Memories of Camp Glenrochie
written by Michael M. Black, December 16, 2006
I was born1 in Lexington, Kentucky. My grandfather was a doctor and insisted that his daughter come to Lexington for her baby to be born. We lived in Elizabeth, New Jersey for several years and in Baltimore, Maryland. My father was an engineer for Coca-Cola which is how we later came to live in Atlanta. My grandmother lived with us in Baltimore; however, she had been ill for an extended period. My parents thought that my sister2 and I needed to get out of the house for awhile.
Both my father3 and brother attended Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia and the University of Virginia. They played football at both places. My father knew the Reades because Mr. Reade was teaching school4 at Episcopal High School. Episcopal High School is a 100% residential school, so both Mr. and Mrs. Reade lived on the campus. It was through Willoughby Reade5 and his wife6 that my father learned about Camp Glenrochie which their son, Frank Reade,7 ran in the summers. Dr. Reade’s wife Jean8 was there each summer, and Dr. Reade had ladies9 from his school, Georgia State Womans College in Valdosta, who would also work at the camp in the summer.
The camp was for young girls, and it was placed right next to the woods in Abingdon. There was always the most beautiful sunsets over the mountains. We stayed in tents with wooden bottoms and canvas sides.
The dining hall was located in a cabin. Once while we were eating, lightening struck the building and went all the way down the side of the cabin. Every afternoon about four o’clock, there would be a rain shower. We could see the rain coming over the mountains, and if we were down at the tennis courts, we would start making our way back to the cabin or our tents. We rode in a truck from the cabin to the swimming pool. The water was freezing cold because it was spring fed. The camp had a tower10 you could climb and see four states: Kentucky, North Carolina, West Virginia and Tennessee.
Both my sister and I attended the camp for four or five summers. We loved the camp so much that our parents got us Camp Glenrochie rings and put them in our Christmas stockings. My ring was inscribed 1934. I was a junior counselor for one or two summers. I really loved that place.
1. Mrs. Waggener provided me her date of birth.
2. Betty Barrow Woolfolk
3. Mrs. Waggoner’s parents were Pichegru and Betty (Parham) Woolfolk.
4. Mr. Reade taught at Episcopal High School for 53 years.
5. Willoughby Athelstan Reade (b. July 1865 London, England, d. June 13, 1952 Bedford, Virginia)
6. Mr. Reade m. 1) Mary (Mamie) Wheeler Robertson (b. October 24, 1868 Abingdon, Virginia, d. January 11, 1919 Washington County, Virginia), daughter of Francis (Frank) Smith Robertson and Stella Wheeler, in 1894. He m. 2) Miss Nan Griffin in March 1924.
7. Frank Robertson Reade (b. July 13, 1895 Abingdon, Virginia, d. April 10, 1957 Valdosta, Georgia)
8. Jean McDonald Cunningham Reade (b. December 22, 1899 Savannah, Georgia, d. January 28, 1988 Valdosta, Georgia). Her parents were Charles Lamar Cunningham and Katherine Lynah.
9. Dr. Marian E. Farbar was camp physician at the camp. Mrs. Marjorie E. Carter was a counselor and house director.
10. Texas Baby was an observation tower on the top of a high hill reached by a winding path, passing “Tent row,” the Infirmary, and taking a sharp left straight up the hill through sassafras, trailing arbutus, chickadees, and indigo buntings.
