Marshall Stories that Dodona Manor Docents Like to Share with Guests
When on Duty — Pay Attention!: Bill Brooks (in the Haub Exhibit Room)
The Precarious Role of the Middleman: Bill Brooks (in the Haub Exhibit Room)
Becoming a Good Student: Bill Brooks (in the Haub Exhibit Room)
George Tells Katherine a Kite Story: Bill Brooks (in the Haub Exhibit Room)
Katherine Discovers and Reserves Dodona: Barbara McClellan (outside the Guest Room )
George Has Hap Arnold Till the Compost Heap: Eve Young (in the Guest Room)
Katherine’s First Impression of George: Alexi von Keszycki (in Katherine’s Bedroom)
Katherine Torches the Chic Sale: Blane Ampthor (in Katherine’s Bedroom)
George’s Ties to His Goddaughter Rose: Rick Rhoades (in George’s Bedroom)
George’s Firm but Loving Hand: Grant Gustafson (in George’s Bedroom)
George Criticizes a Camp Counselor’s Uncreased Pants: Rick Berry (in George’s Bedroom)
The Marshalls’ Incorrigible Dog Fleet: Blane Ampthor (in George’s Bedroom)
I Found Your Dog, Didn’t I?: Rachel Thompson (in George’s Bedroom)
Sgt. Heffer’s Dodona Manor Pyrotechnic Accidents: Joe Becek (in George’s Bedroom)
George Wanted His Father’s Approval: Bob Pohtos (in the First-floor Hallway)
George Shows Leadership throughout His VMI Career: Silas Matteson (in the First-floor Hallway)
Cadet George Solicits a Presidential Endorsement: Alexi von Keszycki (in the First-floor Hallway)
George’s Indirect Family Tie to Robert E. Lee: Silas Matteson (in the Library)
Photos of Lord Mountbatten and Queen Elizabeth II: Chris Miller (in the Library)
Fox Conner Advises Dwight Eisenhower to Learn from George: Jeff Platt (in the Powder Room)
Having Mentored Eisenhower, George Trusts Him on D-Day: Jeff Platt (in the Powder Room)
George Selflessly Agrees to Be Special Envoy to China: Bob Holcomb (in the First-floor Hallway)
Brazilians Applaud George’s Kindness: Grant Gustafson (in the Dining Room)
George Surprises Sir John Dill with a Birthday Cake: Pat Van Haste (in the Living Room)
The Two Georges Surprise Madame Jouatte: Bill Brooks (in the Living Room)
George Secretly Collaborates with Sir John Dill: Brian Evans (in the Living Room)
When on Duty – Pay Attention!
Docent: Bill Brooks
Location: Haub Exhibit Room
Context: I use this story with young groups, such as Boy Scout or Girl Scout Troops, or with the Extreme Journey summer camp group that visits Dodona Manor each year. It illustrates that George was by no means perfect, and it conveys an important lesson he learned as a young boy.
Story to highlight an important lesson George learned about being alert and reliable when people are counting on you: When George was a young boy, he was employed to pump the organ at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, the church he attended with his parents in Uniontown. The place for the pumper was in a narrow area in the rear of the organ, and the pump was just a handle like the tiller of a boat. The pumping was not difficult except you had to be there. But there was a long period of waiting during the sermon. On one of these mornings, George was occupying this period of waiting by reading a five-cent novel of that day about a private detective named Nick Carter. Just in the most exciting portion, and it was very much like Jesse James, George’s attention was called to the organ by the thump, thump, which the organist, Miss Fanny Howe, could make from the keyboard. George realized that she had started to play at the end of the sermon and no music was coming out, so he pumped the organ hurriedly. Of course, Miss Fanny was not only displeased but rather outraged, and relieved George of his duties with the organ.
Miss Fanny was a very fine person, of one of the old families there, and a great pillar of strength in the church. George had failed to pay attention and to perform his duties, and it cost him his job. George remembered this incident and lesson throughout his lifetime.
Source: Larry I. Bland and Joellen K. Bland (Editors), George C. Marshall, Interviews and Reminiscences for Forrest C. Pogue, pp. 54-55
The Precarious Role of the Middleman
Docent: Bill Brooks
Location: Haub Exhibit Room
Context: I use this with Boy Scout or Girl Scout Troops and the Extreme Journey camp group.
Story to highlight George learning about the role of the middleman: One day young George and his best friend, Andy Thompson, went with their mothers to visit a greenhouse on the edge of Uniontown. The boys excitedly considered the money they could make just by sticking a few seeds in the soil. Soon they had painted the lean-to they used for their business enterprises green, thinking the color helped make it an authentic operation, and filled some old tin cans with a manure-based soil. With $1.50 each in start-up capital from their parents, they bought some seedlings and lined their counter with greenery. The girls came after school to buy their green things. Then George and Andy learned what can happen to the middleman.
George and Andy were always exploring the countryside looking for things they could sell. One spring day they found a large patch of blue forget-me-nots on a hillside that appealed to them, so they dug up a large number of forget-me-nots and used their pony cart to haul the flowers to their green lean-to. At their greenhouse, they cleaned up empty strawberry boxes and painted them green – and put a black stripe around them. Then they planted forget-me-nots in the boxes and put moss around the flowers. Then, during recess at school, they hustled home – having gotten permission from their teachers to go a little early – and hauled the boxes with flowers and moss back to school. The boxes with forget-me-nots and moss were very attractive, and the girls all bought them, although George and Andy only charged them a small amount.
Later, when they were in the countryside on their school’s May Day picnic, these girls saw the large patch of forget-me-nots and realized that George and Andy had spaded them up out of this patch for nothing. Thinking they had been cheated, the girls boycotted George’s and Andy’s greenhouse and put it out of business. The girls gave George and Andy no credit for finding the patch of flowers, for digging the plants up, for finding the strawberry boxes, for painting them green and black striping them, for getting the moss to go around the plants, and for transporting them to school. This experience taught young George an important lesson about the precarious position of the middleman.
Sources: Mary Sutton Skutt and Rachel Yarnell Thompson, America’s Hero to the World, George C. Marshall, pp. 8-10
Larry I. Bland and Joellen K. Bland (Editors), George C. Marshall. Interviews and Reminiscences for Forrest C. Pogue, p. 25