Freida Luther, Flowers and Food volunteer
Volunteers enable Music Ranch to serve its public. There are many. Most are stockholders, but Freida Luther began volunteering at Music Ranch long before she bought stock.
Freida is an outstanding example of our volunteers. You may have noticed the signs proclaiming certain areas as Freida Luther's gardens. That's because she plants and maintains flowers around the premises. She doesn't ask. She doesn't tell us when she is coming. She just plants, nurtures, prunes etc. as she thinks is needed. We all enjoy the benefits.
Freida was in a horrible boating accident a couple of decades ago. Her husband was fatally injured, and she suffered severe injuries. She still suffers from her injuries. She is retired after 23 years at Brown Forman. She forgets her own aches and pains as a volunteer, helping others.
She volunteers in the Chow Hall every week. She bakes many of the cakes you may enjoy as dessert there. She helps serve the food. She drafts friends to help, too. Occasionally she serves tables.
She bakes some goodies from time to time for the drawing at intermission, and brings gifts as prizes.
She is an unrelenting foe of dirt, cleaning constantly. And if she helps out, rarely but occasionally in the concession stand, she bugs Vernon Curl, our volunteer there, wiping and cleaning.
This is written as Huricane Rita is vying to outdo Katrina. Freida spent several days of this week helping sort and pack storm relief clothing at the Salvation Army facilities on Preston Street in Louisville. She knew about the work there from Jerry Skaggs. He's the volunteer who usually conducts the drawing at intermission. No. He isn't a stockholder.
Some of our volunteers became stockholders because they wanted to "join the club." We don't have a club, but volunteers are welcome, and are appreciated as part of what we consider our Music Ranch family. Freida is an important member of that family.
We are proud of Freida as a stockholder and to have Freida help us serve those who patronize the Ranch.
Richard Briggs takes your ticket if you enter the theater by the right door, tears it in half and hands you the stub, and unless you know Richard pretty well, you do not know...
- That Richard is the official historian laureate of West Point, has written four books about West Point and Fort Duffield history, including in the Civil War, and one about his infantry unit during World War II.
- That Richard is a World War II Purple Heart veteran.
- That he is a native and a descendent of James Young, founder of West Point and builder of Youngs Inn and Young's home across the street in 1797, was born in Young's Inn at 110 Elm St. That a state marker says those who slept there include Andrew Jackson (as a general, later president), and Jackson's mortal enemy Henry Clay, both friends of Young, John James Audubon and James Buchanan, and while he was stationed at Fort Knox, presidental aspirant Wendell Wilkie.
- That Richard and his wife Judy once lived in the James Young home across Elm Street from the inn. During the flood of 1884 which washed away the town of Williamsburg across the Salt River, Young's home housed Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross. She arrived by riverboat to administer to the flood victims, rescued some from the roofs of their houses, and entered the James Young home by way of the second-floor windows.
- That Richard authored and he and his late wife Judy erected most of the original (some now renewed in steel) historical markers in West Point. It is no wonder the city council voted him the title of West Point historian laureate.
- That Richard was postmaster in West Point for many years and has the most complete knowledge of any West Pointer of who is related to whom and how.
- That Richard is a step-on guide for the Visitours company and uses his knowledge as an expert on Louisville and Kentucky and Southern Indiana, World War II and regional history to enhance his services as a guide and help finance his own travels.
- That he is addicted to the riverboats which he rides regularly.
- That he has traveled in recent years to Russia and Turkey, and has retraced the path of his World War II infantry unit in Europe. He has been in every European country except Norway.
- That he has three sons; two are physicians and one an engineer with the Corps of Engineers, and that two of those sons have each served repeated tours in Iraq. One is leaving soon for his third deployment.
- That Richard is almost as old as Rube Yelvington, but treasures the ability not to be the oldest person in a group when Rube is there.
Music Ranch is proud to have Richard as a stockholder and a volunteer.
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