A note from Barry Kolen, a visitor to our art exhibit last month:
“Craddock,” she said, as she reached for her card. “I dropped the Mary,” As in Mary Pickett. Too many women in her family were also named Mary. As for Pickett, her name reminded me of one of the Civil War generals. “Graduated last in his class at West Point,” Pickett informed me.
A Splash of Sunflowers
I listened closely as Pickett explained that her family had occupied the Oak Grove Plantation in South Boston VA “for 200 years” according to th
e attractive flyer I’d been given. Three of its rooms were available for rent since Pickett had made the plantation house and its 400 acres a bed and breakfast. One featured half-teaser headboards on its pair of twin beds.
Pickett’s living quarters comprised a sizable wing in the back of her historic home.
“See the solar panels,” she said as she pointed to two banks of them just beyond her living quarters.
Oak Grove was immaculate. It served as a perfect setting for a house-wide display of paintings and giclees by one of America’s most talented water color artists, Karen Shelton. As I toured the upstairs with Pickett, Shelton’s high school classmate,
I noticed exceptional woodwork.
“Thomas Day did that” she mentioned. Days’ shop had been in nearby Milton, N.C., (He was a free black furniture and cabinet maker before the Civil War.)