THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 20, 1994 TAG: 9411200067
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW PAUST, NEWPORT NEWS DAILY PRESS
DATELINE: GLOUCESTER LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
Johnny Cox shielded his eyes from the sun with a Pittsburgh Steelers cap Saturday as he watched the unveiling of a bronze statue of his Powhatan Indian princess ancestor, Pocahontas, several blocks from his home in the Gloucester Court House village.
Cox, 67, a retired typesetter, was one of several people attending the unveiling who carried copies of family trees documenting their lineage to the union of Pocahontas and John Rolfe in April 1614.
The family tree, prepared for Cox by a relative, shows him to be a 10th-line descendant, but, waving his hand, he pre-empts any suggestion that this makes him special.
``It's just a quirk of fate,'' he said. ``I could've been a descendant of Blackbeard the pirate just as easily.''
Just the same, he was looking forward to the day's festivities, including a parade, music, concessions and Native American exhibits and dancing. ``It's a nice to-do. We probably have more people from other places in Gloucester today than we ever have,'' Cox said.
Visitors included a representative from Gravesend, England, where Pocahontas is believed to be buried.
The most popular guest was singer Wayne Newton, a descendant of the Powhatan people, who flew in from Las Vegas with his wife for the event.
During ceremonies following the unveiling, Newton spoke briefly about his family and heritage, then departed through a gantlet of friends, relatives and autograph seekers before heading back to the airport.
``He's got another engagement tonight,'' said Newton cousin Linwood Adams of Mechanicsville. Adams is a brother of Edmond Adams, chief of the Upper Mattaponi Tribe. The Pocahontas celebration, Linwood Adams said, has been a long time coming. He offered a single word to describe the statue: beautiful.
A gasp of admiration escaped from the group of a couple hundred people who were gathered around the veiled statue when Debbie ``White Dove'' Sehring pulled off the covering to reveal the 4-foot-tall figure that had been sculpted by her husband, Adolph Sehring.
Sehring, a world-renowned sculptor and painter, donated his time on the figure, the face of which he modeled after his wife as a young girl. Debbie Sehring is the daughter of Mattaponi Chief Webster ``Little Eagle'' Custalow, who delivered a prayer before the unveiling.
Another daughter, Shirley ``Little Dove,'' McGowan, was a consultant for Walt Disney's animated film ``Pocahontas,'' which is to be released in June. A sneak preview of the movie was scheduled in Gloucester as part of Saturday's festivities.
Throughout the day, a popular comment was about how nice the weather had turned out after a brush with Tropical Storm Gordon that brought wind and drizzle, and didn't end until early Saturday.
The sunny sky and warm temperatures of the day prompted some people to suggest maybe it was the perennial phenomenon known as ``Indian summer.''
Linwood Adams agreed that it felt like Indian summer, but he added, ``They say you need a freeze first, and I don't believe we've had one yet.'' by CNB