Special Presentations at J.D. Massey Classic Horse Show
Thursday, April 26, 2007
(Editor’s note: The following was read on Wednesday evening at the recent J.D. Massey Classic Horse Show and was accepted by Marian H. Hunt.)
The Hunt Foundation Presentation
In early March 1989, Roy F. Hunt Jr., and his wife, Eva Powers Hunt, created the Hunt Foundation for charitable giving. Mr. and Mrs. Hunt recognized that the foundation was a good vehicle for giving back to the community where they had lived, worked and raised their family. As the years passed, one of the Hunt’s sons, W. Powers Hunt, assumed more and more of the responsibility for the foundation. When his father died, Powers became the managing trustee. Upon the untimely death of Powers Hunt, his sister, Marian H. Hunt became the trustee.
Marian Hunt has been involved with the Greenville Horse Show when it was held in Cleveland Park in downtown Greenville, S.C. Because of her love of the American Saddlebred and her dedication to this horse show, she and the Hunt Foundation have given generously to support the J.D. Massey Classic and the charities it helps to fund.
In honor of the memories of Mr. Roy Hunt Jr., and Mr. W. Powers Hunt and with much gratitude to the Hunt Foundation, the J.D. Massey Board Of Directors presented this token of appreciation for your support of the 74th annual J.D. Massey Classic Horse Show.
(Editor’s note: The following presentations were made on Friday evening at the recent J.D. Massey Classic Horse Show.)
Hall Of Fame – Sarah Earle Campbell
With the passing of Mrs. Sarah Earle Campbell on Feb. 23, 007, we lost someone who was an important part of the history of the J.D. Massey Classic Horse Show. Mrs. Sarah Earle, as she was know to many, was a founding member of the former Greenville Horse Show and Fair which one day was to become the J.D. Massey Classic of today.
Sarah Loor Earle Campbell was born in Greenville County and was a life long resident of Greenville. She attended Furman University and Wesleyan College. She graduated from Columbia University was a degree in library science, and while in New York, she studied violin at Julliard.
Mrs. Campbell was a charter member of the Greenville Symphony Orchestra. She played violin with the symphony for 25 years and was a counselor for the Woodside Junior Music Club. She represented the orchestra at the Symphony Guild and was a member of the Greenville Little Theater Orchestra.
In addition to being a talented musician, Mrs. Sarah Earle was also an accomplished equestrian. She showed American Saddlebred horses for many years and garnered many accolades along the way. Along with Mr. Jim Dusenberry, Mr. Sam Massey and Mr. W.L. Freeman, Mrs. Sarah Earle Campbell was responsible for creating the Greenville Horse Show which eventually would become the J.D. Massey Classic we are enjoying tonight. In addition, she served as ring secretary for the show beginning in 1933 when it was originally held in Cleveland Park. She also participated as an exhibitor and was well known on the show circuit with her five-gaited mount, Mountain Dandy. In the 1950s, she took the lines and showed Minchess, her fine harness mare by Beau La Rose Peavine. When she bred Minchess to American Dictator in 1960, she became the proud owner of the stallion, Carolina Cavalier who she also took to many victories around the Southeast.
If Mrs. Sarah Earle Campbell could be here with us tonight, she would certainly be thrilled to see what that very first horse show in the park has become after 74 years. We are all grateful for the foresight that she and her friends had when they sat down and decided to create a venue for the enjoyment of those wonderful horses back in the day. Tonight, we are honored to induct Mrs. Sarah Earle Campbell into the J.D. Massey Classic Horse Show Hall of Fame for 2007. Accepting the award is her niece, Penny Griswald.
Hall of Fame – Lydia “Babe” Sawyer
Tonight’s Hall of Fame inductee, Lydia “Babe” Sawyer, was in attendance at one of the very first Greenville Horse Shows.
Granted, she was a very young girl but she can recount in that wonderful Southern drawl memories of seeing the likes of the great Easter On Parade trained by Robert Scott’s uncle James Scott and shown by Glen Lanning, of the champion harness horse Sam Spade when he was trimmed and became a walk-trot horse, of a 19-year-old Dewey Henderson in one of his very first training jobs at her family’s Gaymont Farm, and of horses and ponies she had in training as Miles Wright, Jack Boyd and James Scott.
Our Hall of Fame inductee comes by her love of horses honestly. Her father, Judge Robert Martin, owned and rode horses as a young man. Her mother loved the Hackney Ponies. J.D. Massey’s father, Sam Massey, bought Babe her first horse. It was a Tennessee Walking Horse who had been taught to rack. His name was Whiskey. He was boarded at Mrs. Sarah Earle’s farm, Holly Hill. And the rest you might say is history! When she was 15 years old, Babe moved Whiskey to the Martin Family’s farm and there she began Gaymont Farm’s history of American Saddlebred horses and Hackney Ponies. Gaymont had been the name of her mother’s home in Virginia and Babe chose that name of the stable which is still in existence today under the banner of Robert Scott Stable. It was a name that became associated with Saddlebred horses and Hackneys at a time when some of the country’s nicest horses and best trainers were coming out of the Carolinas. Babe, her mother and sisters, and later, her own daughters, Tracey, Mead and Robin rode and drove horses and ponies like Bandmaster, Double Doo, Miss Bobbie Jane, Fannie Flagg and the Fancy Turn Out ponies, Golden Comet and Stardust.
Babe continued her involvement with the horse world while her girls showed Fancy Turn Out ponies and later performance horses. She was always in the stands to support and cheer on her friends even after her girls had stopped showing. During the 60s, 70s and 80s, she was a staunch supporter and friend of the Greenville Horse Show. She worked tirelessly as a member of the Board Of Directors until the show moved to Clemson.
When we first interviewed Babe and asked her to be our Hall Of Fame inductee, she said “it just isn’t my style.” And in her unique style, she graciously tried to decline. After some heart-felt persuasion on our part, she finally consented. So, tonight, we are pleased and honored to have this opportunity to induct our friend, Lydia “Babe” Sawyer into the J.D. Massey Classic Horse Show Hall Of Fame for 2007.
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