Church Camps

Tommy Towery

LHS '64

We had some good reactions to the story last week about my summer job at camp, so I thought we might look at a few more camp stories. When I was going to East Clinton Elementary School, I normally spent most of the summer days playing in the playground in an activity being hosted by a college student working for the city. Softball was our favorite activity. But, one week of each summer I was also entertained by attending Vacation Bible School. And then there was one more summer activity which I loved, and that was Church Camp.

In 1956 I attended Central Presbyterian Church on Randolph Street. I was living on East Clinton at the time. Most of the young folks going to church there ended up going to Huntsville High School, but there is a chance some of my Lee High classmates were also church members at Central. I don't remember exactly how we traveled to Ovoca, but I think it was in cars because I do not remember a bus ride at the time. It was located in Tullahoma, Tennessee. In the photo above I am the one on the left of the picture, the to left of the man kneeling with the strap across his body. 

There was a lake and a waterfall at the camp, and the main building was the dining hall which was at the top of a hill with a road leading to it. On each side of the road were cabins. The girls' cabins was on one side and the boys' cabins were on the opposite side. The main indoors activities were in the dining hall and outdoor's activites were spread around the camp. I remember there were several craft sessions throughout the week which were fun. I think there was a ball field, but the most notable thing was the waterfall. I want to recall that the most popular activities were swimming and great sing-alongs around campfires and in the dining hall. One night we were treated to a huge watermelon feast, which I remember well. 

I was looking through a bible of my father's and in the front of it there was a note saying "Snow at Ovoca" and a date I cannot remember. I don't know if he was ever at Ovoca, but he was less than one year old when his mother died leaving him and three older brothers. He eventually was adopted by one of his aunts, but whether or not he ever was at Ovoca is still a mystery.

Before it ever became a youth camp or retreat center, Ovoca (located just outside Tullahoma, Tennessee) was a 400‑acre residential home for widows and orphans, operated by the Knights of Pythias, a national fraternal organization.

Key documented facts:

• The Knights of Pythias purchased the Ovoca property around 1908. 

• It was explicitly described as the “widows’ and orphans’ home of the order.” 

• Multiple buildings were constructed for this purpose, including cottages, dormitories, a dining hall, and administrative buildings. 

• The orphans themselves participated in public events hosted at Ovoca, such as welcoming visitors during Pythian conventions. 

• After decades as a Pythian home, the property eventually transitioned away from orphanage operations.

• By the mid‑20th century, it was commonly used as a camp and retreat center, which is how many Tennesseans remember it today.

• Ovoca was sold in 1976 to a private owner (Dan Marcum), long after its orphanage era.

Below is a photo of the dining hall at Ovoca. And that is the memories of my church camp experiences. Surely some of you must have gone to a church camp with your own church members. What was the name of the chruch camp you attended, where was it located, and what do you remember about it?

Church Camp and Distant Travels

MeriSusan Simms

Last week’s “camping theme” has prompted me to chime in and share a bit about my time spent over the years, at Sumatanga Camp and Conference Center. It was a 1,400-acre retreat nestled against Chandler Mountain in St. Clair County, Alabama. I also recall a memorable trip to New York City. 

My high school years at Lee also included many hours each week at Holmes Street Methodist Church, spent with several LHS students also attending Holmes Street.  The North Alabama Methodist Conference owns/manages the camp and they are celebrating 75 years of nurturing youth of Northern Alabama through numerous activities.

I generally spent two weeks each year at camp, and on a couple of occasions actually did a “double shift”. That was one just after school let out; then another one just before it started back in the Fall.

Camp was filled with all sorts of activities:  swimming, archery, hiking, various classes covering numerous topics.  One summer there was a Rabbi from a synagogue in Montgomery who came and taught a class on the Old Testament.

Music was a nightly “thing” and there I became quite familiar with doing the “Salty Dog Rag” (sung by Red Foley) plus other music genres as well.

The “camp” extended one Spring Break and found about seven of us from Holmes Street on a trip to New York and Washington, DC, for a week-long adventure that will forever be etched in my memory.  This was my first airplane trip and we flew out of Birmingham to Idlewild. We got to visit the Soviet Union Mission Office at the United Nations; see the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall; saw Carol Channing in “Hello Dolly”, plus the taping of a couple of TV shows at Radio City Music Hall.  We were there on St. Patrick’s Day; it snowed and we watched a bit of the parade from an automat. 

A bus ride took us to Washington, DC where we spent a good deal of time on Capitol Hill and actually had breakfast with either Senator Lister Hill or John Sparkman - I cannot remember which.  And, there’s a fleeting memory of seeing Senator Ted Kennedy exiting the tram that serves as the underground transportation for Capitol Hill staff.

Returning to Birmingham from Washington was a memorable event as well. We actually departed from Dulles rather than National Airport.  The bus ride seemed to take FOREVER and the scuttlebutt going around was that this new airport might not “make it”!  Back at that time, a bus actually took you to the plane (which was actually on the runway) and hoisted the passengers from said bus to the level where you walked directly into the plane.  Needless to say, Dulles is still here and about to undergo a major renovation. 

I do have to voice a complaint against my parents — and it is an action for which I will never forgive them. On Sunday, February 9, 1964, I was not allowed to stay home to see the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show.  I had to go to church.  No “ifs, ands, or buts” about it!!

Thank you for indulging me a trip down memory lane.  I seem to remember not only Lee students but also a few from Butler HS being a part of this “magical trip”, in addition to other HS students from other Methodist churches part of the North Alabama Conference.

The Wayback Machine

"Kum ba yah"

The Seekers

One of the songs I still associate with my church camp experiences is "Kum ba yah". Although we also sang it around the campfies in the Boy Scouts, it sounds more appropriate to associate it with the religious experiences of church camp.

"Kum ba yah" ("Come by here") is an African-American spiritual of disputed origin, known to have been sung in the Gullah culture of the islands off South Carolina and Georgia, with ties to enslaved Central Africans. Originally an appeal to God to come to the aid of those in need, the song is thought to have spread from the islands to other Southern states and the North, as well as to other places outside the United States.

The first known recording was made by the folklorist Robert Winslow Gordon in 1926. It features an unaccompanied tenor voice identified only as "H. Wylie" singing in the Gullah language. The piece became a standard campfire song in Scouting and summer camps and enjoyed broader popularity during the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s. In American politics, the song title gave rise to the phrase "sing Kumbaya", commonly employed sarcastically to criticize expectations of reconciliation as unrealistic.

The song enjoyed newfound popularity during the American folk music revival of the early to mid-1960s, largely due to Joan Baez's 1962 recording of the song, and became associated with the civil rights movement of that decade. For example, there is a recording of marchers singing the song as "Come By Here" during the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery (Alabama) march for voting rights.

 Pete Seeger recorded it in 1958.

My emails to Gordon Maynard keeps bouncing back as "mailbox" full. If anyone is in contact with him please let him know.

Last Week's Questions, Answers, And Comments

Tom Provost, LHS ‘66, "Tommy, I remember sooooo well giving up stuff as we moved. Having attended five different elementary schools, two junior high schools and two high schools all in three different states and Okinawa, I left A LOT of stuff behind.... I really enjoy how your email takes me back to my favorite parts of life."

Beverly Parker Hillis, LHS ‘66, "A few years after graduation I was married and my husband got orders to move to Okinawa, Japan. I had never been so scared in my life. Moving to somewhere in the US was one thing, but overseas was another. Knowing that I wouldn’t see my family every week, I didn’t think I could do. It was the first time on an airplane which was an experience in itself. I found out quickly other states' people were not friendly like in Alabama and Tennessee. When I arrived there I couldn’t believe the smell; I finally got used to it. We were there for three years. I found friends with the company my husband worked for from England and Germany. I learned a lot in those years. All the other moves did not have the effect as that first move. It made you realize how good we have it in the great USA."

Delores McBride Kilgore, LHS '66, “Thank you.”

William Meyer, LHS '66, "Thank you." 

Rose Towery Linsky, LHS '64, "Thanks!  Have a Blessed Day!"