The Garrett Family Home Page

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Want to know why we like it where we live?

Arwen took this picture a few miles from our house on Max Patch Mountain.

This is us (David & Virginia) on Arwen's and William's wedding day, May 20, 2006. There were some of the best pictures taken of us that day than there had been in years. Guess we were too preoccupied (and joyous) to be shy.

As you can tell from the picture we still enjoy each others' company after being married for . From 1980 through 1999 we were active in Episcopal Marriage Encounter, which is a program designed for couples with good marriages (that's good, not perfect) who want to make them the best marriages they possibly can be.

Virginia worked at the Cocke County office of the Tennessee Department of Human Services here in Newport from 1984 through 2004, and is now a supervisor at the DHS Regional Call Center in Morristown. For 12 years Virginia has also worked a second job at DollyWood , a local theme park, where she works in the Festivals of the park.

Virginia also loves working in the yard, and has filled it with flowers in the spring and summer. Our special pride and joy is the many varieties of daylilies. To see some of the results of her work, check out our family's house and yard page .

Virginia and David are both 1969 graduates of Messick High School, a historic high school in Memphis which was closed in 1980 and demolished in 1982. There are still a lot of old Messick alumi around though. David is the webmaster of Still On The Prowl, the Messick Class of 1969 website.

Virginia and David are also both 1973 graduates of Rhodes College , which was known as Southwestern at Memphis while we were there; click on its link to check out our alma mater, one of the nation's best small liberal arts institutions. We are excited that our daughter followed in our footsteps at Rhodes in 1999 and graduated in 2003 - the fifth person in our family to get a Bachelor of Arts degree there. (Virginia's two sisters are also alumni).

We also enjoy birdwatching, good music of (almost) all sorts, and good movies!

We're not much on sports, but we've always enjoyed the University of Tennessee Lady Vols . For the fourth season now we have season tickets; really good ones too, on the tenth row right behind the visitors' bench. Not only do we enjoy ourselves immensely, but the team obviously really likes us being there, since they went on to win their seventh and eighth national championships. The 2008-2009 season was more difficult with a team of freshmen, but we love watching them develop as a team..

One thing that most people find quite odd about us - we have not had TV service for the last 10 years in the house. Obviously we have a TV since we watch a lot of movies. We aren't diehards, we just don't get anything from TV that would justify the expense. We discontinued the service when we realized we hadn't even watched it in more than 6 months.

David graduated in 1977 from the School of Theology at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. Since 1978 he has served as (first vicar, then) rector at Episcopal Church of the Annunciation here in Newport, where we are all active members, and is active in the community.

After years as a runner and participating in road races, David is now an active walker who walks about 20 miles weekly.

Virginia takes part in a local Middle Eastern folk dance troupe, and the last couple of years we have taken up ballroom dancing, and greatly enjoy it! We are members of the East Tennessee Ballroom Dance Club in Knoxville and make their dances as often as we can.

Animals of all sorts have always been part of our lives; dogs (especially greyhounds), cats (lots), fish (lots), gerbils, birds, turtles; we're just not happy unless other species are around us, even though they're a lot of hassle! Click on the picture of the vicious creature on the right to view (and hear) the current version of the Garrett Zoo .

We are also very proud of our three children (two are ours, and one we claim as our "French daughter!).

Click here to learn more about Geoffrey Garrett, Arwen Garrett Wagers, and Emilie Marceau Colpart.

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