Mike Marlay’s obituary (in a previous post) contained a reference about him and his wife Maggie hosting the Duke and Duchess of Kent in 1984 as part of Maryland’s 350th celebration.
My Mom was also on that 350th committee that organized a series of events and celebrations in honor of that birthday occasion. Although Mom’s official title was “Secretary” she did all of the behind- the-scenes-work that made the events so successful. To this day, Mom looks back on this time of her life as a very fond memory for her. She notes that she did most of the legwork while others on the Committee did nothing but were the ones posing in the photos and taking all the credit for everything. Mom laughed recently as she told me about this and noted “But you know what? I didn’t care about all that because I truly enjoyed what I was doing. Plus, I’d just as soon not have my picture taken to try and act like I was somebody important.”
In looking back through old issues of the Enterprise though, I did manage to find this 350th photo of Mom and a couple of other 350th committee members:
Here too is a photo commemorating the Duke/Duchess visit mentioned in Mr. Marlay’s obit:
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| https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/speccol/sc4900/sc4975/html/350th.html |
This particular moment in time was also a special and memorable occasion for me because my youngest Reagan was born on May 19th of that year. Somewhere I have very nice note from Mom welcoming Reagan to this world and mentioning the 350th celebration. Reagan’s arrival coincided with a Saturday parade held in honor of the 350th celebration. This front page Enterprise article discusses the 350-related events of that weekend:
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| http://stmalib.archivalweb.com/imageViewer.php?r=1350&in=2893&d=0&s=q%3Dparade%26p%3D32%26r%3D1350 |
The article also includes some photos (on the inside pages of the paper) including this one of Big Chief Bootsie in the parade:
Although she did not receive any praise nor recognition for her efforts during the celebrations, later on Mom did get some recognition at a going away luncheon for her. Here is the Enterprise article on Mom being recognized for her efforts on and contributions to the 350th Committee:
In a subsequent article, columnist for the Enterprise Joe Norris had these nice words to say about my Mom:
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| http://stmalib.archivalweb.com/imageViewer.php?i=1349643&q=ridgell&s=q%3Dridgell%26p%3D32%26r%3D1350%26s%3Da%26o%3D75%26ps%3D15 |
Since the 350th was a celebration of Maryland’s birthday, here is a birthday tune from Altered States an 80’s group from Scotland as in over there and not Scotland. Maryland!