On May 29 Hollister quilter and historian Sharlene Van Rooy will
complete a
”
friendship
”
project started 65 years ago by 15 south San Benito County women
after a tragic accident near the Pinnacles National Monument.
On September 28, 1945 Clarence Bacon was separating cattle with
his two brothers when a yearling heifer knocked him to the ground,
breaking his hip. He died three days later, leaving behind a widow,
Grace Butterfield Bacon, and five children. The women decided to
make a quilt for their bereaved friend, but for some reason, they
soon stopped work on the project, and the uncompleted muslin quilt
top with its 15 embroidered name blocks lay forgotten for six and a
half decades.
On May 29 Hollister quilter and historian Sharlene Van Rooy will complete a “friendship” project started 65 years ago by 15 south San Benito County women after a tragic accident near the Pinnacles National Monument.
On September 28, 1945 Clarence Bacon was separating cattle with his two brothers when a yearling heifer knocked him to the ground, breaking his hip. He died three days later, leaving behind a widow, Grace Butterfield Bacon, and five children. The women decided to make a quilt for their bereaved friend, but for some reason, they soon stopped work on the project, and the uncompleted muslin quilt top with its 15 embroidered name blocks lay forgotten for six and a half decades.
Last fall, Van Rooy found the quilt top in a friend’s fabric collection and completed it with heirloom fabrics she saves for special projects. A longtime member of the San Benito County Historical Society, she was able to locate descendants of the original quilters, who led her to Grace Bacon’s last living child, Martha Grace Miller, now a resident of Lassen County.
On Sunday Miller, 81, will be on hand to see the quilt displayed at the Willow Creek School in the San Benito County Historical Park, where descendants of pioneer south county families gather annually for a picnic before decorating the graves of their ancestors at the Willow Creek Cemetery south of Paicines.
