This year the festival was a celebration of Leslie Puryear, mother and organizer along with some of her kids including Jordan, Ward and Jeb who have all been part of host band Donna the Buffalo. She died on Wednesday, the day before the festival started. GrassRoots wouldn't exist if she hadn't supported it from the beginning and helped run things for many years.
I was fortunate to be around when Dan was painting pictures on a memorial to her and made some suggestions to fill the separate panels with images reflecting the life she led. Jordan wrote a beautiful tribute to her that was placed on the memorial, I hope to get to read again. The real tribute was seeing a wagon load of kids go past the memorial once it was placed at a spot she often could be found during the fest. That was an apt reflection of her spirit.
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