Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 13, 1992 TAG: 9202130310
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
PEOPLE
The five-room sod house May and Thomas Stinnette began married life in 78 years ago no longer stands, but their marriage does."We went to our wedding in a horse-drawn buggy and now they go to the moon," May Stinnette, 98, said Tuesday as she and her 99-year-old husband celebrated their anniversary in an Imperial, Neb., nursing home.
The Stinnettes were married three days shy of Valentine's Day in 1914.
"There were rough times, but we had the good Lord to help us over the rough places," she said. "I think anybody can see marriages don't last very long like they used to, a lot of them."
Matty Rich, the 20-year-old director who made a splash with his debut "Straight Out of Brooklyn," said Tuesday that watching friends die on the streets of New York turned him to filmmaking.
"All I heard was screaming in pain," Rich said. "I didn't know what would happen, but I thought if I could do this and express myself in this form instead of shooting or killing somebody, I could be OK."
Rich financed his $300,000 film with his mother's and sister's credit cards, donations from friends and a Public Broadcasting System grant.
"Straight Out of Brooklyn," about a poor black youth who turns to crime to help his family, has grossed nearly $5 million since its release last year. Rich wrote, directed, produced and acted in the movie.
In a speech in Huntington, W.Va., as part of Marshall University's Black History Month, Rich said he began reading about filmmaking at age 10. He stole some of the books from libraries.
"I made myself who I am," he said. "No one took me to college or molded me into this young black filmmaker. I did it through persistence, dedication and hard work."
Jodie Foster brandished a ceremonial brass pot as Harvard University's Hasty Pudding theater group honored the actress as its 1992 Woman of the Year.
Hasty Pudding Theatricals, the nation's oldest undergraduate drama group, said Tuesday it chose Foster because she confronted important social issues.