April 9
100 Years ago – 1925
An Old Time Fiddlers’ Convention was held in the Hamilton Theatre, sponsored by Circle No. 2 of the Baptist Church.
75 years ago – 1950
The Hut’s Easter menu, Saturday through Monday, was: shrimp cocktail; oyster cocktail; vegetable soup; roast Long Island duck with celery dressing, giblet gravy and apple sauce; rolled roast of beef with mushroom sauce; grilled lamb chops on toast with bacon and mint jelly; Southern fried chicken; broiled Virginia ham steak with butter sauce; fried chicken livers with bacon; seafood platter; deep sea scallops with tartar sauce; deviled crabs with tartar sauce; fried select oysters; and fried filet of perch with tartar sauce. Side dishes were Mexican cole slaw, whipped potatoes, fresh garden spinach, pickled beets, fresh buttered carrots, candied yam, Jello with ice cream and pumpkin pie. A-La-Carte foods were broiled western steaks, French friend onions and large Main lobster with hot drawn butter. The “Easter suggestion” was baked stuffed shad with butter sauce.
A cornerstone-laying ceremony was held for Central Baptist Church on the corner of East Church Street and Booker Road. That church building now is home to Soul Winners Ministry, and before that it had been the local Catholic Church.
50 years ago – 1975
A new slogan and logo were unveiled by the Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce and Retail Merchants Association. The slogan was “Things are looking up,” which was written in a whimsical looking cursive script under hand-drawn fat, rounded letters “MHC.” A cartoon smiling giraffe (neck and face) rose up high from between the “M” and “H.”
25 years ago - 2000
Nationwide media attention kept up for 47-year-old Dr. Elizabeth Vaughan, because of the way she dressed in sexy clothes for work. She first was featured in USA Today, and then NBC’s Today Show; then “Dateline NBC,” “Inside Edition” and the “Montel Williams Show,” all within the span of about a week.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.