University of North Alabama - Diorama Yearbook (Florence, AL)

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In June, people from near and far travelled to Tuscumbia for the fifth annual Helen Keller Festival, an event renowned for Commemorating a Miracle. The ducks and swans who Hve in Spring Park didn ' t seem to mind all the attention they got from the thousands of people who flocked to Tuscumbia the last weekend of June. The fifth annual Helen Keller Fes- tival, held in Keller ' s hometown from lune 23-26, celebrated her llSth birth- day. She was born in Tuscumbia on lune 27, 1880. Featuring something for everyone — from athletes to history buffs to the- atre enthusiasts — this year ' s Keller festival was the best ever, according to Mike McMackin, publicity chairman of the festival committee. Sports events offered during the festival included the five-mile and one-mile Helen Keller Run and a ten- nis tournament. Hoop-skirted young ladies served as guides on the tour of historic homes and churches in the Tuscumbia area, sponsored by the Tennessee Valley His- torical Society. Daily tours of Ivy Green, Helen Keller ' s birthplace, provided a festival highlight. Each weekend from [une 17- )ulv 30. Ivy Green offered perfor- mances of William Gibson ' s drama, The Miracle Worker. Most of the Miracle Worker cast was comprised of university students. Freedom Hills, a popular musi- cal comedy by local playwright Favre Sparks, drew crowds at the Tuscumbia STROLLING UNDER THE TREES, the festival crowd browses among the paintings, pottery, crafts, and photographs displayed by artists and artisans from near and far Among the 130 ex- hibitors at the arts and crafts show in Spring Park was sculptor Rick Adams, a university art student. (Photo by Grant Lovett) Municipal Building each night of the festival. The Tennessee Valley Art As- sociation sponsored the production. The TVAA also sponsored the arts and crafts show and musical entertain- ment in Spring Park. Over 130 artists and craftsmen took part in the week- end show. The Art Center, visited by 650 people during the festival, housed a needlework exhibit. Famed Alabama storyteller Kath- ryn Tucker Windham returned to the Keller Festival this year by popular de- mand. Windham held 770 people spell- bound at four sessions in which she spun tales of ghosts, witches, and Southern folk superstitions. According to leanie McNees, ex- ecutive director of the Helen Keller birthplace, 858 people toured Ivy Green during the festival weekend. In addition, 1,052 spectators at- tended the three festival weekend per- formances of The Miracle Worker. CAPTIVATING A CROWD of children and adults at Spring Park with one of his famous coin tricks is magician Steve Richerson. A university stu- dent as well as a professional magician. Richer- son majors in art and theatre. (Photo by Grant Lovett) TAKING THE STAGE at Spring Park, a gospel music group prepares to sing. Keller Festival au- diences heard every kind of music imaginable at the jamboree, from gospel and rock to country western and bluegrass. (Photo by Grant Lovett) i Freedom Hills audiences totaled 1,950. The festival is growing so fast that we have to start planning it and releas- ing information earlier and earlier each year, McNees said. We plan to start publicizing the 1984 Helen Keller Fes- tival as early as [anuary. Helen Keller, who overcame blind- ness and deafness to become one of the world ' s great humanitarians, died in . 1968 after living most of her life far | away from her tiny north Alabama home-town. But she never forgot Tus- cumbia, and Tuscumbia will certainly never forget her. — Michele Savage l« fs-ii

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INCOMING FRESHMEN get an official welcome from Dr. Robert Guillot during SOAR activities. On their tour of campus the SOARees left Leo ' s cage and walked to the president ' s office in Bibb Graves Hall. (Photo by Patrick Hood) HEAD OF THE MUSIC DEPARTMENT, Dr. James Simpson has lunch with potential music majors during SOAR. A luncheon with the faculty is a part of every SOAR session. (Photo by Patrick Hood) student Life 23

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RESTING ON BENCHES, weary festival-goers BUDDING ARTIST |ennie McDaniel contributes enjoy the shade of the weeping willows that grow her finger-painting skills to an already colorful around Spring Park ' s duck pond. The site of an display of local talent. Large sign boards, spon- arts and crafts show as well as a musical jambo- sored by several Tuscumbia businesses, were ree. the park was one of the festival ' s main focal placed in Spring Park to provide festival-goers points. (Photo by Grant Lovett) with a creative outlet. (Photo by Patrick Hood) student Life 25 d