Posts Tagged 'Lori Humphreys'

Portraits of grace: McCarthys a fixture at Service of Blessing and Healing

Portraits of grace: McCarthys a fixture at Service of Blessing and Healing

It is 10:15 a.m., and Chautauqua’s morning bustle has begun. The Daily paper boy’s call is accompanied by the shuffle of feet and voices as Chautauquans begin to head for the Amphitheater lecture. It can all be heard from the United Church of Christ Randell Chapel. But the noise seems to fade as Roman Catholic Deacon Ed McCarthy and Jane, his wife, begin the daily Service of Blessing and Healing.

At 19 Wiley, the home that escaped time

At 19 Wiley, the home that escaped time

Edith and Steve Benson’s Chautauqua cottage sits at 19 Wiley, surrounded by an aged picket fence. Pushing open the gate, walking under the arched trellis draped in akebia and along a short curved stone walkway dripping with yellow roses, blue Russian Sage and the hardy remnant of a purple clematis up to the Benson’s porch is akin to visiting a home from a bygone era.

The Women Behind the Memorials: Eleanor Roosevelt: A woman of Chautauqua

The Women Behind the Memorials: Eleanor Roosevelt: A woman of Chautauqua

There are three observations, among many, gleaned from reading The Chautauquan Daily reporting of Eleanor Roosevelt’s eight visits to Chautauqua from 1927-1937. First: how farsighted her concerns and comments were, particularly in the July 7, 1930, and the July 25, 1933, speeches. Second: the reporting, which inadvertently describes the contrast in the freedom of movement Roosevelt enjoyed to the impenetrable gauze of security which wraps national political figures today. Third: how vivid and observant the reporting was, especially Elizabeth Hall’s July 26, 1933, Daily “Ground Wires” column.

The Women Behind the Memorials: The woman who bought the Amphitheater

The Women Behind the Memorials: The woman who bought the Amphitheater

Geraldine Gebbie Bellinger bought Chautauqua’s Amphitheater in 1935. Well, to be precise, she joined her daughter, Janet, and sister, Marion Bertram Gebbie, and made a $5,000 sentimental purchase of the Amp. It was a donation to the “Save Chautauqua Fund” and was one of the larger single contributions to the three-year effort to rescue the Institution from its creditors.