A daughter and a grandson of Leonora Whitaker Wood were special guests at Friday's
celebration of the 100th anniversary of her arrival in Del Rio. They were welcomed to\
the annual ChristyFest. From left are host Larry Myers, Wood's daughter Emma Wood
Hoskins, Wood's grandson Rev. Peter Marshall, Cary Myers, and Cocke County Tourism
Director Linda Lewanski.

DEL RIO, TN-When 19-year-old Leonora Haseltine Whitaker arrived at the Ebenezer Mission in December of 1909, sub-zero temperatures and waist-deep snow greeted her.

On Friday, when approximately 100 family members and devotees of the Christy story gathered in Del Rio to celebrate the centennial of her arrival, temperatures soared to the mid-90s under blue skies.

In that long-ago summer of 1909, Whitaker attended a series of Presbyterian conferences in Montreat, North Carolina. Upon hearing impassioned pleas for teachers and mission workers, she volunteered as a teacher for the Society of Soul Winners.

That winter, she boarded a train for Del Rio, where a party of citizens waited for her arrival at the West Myers flag stop. However, Whitaker mistakenly left the train one stop earlier at the Del Rio depot.

She spent her first night in Tennessee at Mildred Burnett's boarding house, now the home of James and Evelyn Adams. Early the next morning, local mailman Hubert Stokely met her at Runnion's Store and agreed to accompany her to the mission school, a seven-mile trek into the Old 15th.

The snow's depths made travel by horseback impossible, so the two walked and floundered their way to the mission on Morgan Branch.

Eventually Whitaker married the school's pastor, Rev. John Wood, on May 10, 1910. The couple remained at the mission until March 1912, when they moved to Greene County, TN.

Eventually the Woods became the parents of three children: Catherine, Robert, and Emma. Rev. Wood served numerous Presbyterian churches in the South until his 1956 retirement.

In 1958, one year short of the golden anniversary of Whitaker's arrival in Del Rio, her daughter, now Catherine Marshall, penned a short biography of her mother. The work impressed Marshall's editor, who urged her to expand it into a biographical novel.

Marshall and her parents returned to Del Rio to research the story. Here the Woods renewed friendships with their students, now parents and grandparents themselves. During their visits here, the late Opal Corn Myers worked diligently to help Marshall in her work. Also, the late Miss Mary Rowe Ruble, then Cocke County's historian and a daughter of Del Rio's Dr. John Ruble, assisted Marshall in gathering material for her book.

Marshall's novel soared to the top of the New York Times bestseller list upon its release in 1967 and stayed there for 39 weeks. It has since been made into a movie, filmed as a television series, and adapted to the stage.

Special guests at Friday's celebration were Emma Wood Hoskins, the surviving daughter of John and Leonora (Whitaker) Wood, and Rev. Peter Marshall, Catherine Marshall's son and a grandson of the novel's inspiration.

People gathered first at Del Rio Baptist Church for breakfast provided by the Cocke County Partnership and special music by Mountain Strings Band members David and Sharon McClary and Tom Dier.

Larry Myers, son of the late Opal Corn Myers, welcomed the crowd. Cocke County Tourism Director Linda Lewanski, on behalf of Cocke County Mayor Iliff R. McMahan, Jr., read a proclamation honoring the day.

A special highlight was the filming of a segment of "Get Real" with the entire audience as part of the show.

After guests toured the Del Rio area, a motorcade made its way to Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Mitchell Turner called the congregation to order by ringing the church bell.

Church member Ruby Turner welcomed the group, and Larry Myers gave the opening prayer.

Following congregational singing, members of the Ebenezer Baptist Church Quartet-Barbara Turner, Clara Owenby, Ruby Turner, and Jennifer Turner-sang "Is Not This The Land of Beulah?" and "What a Friend We Have in Jesus."

ChrisAnn Goosen, a member of the ChristyFest planning team, then introduced Rev. Marshall, who shared his thoughts about his grandmother's work at the mission and his mother's novel.

Marshall, who has conducted a continent-wide ministry since 1977 and who was visiting the site for the first time, said, "While driving up here, I couldn't help thinking how easy we have it compared to our grandparents, and especially my grandmother 'Christy.' Quite honestly, no one in her right mind would have volunteered for such work unless she was called by God."

According to Marshall, "Anniversaries are times when we look back and recollect."

He pointed out that over 14,000,000 copies of his mother's novel are now in print with the third generation of readers now enjoying the work.

"Why the success?" he asked.

Marshall summarized the novel's continued popularity in three points.

"First, it's a great story," he said, "one that is timeless and well told. It has power in its drama."

"Second," he continued, "it's about a young person finding her way in life from that of a naïve teenager, untested in her faith, to her own confession of faith. Every reader can identify with such a journey."

"Third," he ended, "Christy wrestles with the real issues of life that every person faces. She deals with such questions as why evil remains in the world and seems to strike those who don't deserve it. She deals with the fact that children die of diseases. It's an honest book, and there are not a lot of those around. It deals with loss, death, defeats, and failures. It speaks to us and resonates in our hearts."

"Grandma came up here because she was called," he added.