DOWN MEMORY LANE
May 1, 1986
Louis M. Hatter Jr. joined The Rappahannock News this week as managing editor and former Editor Daphne Hutchinson re-joined the newspaper as a staff writer.
Mr. Hatter, 30, fills a vacancy which has existed six weeks, since the resignation of William Talbott. At that time, the Fauquier Democrat’s Lawrence Emerson took responsibility for the Rappahannock News editorial content. Both newspapers are part of Arundel Communications.
Mr. Emerson will remain as executive editor of The News, responsible for editorial personnel and policy.
But, Mr. Hatter will be responsible for daily news operations. He will handle requests for coverage and readers’ questions, suggestions, complaints, etc.
A Rappahannock County resident for two years, Mr. Hatter has been an assistant chef at The Inn at Little Washington. He previously worked as a reporter and photographer for two weekly newspapers, The Citizen-Standard in Valley View, Pa., and at The Centre-Democrat in Bellefonte, Pa.
Mrs. Hutchinson was the newspaper’s general manager and editor until two years ago when she resigned for the birth of her daughter, Kate. She returns as a part-time reporter to cover government.
“Daphne knows the issues and the people. Nobody could cover this county’s government any better,” Mr. Hatter said. “She’s invaluable in our efforts to make this the best community paper in the state.”
Rappahannock County acquired its second video rental store with the opening last weekend of Panorama Video Rentals in Sperryville. Owned and operated by Marty and Brenda Sickles of Luray, the store has a selection of close to 200 movies.
For the young, and young at heart, there are cartoons and movies from the theatre and television, including Walt Disney features, She Ra, Care Bears and others.
Mrs. Sickles said that the store is “getting a few new releases each week, and the ones we don’t have are backordered and will be in soon.” Asked why the store stocks only VHS format tapes, the owners explained that VHS is far more popular than Beta, and they decided that “having only VHS means that we can buy more movies rather than having to buy two copies of every film although we have duplicates of some of the real popular movies.”
The store is located on Rt. 211 next to Baldwin’s West End Shell.
Nov. 29, 1995
Rayner Snead has a new book out. The Girl of Independence is the story of his wife Lois’s childhood and early adulthood.
Lois Doran grew up in Independence, Missouri, the home also of Harry Truman and a major jumping off point for the Santa Fe, California and Oregon trails.
Judge Snead said the success of his autobiographical work Hollow Boy made him urge Mrs. Snead to also tell her story. She insisted, however, that she does not enjoy writing, finds it tedious to face, and said if he wanted it written, he should write it himself.
So he did, but from her point of view, as a first person narrative. The story ranges from her earliest memories as a small child through her college years to their marriage and the couple’s separations during World War II. It ends with Judge Snead’s return to Rappahannock to establish a law practice with Mrs. Snead as his secretary.
She said she had frequently told stories of her childhood over the years, but he never paid much attention, particularly dismissing the history of Independence compared to Virginia’s history. This time he paid attention, writing down in longhand what she told him, going off to write it up and returning to read what he had written to her.
Photographer Ted Pellegatta has produced Rappahannock’s first color calendar.
The calendar, entitled “Rappahannock,” will be offered for sale during a three-day “Calendar Event” at Cabin Fever Books on Gay Street in Washington.
It is filled with big 11 x 14 color photographs of Rappahannock, one for each month, plus a cover shot of Old Rag Mountain. The overall size of the calendar is 22” x 28”.
“I want to have my work out there so that more people can see the way that I see the county...” he said.