“The idea to invite Eleanor Roosevelt to the festival [White Top Folk Festival] came from the event’s founder and director, Annabel Morris Buchanan, a talented composer and prodigious collector of all kinds of folk music.
“In 1933 she wrote to the soon-to-be first lady: ‘I think you and President Roosevelt might find the mountain, with its marvelous view and the folk musicians, a refreshing change…’ ” (Anderson, “A First Lady in a False Kingdom”)
Even though she had never visited Southwest Virginia, Eleanor Roosevelt was not a stranger to the area. As we have seen, her father Elliott “was closely identified with the early development of the White Top property” owned and operated by the Douglas Land Company. He also was involved in overseeing the company’s mining operation in the Western portion of the state (present day Coeburn). Elliott’s early years were marked by instability and erratic behavior. He was an alcoholic and an embarrasment to his staid family, especially to his older brother Theodore who had embarked on a political career. His marriage to a socialite only exacerbated the situation. An affair with his maidservant led to the birth of a son out of wedlock and as a result Elliott was dispatched to the wilds of Souhwest Virginia.
“Elliott’s absence from his family and New York City was explained by Corrine and Douglas Robinson [his sister and brother-in-law] in a glib way: Elliott was being sent to Abingdon to manage the Robinson’s timber interests in Southwest Virginia.” (“Roosevelts in Southwest Virginia,” p.11)
The Abingdon ‘Cure’
“The Abingdon redemption plan may very well have worked…had Elliott’s time to succeed not been cut short by a string of ballad-worthy tragedies.” (“First Lady in a False Kingdom”)
Elliott’s time in Abindon was relatively short-lived. While there, he took rooms in a boarding house run by Mrs. Campbell, widow of Judge John A, Campbell, at 116 East Main Street. When his wife died suddenly from diphtheria in December of that year, he was barred from seeing his children who were into the care of their grandmother Hall.
“In May 1893, five months after Anna’s death, his namesake Elliott Roosevelt, Jr., died of scarlet fever in his Grandmother Hall’s home. Now, too the panic of 1893 threw the economy into chaos.”
“Through it all Elliott’s nerves and health went into rapid decline. Some time in early 1894 he left Virginia.”(“Roosevelts in Southwest Virginia,” p. 13-14). He died tragically in a New York hotel shortly thereafter.
Eleanor’s Connection with Southwest Virginia
“Eleanor revered her father throughout her life. Her memories of him were of an encouraging and loving father. She strove to live up to his charitable and generous acceptance of all people.” (“Roosevelts in Southwest Virginia,” p. 15) And through her father she came to revere the area where he found some measure of happiness and purpose.
“If, as Eleanor’s contemporary Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote, ‘childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies, for Eleanor, that kingdom was Abingdon. Southwest Virginia was never etched in her memory so much as it was aloft in her imagination, buoyed by a lifelong grief.” (“A First Lady in a False Kingdom”)
Note: There is some diference in opinion about whether Eleanor Roosevelt had actually visited Abingdon prior to 1933. Mack Sturgill suggests that ” ‘Young Nell’ had spent some time in the area when her father resided there.” Hendrika Schuster asserts that “Contrary to popular belief, Eleanor spent none of her childhood in Abingdon.”
- “A First Lady in a False Kingdom: A Curious Convergence at White Top, Christa Smith Anderson, Oxford American, Issue 67, “The 11th Annual Southern Music Issue” (December 2009)
- “Roosevelts in Southwest Virginia, Part I, ‘Elliott Roosevelt: a Man in Mental Torment’,” Hendrika Schuster HSWCVa Bulletin, Series II, No. 35 (1998)
- “First Lady Visits Whitetop,” Mack Sturgill. New River Notes [Grayson County, Virginia Heritage Foundation. Online: https://www.newrivernotes.com; accessed 1/04/2024
- How the Lumber Boom and the Chestnut Blight Changed the Face of Whitetop
“Appalachian Life and Culture,” White Top Folk Festival, 1931-1939
Next: Lost Treasures