The best things at any family reunion are the elderly family members and the young children. The food is good, too, but the fellowship and watching the bridge from one generation to the next is seen in many faces and felt in the heart. We Appalachians seem to love family reunions! With so much Scot-Irish DNA, it may be a clan thing.
This past year, my family held its annual reunion. It was the 100th anniversary of the Gray family reunion in Greene County, Tennessee. The story of how our family reunion got started is unique. The family story is told in a personal diary kept by John Gray.
According to his journal, on June 22, 1923, the aging John Gray of Greeneville, Tennessee, fell ill, and his health continued to decline. John had served in the Union Army during the Civil War. He was a very patriotic family man. His wife Ruey had passed away several years earlier. John and Ruey Rambo Gray had fourteen children!
On June 24th, 1923, several members of the Gray family, who had previously relocated to Indianapolis, Indiana, left their home there and traveled by automobile, reached Greeneville on June 27th. His local family members were also “called in” as well.
Many of John Gray’s children, grandchildren, and other family members, friends, and neighbors gathered around his bedside. Caring for his every need, saying prayers, and being positive. The women cooked meals and served anyone who happened by the home place. What a show of family love! John started improving, and the family continued to stay around the old home place while he recovered.
It was then that family members decided to hold the first-ever John Gray Family Reunion in the home of John Gray on Sunday, July 8, 1923. John Gray passed away in 1932, but still today, in 2023, 100 years later, his family still gathers on the 2nd Sunday in August to carry on his legacy and continue this tradition with love, pride, and honor.
Manda can you make this shareable? It only says send.