Halifax figures into NFL legend’s ancestry

Home • News • Sports • Classifieds • Community • Health • Entertainment • Obituaries • Opinions • Weather

Advertising | Contact | About Us | Register

News

School surveys draw response

02/02/12 - 7:49 am

The Halifax County School Board will hold a special meeting on Thursday, Feb. 16 beginning at 3:30 p.m. in the school board conference room to review the results of a…

Homeschoolers gain yardage on school sports

02/02/12 - 7:48 am

Homeschoolers who want their children to be able to play public-school sports are cheering a historic vote this week in Richmond that advances a bill to a floor vote in…

Kitchen closed

02/01/12 - 11:51 am

Shoney’s out of business in South Boston, Farmville

- More News

Sports

Lions close regular season with win

02/01/12 - 1:58 pm

The Halifax County Middle School boys’ basketball team defeated Westwood, 41-28, Monday, completing the regular season.

Community

Opinion

A&E

Weather | Virginia News | Halifax | Mecklenburg

Emmitt Smith pulled up in Boydton in April to film an episode for the new NBC reality series, “Who Do You Think You Are?” The show, which traces the family histories of celebrities, brought the Hall of Fame running back to Southside Virginia and Berry Hill Plantation Resort for several days back in the spring. The episode featuring Smith airs Friday night at 8 p.m. on NBC. (Courtesy photo)

SoVaNow.com / March 11, 2010

From staff reports

Emmitt Smith, the NFL’s all-time leading rusher and 2006 Dancing with the Stars champion, visited Halifax County in April to retrace his family ancestry for an episode of a new NBC reality series airing this Friday night at 8 p.m.

The show, “Who Do You Think You Are?” tells the story of Smith’s ancestral connections to a Mecklenburg County horse and slave breeder named Samuel Puryear and the historical importance of his family tree.

Although the network made an effort to keep the celebrity visit quiet, Smith’s arrival in Boydton back in April — where much of the family research shown on the episode takes place — caused quite a stir in town.

When not in Boydton, Smith and an NBC-BBC crew of 15 stayed at the Berry Hill Plantation Resort, where a number of the interviews set to be aired Friday were filmed.

Martha Borg, manager at Berry Hill, said she was able to listen in on filmed interviews with Smith as the facts of his family background were slowly revealed. “He really didn’t know where they were going with this, and they did a really good job, even with him, of keeping it a puzzle,” said Borg.

Jack Hite, president of the Boyd Tavern in Boydton, where filming took place, said Smith was in town tracing his relationship with the Puryear family. In addition to filming at the tavern, a hub of community social life in earlier centuries, the crew followed as Smith looked up county records of property transfers that may have involved his slave ancestors.

Based on an award-winning BBC series, “Who Do You Think You Are?” follows celebrities as they explore their family histories. Other guests of the show include Susan Sarandon, Lisa Kudrow, Sarah Jessica Parker and Spike Lee.

According to the new show’s website, the program “is intended to lead celebrities on a journey of self-discovery as they unearth their family trees that reveal surprising, inspiring, and even tragic stories that often are linked to crucial events in public history.”

Along with Smith, a major presence in Friday’s show is Clarksville historian and SVCC professor John Caknipe, who guides the football great through the historical documents that tell his family story.

Caknipe said Smith is a ninth-generation direct descendant of Puryear, a prominent race track owner and slavebreeder who lived in the town of Christiansville, now Chase City.

The visit to the Boydton courthouse produced a dramatic moment when Smith learns about Mariah, a slave girl and forebear who was Puryear’s illegitimate mixed-race daughter.

A property listing on Mariah turned up in county deed book 22 at the Mecklenburg Courthouse. Smith wore number 22 as a running back for the Dallas Cowboys.

Caknipe was featured on the Oprah Winfrey show Tuesday in an advance look at the “Who Do You Think You Are?” episode with Smith. The exposure on Winfrety’s top-rated daytime TV show didn’t go unnoticed by his students in South Boston, where Caknipe teaches.

“When I got there last night, I had about 35 people in the parking lot waiting for me to show up,” said Caknipe with a laugh.

In addition to Berry Hill, other scenes in the episode were filmed locally at Shangrila Retreat in Cluster Springs.

Smith, a Florida native, played college football for the Florida Gators. The Dallas Cowboys drafted him in the first round in 1990. He fulfilled a promise to his mother by returning to the University of Florida every NFL off-season, earning his bachelor’s degree in 1996.

The only NFL player to rush for 1,000 yards in 11 consecutive seasons, he was the MVP of Super Bowl XXVIII.

Of Smith, Borg offered this description: “He was incredibly friendly, thoughtful, a pleasure to have here. He ate with the crew in the Tavern while he stayed here and he was very kind to all our staff. We really enjoyed having him here.”

Borg said NBC chose Berry Hill for lodging in the area not only because the plantation was large enough to accommodate the film crew, but because “it’s a neat historical setting and they liked the backdrop of the mansion.”

While staying at Berry Hill, Smith and crew visited the Berry Hill slave graveyard, one of the largest and best-preserved of its kind. Bog said she did not know if the experience of visiting the graveyard would be included in Friday’s show, but added that she wouldn’t be surprised if it were.

“You know how TV shows like to get in an emotional moment,” she said.

A video preview of Friday’s episode of “Who Do You Think You Are?” can be found at the show’s website, http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/.

Tell-a-Friend | Submit a Comment

126

Halifax News