Author visits Point Pleasant

Former resident and elementary school teacher in New Haven, Mary Lee Powell-Pickard, or Lee as she is sometimes called, entertained guests at a reception held in her honor recently at the library in Point Pleasant. The reception was endorsed by the Mason County Library, sponsored by the Point Pleasant Writers Guild, and catered by Clinedda Austin of “Two Peas in a Pod Catering Service”. Guests included teachers, former students, writers, her sister Bonnie Bock, and old friends. One favorite former student was Becky Burris, who later became a teacher was in attendance. Marilyn Clarke, a member of the Point Pleasant Writers Guild had known her in New Haven. Zertha Knapp came to see Mary Lee to reminisce about a favorite shared former teacher, Vausie Hanes. All who attended were blessed by Lee’s Christian testimony in her new book, “Circle Rainbows”. Her book came about, Lee explained, not just as an autobiography, but as a testimony to the works that God has performed in shaping her life. She calls these her God stories. Originally, she had collected them for her children’s benefit, but eventually she came to understand that they would bring comfort and inspiration to others as well. In the book, her first God story came about as she was taking a plane home during a sad time in her life. As the plane gained altitude, she looked out her window and watched as the plane flew through a rainbow, shaped as a circle. At the time, Lee took it as a sign of God's promise to comfort her as she grieved for the loss of her beloved husband, John Powell. Later on she was to meet a retired airline pilot who confirmed that rainbows do form circles when viewed from above. This pilot became her second husband, David Charles Pickard. The author laughed as she recalled things that had happened to her while growing up on Mt. Union Ridge in rural Mason County. One such incident occurred at the age of five when she pretended to be a wayward heifer and nearly lost her front teeth in the process. Her first years of school were spent in a one-room school house on Mt. Union Ridge. Lee’s teacher, Vausie Hanes, influenced to become a teacher as well. Like Vausie, she employed the experiential approach, “We learn to do by doing.” While Mary Lee was a teacher in Osceola County Florida, she was instrumental in converting a former cannery into a museum as a means of teaching her students about Florida. Mary Lee read her poem “Paradigm Pioneer” which describes her as an advocate for change in teaching methods. In 2000, she retired after almost 40 years of teaching, and admits she might have trouble with the “common core” method of teaching now in vogue. During the reception, Lee's sister, Bonnie Bock, read her Christian poem, "This Gift ". Ms. Powell-Pickard is fortunate to have two places she calls home---her winter home in Florida, where she has lived since 1970, and her summer home in Wirt County where she is close to her family and her roots. Mary Lee has transformed her summer home into a Retreat Center called Creekstone, where she can sleep a dozen people. During a Christian Minister’s Retreat at Creekstone, Mary Lee’s guests exceeded her allotment of beds, and two pastors had to sleep in the small chapel located on the property. The gentlemen claimed to have had a good night’s sleep on “Holy Ground”. This group was in the area to attend a Writers Conference, held at a church in Elizabeth. They invited her to attend one of their sessions, and along with everyone else, she was asked to write a poem on the subject "I am from..." without naming an actual geographical location. The following is an excerpt from that poem: “I was from, ‘Where there is a will there is a way.’ And now I am from ’I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’” Article by, April Pyles