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THE YANCEY JOURNAL
VOL. 4, NO. 27
1776-1976 AMERICAN REVOLUTION BICENTENNIAL
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Annual Crafts Fair
The 20th annas! Mt. Mitchell Crafts Fair is scheduled for
Friday and Saturday, August 6-7 in Burnsville anu will feature
local mountain craftsmen with quilts, bark berry baskets,
pottery, woodwork, painting, glassblowing, and various other
crafts. Other craftsmen will come from a wide area in North
Carolina and from several other states. U
During the two-day event, demonstrations will be provided
by many of the craftsmen as the crafts are displayed and sold to
hundreds of visitors who will be attending the Fair. On
Saturday, the traditional barbecue chicken dinner will be
served after they are barbecued on grills in the area of the Fair.
Entertainment will be provided by local youth as they «l"g and
dance to the delight of the fair goers.
Begun in 1956 by the Parkway Playhouse and continued
since 1965 by the Yancey County Chamber of Commerce, the
Mt. Mitchell Crafts Fair has become a major attraction of the
mountain area. Pictured above is one of our local craftsmen,
Mrs. Mae Laws, with some rs the handmade dolls she will be
showing at the fair.
I ‘Our Town’ Stars‘Mutt’ Burton
r Parkway Opens Season
Every summer for the past
thirty years, Mutt Burton* a
well-known actor in the North
Carolina area, has performed
at least one role on Parkway
Playhouse’s stage in Burns
ville. On July 7-10, Mr.
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Mime Show Staged
Parkway Pl.yhoasa 1. presenting a special pre-season Mine show on Friday, July 2 as an
f^S U olw t^sn U,lrt,eth “ n,VerWy ““• «•&"*« •—«• ticket holder.. $2.00
«e T °!^°T,!T 8 r W,aMM, ‘ L “ P ~ ktoß “ popnUr ‘** l ** Mncel Msrce.u, and nine.
Kalei w “^ face ™ k «*“P- P«*wny’s .how will ferture members of the .
Kaleldoacope Mime Troupe of Greensboro, a group that has toured and entertained professionally
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With e>my*h* *«• htry tale, to unZmd eLdZT W "»Unmd^
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BURNSVILLE, N.U. 28714
Burton will be recreating the
role of the "Stage Manager"
in Onr Town, his first role at
Parkway Playhouse in 1947,
Parkway’s first season of
operation.
Mr. Burton is as appealing
Beecher
Widely A
“John Beecher is a fine
poet, one of the most
important and most authentic
that the nation has produced..
Whatever their form, Beech
er’s poems are honest, spare
and straightforward; they
bludgeon a reader, time after
time, with their emotional
power and their plain good
sense..their greatest strength
is derived from Beecher’s
near perfect ear for the way
people speak. His poems
positively ring with the beauty
of common speech;, he puts
others who have sought to
catch that beauty, like Sand
burg and Vachel Lindsay, to
shame... Now, meet an Amer-
Special
'‘Heritage ’
Program
Since this is our bicenten
nial birthday year, wouldn’t
you like to know about Yancey
County’s birthday?
Y’all come to the Com
munity Building on Thursday,
July 8, at 8 o’clock and hear
Yancey Schools Superinten
dent Edgar Hunter share his
findings on the heritage of our
county. The Woman’s Gub
extends an invitation to one
and all who are interested in
the birthday of Yancey Coun
ty. Hostesses Mrs. E.L.
Briggs, Mrs. Ralph Jacks and
Mrs. Harlon Holcombe, will
be serving “old time” re
freshments for the event.
on stage today as he ever was
and it even seems that he has
added sparkle and stage
warmth as the years go by.
After all, the stage is his
home.
According to one of
9 s Poems
cclaimed
ican master, the best poet the
South has ever produced.”-A
Louisville Courier-Journal ft
Times writer had this to say
about the poet whose 50 years
of collected poems have been
published by Macmillan un
der the title “Collected
Poems, 1924-1974”.
John Beecher, who with
his wife Barbara, an artist,
lives in Burnsville, views his
““Collected Poems” as the
capstone of his career. He is
now hard at work on his
autobiography, also to be
published by Macmillan.
Some of Beecher’s poems,
though they deal with events
of 30 or 40 years ago, have
actually grown more current
with the passing years. That
is because some elements of
the poet’s vision have been
realized in this country. When
the poems were written,
however, that vision seemed
unbelievable and somewhat
dangerous.
Most of the poems have
grown out of Beecher’s life in
the South-his work in Ala
bama steel mills, his life
among sharecroppers, his
knowledge of the Ku Klux
Klan and the atrocities
they’ve heaped upon South
ern blacks. The poems do not '
romanticizej/r sentimentalize;
they do show clearly and
perceptively the lives of those
who are on “the bottom of the
heap” in America.
According to the Christian
Science Monitor: “In an age
when most poets have turned
their eyes inward upon
Parkway’s student perform
ers, “It is inspirational to
watch Mr. Burton perform.
He is so relaxed, everything
seems to be so easy for him,
and audiences adore him.’’
Burnsville audiences do
love watching “Mutt” per
form year after year in such
memorable roles as Elwood P.
Dowd in Harvey, W.O. Gant
in Look Homeward Angel,
Grandpa Vanderhof in Yon
Can’t Take It With Yon, and
Willy Loman in Death Os A
Salesman.
Mr. Burton is very excited
about having a thirtieth
anniversary performance as
the “Stage Manager”, espe
cially since he believes the
play is “A supreme adventure
in playgoing. If ever a play
was predestined to live in the
memory of an audience Oar
Town is that play.”
Dames At Sea, The
Matchmaker, The Glass Men
agerie, and Sooth Pacific
complete Parkway’s season
with performances at 8:30 on
Wednesday through Saturday
nights through August 14.
Season tickets are on sale at
[Cont’d on page 8]
Crestview
Pool Opens
Crestview Pool will open
Saturday, July 3, at 11:00
a.m. Pool hours for the
summer are 11 a.ih. to 6 p.m.
Monday through Saturday
and 1 to 6 p.m. on Sundays.
THURSDAY, JULY 1, 1976
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Beecher paai e * lia " '
dreams, meditations and pri
vate fantasies, John Beecher
is a refreshing hold-out. He
awites-a,poetry that is..firmly
in the public domain...an epic
of protest against injustice,
discrimination, racism, bigo
try.”
“If John Beecher were a
Mrs. Scott Campaign!
Includes Yancey
Jessie Rae Scott, Demo
cratic candidate for Com
missioner of Labor, will be at
Jessie Rae Scott
the Yancey County Court
house on Friday, July 2, at 4
I
Second Concert Slated
The second concert by taeCelo Chamber Players will be
Iven In Burnsville, not on Sunday July 4,, but on Monday
toning July S at 8 p.m. In the Presbyterian Church. The
rogram will Include the Shumann Fairy Tales trio for n.rif«
101. and Piano, the Musical Offering Trio Sonata by Bach and
lozart’s String Quartet, K. 575. In addition ,‘o the string
•Utel. piano, and batpalchonl, (ha two wind, that wOl ba
character actor instead of a
poet, he could play all the best
parts in a pageant of America
past..a one-man recorder of
American experience,” says I
Time magazine. J
This man, who enters I
[Cont’d on page 8]
p.m. to meet friends from
Yancey County and discuss
important issues with them.
Mrs. Scott is the former
first lady of N#fth Carolina,
wife of Bob Scott. She has
always been interested in
civic and political activities,
both in her own county of
Alamance and statewide. She
held many local and state
appointments, but this is her
first statewide campaign.
A former schoolteacher,
Mrs. Scott is a firm believer in
getting more women involved
in high and important posi
tions in state government.
Everyone is urged to come
to the meeting to visit and
discuss issues with Jessie Rae
Scott.
15 c