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       	                Perry Family Honored at Stuart's Birthplace           

“It is in indeed an honor and privilege for me to deliver these remarks as we honor the Perry Family with the first placement of a polished granite marker here at the main flagpole of Laurel Hill. This marker is placed in recognition of the many contributions by this family, not only to the formative years of the Trust, but to its continuation and indeed to its survival. Now, if you will permit me a small amount of humor to introduce the theme of my remarks, I would like to relate this short anecdote. Many of you, I am sure, recall the name of Rudyard Kipling, the famous English author of such works as Gunga Din, The Road to Mandalay and many, many more tales. Well, the story goes that is was circulated throughout London that Kipling was paid a shilling for every word that he wrote. So a group of enterprising students at Oxford sent Mr. Kipling a letter containing a shilling and asked that he send them one of his words. The unexpected reply came back with one word, “Thanks.”

And that one word “Thanks” is the reason we are gathered her today. Thanks to a family whose vision, dedication and perseverance in the cause of insuring that this historic property known as Laurel Hill would never be desecrated by the presence of a private home on this lovely knoll, or heaven forbid a housing development, it at long last being recognized.

Every organization, be it the largest corporate entity or the smallest civic group has to undergo a beginning stage. This stage of its life cycle is arguably its most important. For it is at this stage that the seeds are sown that more often than not portend success or failure for an embryonic enterprise. It was no different for the Trust that exists today. At the outset, I realized that my words cannot do justice to this subject, that it is an impossible task to adequately express here today what the contributions of this family have meant to both the Trust and to Laurel Hill itself. Perhaps the best thing I can do is to illuminate some of the sacrifices they made, to replay a few of the highlights of the important events in which they were instrumental here at Laurel Hill and some of their “digging in the dirt” physical accomplishments.

No doubt at the point you have noticed my references to the Perrys has been codified by the “family.” This is because their son, Thomas, who was and is an integral part of the reason for this ceremony today sincerely wanted the emphasis of my remarks to reflect the primacy of his mother and father’s role in his nearly life long association with Laurel Hill. To emphasize this point, he gently refused my offer to place his name on the stone along with his parents. Thomas Perry has been many things to many people, but first and foremost he has been a dutiful and loving son.

Now the difficult task before me to try to condense what the Perry Family has meant to Laurel Hill. I have to ask that you turn the pages back to some thirty seven years ago to see a nine year old boy riding on the road to Mount Airy with his mother who sees the historical marker beside the road amongst the brush that says “Stuart’s Birthplace.” He wonders what it is all about. It was the point, that the family and Laurel Hill begin its journey together. For only a mother’s love and desire to support her son’s new found interest in history in general and James Stuart in particular could have stoked the fire that has burned to this day. Of one thing there can be no doubt that the contributions her son was to make in the years yet to come to save the Laurel Hill Farm from falling into private hands were a direct result of her willing sacrifice of time, money and sometimes great inconvenience to insure that his interest was fostered and nurtured throughout adolescence. George and Icy Bowman Brown, the then owners of the present day Laurel Hill were, I am sure, surprised to see this mother and son standing at their front door a little ill at ease. As the questions tumbled out of this little boy, George Brown being a quintessential grandfatherly type took him under his wing and spent endless days after that first meeting to walk over every nook and cranny of Laurel Hill with him and answered the endless questions that the imagination of a little boy engendered. As the years passed this little boy who had roamed Laurel Hill imagining that he was the reincarnation of a small James Stuart looking for a hornet’s nest to knock down, and riding bareback furiously over the hills, finished the education that Patrick County could provide. I am sure to his mother’s relief he matriculated at VPI majoring in history and studied under the renowned Civil War Professor James I. Robertson, Jr.

When the year 1990 arrived it became apparent that the health of both George and Icy Bowman Brown was failing and that Laurel Hill would soon be for sale. Thomas, along with other members of the Stuart Civil War Round Table set about to form an organization to raise the necessary funds to purchase Laurel Hill and thus save this valuable piece of historic property for future generations to see and enjoy. This was an incredibly difficult undertaking involving almost every conceivable method fund raising during which time it is difficult to adequately portray the involvement of Mr. and Mrs. Perry who gave unselfishly of their time, money and just plain hard work to reach the seemingly unreachable goal of raising nearly seventy five thousand dollars. But they did. And the Trust was born.

In those early years funds were short, exhaustion had set in from months of back breaking travel in fund raisers and it seemed that the mountain had been climbed, and all the climbers were prostrate. Not so the Perrys. For now when it was needed most Erie and Betty Perry kicked into high gear. They provided gravel for what was then euphemistically called a road, Mrs. Perry designed and planted a flower garden which graces the entrance to Laurel Hill to this day, and then in a moment of inspiration she planted the lovely forsythia bushes at the entrance whose yellow blooms herald the arrival of spring each year. In her words, “Yellow for the cavalry.” Her beautiful day lilies continue each year to brighten our scene as if they are there to remind us all of the lovely lady who planted them there. For these and contributions too numerous to mention we are gathered here today to place this memorial in honor of a family without whose generosity, time and labor it is entirely possible that we would not have the ground to place it on. While the words “Thank You” seemingly are inadequate they are rendered from the hearts of all of us whose privilege it is today lead Laurel Hill into the future.

So, in closing, let me say the sobriquet “First Lady of Laurel Hill” rests rightly on the mantle of Betty Hobbs Perry.”

        -- John Broughton, President of the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust on October 7, 2006

                                                       Erie Meredith and Betty Jane Hobbs Perry at Laurel Hill

     Erie and Betty came to Ararat, Patrick County, Virginia in 1959 when he took a position at Blue Ridge High School as teacher/assistant principal. He coached baseball and basketball. Their only child Thomas David Perry was born on November 4, 1960. In 1963, he accepted the position of Principal at Red Bank Elementary School in Claudville, Virginia. He returned to Blue Ridge Elementary School in 1973 from which he retired in 1988. Betty Perry worked for Doctor Tuledge in Claudville and then worked at Cross Creek Apparel in Mount Airy for over thirty years.

Erie Perry Honored Twice in 2006!

In 2006, Erie Meredith Perry received the Granite City Award from the Mount Airy North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.

Above left, Erie Perry and Ronald Johnson at the Hall of Fame marker near the library in Mount Airy.

Ronald Johnson was the first recipient of the Granite City Award as was Erie in 2006.

Erie and Ronald broadcast Mount Airy Granite Bear Football and other sporting events on WSYD for over

thirty years. Above right, David Beal, Ronald Johnson and Erie Perry before the induction ceremony.

Thanks to David Beal and the other committee members for their support.

Erie above with the other inductees and below giving his induction speech for the Granite City Award.

Retired Teachers and Staff at Blue Ridge Elementary School Honored Including Erie Perry

Honorees at Blue Ridge Elementary School with Tom Perry and Supervisor Jonathon Large.

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Copyright 2007 Thomas D. Perry. No material to be used without permission. Contact Information: P. O. Box 50 Ararat VA 24053 freestateofpatrick@yahoo.com