the meeting, Pat Carter, filled in with song and dance because the speaker had to cancel at the last minute.”

Betty Schutte then described her yearlong activities, ranging from long meetings with architects and contractors, to canoeing on the Pamunkey River with conservation chairmen, describing them as “a bunch of live wires.”

Morning business included distribution of the latest GCV Speakers Bureau Book, compiled by Judy Perry. Treasurer Mary Hart Darden reviewed the board decision to combine the de Lacy Gray Fund, the Susa Snider Fund and the Elizabeth Cabell Dugdale Fund into a single interest-bearing fund within the trust account, to be referred to as the Conservation Awards Fund.

Fleet Davis announced the 1997 Horticulture Awards of Merit: Virginia Clay Savage, Eastern Shore; Jody Petersen, Hampton Roads; Frances Booth Kincanon, Mill Mountain; and Rebecca White McCoy, Winchester-Clarke.

Lula Hopkins held a balloon to represent FTGA II, then popped the balloon to show the FTGA II committee at 12:10 p.m. on the prior Monday when they learned the book would not be distributed at this meeting.

Speakers were The Honorable W. Tayloe Murphy, Jr. and C. Jackson Simmons, attorney, author and local historian.

After the meeting was adjourned, Suzy and Bob Lee Stephens served a festive lunch to attendees at Topside, their lovely home on Carters Creek.

The awards banquet was held in the Tides Inn dining room.

Common Wealth Award Chairman Rossie Fisher announced that an anonymous donor offered a $10,000 one-to-one matching grant to benefit the Common Wealth Award with a deadline of June 1998. She reminded attendees that the committee has a slide show of past Common Wealth Award recipients to share with clubs.

Kent-Valentine House Chairman Barbara Catlett described luncheons, coffees and meetings at the Kent-Valentine House in the middle of ongoing construction, with the Commonwealth Club and the Woman’s Club offering space when needed. She reported that the GCV apartment was vacated in November 1996, providing much needed storage space, a small meeting room, bath and staff kitchen. She also reported that architect Douglas Harnsberger continued to lease the Carriage House, retelling the story that he had moved into the Carriage House in late 1995 and, in finalizing his tax assessment liability, city records indicated his rent was “grossly lacking when compared to other comparable properties.”

Nominations Chairman Katty Mears presented two names for election as Directors at Large: Widgie Zirkle, the Spotswood Garden Club and Charlotte Frischkorn, the Tuckahoe Garden Club of Westhampton and moved to accept the slate. The motion was seconded and passed.

Pamela Harper, award-winning gardening author, photographer and horticulturist, then presented a beautiful and informative slide lecture showing perennials from her Seaford garden.

Deedy Bumgardner gave a clever tribute to the  Garden Club of the Northern Neck describing the “skeleton of the Garden Club of Virginia, and it’s not in the closet,” and the Annual Meeting was adjourned.