Pleasant Living Magazine

On a crisp morning in September, Thea Marshall sits on her screened porch overlooking Taylor’s Creek. The view is simple, but luminous: rays of sunlight making diamonds in the water, a tiny white sailboat bobbing in the distance. There are no other houses for miles. "What could be more delicious than this?" Marshall laughs, and I’m not sure I know a good answer. After all, it is this very view—so characteristic of the wild seclusion and beauty of the river country—that inspired Marshall, a long-time local NPR commentator, to publish her recent book, Neck Tales: Stories from Virginia's Northern Neck

The book, a collection of commentaries about everything from sixth-generation farmers to the little-known adventures of early American heroes, captures the unique culture of the Northern Neck in a way nothing else in print has yet attempted to do. Around here, Marshall is best known as a commentator for WCVE, broadcast in Richmond and Heathsville, and her original radio commentaries about the Northern Neck served as the basis for the material that eventually became Neck Tales. But like the blue waterways that snake across the Northern Neck, Marshall’s vignettes have a long, winding history.

"The reason I loved radio was because I could be anything I wanted to be: short, fat, tall, thin, ugly, beautiful," says Marshall, who began her career doing voiceover commercials in New York City and St. Louis. "I could change my voice and sound like everything from a child to a computer. It was—it still is—great fun." But despite her big-city background and her tremendous theatrical talents, Marshall assures me that her love affair with the Northern Neck was quite a classic one, if a little unexpected.

Go Red Richmond Event at Executive Mansion

First Lady Maureen McDonnell hosted members of the Circle of Red Tuesday, September 14, at the Executive Mansion. Circle of Red co-chairs Tracy Retchin and Jill Bussey Harris, and 2012 Chair Marilyn H. West shared the mission of Go Red Richmond with attendees and thanked the Circle of Red members for their personal contributions to the campaign. Dr. Renee Reid, Director of Quality Improvement, Department of Emergency Medicine VCU Health System, spoke to attendees about the importance of advocating for their health and taking care of their hearts.

"Heart disease and stroke claim more women’s lives each year than the next five causes of death combined, and nearly twice as many as all forms of cancer," said Go Red Richmond chair Marilyn West. "Through the generosity of our sponsors, volunteers and individuals, we WILL make a difference for women and their hearts in Richmond and nationwide."

For more information on heart disease in women, visit http://www.goredforwomen.org/

Book Signings for Echoes in Ferryland

Two Scheduled Talks & Signings for Echoes in Ferryland, by Nancy Clark 

Monday, November 14, 2011 at 2:30 p.m., at

Trinity Episcopal Church

8484 Mary Ball Road

Lancaster, Va

(sponsored by Mary Ball Washington Museum and Library)

Friday, December 2, 2011 at 2:00 p.m., at

Kilmarnock Museum

76 North Main Street

Kilmarnock, Va

Echoes in Ferryland is a title published by Belle Isle Books, an imprint of Brandylane Publishers, Inc

The Irene Morgan Story

(Continued from the March/April 2011 print edition)

Irene Morgan would later move to New York City where she lived with her husband. He owned a dry cleaning business and Morgan worked as a maid and provided childcare services. In 1985, at the age of sixty-eight, she graduated from St. John’s University with a degree in communications and in 1990 received a master’s degree from Queens College in urban studies.  

Irene Morgan isn’t one of the most well known civil rights activists, but she did receive some recognition later on in life. According to Virginia’s own Southside Sentinel, she was honored by the National Congress of Black Women in Saluda, Virginia. Said a spokesperson from Lebanon Worship Center, where the ceremony was held, “As we re-read and investigate history, we often discover that so many named have been left off the list of out heroes. Irene Morgan is just that person.” Morgan was featured in the 1995 public television documentary “You Don’t Have to Ride Jim Crow!” about the Journey of Reconciliation and other early progress in civil rights. In 2000, she was honored at Gloucester County’s 350^th anniversary celebration and in 2001 was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Clinton.  

Morgan died in 2007 at age ninety in Gloucester County where she spent her last few years. She lived her life not as a civil rights activist, but as a normal woman who stood up for what she believed in, and this is how she would like to be remembered. To quote Morgan once more, “I just want to be remembered as somebody who did the right thing.”