Note; Over 30years after his death, many have asked about my Dad. I covered that in my biography but I present these comments  from his retirement ceremony. In retirement, he enjoyed three years devoted to his art and his love of nature, the content of many of his paintings.

Luther F. Addington was an educator in Southwest Virginia schools for 42 years. He was also known as “Historian of Wise County, VA”. He presented the following transcript in a speech at my father’s retirement ceremony in 1974. He died one year after my father, in February 1978.

DT

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“On this June 30, 1974 we assemble in the Southwest Virginia Museum to pay tribute to a man who for 28 years has worked diligently to make this place known not only to people of this area but to those of far-flung places of the country. He succeeded in this endeavor because he loved people and took great pains to show visitors the many interesting exhibits in the building.

His keen sense of service and courtesy often prompted him to admit visitors from afar on days when the doors were closed. Such a case was that of Episcopal Bishop and Mrs. William H. Marimon, who wrote him after their return home as follows: “The Bishop and I want you to know how deeply we appreciated your opening it on Monday, when it was supposed to be closed, to make it possible for us to go through.”

A question in my mind, as it may also be in yours, is: How happened James E. True to come to Big Stone Gap? The reason had its beginning long before Mr. True was born, in fact long before there was a country called the United States. It began with a man who led a contingent of Virginia troops into battle against the Shawnees at Point Pleasant on the Ohio River October 10, 1774, the man who was later put in command of the Virginia Militia and with them chased Virginia’s colonial governor, Dunmore, from the state, causing him to sail for his home in Scotland. That man was Colonel Andrew Lewis.

Well, what did Andrew Lewis have to do with James E. True and his coming to Big Stone Gap?

Here’s the story: In Salem, Virginia, a new high school needed a name. So it was called Andrew Lewis High School in honor of a Virginia frontier Indian fighter, an Irishman by the name of Andrew Lewis. Afterwards citizen’s of Salem thought it would be appropriate to have in the school a painting of Andrew Lewis. And in Salem lived a young portrait painter whose name was James True. So they employed True to do the job.

And he did it. In fact he did such an excellent job that the painting attracted wide attention.

One who saw and admired that painting of Colonel Lewis was Miss Adele Clark then head of the WPA arts program in Virginia. Miss Clark who, of course, visited the Federal Arts Gallery in Big Stone Gap got acquainted with C. Bascom Slemp. That was in 1938. Mr. Slemp wanted an artist to do some work for him–to paint pictures of dignitaries in Lee and Wise Counties to be displayed in the Courthouses, also he wanted some dioramas done. At the same time the Federal Art Gallery on the third floor of the primary school building in Big Stone Gap needed a supervisor of the art classes in progress. Miss Clark told Mr. Slemp she believed the man who had painted a portrait of Andrew Lewis would well fit into the dual job. So Mr. True was employed for this work. You may see the portraits he did hanging on the walls of the Lee and Wise Courthouses today.

Thus far I have related to how Mr. True happened to come to Big Stone Gap, but I have not told how the museum was started.

The seeds of a museum were planted by Janie Slemp Newman, a sister of C. Bascom Slemp, when she collected several quilts, pieced and quilted by women of Southwest Virginia, together with several pioneer home articles. These things were at first stored in a garage near the present museum building. C. Bascom Slemp delighted in taking people on tours through the garage. Soon he began gathering more items to add to his sister’s collection.

Soon he began gathering more items to add to his sister’s collection.

This game him the idea of establishing a museum in honor of his sister. Although he was willing to contribute his own funds to such a project he felt the State should join him in the creation of a museum and help provide for its maintenance and supervision. with this thought in mind he brought Virginia governors and other Virginians of influence to Big Stone Gap, entertaining them and advanced his proposal of a jointly established and maintained museum.

He died in 1943 without seeing his dream realized. However, three years after his death, in 1946, there came a revival of interest on the part of the State of Virginia in the establishment of a museum. Then the State got possession of the collection housed in the garage and in addition bought the General Rufus A. Ayers building in which the collection could be displayed with ample room to exhibit the acquisitions of more frontier household articles.

The problem of classifying and exhibiting the items already on hand, the acquisition of additional articles and taking care of them properly posed a problem, and there seemed to be no one on the scene qualified for the job.

But some of the townsmen thought of James True whose job with the Federal Art Gallery had ended in 1941. So, the position of Museum Curator and director was offered to True.

“I was surely glad to get the job,” Mr. True said, “for after my teaching at the Gallery had closed I found myself struggling to support my family. Now and then I’d get a picture to paint. I’d do sign painting whenever I could find such work to do. We were then living in the wake of the Great Depression and business was still dull.”

When Mr. True arrived on the job in 1946 he began directing a renovation of the Ayers building. This work went on for two years, from 1946 to 1948.

“Most of the work was on the exterior,” Mr. True says. “Porches were rotted down. Major changes were made on the outside. But the interior was left very much as it was.”

“We were hard up for metal, especially nails. We hired one man to pull nails from old lumber and straighten them. These we reused.”

Mr. True says the renovation of the building was done under the direction of Edmund S. Campbell, professor of art and architecture at the University of  Virginia.

Once the building was declared fit for use material began to be brought in. Mr. True says there were four basic contributions. First, the Janie Slemp Newman collection. Second, that made by the late Maynard Gibson who had been foreman of the construction work. Third was a gift from the Coldiron Estate; this comprised many pioneer household articles stored in what was known as the “Brick Store” in Lee County. Fourth, the D.A.R. and the U.D.C. furnished two rooms on the second floor.

Soon after these basics gifts were made, Mr. True says, items began pouring in from various places.

One of the early contributions came from the State of Louisiana. It was a doll bed with a canopy, sent by a woman whom Mr. True let enter the museum one day after the doors were closed.

Then one day later Mr. True glanced out toward the street and saw a man get off a bus carrying a peculiar looking thing. The man came on up to the Museum and put down the load. The man proved to be Joseph Smythe of Pennington Gap, a retiree from a fireman’s job in Washington, D.C.

Another man brought up from Dryden a buggy which had been used by the late Tyler Parsons to deliver mail on a rural route for 32 years.

Mrs. Bob Fink brought from Norton a big dictionary once owned by Dr. M. B. Taylor, better known as the Red Fox, and donated it as a memorial to her late husband.

And, so it went, on and on, until today the Museum houses more articles used by pioneer families than can be enumerated in a short paper.

The most common remark made by visitors after looking over the exhibits, Mr. True says, is, “I don’t see how the pioneers lived with the materials and equipment they had to work with.”

“They were resourceful,” Mr. True always answered. And, if they hadn’t been resourceful we wouldn’t be here today.”

Records in the museum show that around 20,000 people visit it each year, which means over a half million visitors have come and gone since its establishment.

Mr. True has been not only an efficient museum curator but he has distinguished himself in the field of art. He studied art at the Arts Student League in New York under Bridgeman and Dumond. His favorite artist of recent times was Walter Biggs, famous illustrator and painter. It was he who advised Mr. True to study art at the Art Student League, and for that reason he won a place in Mr. True’s affections.

But his favorite of all artists was the French Renoir painter who exhibited singular skill in depicting flesh color and skin texture. He could make facial expressions come alive. Renoir lived from 1841 to 1919.

While Mr. True has gained considerable recognition for his work as an artist, he is perhaps not as widely known as he should be. He has won first prize and the Morison cash award at the Virginia Highlands Festival in Abingdon. His painting, “When Summer’s in the Meadow” was judged second best in the show. He is a member of the Roanoke Fine Arts Center and has held numerous one-man shows in various locations.

Because of his over-all work as a museum curator and artist he was selected to be represented in “Who’s Who in the South and Southwest .”

This sketch would be incomplete without a few sentences on his family. Mr. True married Beulah Nalls. Their children are James E. True, Jr., Robert M. True, Daniel M. True, and Mrs. Frances True Thomas. All live in Erwin, Tennessee. There are eleven grandchildren.

Now nearly a half million people came to the Southwest Virginia Museum, looked it over with feelings of wonder and delight and reluctantly went their ways. And so here came James True with a throb of joy in his heart as his mind and hands planned and arranged exhibits; he delighted in showing and explaining exhibits to visitors over and over again, never tiring, always exhibiting a pleasant demeanor, which appealed to visitors and led to hundreds of them writing thank-you notes upon journeying to their homes.

But, as these half million people came and went, so will Mr. True and his good wife soon fall into the stream of out-going people.

We who remain behind will remember him as one who has contributed immeasurably to the cultural growth of this mountainous region.

Mr. True, you came and stayed for a while. You’ve told me your stay has been a most pleasant one. The people here have been most cordial, you say. And your relationship with your co-workers in Richmond has been most pleasant.

So, Mr. and Mrs. True, we say adieu to you, hoping your retirement from a formal job will be the beginning of a most enjoyable period of your lives.“

By: Luther F. Addington