Abraham Lincoln was actually Jonathan Booth from Alabama, said his wife of 53 years, Judy Booth, noting the irony since Lincoln’s assassin was named Jonathan Wilkes Booth.
The Booths were just one couple attending the second annual ball at Hearn Academy.
The ball is conducted each year during a weekend in October to commemorate the anniversary of the date that Dr. J.B. Rolater deeded the land for Rolater Park to the citizens of Cave Spring. Its purpose is to celebrate the heritage of Vann’s Valley and Floyd County and raise money for the Cave Spring Log Cabin discovered in 2010.
Judy Booth’s black and white dress was complete with a hoop skirt that could have been worn by Scarlett O’Hara herself, except for the modern take on a petticoat.
“I took a pair of my capris and added bridal garters,” Booth said while holding up her skirt.
The event paid homage to a time to when women wore hoops and petticoats while the men donned heavy jackets, boots and hats, which they were sure to tip whenever a lady walked by them.
Elizabeth Bates said it took about half an hour to get into her pink dress, which she rented from a costume shop in Marietta.
Dianna Haney, who co-chaired the ball with her husband, Eric Haney, agreed that it was hard to get into her dark blue dress.
“I do not know how she did it,” she said.
The Founder’s Day Ball is the “best party Cave Spring has had in 40 years,” said Ed Packer as he sat outside after participating in the first dance of the night, a march that got almost everyone in the room up and moving to the Civil War music from the Eight Regiment Band.
After the march, Wayne and Denise Weimer of the 1860s Civilian Society of Georgia led dancers in a graceful waltz and then a Virginia reel.
While the night was full of grace, elegance and fun for all of those who attended, it was also bittersweet.
Volunteer Brenda Plunkett died this week, said Dianna Haney.
She was named honorary queen of the ball and a tiara sat on a piano in her honor.
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