Huntington Story Archives - Page 7 of 38 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

November 9, 1952: Opening of The Huntington Museum of Art

On November 9, 1952, the Huntington Galleries opened in the Park Hills section of Huntington. It was West Virginia’s largest art museum. By the time the name of the galleries was changed to the Huntington Museum of Art in 1987, the collection had grown to more than 15,000 objects.

With close to 70,000 square feet of space, the museum hosts traveling exhibitions and has permanent galleries of British silver and portraits, antique firearms, Near East objects, and an Ohio Valley glass collection of more than 3,000 pieces. The museum’s Daywood Collection features such artists as Childe Hassam and Andrew Wyeth and contains fine examples of late 19th-century and early 20th-century American and European artwork.

The museum houses a research library, an auditorium, and five art studios. Studios 1, 2, and 3 are named for renowned architect Walter Gropius. The studios and Doherty addition are the only museum designs by Gropius built in the United States. They were the last project of the aging architect.

Located on more than 50 acres, the Huntington Museum of Art also includes two nature trails and a subtropical plant conservatory.

October 9, 2001: Actress and Model Dagmar Dies

The entertainer known as Dagmar died on October 9, 2001. In the 1950s, she was one of the most recognizable faces on television and even graced the cover of Life magazine.

She was born as Virginia Ruth Egnor in Logan County in 1921. At an early age, she moved with her family to Huntington, where she attended Huntington High School. During World War II, she moved to New York City and found work as a sweater model and Broadway actress. Her big breakthrough came in 1950, when she began appearing on NBC’s Broadway Open House. Audiences loved her deadpan delivery of punch lines and deliberate misuse of words. In one skit, she appeared as a character named Dagmar, and the name stuck. In her early career, she performed on stage with Milton Berle and Frank Sinatra. And, at one point, she was receiving 2,000 fan letters a week.

In 1952, she briefly hosted her own series called Dagmar’s Canteen. She drifted out of the spotlight after the 1950s but continued to perform in nightclubs. Dagmar moved back to West Virginia at age 75 and lived her final years in Ceredo.

Coalfields To Receive $7 Million For Job, Infrastructure Growth

Federal grants of about $10 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce were awarded to four West Virginia projects Monday to help with infrastructure maintenance and economic development in the state.

Two of those projects are in the southern coalfields where the need for a more diversified workforce remains crucial.

“These projects will support business growth in West Virginia, diversify the state’s economy, and create new jobs for West Virginia residents,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross.

The largest award, $5.2 million, will go to the Huntington Stormwater Utility to repair the Huntington Floodwall, which officials said was structurally damaged in the 2015 and 2018 floods.

The goal for this project is to reroute sewer and storm drainage systems to protect downtown businesses, according to a press release. The project is expected to create and retain 750 jobs, the commerce department said.

The Coalfield Development Corp., a nonprofit dedicated to revitalizing coalfield economies, will receive a federal grant for nearly $1.7 million. Three buildings in Matewan will be renovated to create a job-creation and training facility.

In 2019, West Virginia had the fourth-highest unemployment rate in the country. The new Matewan facility will specifically be geared toward unemployed coal miners – ideally creating 90 new jobs.

The Putnam County Public Service District and the Benedum Airport Authority also received federal grants for increasing water capacity to serve industrial needs and to renovate airport facilities, respectively.

Yo-Yo Inventer Donald Duncan Born: June 8, 1893

Entrepreneur Donald Franklin Duncan was born in Rome, Ohio, on June 8, 1893, but spent his childhood in Huntington.

He left Huntington in his mid-teens and became a successful salesman for the Brock Candy Company in Chicago during World War I. In 1920, he introduced Good Humor ice cream to the world.

While in San Francisco in the late 1920s, Duncan saw a common Filipino toy known as a yo-yo, which means “come-come” in the Tagalog language. He bought out the toy’s manufacturer, modified the top, substituted a slip-string of Egyptian fiber, and hired Filipino natives to demonstrate the toy across the country. Duncan’s yo-yo became wildly popular. In 1962, its peak sales year, the Duncan Yo-Yo Company sold 18 million yo-yos and spinning tops. He owned the trademark on the word yo-yo from 1930 to 1965, when a federal appeals court ruled that the word was part of the common language.

With his profits, he founded the Duncan Parking Meter Corporation, which at one point made 80 percent of all meters sold in the world.

Donald Duncan died in Los Angeles in 1971 at age 77.

Marshall University Announces Refunds For Unused Dorm Time

Marshall University students who aren’t spending time in their dorms as a result of the coronavirus pandemic will receive refunds, the school announced.

Refunds are expected to be made by April 29. Students will be notified if the date changes.

Students with housing contracts but who didn’t stay on campus during the online classes period will receive 37.5 percent of their spring semester housing charges, The Herald-Dispatch reported Sunday.

Similar refunds will be made for parking passes, recreation center fees and unused meal plans.

With classes still being taught but in a different way, tuition will not be prorated.

“Even after these adjustments to your accounts, I know many of you may still have unmet needs,” university President Jerome Gilbert said. “The Marshall University Foundation has a Student Emergency Fund to which many of our loyal alumni and supporters have generously contributed.”

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources reported Sunday that 611 people had tested positive for the virus, and eight people had died. There have been 16,257 residents tested for the virus, and 15,646 were negative.

The latest deaths included an 82-year old woman from Wayne County with underlying health conditions, a 25-year-old man from Logan County and an 80-year-old woman from Monongalia County.

Most people who contract COVID-19 have mild or moderate symptoms, which can include fever and cough but also milder cases of pneumonia, sometimes requiring hospitalization. The risk of death is greater for older adults and people with other health problems.

Young Adults, Students Feeling ‘Forgotten’ In Stimulus Plan

Beginning this month, Americans will see financial relief checks from the federal government’s $2 trillion stimulus plan flow into their bank accounts to assist them during the COVID-19 outbreak.

But many college students and recent graduates were disappointed to find out they will not receive $1,200 from the government, even if they were affected by the pandemic.

“I was working two jobs on a campaign and a delivery job, and both of those have evaporated as this all started,” said Collin Clemons, a December 2019 graduate of Marshall University with a political science degree. “I was like, ‘OK, this check will come through and kind of keep me afloat for a month or so,’ so I’m really disappointed to find out that I won’t get it. We’ve been kind of forgotten, underrepresented.”

The stimulus bill will provide $1,200 for most adults, with an additional $500 per child — age 16 or under — leaving adults who have been claimed by their parents on their 2018 or 2019 tax filings out of the relief package.

“I live in a house with roommates. I don’t live with my family,” Clemons said. “We’re one of the most disadvantaged populations in the country as far as finances go. College students are already pretty much broke from paying for college. It doesn’t really help that we’re in the middle of a global pandemic and not receiving any help from the government whatsoever.”

Many students who are still in the process of completing their degree are being forced to leave campus and move back in with their parents or loved ones to stop the spread of the coronavirus, which also creates a disadvantage to those families, said Rileigh Smirl, a second-year political science and English double major at Marshall.

“I am pretty independent, self-sufficient. I make my own money,” Smirl said. “But I was under that cutoff for getting money from the stimulus package. I am moved back in with my parents, because we weren’t able to be on campus, and I feel like I’m in this in-between area where I’m not young enough to be beneficial to my parents but I’m not old enough to be counted as an independent adult even though I am 95% of the year.”

Smirl works primarily as a podcaster, and ad revenue and fundraisers have suffered because of the virus, she said.

Now, she’s relying on her parents for help, although they’re not receiving any additional relief.

“I’m definitely lucky in the sense that I am mid-college so I’m not entirely out on my own yet, but it still would have been nice for my parents or myself to get that help,” she said. “Even if we didn’t receive money, just some money that our parents could have gotten if they’re still counting us as a dependent would make me feel better.”

Bailey Whanger, a Marshall student graduating in May, said although her parents have also agreed to help her financially during this time as her retail and teaching assistant jobs have fallen through, many people won’t have that luxury.

“I’m fortunate that my parents are able to help me, and I’ve saved money to get me through the next few months,” Whanger said. “But I know it won’t be like that for everyone, especially if this continues.”

A petition circulating on social media to “close the doughnut hole for young adults” was formed by the Students Can’t Wait group, a branch of the West Virginia Can’t Wait movement that supports 93 candidates for office in 2020.

“Under this stimulus package, thousands of West Virginia young adults, many of whom are trying to work their way through college, will be left out. Many of these students are already doing everything they can to juggle employment, health bills and the costs of higher education,” the online petition said. “We, the undersigned, believe the federal coronavirus stimulus package must not discriminate against young adults.”

Clemons said he agreed that something needs to change in order to assist students, recent graduates and those who are just starting out on their own, alike.

“The federal government should really amend that bill that passed or pass a new bill that is targeted toward college students and recent graduates, recently as in, maybe, the last two years,” he said. “Just providing a stimulus check to them as well — it doesn’t have to be the $1,200. Maybe it’s $800, $1,000, just something rather than nothing.”