Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 2, 1995 TAG: 9504150001
SECTION: HOTEL ROANOKE PAGE: 5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
"It was probably the first place I ever tried to waltz," she said.
Perhaps that is why her small remembrance is noteworthy. The hotel probably was the first place most native Roanokers first tried to waltz.
In fact, for many people, it probably was the only place they tried to waltz.
For Whitlow, 40, her first waltz came with her father, Gene Whitlow, a Roanoke banker who was a good dancer. He took his daughter for a spin around the Regency Room when she was just blossoming into womanhood.
She didn't want future generations to miss out on the same sorts of moments.
So, she gave.
Whitlow was one of the more than 2,000 people who donated money to the Renew Roanoke campaign in 1992.
The campaign, spearheaded by some of Roanoke's most powerful civic leaders, raised more than $7 million of the hotel's $27.8 million restoration.
Most of the pledges were small ones like the one from Whitlow, who gave less than $50, and it was these small donations that showed just how much the community supported the project - or at least how much people wanted a place to waltz again.
by CNB