This year's Annual "Unity In the Community Juneteenth Celebration” will be June 20, here in Groveton.  The festivities will begin at 11 a.m. with a parade that will begin at Baldwin Chapel Church and end at the "Y".  This year's grand marshal for our parade is Mrs. Versie Belle Fortson Callahan.  Mrs. Callahan was born in Centerville, Texas (Leon County) September 16, 1917.  She attended Hopewell Elementary there.  She finished high school in Crockett, Texas.  She graduated from Prairie View A&M, in Prairie View, Texas with a B.S. in Home Economics with a minor in Education.  She also attained her Masters in Elementary Education.  She has her certification in Library Science that she earned from Sam Houston State, in Huntsville.
   Mrs. Callahan's exhibits include sewing, community service, gardening, cooking, and traveling. Mrs. Callahan rem-embers celebrating Juneteenth in Leon County with plenty of red soda, watermelon, baseball playing, going to the pond and dancing if it wasn't too sandy out.  They would dig a hole in the ground and cover it with chicken wire, to act as a rack for the barbequing of meat for the day.  Ladies were in charge of the cooking of the vegetables and homemade ice cream, using an old crank freezer.  The children would take turns, turning the crank.  Another treat she remembers were onions being sliced and put on ice so they would be "tasty and crunchy".  There were lots of wholesome activities and supervised recreation for the children.
   She fondly remembers the coming together of family and friends, sharing of different games, singing, and listening to stories of long ago during Juneteenth celebrations.