University of Virginia Library

Local Landmarks Appear Since Hamner Set 'The TV Waltons' In Nelson County

By TOM SAUNDERS

I don't usually get up early on Saturday mornings to go to
county-fair type festivals. I'm past the time when ferris wheels
and parades and majorettes are part of my fantasies. Ferris wheels
and parades, at least.

This Saturday was different in an important respect, though.
Of all the things Nelson County would be celebrating, the most
important was the success of Earl Hamner, Jr., author and creator
of CBS' popular The Waltons, through which the native son has
made the area famous.

The Waltons, an hour long weekly drama about a close-knit
rural Virginia family during the depression, began garnering
popular and critical acclaim in September after its pilot show, a
Christmas special called The Homecoming, drew raves and a
Peabody award.

Drawing heavily on Hamner's boyhood experiences in
Schuyler, the show centers around John-Boy Walton (Hamner),
an aspiring 17-year old writer, and his parents, grandparents and
brothers and sisters in a big frame house at the foot of Walton's
Mountain in Jefferson County, Virginia.

Some, I call them cynics or worse, say the show is corny and
saccharine, but its easy blend of simple plots and honest emotions
combined with vicarious participation in a truly wonderful family
has made the series immensely popular. (It is number one among
readers of the National Enquirer.)

Even if the series weren't set in Nelson County, the people
there would like the show. The point is, though, that the show is
set in Hamner's birthplace of Schuyler. Although the town's and
county's names are changed, everything else is recognizably
Nelson County. Each week the towns of Covesville or Esmont or
Lovingston are mentioned and Route 29 has been the scene of
several tin lizzie wrecks.

Charlottesville, with the University and Hospital, are
repeatedly visited by the characters, and Scottsville and the James
and Rivanna and Hardware Rivers are consistently mentioned.

So besides creating for
them a good show, Hamner has
created a show about them,
and the people love him for it.
Nelson County Day was to be
their chance to show him how
much.

There's no doubt there was
a large crowd at the festivities.
About 5000 to 6000 people,
the great majority of them white,
almost all of them from close
by, milled around the High
School Grounds in Lovingston
enjoying the sunshine and the
noise before the 10 a.m. parade
began.

Parade-Time

As parade-time neared
folks began filling the
bleachers, normally used at
football games, and lining the
adjacent fences. A few stood
near the speakers' platform
opposite the bleachers. The
parade route, all of 300 feet
long, was the track between
the two groups.

A float with some beauty
queens, followed by an Honor
Guard led the parade, but all
eyes were diverted to the point
where Hamner, his wife Jane
and children Scott and Carrie,
would appear in an elegant old
Cadillac touring car.

It was obvious the writer, a
tall auburn-haired man of 50,
was touched by the reaction of
the people to his appearance.

Everyone of them clapped or whistled and waved excitedly as he
passed. He waved back, too, trying to mirror the affection shown
in the eager faces. Many, on tiptoe and with outstretched arm
waving, yelled, "Hey, Earl!" as the car rolled by.

The rest of the parade was a denouement for the crowd.
Lieutenant Governor Henry Howell followed Hamner, but, even
though he waved and smiled as vigorously, received a great deal
less applause. Other politicians and local dignitaries passed before
the stands and circled the field before they all, including Hamner,
left the cars to mount the speakers' platform.

Actually, there were quite a number of notables on the
platform. Besides Howell there was State Senator Harry Michael,
U.S. Representative J. Kenneth Robinson, State Delegates Don
Pendelton and Bill Dudley and University of Richmond President
E. Bruce Heilman.

Hamner Presented Tribute After Tribute

During the ceremony that followed Hamner was presented
with tribute after tribute, each one affirmed by the crowd's
enthusiasm. Gradually, the area around the speakers' stand was
filled with those eager to be close to him.

Mr. Oder Carter, chairman of the County Board of Supervisors
officially proclaimed the day "Earl Hamner Day" and presented
Hamner with a soapstone plaque, mined in his native Schuyler.
"We have here a boy who went away from our Schuyler and
Nelson County and made good," Mr. Carter said.

At that, the High School band broke into an original
arrangement of The Waltons' theme and the crowd served up one
more ovation.

Hamner, in the same deliberate tones that narrate the series,
told the crowd, "People often ask me if The Waltons is about real
people who were honest and upstanding and kind and came
from good families and loved
their country and God and I
tell them there are still people
like that and they live in
Nelson County and I love you
all," and he sat down.

In all he received so many
plaques, scrolls and awards that
he had to put them in a box
supplied him for that purpose.

Following a speech by a
resort developer that everyone
obviously ignored, more parade
units passed before the stands.
Baton twirlers, fire engines,
cheerleaders, Boy Scouts and
4-H'ers paraded past, but
Hamner got little chance to
watch as autograph seekers had
already enveloped him.

Even Little Jimmy
Edwards and his Carolina
Buddies picked and fiddled
their way past in a pickup
truck. (Little Jimmy is one of
of the outstanding young fiddlers in the East, it was announced.)
Near the end was a group of black cowboys.

By this time, though, the plans of the organizers had dissolved
as more and more people crowded around the platform wanting
to talk to Hamner, shake his hand and tell him how much they
liked the show. A small boy emerged from the huddle yelling to
his mother, "I seen him Moma, I seen him!"

Two Skydivers Scheduled To Jump

Those who were still in the stands or too far from Hamner to
have a chance at an autograph for awhile intermittently watched
the airplane overhead from which two skydivers were scheduled
to jump. Behind the speakers' stands a large yellow pad waited as
the target.

"Are those guys gonna try to land on that thing?" a
cigar-chewing, fortyish man asked me. "Hell, they'll be lucky if
their asses don't wind up in the Rockfish River."

About then a bus rolled onto the field with "Granpa Walton"
on the marqee. In it was actor Will Geer who plays that part in
the series and Peter Hooten, a young actor with whom Geer
performs a series of skits entitled "Will Geer's Americana." The
two were to perform at the Barter Theater in Abingdon the next
day and had come to Nelson County unannounced.

In just a few moments a large group had clustered around the
door of the bus as it slowly made its way toward the stands.

There, as Geer wise-cracked while signing autographs, and the
skydivers maneuvered their chutes toward the target, Hamner
crowned Miss Nelson County amid cheers and encouragement to
"kiss her one more time." As in everything else that day, he was
willing to oblige.

Photo By Dave Dawson

All Eyes Were Diverted To Hamner, His Wife and Children In An Elegant Old Cadillac