Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 7, 1994 TAG: 9407080025
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: STAUNTON LENGTH: Long
Amid the vast expanse of lawn chairs spread across the Staunton Braves' baseball park like wildly colored wall-to-wall carpeting, Millious sat in the front row, close enough to wink at her favorite Statler, Don Reid.
It was an enviable seat, but not one that came easy.
For Millious, 51, this was the sixth consecutive year she made the 900-mile trip to Staunton for the Statlers' July 4th free concert, and it was the sixth year she endured the five-day vigil to gain her privileged lawn-chair position.
It also was her last because Monday marked the final Happy Birthday U.S.A. hosted by Staunton's favorite country music sons after a 25-year run.
Millious said she wouldn't be back - at least not for July 4th - even if the town continues the holiday tradition in some form without the Statlers.
That was the general consensus.
Without the country quartet, the event, which drew an estimated 100,000 people this year, will never be the same.
To further comprehend the phenomenon was to sit in the lawn chairs of Nancy Maxey and Joyce Thomas, who drove six hours from Tennessee for the concert.
They sat outside the baseball park behind a chain link fence where the Statlers had to compete for their eardrums with the slamming doors of the nearby portable toilets.
For Maxey and Thomas, this was their first Happy Birthday U.S.A., and despite the terrible seats, they were just as content as Millious on the front row.
"If we had to sit in the car, we still would be able to hear them," said Maxey, 62.
The Statlers have a certain loyal Americana appeal that transcends your average Fourth of July backyard-barbecue patriotism. The group's Happy Birthday U.S.A. celebration has always capitalized on that appeal.
In addition to the free concert and fireworks afterward, the day was filled with scenes that could have come straight off a Norman Rockwell canvas.
There was a parade, of course. There were people pitching horseshoes, and there was bingo. And more cloggers - seven groups - performed than you could shake a foot at.
The greasy smell of festival food filled the air. A carnival midway teamed with crowds, where there was a high density of "Ollie!" North campaign stickers and American flag shirts.
The best were worn by Jimmy and Donnita Parks of Monroe, N.C. They bought their shirts at a western store with the Happy Birthday U.S.A. celebration in mind. The shirts cost them $50 a piece.
But they drew attention. The couple, who wore matching red boots and blue jeans to complete the patriotic look, estimated that 100 people had stopped to ask about the shirts.
"One man tried to buy my shirt," Donnita Parks said.
A passerby, thinking the couple was dressed for the stage, inquired: "You all singing tonight?" To which Jimmy Parks replied: "No ma'am, I couldn't carry a tune in two buckets."
Statler Brothers T-shirts did big business. The Shenandoah Valley Kiwanis Club, raising money for charity, sold more than 9,000 T-shirts at $12 and $15 each commemorating the final Statlers' July 4th show. The group earned $45,000 from the shirts, which featured a list of all the big-name performers like Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Reba McEntire and Conway Twitty, who have appeared at past Happy Birthday U.S.A. concerts.
To the Statlers' credit, the group has never profited from the event. The money from T-shirt sales and other Statler-related concessions goes to charity or local civic groups.
In fact, Ray Houser, one of the original Happy Birthday U.S.A. organizers, said the Statlers lose money every year on the celebration. That is one reason the group is giving up the tradition, Houser said.
"They have contributed 25 years. They figure 25 years is long enough."
He said there is a movement to continue the July 4th celebration without the Statlers in future years, possibly by bringing in other headline acts from Nashville. But he cautioned that nothing yet is definite.
"We've got to start from scratch," he said.
On stage, the Statlers thanked the audience for coming out, but mostly, the only real brothers in the group, Don and Harold Reid, stuck to their usual cornball banter.
Harold asked whether Don had heard the story about the big jogger?
"Do you mean the president?" Don asked.
"No, I'm talking about her husband, Bill," Harold replied.
He then went on to tell how the big jogger fell in a creek.
"He fell out in the whitewater."
You get the idea.
From winking distance in the front row, Rita Millious laughed on cue, and clapped along as the group kicked into its trademark country harmonies.
Millious and her friends arrived in Staunton from Milwaukee last Thursday, and they almost immediately went to work holding their spots in line for entrance into the park.
The vigil lasted until around midnight Sunday when police let the waiting throngs file in and stake their lawn-chair space. Within an hour, the park was two-thirds full with empty chairs. By 8:30 Monday morning, the park was full.
In the end, Millious suggested, maybe it's hard for anyone to understand such devotion unless they are willing to travel the same long distances or go to the same lengths.
"Nobody knows what it's like until you're actually a part of it," she said.
by CNB