Bust of Gen. Andrew Lewis installed in Virginia Capitol
RICHMOND – More than 230 years after he served in the House of Burgesses, Andrew Lewis is back in Richmond.
This time, he gets to stay.
On Monday a bronze bust of the Revolutionary War patriot, friend of George Washington and father of Salem was unveiled and officially presented to Gov. Bob McDonnell.
Andrew Lewis descendants Lewis Pitzer and daughter, Campbell, unveil the bust of Revolutionary War patriot and father of Salem Andrew Lewis March 22 in Richmond. Photo by Meg Hibbert
A standing statue of Lewis in frontiersman garb – which most people mistakenly assume is explorer Meriwether Lewis – is one of a half dozen figures around the equestrian statue of Washington in front of the Virginia Capitol.
“It’s only fitting that he (Lewis) gets to come out of the rain and be inside,” quipped the governor.
The General Assembly’s chief Lewis cheerleader, Delegate H. Morgan Griffith of Salem, presided over Monday’s ceremony in The Old Hall of the House of Delegates.
Salem Education Foundation Chairman Dr. Wayne Tripp presented Lewis’ bust to the governor on behalf of the foundation.
“Being an Irish-American, I am happy to have another Irish-American in the Capitol,” said the governor, referring to Andrew Lewis’ birth in Ireland.
The bust was unveiled by Lewis Pitzer of Martinsville, a direct descendant of Gen. Lewis, and his 11-year-old daughter, Campbell.
Pitzer’s brothers Lewis and Andrew and their families were also present in the crowd of 90 invited guests.
Salem Mayor Randy Foley and Vice Mayor John Givens – another distant Lewis cousin – accepted a Virginia flag flown over the Virginia capitol that day from Roanoke Delegate Onzlee Ware.
Foley said at the request of Dr. Richard Fisher, the man who got the idea of the bust of Lewis started years ago, the flag will be framed and presented to the Salem Civic Center.
A larger-than-life statue of Gen. Lewis stands guard in front of the civic center, and a painting also done by the bust and statue’s sculptor, Anne Bell, shows Lewis with the nautical cannon he used to blow the ship of the last British Colonial Governor Dunmore, out of the water.
Salem’s other council members Lisa Garst, Jane Johnson and Bill Jones were present, as well as Salem City Manager Kevin Boggess, Civic Facilities Director Carey Harveycutter and current Salem School Superintendent Dr. Alan Seibert. Salem High School trumpeter Kyle Crowell helped open the ceremonies by playing “Hail Columbia,” the unofficial national anthem in Lewis’ time.
Other Salem people included LeAnn Turbyfill, state corresponding secretary of the Virginia Daughters of the American Revolution, representatives of the Sons of the American Revolution, and Salem Museum and SEFAA board member and fundraiser Frank Chapman and his wife, Julie.
Betsy McClearn, coordinator of the Lewis bust project, received kudos for the work she did in fundraising and other efforts to get the bust created and presented.
Other luminaries were former U.S. Senator Charles S. Robb, a descendant of the Lewis family, and his wife, Linda Robb, daughter of the late President Lyndon Baines Johnson. In 2000 Linda Robb helped dedicate the Lewis statue that guards the Salem Civic Center.
Salem native daughter Bell presented miniatures of the bust to the governor for the Governor’s Mansion, one for the West Virginia governor’s mansion because of Gen. Lewis’ ties to that state, and other representatives.
The bust of Lewis is long overdue being placed in Old Hall, Dr. Fisher noted in an interview last week. An act was passed on March 22, 1932, to authorize the governor to receive gifts of busts of certain great Virginians to be placed in the Old Hall of the House of Delegates.
Fisher was physically unable to make the trip to Richmond for the unveiling, but he was there in spirit. A photograph of him was prominently displayed near the bust. An 8-minute talk he wrote about Andrew Lewis’ life was given by Salem High School student Michael Thomas Robertson.
