This is an old photograph of the Blue Ridge Baptist Church Choir. It is from the program “Finding What Has Been Lost…African American History of Botetourt County, Va.” which is shown everyday at the Botetourt Museum of History and Culture. George Wilson provided the following names, left to right: back row-Helen Coleman, Alfred Williams, Marion Coleman, Theodore Macklin, Missouri Saunders, Theodore Redd, Juanita Coleman, Edward Saunders; middle row, Mattie Coleman, Gloria Priest, Marie Redd, Betty Russell, Barbara Coleman; front row, Carey, Ruth, Mozella and Irene Saunders. The original version Blue Ridge Baptist Church was organized after the Civil War as a one-room log building in 1873. Today, it is a modern brick church located along State Road 661. Its history has been documented by the County-Wide League, Judith and Edward W. Barnett, Deedie Kagey in “From Bonsack to Blue Ridge” and more recently in “Sentinels of the Faith” by Robert McRae. The visual program, these books and more information can be found in the Botetourt Museum in Fincastle where history is brought to life.
~ Botetourt County Museum of History & Culture
