More than 700 members of the Redstone Club and their guests attended the group’s annual Christmas Ball last month.
The Redstone Club’s 106th annual Christmas Ball was held Dec. 21 at the Country Club of Birmingham.
President of this year’s ball was R. Holman Head, who attended with his wife, Margaret. Ball chairman was J. Arthur Smith IV, whose wife Ashley oversaw the event invitations. The floor committee chairman and emcee for the procession was James M. Dixon, at the ball with his wife, Marilyn.
Sybil Brooke Sylvester of Wildflower Designs provided lovely flowers and decorations for the event, held in the country club’s East Room.
This year’s presentation class included 15 young women, all college seniors, from a wide range of schools around the South, East Coast and Northeast. The presentees wore traditional long white dresses and gloves, a complement to their chosen escorts in black tuxedo tails.
Overseeing the class were Ladies Committee members Mrs. William B. Walheim Jr. (Cary), Mrs. James M. Dixon (Marilyn) and Mrs. John Parker Evans II (Jennifer).
Those presented at the 2013 ball were: Jane Comer Crockard, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hearne Crockard III; Taylor Gore Hiden, daughter of Mr. And Mrs. William Mudd Hiden; Margaret Richardson King, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Mark Steven King; Mamie Collier Marbury, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Collier Marbury; Margaret Alexandra Pitts, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Henry Pitts II; Elizabeth Ann Williams, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Turner Butler Williams; Marianne Coston Williams, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John White Williams; Whitley Seymour Yeates, daughter of the late Rutherford Nance Yeates Jr. and Mrs. Rutherford Nance Yeates Jr., sponsored by Charles Willis Yeates; Elizabeth Adair Abbot, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Edwin Newton II, sponsored by Joseph Mcconnell Farley Jr.; Lenora Ireland Brown, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Tom Tartt Brown Jr., sponsored by Charles Pratt Brown II; Margaret Livingston Hindman, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Brian Ward Hindman, sponsored by James Archibald Livingston Jr.; Caroline Harris Hinds, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Martin Hinds, sponsored by William Lyle Hinds Jr.; Elizabeth Patricia Koepsel, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Thomas Koepsel, sponsored by William Burr Weatherly; Elizabeth Emory Pitts, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Carpenter Pitts; and Sydney Morrow Wicks, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Kenneth Wicks, sponsored by John Harris Morrow.
At the Ball luncheon, held at the Mountain Brook Club on Dec. 20, the presentees were introduced to the club membership and received some historical background on the event and the club.
One of the highlights of the luncheon was the reintroduction of the presentee class from 1963, of which 23 of 30 women were in attendance to celebrate their 50th anniversary. The returning “golden girls” regaled the group with recollections of their own big night five decades ago. Mrs. Frederick Whittlesey Murray Jr. (Allison), a member of that class, was the 1963 presentee chairman.
The presentees of 1963 were Lyndall Barnes (Mrs. Joseph Byrns Hutchison Jr.), Penelope Bond (Penelope Bond Gentry), Grace Brady (Mrs. Toliver Robert Bentley III), Amanda Brengelman (Mrs. Charles Lewis), Douglass Burnett (Mrs. Thomas Chambers Joyce), Frances Caldwell (Mrs. Claude Bennett), Jane Casey (Mrs. Clarke Houston Gillespy), Sally Cleage (Sally Cleage Turner), Elizabeth Coulbourn (Mrs. James P. Hanigan), Eunie Currie (Mrs. Peter Healey), Jane Earle (Jane Earle Kimball), Bess Edmundson (Mrs. William E. Coleman), Josephine England (Mrs. Uhland O. Redd III), Jane Forsyth (Mrs. William Costenbader), Bertie Foster (Mrs. Don Albert Shriver), Harriet Gibson (Mrs. Robert Larry Hawkins), Katherine Grubb (Mrs. Thomas Oliver Coleman), Leslie Ireland (deceased), Katherine Johnston (Mrs. Mark LeGrand Myatt), Julia Matthews (deceased), Ann McMorries (Mrs. Frederick Bogar Smith), Allison Comer (Mrs. Frederick Whittlesey Murray Jr.), Virginia Neal (Mrs. Bond Almond), Bingham Oliver, Margaret Pate (Mrs. James Paul Barnhart), Dorothy Rosamond (Mrs. Thomas William Christian), Anne Sexton (Mrs. Charles Holley), Sara Smith (Mrs. Rogers Haydon), Emily Dixon Taylor and Kirke White (Mrs. Howard Williams Cater Jr.).
The ball followed a members-only cocktail party and dinner, spread between Birmingham Country Club’s East Room and dining rooms.
Music chairman John R. Simpson arranged the evening’s accompaniment. For the cocktail party and the presentation, the Sonny Harris Trio Band set the musical atmosphere. Following the presentation, the Atlanta Party Band entertained the crowd and attracted more than just the debutantes and their young contemporaries to the dance floor.
The only group working harder than the band at the end of the night was the parking staff, whose members ran laps in the 70 degree weather for more than six hours.
The 2013 Redstone Club officers and board of governors members are R. Holman Head (wife, Margaret), president; George C. Thompson (wife, Nancy), vice-president; Richard Murray IV (wife, Norita), secretary-treasurer; W. Spencer South (wife, Cari), traditions chairman; Nelson Straub Bean (wife, Kimberly), Francis H. Crockard III (wife, Winn), James H. Emack Jr. (wife, Kaye), C. Duncan Hulsey II (wife, Kelly); J. Bailey Knight III (wife, Margaret); William Lee Thuston (wife, Gray); J. Reese Murray III (wife Marilyn), finance chairman and William O. Byars (wife, Mary Elizabeth “Betsy”), camp chairman.
