 |
Bland County Historical Society |
 |
|
The Bland County Historical Society is located in the "old jail building" on the courthouse square. Volunteers are at the jail each Friday for research and shopping, and on other days by appointment. Phone (276) 688-0088 |
||
Rev. Jo Ellen Hetherington was the featured speaker at the
Bland County Historical Society Fall Quarterly Membership Meeting,
September 21, 2013 at 1:30pm at the Bland Public Library.
Jo Ellen Hetherington was born in 1950 in Mechanicsburg, Bland County,
VA. At the very young age of 5 months, she contracted the polio virus.
Jo Ellen was the 1959 Bland County Poster Child for the March of Dimes.
Recently, her cousin, Martha Penley Umberger of Wythe County, gave her a
book edited by the Town of Wytheville Museums entitled A Summer Without
Children: An Oral History of Wythe County, Virginia's 1950 Polio
Epidemic. After reading this book, Jo Ellen was inspired to prepare a
presentation about the polio epidemic and her experiences with the
disease. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the
meeting.
Rev. Jo Ellen Hetherington, a retired Methodist minister living in
Dublin, graduated from Radford University. After college she went on to
become a legislative assistant, working in Washington, DC, for the
Senate Subcommittee on the Handicapped chaired by Senator Jennings
Randolph of WV. Next, she was called to the ministry, ordained as a
Methodist minister, and served in the Virginia Conference for 25 years.
The public was invited to the presentation.
Afterwards, the Historical Society had a brief membership meeting,
followed by a reception.
For more information about the Bland County
Historical Society, call 276-688-0088 or email us at
info@blandcountyhistsoc.org.
