Only two weeks on the job, Palestine Mayor Bob Herrington presented 104-year-old Palestine native Harry Gillespie with a Distinguished Citizen certificate during a surprise visit to his home in Vicksburg, Miss. on Sunday.

Herrington had heard about Gillespie after meeting Santa Barbara, Calif. residents Bob and Victoria Strong who visited Palestine last week with their daughter Gwendolyn. The family stopped in Palestine while traveling 5,000 miles across the country in an RV to raise awareness for SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy) in honor of their 20-month-old daughter Gwendolyn, who suffers from the fatal disease.

The “Sponsor-A-Mile to END SMA” drive (http://SponsorAMile.com), in which each mile driven is sponsored at $10 a mile, has a goal of raising $50,000. All proceeds go to the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation (http://gwendolynstrongfoundation.org), which seeks to shed light on this deadly childhood disease and to fund SMA medical research that specialists and the National Institute for Health believe is within five years of a cure. Already their tour has raised more than $30,000.

After leaving Palestine on June 30, the Strong family headed to Vicksburg to introduce their little girl to her great-grandfather for the first time ever. (Watch a video of this at www.gwendolynstrong.com)

Herrington met the Strongs at the Texas State Railroad’s Palestine Depot on June 30 where an impromptu media event was set up for newspaper, radio and television interviews. As mayor, Herrington was asked to be in attendance.

“When I met the Strongs here in Palestine I didn’t have a proclamation ready because I had just heard about it,” Herrington said. “But as I learned about their story, and about Harry, I wanted to do something. So we decided to drive up there to give them the proclamations.”

Thousands of families a year are devastated by SMA. The disease is caused by an abnormal or missing gene known as the survival motor neuron gene (SMN1) that is responsible for the production of a protein essential to motor neurons. Although born seemingly healthy, as SMA infants grow, their muscles degenerate causing paralysis and ultimately death.

SMA, described by many as the Lou Gherig’s disease of children, impairs the ability to walk, sit, eat, breathe and even swallow. The mind, however, remains unaffected and children with SMA are exceptionally bright. SMA parents are tortured by watching their young children degenerate before their eyes.

One of the reasons the Strongs stopped in Palestine was because of Victoria Strong’s family roots here. Many of her family members and descendants are buried in Palestine. Her grandfather moved from Palestine to Mississippi in 1964.

During Herrington’s visit with Gillespie on Sunday, he learned that the Gillespie family arrived in Palestine in a covered wagon in 1876. Harry Gillespie was born in 1905. A 50-year member of the Vicksburg Rotary Club, he also was a member of the Palestine Rotary Club in 1929. His father, C.R. Gillespie, was a member in 1918.

At 104, Gillespie is probably the oldest living Palestine High School graduate, having graduated in 1923, Herrington said.

“We (he and his wife Rhonda) stayed for the fireworks on Saturday and then left early Sunday morning for the five-hour trip,” Herrington said. “We spent two hours with Harry before returning home.”

Herrington said the trip was all worthwhile when Gillespie introduced himself.

“Hello, Bob, glad to meet you — I knew your dad,” Gillespie told him referring to Herrington’s father and longtime local businessman, the late Johnnie Herrington.

“He remembered a lot about his earlier life in Palestine — riding the street car and attending performances at the Temple Opera House,” Herrington said. “Hearing his stories was like being transported back in time. It was one of the best days of my life.”

Herrington presented Gillespie with the Distinguished Award as well as a Palestine hat, mug and his favorite surprise — a Palestine Police Department patch.

“My wife was skeptical that he would want the patch, but I think that was his favorite part,” Herrington said.

Rhonda Herrington presented him with a banner from the Palestine Rotary Club and an extra one for the Vicksburg Rotary Club.

“It was so amazing to sit there. We listened to him like he was a grandparent telling us stories,” she said.

Herrington taped Gillespie when he was talking about Palestine and hopes to get it transcribed.

“I would like to go back and show him old pictures and see what he says about them,” Herrington said. “I think it is important that we get living history written down or on tape.”

Victoria Strong said the Herringtons’ special trip meant the world to Gillespie.

“The mayor read an official proclamation about why Harry deserves this award with the quote, ‘You can take the man out of Palestine, but you can't take Palestine out of the man’ — Harry loved that,” Strong wrote on her blog. “...Harry was thrilled, simply thrilled. He was in full story mode for his guests and I loved seeing him so excited. He even told a few anecdotes I had never heard, such as having to use a match to light the headlights on the first family car.

The Strong family also received an official city proclamation naming them “Honorary Citizens” of Palestine.

“I loved that Mayor Herrington made it all very official and special for Harry,” Strong wrote. “We will not forget this trip — ever! It was so good for all of us and it was even more than we imagined. It truly was a dream come true for our family to be able to unite Gwendolyn with Harry.”

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On the Web:

http://www.gwendolynstrongfoundation.org

http://www.gwendolynstrong.com (blog)

http://sponsoramile.com