Famous Stonemans descended from our family are:
" Ernest Van "Pop" Stoneman (May 25, 1893 - June 14, 1968) ranked among the prominent recording artists of country music's first commercial decade.
Born in a log cabin in Carroll County, Virginia, near what would later become Galax, Stoneman was left motherless at age three and was raised by his father and three musically inclined cousins, who taught him the instrumental and vocal traditions of Blue Ridge Mountain culture. He became a singer and songwriter and proficient musician on the guitar, autoharp, harmonica, clawhammer banjo, and jew's harp (juice harp).
When he married Hattie Frost in November 1918, he entered another musically involved family. He and Hattie had 23 children, 13 of whom survived to adulthood: Eddie L., I. Grace, John C., Patsy I., J. William (deceased), A. Juanita '(deceased), Gene A., Dean C. (deceased), C. Scott (deceased.), Donna L., O. James, Reta V. (deceased), Veronica L., Van H. (deceased)
In July and August 1927, Stoneman helped conduct the legendary Bristol sessions that led to the discovery of the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers. He continued to be active in recording through 1929. Between 1925 and 1929 Stoneman recorded more than 200 songs.
In 1947, the Stoneman Family won a talent contest that gave them six months' exposure on local television. In 1956, Pop won $10,000 on a NBC-TV quiz show and sang on the show as well. That same year, the Blue Grass Champs, a group composed largely of his children, were winners on the CBS-TV program Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. Stoneman retired from labor and the Champs went full time to become the Stonemans. They did albums for Starday in 1962 and 1963 and in 1964, went to TX and CA, cutting an album for World Pacific, playing at Disneyland, on some network shows and at several folk festivals.
In 1965, they went to Nashville, where they signed a contract with MGM Records and started a syndicated TV show. They received CMA's "Vocal Group of the Year" in 1967.
Pop Stoneman died at age 75.
On February 12, 2008, Ernest "Pop" Stoneman was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and in 2009 he and his wife Hattie Frost Stoneman were enshrined in the Gennett Records Walk of Fame.
The first major retrospective of his musical career "Ernest Stoneman: The Unsung Father of Country Music 1925-1934" (5 String Productions) was issued in 2008 by the Grammy award winning reissue team and was nominated for a 2009 Grammy award for "Best Album Notes."Excerpts from the website "Wikipedia"
Copy of a pencil drawing by Willard Gayhart of Earnest "Pop" Stoneman and Hattie at different times in their life playing their music.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas 1890-1998
Marjory Stoneman Douglas's 1947 best seller, The Everglades: River of Grass, raised America's consciousness and transformed the Florida Everglades from an area that was looked upon as a useless swamp - to be drained and developed commercially - to a national park that is seen as a valuable environmental resource to be protected and preserved. After this successful campaign to preserve the Everglades as a national park, Douglas continued her work by founding the Friends of the Everglades, a conservation organization with some 5,000 members today.
Always ahead of her time, Douglas graduated from Wellesley College as an English major in 1912. A few years later, Douglas went to Miami to be a reporter for her father's newspaper, which later became The Miami Herald. During World War I, she served with the American Red Cross in Europe. After the war, she launched her career as a newspaper editor at her father's paper. Many of her editorials focused on what she perceived to be Florida's increasing problem of rapid commercial development. In the 1920s, she left the newspaper to launch a second career as an author. Over the years she published many books and short stories, both fiction and non-fiction - most for adults but several for children - especially focusing on women, the history and life in southern Florida and environmental issues. She also engaged in a number of other campaigns and charity work to improve society: campaigns against slum-lords and for improved housing conditions, for free milk for babies whose parents needed aid, and for the ratification of the Women's Suffrage Amendment.
Most important, she dedicated her life to preserving and restoring the Everglades. She lived long enough to witness great successes. In 1996, for example, Florida voters passed a constitutional amendment that held polluters primarily responsible for cleaning up the Everglades. And the Florida and federal governments have authorized multimillion-dollar projects to restore and expand the Everglades. In recognition of her tireless and successful struggle, the state of Florida named the headquarters of its Department of Natural Resources after her.
Awarding Mrs. Douglas the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1993, President Clinton recognized her achievements. Upon her death in 1998 at the age of 108, President Clinton said: "Long before there was an Earth Day, Mrs. Douglas was a passionate steward of our nation's natural resources, and particularly her Florida Everglades."
Copied from the website "National Women's Hall of Fame"
