Valdosta Times, Thursday, May 13, 1948
Glenrochie One of Camps
Drawing Droves of Youth
by Carolyn Williams
Schools will soon be closing and thousands of boys and girls trooping off to summer camps tucked away in mountain retreats or other inviting spots where they can camp outdoors, romp, and play to their heart’s desire.
One of the forerunners of the hundreds of camps that have mushroomed into being in the last quarter century to accommodate this mass exodus is Camp Glenrochie, the oldest summer camp for girls. Founded in 1901 at The Meadows, the camp is situated in the Alleghenies of Virginia on a tract of 300 acres of mountain woodland and fields, two miles from Abingdon.
During the 1900’s when it was known as a “summer school” and its young lady “students” struggled to combine bustles, layers of petticoats, black-bloomer and white middy blouse play clothes with tent life, the discreet boast of the nation’s oldest girls’ camp was, “Camping a feature.”
Nowadays, Camp Glenrochie makes no bones about the matter. It is first, last and foremost a camp. Fancy dress and the trappings of city life are left behind. The campers live in tents pitched in a semi-circle near the rustic camp buildings and the modern swimming pool.
Girls to Glenrochie (pronounced Glen-Ro-kie) to live in tents, not houses, ride on horseback, not in automobiles; to enjoy themselves, not to be told what they are to do every 15 minutes of the day, beginning with up-setting exercises before breakfast.
In its early “summer school” days, the “school” part of the day took only one hour. Mrs. Willoughby Reade, the founder, felt that anyone with a mind should be required to use it for at least one hour each day. Nowadays, the hour of study has given way to a required rest hour for the body!
“I’m not too sure that this is any improvement,” laughingly adds Dr. Frank R. Reade, present director of the Camp and son of its founder. Formerly professor of English at Georgia Tech, Dr. Reade is now on leave of absence as president of the Georgia State Womans College at Valdosta.
Various traditions have grown up through the years with the campers, many of whom return year after year, and later send their own daughters to Glenrochie.
One of these traditions is the climax of the camp season, the farewell banquet, when awards earned during the summer are presented. On this occasion the most coveted of camp honors, selection of the best all-round camper in announced. Last summer, Caroline Phelan, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Earl W. Phelan of Valdosta, was honored as the best all-round junior camper.
Other Valdosta girls who have become familiar with the pleasures and delights of Glenrochie in recent summers include Peggy Reid, Cile Ferguson, Betty Sue Mixson, Virginia Mixson, Sandra Shaw, and Beth Belote.
Glenrochie counselors from Valdosta in recent summers have included Mrs. Beth Whitaker McRae, Mrs. Virginia Tuck Parrish, Mrs. Catherine Garbutt Blanton, the former Miss Willene Roberts, and Misses Ruth Reid, Louise Holcombe and Virginia Bolen.
