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FRIENDS OF HOLLYWOOD CEMETERY NEWS FROM FRIENDS OF HOLLYWOOD CEMETERY NONPROFIT ORG. 412 South Cherry Street U.S. POSTAGE Richmond, Virginia 23220 PAID PERMIT NO. 671 23232 A Gateway Into History WWW.HOLLYWOODCEMETERY.ORG FALL 2018 • VOLUME 6, NUMBER 2 Finding Emily Arents A Chance Meeting Leads a California Woman to “Miss Grace” lthough she grew up hearing stories about her was Rev. Barbara Ambrose, a vocational deacon at St. relative Lewis Ginter (1824-1897), the tobacco Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, for which magnateA and real estate developer, Emily Arents knew Grace had funded the construction. little about Grace, his niece, and her great-great aunt. A chance conversation with a friend in January inspired “I am such a fan of Grace,” says Ambrose, who had also her to take a long-planned trip to Richmond with her written an article about the prominent Richmonder for a daughter, Leilani Cochran, to learn more about her Friends of Hollywood Cemetery newsletter. Working with mysterious family member. Emily, she helped coordinate a Grace-focused trip around Richmond. “It was fun on our end because I realized “All of this was Emily had no idea what she would be walking into, and prompted by a friend people were just really, really excited about this whole of mine at church,” prospect.” says Arents, speaking by phone from her The trip begins home in Arcata, California. “My Emily Arents grew up outside New York City. She friend was doing remembers passing through Richmond on her way to some research last boarding school at Chatham Hall but had never visited. fall and when we For their two-day trip in April to the capitol city, Arents were meeting at and Cochran stayed at the Jefferson Hotel, a Richmond an outreach event, landmark which Lewis Ginter had helped develop. she said, ‘Emily, are you related to On the first day, Ambrose led them on a tour of St. Grace Arents?’ And I Andrew’s Episcopal Church, a Gothic Revival church in thought, Oh my gosh, Oregon Hill noted for its steep bell tower. At a luncheon Grace Evelyn Arents I know that name— afterwards, they met people who were able to share (1848-1926) yes.” stories about “Miss Grace” they had heard from family members. Emily’s friend had learned about Grace Arents (1848- (continued on page 2) 1926) and her transformative philanthropic work from a classmate’s postings in an online class. The classmate Charles Emily Arbor Minnigerode Recollections Photo Partial 2018 Arents Day Page 6 Contest Donor Overlooks List Richmond Visionary, Community Leader, and Philanthropist Pages 1-3 Pages 4-5 Dedication Page 8 Page 9 Pages 10-11 Page 7 “Miss Grace” (continued) Mrs. Russell G. Fergusson, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. John A. Nolde, Jr. Mr. Christopher E. Bowman Mr. David M. Northen Arents learned she had much in common with her Aunt “I was thrilled to meet Emily and Leilani,” says Kelly Dr. and Mrs. Adam J. Fiedler Bradley and Jane Nott Mr. James N. Boyd Ms. Darlene Ogden Grace – from her occupation (she is a parish nurse at Jones Wilbanks, Executive Director of Friends of Mr. G. Slaughter Fitz-Hugh, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. William H. Overton Mr. Austin Brockenbrough, III Mr. and Mrs. Vernon A. Parker St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Arcata; Grace, also a Hollywood Cemetery. “Lewis Ginter and Grace Arents Ms. Ella Foshay & Mr. Michael Ms. Karen L. Owens Mrs. Judith A. Brush Mr. and Mrs. J. Terry Parsley Rothfeld Mrs. Louise Thrift Owens Mr. and Mrs. Thomas P. Bryan, III Ms. Mollie A. Payne nurse, helped establish the Instructive Visiting Nurses were the only members of their family who lived in Mr. Merritt W. Foster, III Mrs. Sarah K. Parrish Mrs. Archer C. Burke Mrs. Parke D. Pendleton Association to provide health care to poor families), to Richmond – most of them lived in New York – and neither Mr. and Mrs. F. Meriwether Fowlkes, Jr. Ms. Cary Cardozo Paul Mr. Dennis Bussey Mrs. Margaret Perkinson her love of horticulture, and to her belief “that money is a of them had children. So, I’d never met any of their Mr. Richard H. Fox Mr. and Mrs. John Stuart Philips Colonel and Mrs. J. A. Barton Ms. Audrey Platt tool and it has no value if it isn’t used well,” she says. descendants before.” Mr. and Mrs. John J. Fox, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. C. Cotesworth Pinckney Campbell Mr. and Mrs. Freddy D. Preston Mrs. Nancy Wilson Gaffner Mrs. Nancy C. Pollard Ms. Sharon Carter Mr. and Mrs. John Ramos, Jr. Grace is often compared to Jane Addams, who founded Arents enjoyed her visit to the cemetery. “It’s a gorgeous Mrs. Patricia M. Given Dr. and Mrs. Harry A. Raddin Mr. and Mrs. Jack Cook Mr. and Mrs. Stanley P. Reed, Jr. Mr. C. Hobson Goddin Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm M. Randolph Hull House in Chicago in 1889 to support the social and place,” she says. Wilbanks brought the group to Grace’s Ms. Rosemary Cotton Mrs. Frances S. Adamson Reed Mr. Stretton L. Gramlich Ms. Elizabeth D. Rawles Mr. and Mrs. Frederic H. Cox, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. J. William Reid educational needs of poor immigrant families. At the grave—a simple headstone at the end of a line of Mrs. Amy M. Griese Mr. Frank L. Rawling Mrs. W. Thomas Cunningham, Jr. Mr. George J. Rovnan time, Addams and other women turned to the settlement boxwoods—and then led them inside Ginter’s mausoleum. Mr. Robert P. Grymes, Jr. Mr. Melvin L. Rawls Mr. and Mrs. James R. V. Daniel Mrs. Kathleen Royster houses after not being permitted to start the programs in Arents had seen the ornate marble structure from family Mr. and Mrs. Brenton S. Halsey Mrs. Carole M. Rayner Mr. and Mrs. Paul E. Davis Mr. and Mrs. Raymond A. Ruth their churches, says Ambrose. “They were told, ‘You are photos but had never known what it was. “And I had no Mr. and Mrs. G. Bernard Hamilton Nancy B. Reed Mr. Charles W. Dickinson Ms. Penelope de B. Saffer women, you can’t do this.’ One of the things that really idea at all about the windows,” she says, referring to the Ms. Katherine C. Harder Mr. and Mrs. James T. Rhodes, Jr. Mrs. Mary W. Dozier Mr. and Mrs. Edward M. Schaaf, III struck me about Grace Arents was that she was doing a mausoleum’s three Tiffany windows. “They are absolutely Mr. and Mrs. Henry Howze Harrell Mr. Pat Adams Ricks Mr. Charles E. Eberle Mr. and Mrs. Edward A. Schutt Ms. Cheryl Harris Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm E. Ritsch, Jr. lot of the same kinds of things…but she had the ability to breathtaking.” Inspired, she gave a donation to support Mr. and Mrs. Richard C. Edmunds, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. R. Carter Scott, III Mr. and Mrs. J. Philip Hart Mrs. C. B. Robertson, III Ms. Marybeth Eilerson Mr. Howard W. Shields build her own church, so nobody could say ‘you can’t do their planned restoration. “To be able to participate in Mrs. Patricia Leonard Higgins Mr. Gilbert M. Rosenthal Ms. Virginia C. Ellett Mrs. Schuyler O. Sneed this.’” making them as lovely as they once were seems to be a Mrs. S. Winfield Hill Mr. and Mrs. Henry F. Schacht Mr. and Mrs. Edward Epstein Mrs. Cameron B. Srpan wonderful thing to do.” Mr. and Mrs. William Maury Hill Mrs. Martha A. Schrenk Mr. and Mrs. William F. Etherington Mr. G. Allen Stanley Records from the time show Grace was closely involved Mr. and Mrs. John Cameron Hoggan, Jr. Mr. Roger M. Scott Mr. Robert J. Flacke Mr. Olen C. Stewart, Jr. in the planning of St. Andrew’s. Although a modest and A whirlwind second day Mr. and Mrs. H. Winston Holt, III Ms. Brantley Bache Shiflett Mrs. George H. Flowers, III Mr. and Mrs. Robert B. Stroube humble woman, “she was not a shrinking violet by any Dr. and Mrs. J. Shelton Horsley, III Mrs. Richard T. Short Mrs. Marjorie N. Fowlkes Dr.• and Mrs. E. Armistead Talman Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Horton Mr. Robert W. Simms stretch of the imagination, and I don’t think she was The next day, the mother and daughter visited St. Dr. and Mrs. L. Arnold Frederick Mrs. Marney Terrill Dr. and Mrs. J. Hubert Dr. and Mrs. Robert P. Snead Mrs. Martha D. Garian Mr. John Christopher Tichacek particularly easy to work with,” says Ambrose, with a Andrew’s School, a tuition-free K-5 school started by Dr. Douglas Hundley Mr. and Mrs. William H. Snider Mr. William B. George, Jr. Mrs. Mary Stoddard Trigg laugh, “But she got it done.” Grace that is affiliated with the church. Mrs. Helen F. Inconstanti-Alexander Dr. and Mrs. Richard P. Sowers, III Mr. Norruth Graham, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Turnbull Mr. and Mrs. Bob Johnson Mr. and Mrs. Jack H. Spain, Jr. Mr. William A. Gregory Mrs. Lynne C. Valentine A visit to the gravesite “They had the opportunity to spend a little bit of time Mr. and Mrs. Earl Johnson Mrs. Joseph E. Spruill, Jr. Mr. James C. Hamilton, Jr. Mrs. Fontaine J. Velz with the children in each one of the grades. The kids Judge Thomas O. Jones and Mrs. Elizabeth C. Stallworth Mr. R. Stephen Hamilton Ms. Sandra E. Waller After the luncheon, the group headed to Hollywood all know about Miss Grace and her contributions to the Mrs. Rejena Carreras Mr. George C. Stuckey Les and Kennah Harcum Dr.

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