Interview with longtime members

Eeda Dennis

I love the Leesburg Garden Club; I became a member 1972 or 1973. I think I am the longest member plus the oldest member.

In 1949, my mother-in-law picked us up at the Washington train station for my first trip to America. I married Alfred in Norway in 1948, he was vice-counsel at the American Embassy. I was giving nice party before I went to Paris and I didn’t know any Americans. My they saved us! So I had to invite some Americans; one of my friends knew one American so we called him and he said can I bring my roommate? And this was Alfred!

We lived in Norway for a year and had one son, and brought him with us in 1949 to visit Leesburg. My mother-in-law came to our wedding in Norway but wanted to see us in America. So, I came to Leesburg; my mother-in-law met us at Union Station (we came by ship to New York first). We came to Leesburg all the on Route 7 and after the post-office turned right on Edwards Ferry Rd. (In those days there was no Route 15 by-pass). The first house we came to was the Marshall’s house. We were crazy about General Marshall in Norway, who we thought saved us; we loved General Marshall. So, when we went by the gates we saw a man who looked very dirty and was painting the gate and when he turned around it was General Marshall, oh boy! My mother-in-law knew him quite well and stopped the car and we had a wonderful conversation with General George C. Marshall and you can imagine what that did for me coming from a country that was starving. The Germans had taken all our houses and it was miserable. As for the general himself, we thought he had saved us himself! We went to Sage Hill and I have been there ever since.

Alf built a new house at Sage Hill and we stayed there. At first we just visited because Alfred was in the Foreign Service. He was Counsel in Genoa for five years. I loved Genoa, and had many Italian friends. Our second child was born in Genoa; and his wife is in the Leesburg Garden Club (René and Sherri)

Next, we went to Washington; we bought a house in Potomac overlooking the river just like in Genoa. We went next to Iceland for three years; it takes time to get to know people, 2 years is not enough. the embassy was in Reykjavík. After Iceland we went back to Italy to Naples. I love the Italians. I love the old buildings. We were In Naples for five years. So, then we went to capital of Cameroon, Yaoundé; in those days they had a wonderful president. So, I went to the hairdressers and I met the First Lady there. And then to Somalia; In order to meet Somalian friends, I had to play golf. And then, Alfred said he thought it was time to retire and make a new life and that was in ’71.

I still have an old house in Norway built in 1771 so once in a while we went for a visit; I love that house. I still remember that I received a letter from Mrs. Peale at my Norway house saying she would like me to become a member of the Leesburg Garden Club (laughs). Of course, my mother-in-law helped get me in and also my sister in law, Mary Alice Dennis, who was married to John Dennis who was a famous ornithologist. The first time I came to Leesburg, my mother-in-law, was President. I did not attend, but helped drive and went over to pick up Mrs. Brown (mother-in-law of Betsey Brown), she and my mother-in-law were best friends. At that time, of course, there were flower arrangements as we have today, and there were no restaurants, so all of the meetings were in private houses and always in the afternoon. And no rush hour traffic. It was nice. Route 7 was two lanes and that was before the Broad Run Bridge fell down. The people who lived in the stone house next to the bridge were members of the Leesburg Garden Club.

Billboards: It was my mother-in-law (Mrs. Dennis), Mrs. Pickens, Mrs. Brown, oh, they are keen! I was here when they had wild discussions about billboards. Oh, boy they were gung-ho. I remember we demonstrated in front of the Senate, in Washington. And my mother-in- law got lots of people to come. We were protesting the billboards, we wanted to take them down across the whole country. I would drive my mother-in-law to meetings; I drove her to Mrs. Brown’s home when she was president and we had to be very quiet in the house because she was working on the garden club report...she loved the garden club.

When we came back and stayed, my mother in law had moved to Eastern Shore of Maryland. It was time for me to do something else. My sister-in-law was member of garden club. She said “why don’t you buy this house (Sage Hill) if you like it so much” so we did. We had been living on Potomac Avenue in Washington D.C., off MacArthur and we could see the river.

I knew my mother-in-law’s friends and I knew Agnes (Harrison) from my visits to Leesburg. So, I knew a lot of people in the garden club. We always met in the afternoon and dressed up. Very nice. We had lectures as we do now. We were very interested in flowers and we grew flowers at the hospital. We did a fund-raiser selling plants at the Giant; organized by Betsy Goshorn. We dug up plants and cut flowers. I was treasurer, and I was Program chair for four years because Mrs. Fred was chair and, unfortunately, died, so I took over and then did another four years. I always took the speakers to lunch; flowers, nature, horticulture. I cannot remember one person saying no!