Remembering our 22nd President General

Last week, I felt I heard the whispers of our 22^nd President General, when I walked in her footsteps, toured the historic structures she recreated and recalled her memory at her graveside. Thanks to an invitation from the members of the vibrant Richard Dobbs Spaight Chapter of No. Carolina, I was privileged to join them for their centennial celebration, which included a rededication of the grave of their most illustrious member, Gertrude Sprague Carraway, President General from 1953 to 1956.  

Miss Carraway was born (and died 96 years later) in her family home in charming New Bern, No. Carolina. Graduating as her high school class valedictorian in 1912, she attended North Carolina State University and began her career as a secondary school English teacher. She soon turned her talents to writing and editing, ultimately becoming a correspondent for the Associated Press and assigned to cover such stories as the Hoover-Smith presidential campaign.

For she was determined that the State of North Carolina should restore Tryon Palace, the grand mansion built in 1770 for Colonial Governor William Tryon in New Bern, when it served as the state capital. Together with DAR member and fellow New Bern native Maude Moore Latham, whose estate largely financed the restoration, Miss Carraway began the painstaking process of rebuilding and refurnishing the entire structure, which had been destroyed by fire and paved over to make way for a highway(!). She found the original architectural drawings in the holdings of the New York Historical Society Library, and thus began the recreation of the structure in 1952. Read more about Tryon Palace in this American Spirit feature story. Even the period furnishings were purchased in England, according to the original furniture inventory for the palace. The restoration is, simply put, astounding in its scope and impact.

After serving as NSDAR President General, Gertrude Carraway served as Director of the fully restored Tryon Palace from 1956 until 1971, a period in which more than 50 more modern nearby structures were purchased and removed in order to better reflect the original historical neighborhood. Today, this outstanding example of historic preservation is visited by thousands of tourists in order to appreciate early North Carolina history. I was so delighted to be one of them, as visiting this site has always been on my wish list – and I especially enjoyed touring the garden planted on the grounds in memory of our Miss Carraway.