THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 5, 1994 TAG: 9406050083
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A13 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DENNIS JOYCE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940605 LENGTH: VIRGINIA BEACH
She threw in an extra dose for her latest project: A circular arrangement of silk carnations and roses that President Clinton will toss into the English Channel during a D-Day memorial service Monday morning.
{REST} ``Every time I start talking about it I just get cold chills,'' said Rigby, 51, of Kempsville. ``I'm so proud of having done it.''
From Clinton's hands, the wreath - 5 feet in diameter - will float 100 feet to the sea from the deck of the Norfolk-based carrier George Washington. The world might not be watching as it happens - the live broadcast on CNN is scheduled for 1 a.m. EDT - but Rigby will be. Just to make sure, she took a whole week's vacation.
``I'm going to be attached to my living room couch with a remote control in one hand.''
She got the assignment because of the wreaths she had fashioned earlier as a subcontractor for a company doing business with the Navy. She'll be making another wreath soon for the homecoming of a son-in-law's ship, now in the Mediterranean.
``My father was in the Navy and both my sons-in-law are in the Navy. We're patriotic to the hilt.''
Floral design used to be her job, but now she works as a delivery driver and makes wreaths at home from time to time.
She took special care with the D-Day job. A total of 384 silk flowers - purple carnations and royal blue roses - are intertwined with ferns and English ivy in a spiral pattern. Crossing the wreath is a purple banner bearing the message, ``In remembrance, June 6, 1944.'' (The White House's official colors of mourning are blue, purple and green.)
Each side is a mirror image of the other so the wreath will float right no matter how it hits the waves. ``When you throw it off a carrier, you don't know which way it's going to go.''
And it will float: A plastic foam circle, reinforced with metal rods, is at its core.
Rigby worked each night for two weeks assembling the wreath. She spent a whole day just attaching flowers to stems with a hot-glue gun.
Few people will know where the wreath came from; it has a small part in a weeklong European whirlwind of D-Day anniversary commemorations.
That's OK with Rigby. As long as a few special people realize her contribution.
``It's not often you have a chance to do something to make your family proud,'' she said. ``It may be that nobody else in world would know, but my family would know.'' by CNB