Hurricane to lead library lecture series

Ed Tinsley recalls in a diary that on Aug. 21, 1969, he picked up two boys, Warren and Carl Raines, who survived being swept away from their Massie’s Mill area home by Hurricane Camille’s floodwaters by clinging to trees for 12 hours.

The 14-year-old and 16-year-old were the only two survivors from their family of seven.

Tinsley is an Amherst County resident, who was a 32-year-old state trooper at the time and who was one of the first rescue workers to make his way into Massie’s Mill after Hurricane Camille laid waste to that village and others in Nelson County on the night of Aug. 19-20, 1969.

For two weeks thereafter, Tinsley went home each night and recorded what he had seen during his days of trying to help the living and trying to recover the dead, who would number 125 in Nelson. His audio diary, “Portrait of a Disaster,” is now part of an archive at Oakland Museum about the most destructive event in the county’s history.

Tinsley will speak Sept. 16 at the Jones Memorial Library in Lynchburg.

His talk turns out to be fortuitous.

The impact of Hurricane Camille was commemorated last month at a 40th-anniversary event organized by Oakland and held at Nelson County High School. So many people showed up that not all could be seated; some had to be turned away.

The lecture gives a second chance to those who could not get in or were unable to attend, according to Cinda Hurt, chair of the Jones Memorial’s lecture committee.

Tinsley’s talk marks the first in this year’s line-up in the annual series of lectures.

“We look for programs that are significance to our area, and we focus on this region and, ultimately, the state,” said Mary Kathryn McIntosh, of the Jones Memorial’s board of directors.

Hurt noted that one change this year will be a switch to holding the lectures on the third Wednesday of the month. They will take place at 5 p.m. at the library at 2311 Memorial Ave.

More Jones Memorial Library lectures
Oct. 21: “Jefferson Davis And The End Of The Civil War,” Dean Knight, Supervisor of White House Operations, Museum of the Confederacy
This lecture will discuss events and topics concerning the end of the Civil War with special focus on the role of Confederacy President Jefferson Davis.

Nov. 18: “A Creative Dynasty Of Virginia Women,” by Andrew Gladwell, Exhibition Designer, Virginia Historical Society
The program highlights a century of artistic accomplishment by Julia Anne (Morrison) Blount (1831-1877); her daughter, Sallie Lee (Blount) Mahood (1864-1953); her daughter, Helen Gray (Mahood) McGehee (1892-1980); and her daughter, Helen Gray (McGehee) Umaña (b. 1921).

March 17: “The History Of Locally Owned Business In Lynchburg”
Bert Dodson, for Dodson Bros. Exterminating Co; Ebo Fauber for Fauber Architecture; Mike Baer, for Baer & Sons Memorials; Hal Craddock, for Craddock-Terry Shoe Co.; and Ted Delaney for Diuguid Funeral Home will each make a brief presentation about the history of the company.

April 21: “The Academy Of Music, Lynchburg, Virginia: The Golden Age Of Live Performances,” by Dr. James M. Elson
Elson, author of the 1993 published work of the same name and the Academy of Music Theatre’s first executive directory (1984-1988), will present a history of the near-quarter century (1905-1928) when the great stars of the theater and music world performed at the Academy.

May 19: “The History Of Hospitals In Lynchburg, Virginia,” by George Dawson and Dr. Peter Houck
George Dawson and Dr. Peter Houck, of Centra Health, will discuss the history of Lynchburg’s hospitals.