If trees could talk, the spindly white ash in front of Sweet Briar House could deliver a lecture on American history. It might wonder aloud why someone had placed four small pink watering cans near the fresh mulch piled at its base.

As near as Mount Vernon’s expert horticulturalists can tell, its DNA from the trunk up matches a gigantic white ash growing on George Washington’s lawn since 1819, just 20 years after his death. The original tree was nearly killed by storm damage a few years ago. Caretakers determined to preserve it experimented with cloning to produce offspring.

Lynn Crosby Gammill ’58 was instrumental in the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association’s gift of a white ash tree to Sweet Briar in honor of Gay Hart Gaines ’59, who is regent of the MVLA. Aaron Mahler photoThe newly planted youngster was a gift from the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association to Sweet Briar in honor of Gay Hart Gaines ’59 on the occasion of the College naming her this year’s Distinguished Alumna Award recipient. The tree was dedicated in a ceremony following the award presentation during SBC’s Founders’ Day convocation on Sept. 21.

Gaines has been regent of the MVLA, which owns and maintains Mount Vernon, for the past three years. From 2000-04 she represented Florida as a vice regent of the association. These are among myriad roles that earned her one of the highest honors Sweet Briar bestows.

The award is given for distinguishing oneself and the College through volunteer or professional achievements. Gaines took both paths. She ran an eponymous interior design firm for many years and served on the boards of local and national theater associations and diabetes foundations throughout the country. She also promotes conservative public policy through membership in organizations such as the Heritage Foundation, and is active in the Republican Party.

Gay Hart Gaines ’59 is Sweet Briar’s 2007 Distinguished Alumna.After then-U.S. Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) recruited Gaines to chair GOPAC, the Republican Political Action Committee, in 1993, she helped the GOP win a majority in the House of Representatives the next year. In 2002, she became president of the Palm Beach Republican Club in Florida, where she resides.

In 2003, President George W. Bush appointed her to the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. She was confirmed for a six-year term in late 2004 and currently serves as vice chairman.

But nothing satisfies her more than her role at Mount Vernon, Gaines told those assembled during her acceptance remarks at the convocation.

“Our mission is all about preservation and education,” she said, explaining that her passion for history is rooted in her days at Kent Place School in Summit, N.J., and at Sweet Briar.

She lived abroad until age 13, but her father wanted her to attend high school at home so she would understand what is special about America. “I loved [Kent Place] and the United States from day one,” she said. “And thanks to a fabulous American history teacher, Miss Sampson, I became a patriot at an early age.”

The gift of the white ash was Lynn Crosby Gammill’s idea. Speaking at the dedication, Gammill —an MVLA vice regent and 1958 graduate of Sweet Briar — noted that Mount Vernon celebrated several important anniversaries this year, including Washington’s 275th birthday and his friend, the Marquis de Lafayette’s 250th birthday.

Because the Mount Vernon white ash had been planted earlier, the tree was dedicated with a ceremonial watering. The tree was a gift to Sweet Briar in honor of Gay Hart Gaines ’59. Aaron Mahler photo “But today we are also celebrating our third admirable person, and that’s the Gay Hart Gaines year, too, so aren’t we proud of all three,” she said, drawing laughter from the crowd.

Mount Vernon executive director James C. Rees was there to present the gift. He explained how a team of experts brought the white ash to life, but it was SBC President Elisabeth Muhlenfeld who revealed the purpose of the watering cans.

“We struggled with how to commemorate this because we weren’t actually planting the tree,” she said. “So we had this idea that it would be fun to have watering cans and water the tree.”

Muhlenfeld summoned Rees, Gaines and Gammill to join her. “This is George Washington,” she said, gesturing toward the metal cans. “This is Marquis de Lafayette, this is Gay Hart Gaines and this is Indiana, who started it all.”

The College’s Founders’ Day celebrates Indiana Fletcher Williams, who in her will instructed that her family home become an institute for women’s education to be called Sweet Briar. Since 1906 students have walked beneath the boughs of dozens of native and exotic trees in an arboretum established on the former plantation by Indiana’s father, Elijah, before the Civil War.

Some specimens may be old enough to have been planted by Elijah Fletcher. Despite loving upkeep by dedicated caretakers, the older ones are succumbing to age, Muhlenfeld said, and must be replaced to maintain the historic arboretum.

The Mount Vernon ash will be right at home, a point not lost on Rees.

“To us it really is a very, very, very special tree honoring a very, very special person,” he said. “And of course a very, very special place.”

– By Jennifer McManamay, SBC staff writer