Every year for the past 16 years, Port Royal, Virginia has put on a celebratory Independence Day event. The day is filled with musicians, Revolutionary and Civil War reenactors, speakers, 18th century dancers, bagpipers, and a formal reading of the Declaration of Independence. It is a wonder annual program and a great way to spend part of the 4th. Here are a few pictures that I managed to take of the event:
This year, I had the honor of being asked to give a short speech. Knowing my interest in the Lincoln assassination story, my fellow board members of Historic Port Royal asked me to speak on the topic of John Wilkes Booth. I heartily agreed. Later on though, as I was trying to prepare for my speech, I had a hard time reconciling the discussion of a Presidential assassin on the day of our country’s birth. So, rather than discussing John Wilkes Booth, I decided to present a more Revolutionary tale. Below is a video of the speech I presented.
I wish you all a very happy Independence Day.
LincolnConspirators.com 
Dave –
You are positively WONDERFUL Speaker! Kudos…..
And Betty you are a wealth of knowledge and fantastic interviewee. Everyone read this article that came out yesterday about the story of Lewis Powell’s skull featuring our very own Betty Ownsbey: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/the-exhumed-skull-of-a-would-be-assassin-and-its-long-journey-home/2015/07/03/cd2e7bd0-1ff2-11e5-84d5-eb37ee8eaa61_story.html
Nicely done. I hope you had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Sellers.
Sadly, Chuck, I lost Dr. Sellers after I gave my speech. He attends some of our meetings in Port Royal so I’m sure I’ll have another chance in the future.
Great story and great photo of Betty.
Dave, Great Booth twist. It must have been great to speak with Dr. Sellers.
Despite saying I wasn’t going to talk about Booth, I had to get him in there somewhere.
Great job, Dave. Kudos!
Thank you very much, Roger.
Great job Dave!
Thank you, Carolyn.