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    19-02-2009
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.Ruby Robinson Skerrett and her son, Oliver, Jr.
    Nestled within a couple miles of each other, near the border where North Carolina meets South Carolina, live many descendants of the early settlers of the Transylvania mountains. Some family members migrated to other states in quest for employment, or through marriage to a non-Carolinian, while others followed the lure of adventure to distant lands.. However, the clarion call of the mountains has summoned many of them back to their birthplace,

    Ruby Robinson Skerrett, who will soon turn a hearty ninety-one years of age, lives in a one-hundred year old cozy and attractive home, across the street from her son, the Rev. Oliver Skerrett, Jr., a Baptist minister.

    Within sight is the former general country store and Exxon gas station which Ruby's father, Bunyan Robinson, opened for business in the early 1920's. The original small wooden Cedar Mountain post office was next to the store and run by the Skerrett family. The original post office building is no more, but memories linger in the minds and hearts of those folks that facility served for so long.

    "My daddy gave that old post office building away, and I wish he hadn't. but the building that housed the country store remains," according to Oliver, Jr.

    Ruby Skerrett is remarkably hale and hearty, has a keen mind, and still drives her car around the mountains. Small in stature, but large in spirit, this remarkable woman embodies the traditions of the closely-knit mountain families

    It all started with the large Jones family, with its many sons, daughters, and their descendants. They are a part of the huge Allison-Deaver family. whose recent Brevard reunion inspired a documentary film produced by PBS. The Skerretts and their kin cling to the mountains that are so close to their hearts.

    Ruby Skerrett's father, Bunyan Robinson, was a well-known member of the small Cedar Mountain community. In fact, when neighbors went by his place, they would greet him with "Hi, Bunyan"; and that is what they called the general store that he built and ran for so many years, according to his daughter Ruby.

    Bunyan was an inventive, creative man who installed the area's first electric light. Aided by the power of a surplus generator, the store had one light bulb that shone in the otherwise dark community He ingeniously would plan just enough fuel to keep the light on for a short time after he closed the business each night. Then when the fuel was depleted, the light would go out by itself.

    Bunyan's only child, Ruby, was born in April, at the time when the 1918 flu epidemic swept the world, even afflicting the hearty Transylvania mountain families. Her mother successfully conquered that scourge which killed so many people across the globe.

    The nearby state park, the DuPont Forest, was formerly known as Buck Forest and was home to Skerrett's ancestors. Ruby's grandfather lived and farmed near the magnificent High Falls in that forest. "It had rather poor land for farming, but it produced enough food and animals, to keep the family fed, according to Oliver, Jr.

    Among the tales told about the early Jones boys, Oliver recalls that of Harlan Jones who hid in a cave for about a year to evade the draft during World War I. He eventually surrendered and enlisted in the service where he was stationed in Sevierville, Georgia.

    "The cave has a large room and you can go through a tunnel to another room, It was called "Harlan Jones Cave" for a long time, and later referred to as Moonshine Cave during the prohibition era," according to Oliver.

    Ruby Skerrett graduated from Brevard High School and Brevard College and went on to Greenville, South Carolina to work at the First National Bank during World War II. While attending a USO dance in Greenville, she met the man she would marry: Oliver Skerrett, of Yonkers, New York. He was stationed at the nearby Greenville Air Force Base; and, although he had enlisted in the air force, he was suddenly transferred to the army during the perilous days of the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium. He was part of General George Patton's army that swept through France and Belgium, but luckily was never injured during that conflict.

    Upon her husband's discharge from the service at the end of the war, Ruby and her young son Oliver, Jr. moved to New York state. Meanwhile, Bunyan Robinson missed his only daughter, Ruby; and when he offered the young couple the general store in Cedar Mountain they happily moved to the mountains of Transylvania and ran that store and adjoining post office for over thirty years.

    "It was fun running the country store, but it could get pretty lonely during the winter months when there were few customers, But, as the postmaster of the old wooden post office next door there was a lot more activity and I generally got to know a lot about everybody's business," Ruby ruefully remarked.

    The original post office was eventually replaced by another one across from the present Grammy's Restaurant, where Skerrett also acted as postmaster The post office was moved once again and is the present modern brick building which is a couple miles to the north of the former post offices.

    Ruby has four children: Oliver, Jr., Rick, Rita, and Ameran. Her son Oliver has four children: Dawn, Angela, Jonathan, and Stefanie, Her son Rick has a son Craig. Her daughter Rita has two children: Robbie and Erin; and her daughter Ameran has two children: Meredith and Lauren.

    Oliver Skerrett, Jr. is a Baptist minister and has his doctorate from the Southeastern Seminary. When asked how he chose to be a minister, he replied: "You don't choose to be a minister, it chooses you." And, that's right, when a person receives the calling.

    Rev. Skerrett has pastored in Florida, on the East Coast of North Carolina, in Hendersonville, NC, and in the state of Virginia. "I found that people are about the same, wherever you go; but it was amusing to me that the Virginians were so intrigued by my mountain accent," he said.

    His Virginia church was built in 1774 before the United States became a nation. It had the unusual name of Pamonkey Church as it was named after the Indian tribe that had lived in that area. The old building was built out of sturdy bricks, had big planks to bar the doors from the inside. and an upper room where the slaves could worship. "We changed that room into a balcony and now everyone worships together," said Pastor Skerrett.

    Oliver Skerrett also did tool and die work as a side line and has written a book about pastoring which is now in the process of negotiation with publishers

    There is much humor and good-natured bantering, punctuated with laughter, during conversations with Ruby and Oliver Skerrett, as they are content with their lives and feel that the Transylvania mountains present the best in living and spiritual fulfillment.

    Lorraine Miller, Brevard, NC

    19-02-2009 om 00:00 geschreven door Lorraine

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