Around the Banks: Folk Festival shows some are still Suwannee River crazy

Published 7:00 am Friday, May 26, 2017

The three-syllable “Su-wan-nee” River was never seen by Stephen C. Foster, who immortalized the river when he struck through the name of the Pee Dee River, a river in South Carolina, from his original lyrics of “Old Folks at Home” in 1851.

The story is Foster took down an atlas, found  the “Suwannee” river in north Florida and south Georgia, shortened the three-syllable “Suwannee” to two “Swa-nee” and history was made.

Let’s face it, folks, had it not been for the late Stephen C. Foster, our section of the country would have been another slowly moving Southern back water, with an  insignificant river running through it. 

That is the opinion of most, not this writer, BUT, Foster DID strike through Pee-Dee and did write “Swanee” and the rest, as they say, is history.

“Old Folks at Home,” written and composed in 1851, became a million seller when music was sold in sheets to be played on the piano. In fact, the Suwannee River, made that million best seller fame in two centuries, it was the first composition to sell a million copies in the 19th century with “Old Folks at Home” and then when George Gershiwn, penned “Swanee” in 1919 and Al Jolson sang it; Jolson’s rendition became the first recorded million seller of the 20th century. 

You see that Suwannee River kept selling and selling and selling some more. And talk about diverse, a north Florida river becoming the inspiration for songwriter and composer who died penniless but who was a musical genius of the 19th century, Stephen Foster, a Pennsylvania native, a Yankee, who immortalized the river and, then, first generation Russian Jews Gershwin and Jolson who made “Swanee” famous  in the 20th century. 

Everyone was Suwannee River crazy and folks flocked to Florida to catch a glimpse of Foster’s immortal stream. You might say, during the state’s first 75 years, our part of the state was kind of like Disney World, famous for the river, springs, and health resorts, such as Suwannee Springs and White Springs. 

Lots of folks are still Suwannee River crazy. If you think they are not, the biggest musical venue in this part of the nation, utilizes it as part of its NAME: “Spirit of the SUWANNEE Music Park,” and there you go. Still marketing the area.

In its early days, then-Stephen Foster Memorial in White Springs was a tourist destination before the advent of the Interstate Highway system in the early 1960’s. The Memorial was then operated by an independent commission which answered to the Governor. The members of the Memorial Commission were appointed by the Governor and approved by the legislature. One of the Board members, the late Mrs. W.A. “Lillian” Saunders, of White Springs, was president of the Florida Federation of Music Clubs in 1951 and the group met at the old Colonial Hotel (1911-1973) — it still makes me sad to think of that structure being gone — located near the present south entrance of Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park. Mrs. Saunders asked, then-National Federation of Music Clubs, Mrs. Ada Hoddings Miller, from the state of Rhode Island, her opinion, about a musical event that would bring many Floridians into the park, and Miller suggested a Folk Festival. 

Not one to let any grass grow under her feet, Mrs. Saunders, upon Miller’s recommendation, contacted the late Sarah Gertrude Knott, a native of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, who established the National Folk Festival in Washington, D.C. Ms. Knott came to Florida, traveled with Mrs. Saunders across the state and invited an array of ethnic groups to perform on the stage of the All Florida Folk Festival in 1953. One of those performers was “Cousin” Thelma Boltin, the state of Florida’s first fully certified speech teacher, who graduated from Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, and who established the character of “Old Knocker” and was a storyteller and performer. 

Sarah Gertrude Knott held the Festival’s hands through its baby steps and then turned the show over to the late Miss “Cousin” Thelma Boltin in 1955, who “ran” the festival, along with her able program assistant, the late Barbara Waldron Beauchamp, until the late 1980’s.

Some of the original Florida Folk Festival’s movers and shakers were from neighboring Suwannee County and included: the late Mr. J.L. McMullen; the late Mr. Aubrey Fowler; the late Miss Helen Bixler; the late Honorable Cary Hardee, former Governor of the State of Florida; and the late Honorable Clayton Bass, State Senator and later Superintendent of Public Instruction for Suwannee County, who co-sponsored the legislative bill making “Old Folks at Home,” “Way Down upon the Suwannee River,” the state song of the state of Florida in 1935, and it’s still the state song today.

In the case of the Florida Folk Festival, it did take a village to birth the baby, which this year, is eligible for Social Security.

Folks have differing opinions about the Florida Folk Festival: some folks believe it’s tired and old and has lost the effectiveness of its former years, some folks believe it has, more or less, become a festival for performers. Others feel it is still an important cultural and musical event celebrating the history, culture, and music of the state in an effective and positive way. Still, others feel that the history of the Festival itself with its longtime tradition means something for all Floridians.

The state of Florida, rarely puts its money this day and age, into anything of a cultural nature in north or west Florida, especially in a sparsely-populated rural area. 

Remember the major portion of the state’s population lives in about six of Florida’s 67 counties and those six counties are located in south and central Florida; that’s where the vast majority of the state’s money goes, and no arguments about that, or not many,  but that is not where the history of the state began in regards to tourism, which is still this state’s primary industry, and it’s not, and here we go again, where the Suwannee River is located.  

You can’t pick the river up and move it to south or central Florida, and moving the Florida Folk Festival to a more populated area of the state, while numbers for attendance might increase, would totally diminish the tradition of the festival. So, kudos to the state of Florida, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Division of State Parks and Recreation, all the area law enforcement and emergency workers, and all those organize and promote the Festival and to the performers and sponsors.  

Just as there are value added institutions in the state of Florida, that add value to the life of a state, such as educational institutions, museums and other  institutions, so, in my opinion, is the Florida Folk Festival; a value added event. Value added means it’s not meant to make money; its purpose is to add value to the quality of life of a region, in this case, the region could really be said to be the world. The Florida Folk Festival adds value to the entire world. Do you think Lithuanians, Cubans, Asians, Jews, Catholics, Protestants, African-Americans, Hispanics, Anglo-Americans, short, tall, slender, fluffy, Middle Easterners, in fact citizens from all over the world would have come to the banks of the Suwannee to celebrate their traditions and cultures within the framework of Florida had it not been for the Folk Festival? I can answer that question for you: highly doubtful.

The Florida Folk Festival was never designed to be “An All Star Country or Rock” Festival on the Banks of the Suwannee. It was designed to tell the story of our diverse Sunshine State through song, stories, food, arts and crafts, and, with the backdrop of the Suwannee River, running behind it, and, to hopefully inspire others to pick up the mantle and move on. It was designed to have that story of the state told in a time-honored and culturally sensitive manner shaped by educational and cultural professionals who know about the history and tradition of folk culture(s) in this marvelous and diverse state and who are eminently qualified to articulate that in an understandable and friendly manner to all Floridians, and here is, what I consider to be extremely important: The Florida Folk Festival was designed to appeal to children from age three (3) to age one hundred and three (103), and it does.

I think the geographic area that opened this state for tourism because of that song written by Stephen Foster is worth the very small amount of taxpayers dollars it takes to fund something beautiful, something positive, something that leaves a song in your heart, just like  Foster’s immortal melody. 

Are you humming it? 

Keep humming it. 

Don’t stop.

From the Eight Mile Still on the Woodpecker Route north of White Springs, wishing you a day filled with joy, peace, and, above all, lots of love and laughter.