King and Queen Museum Reprints Louise Gray’s A Patchwork Quilt (October 2002)

Louise Eubank Gray’s collection of vignettes, titled A Patchwork Quilt, Lifestyle in King and Queen County, Virginia, 1910-1920, has been reprinted by the King and Queen County Courthouse Tavern Museum. There will be a reception and book signing to honor Mrs. Gray at the Museum on Sunday, October 27, at 4 pm, immediately following the 3 pm meeting of the King and Queen County Historical Society at the Courts and Administration Building, King and Queen Court House, VA.

In A Patchwork Quilt, first published in 1989 and out-of-print for a number of years, Mrs. Gray tells the stories of her growing up in rural King and Queen County in the 1910–1920s: the man who came to clean the well when a mouse spoiled the water; going to church on Sunday by buggy to a church heated by wood stove; fetching on horseback the doctor for a broken arm; putting tar on seed corn so the crows would not eat it when planted, and many more vivid tales of life in the King and Queen “not so long ago!” Mrs. Gray’s book provided a guide for the portion of the Tavern Museum’s video tour on early rural customs in King and Queen County.

The reprinting of the book was funded in part by a grant from the Elis Olsson Memorial Foundation of West Point. Mrs. Gray donated the right to reprint the book to the Museum.