A Reader Reminds Us Virginia Dare Made It To The David Letterman Show In 1985, Courtesy Of NC's Andy Griffith
04/16/2022
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Re: On Virginia Dare’s 434th Birthday—The Historic American Nation Has A Future As Well As A Past

From: Jim Smith [Email him]

Virginia Dare made it to the David Letterman show in 1985. The guest was Andy Griffith and it was a respectful segment:

It's a 9 minute clip, but if you click here, it will take you to 6:34 where Griffith starts talking about Virginia Dare.

It doesn't last long, but today it's almost unimaginable to see something on television about the English colonization and Virginia Dare.  Griffith owned a house on Roanoke Island and was a member of a North Carolina commission celebrating "the 400th anniversary of America!"  

Hope you enjoy it!

James Fulford writes: We got emailed a similar clip a few years ago, but it's worth repeating.

North Carolina native (and Roanoke Island resident) Griffith  was on the America's 400th Anniversary Committee,  which the state of North Carolina set up in the eighties to commemorate Sir Walter Raleigh's attempt to establish a colony there. As a very young man, Griffith had got his acting start playing Sir Walter Raleigh in the local play of The Lost Colony.

In this segmant Andy Griffith not only mentions the birth of the first "child of English parents," but also mentions the historic first Protestant baptism in North America—of the local Indian convert Manteo. That's not the kind of thing you usually hear on a talk show.

 

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