
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 25, 1995                   TAG: 9505250059
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

MUSEUM DIRECTOR ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT

Melody Stovall, executive director of the Harrison Museum of African American Culture in Roanoke, has announced that she will retire Oct. 1.

Stovall, the museum's founding director, said she believed a change in leadership would be good for the small, nonprofit museum. November would have marked her 10th year in the position.

Under Stovall's leadership, the museum's permanent collection of art and artifacts has grown from fewer than 100 pieces in 1985 to several thousand items. Stovall's accomplishments include overseeing and instituting the annual Henry Street Heritage Festival and a yearly Holiday Shopping Bazaar, a museum store, oral history interviews of black elders, and a planned pictorial history book and Harrison Museum annex.

Stovall said she has no plans to take another position; she hopes to spend more time with her family and to activate her real estate agent's license.

She will spend her remaining time at the museum working on the Heritage Festival, scheduled for Sept. 30 in Elmwood Park, and finishing the museum's book project.

by CNB