Fairmont Arts & Humanities Commission Tribute Wall gets four more honorees

May 30—FAIRMONT — Four new names have been added to the Fairmont Arts and Humanities Commission's Memorial Tribute Wall inside the J. Harper Meredith Building downtown.

The names of folklorist Ruth Ann Musick, choral director Doug Bunner, film exhibitor Joe Carunchia and theatre-education pioneer Paul Opp, along with their photographs and biographies were recently added to the Memorial Tribute Wall. The wall was created last year with its inaugural group of honorees — local historian Glenn Lough, stage performer George Turley, rock musician Johnny Johnson and novelist John Knowles.

"The Memorial Tribute honors some of the now-deceased Fairmonters who devoted their lives and talent to keeping the arts alive and flourishing," Arts and Humanities Commission Jack Hussey said. "The Tribute can be found in the hallway that links the top floor of the courthouse with the city side of the building."

Clyde Douglas "Doug" Bunner was one of Marion County's most notable music teachers and the founder of two enduring choral ensembles — the Madrigal Chamber Singers at Fairmont Senior High and the community-based group Vocal Tapestry.

In 1986, Bunner joined the Fairmont Senior High music department where he taught and served as chair and choir director until his retirement in 2006. In 2004, he was named Vocal Teacher of the Year by the WV Music Educators' Association.

Vocal Tapestry became so renowned that it was invited to sing at the White House, the Washington National Cathedral, St. John the Divine Cathedral in NYC and at the WV Capitol Complex in Charleston. Bunner led the group until his passing in 2018.

For 60 years Joseph Carunchia made sure Fairmont movie lovers had access to first-run films via his one-screen Fairmont Theatre downtown and the Twilight and Starlite drive-in theatres just outside of town.

In the '50s, he transformed the theatre into a showcase for live performances by such country music legends as Tammy Wynette, George Jones and Loretta Lynn.

By the late 70s, he closed the Fairmont Theatre and, reluctantly, sold his beloved drive-ins in order to build a modern 'cineplex.' When his new Tygart Valley Cinemas opened in White Hall in 1980 it had only two screens but gradually expanded to four and now eight.

At a time when local, privately-owned theatres almost disappeared in the U.S., Carunchia held onto the business he loved even though, given a small budget, he had to do most of the work himself.

Hussey said no one has ever had more impact on the success and popularity of theatre in American schools from elementary to college level, than Paul F. Opp who served as chair of the Fairmont State College Theatre Department for 40 years.

Born and raised in Ohio, Opp served as a Naval officer during World War I. At war's end, he earned his doctorate from the University of Toronto. From there, he taught in Marion County schools until 1921 when he joined the faculty of what was then the Fairmont State Normal School and which eventually became a college and now a university.

What he brought to the college was a heartfelt belief in the importance of theatre for students, their schools and communities. He created the college's theatre department and the curriculum and requirements for student majors in that discipline. Then, he devised what then and ever since has been known as the Masquers, the student-driven organization which mounts the productions at the college.

With the help of two students, in the mid-1920s, Opp generated what became and remains the largest student honor society in America, Alpha Psi Omega, honoring outstanding students in theatre. At first, APO extended only to Fairmont State's students but soon became a national organization honoring theatre students not only in 4-year colleges but also in community colleges and high schools. Opp decided that each school's APO chapter would be called a "cast," and the Alpha Cast of the entire organization is, of course, Fairmont State's. Today, APO has 600 casts and has an annual convocation at the Southeastern Theatre Conference.

Then in 1929, Opp along with an East Fairmont High School theatre teacher, Harry Leeper, and a local theatre maven, Ernest Bavely, founded the National Thespian Society for high school theatre students but which soon embraced college students as well. The NTS has given awards and scholarships to millions of students and theatre departments and it sponsors an annual Thespian Fest. Currently it has 100,000 active members. Thespians have included Tom Hanks, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Jim Parsons, Adam Driver and even U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The West Virginia Humanities Council describes Ruth Ann Musick, a native of the Midwest, as one of the country's foremost Appalachian folklorists.

In 1946, she joined the faculty of then-Fairmont State College where she started and taught a folk literature class for many years. In 1951, she and fellow scholars Walter Barnes and Patrick Gainer revived the West Virginia Folklore Society and, in the following year, Musick founded The West Virginia Folklore Journal and served as its editor until 1967.

According to the WV Encyclopedia, for decades Ruth Ann was "West Virginia's folklore ambassador, promoting folklore through education, public speaking, radio and television." She also wrote the popular folklore columns, "The Old Folks Say" and "Sassafras Tea," for West Virginia newspapers.

But the most permanent and far-reaching of Ruth Ann's work is found in her four collections of Appalachian folklore: "Ballads, Folk Songs, and Folk Tales from WV," "The Telltale Lilac Bush," "Green Hills of Magic" and "Coffin Hollow and Other Ghost Tales."

Her posthumously collected children's stories appear in "The Mountain Mother Goose," which was illustrated by her niece, Patricia Musick. And 40 years after her death, her doctoral dissertation, "Hell's Holler," a novel based on folk traditions, was published by the Missouri Folklore Society. All these books are still in print.