The Lucy Virginia French Ball - A Bicentennial Celebration

The L. Virginia French Ball is less than two weeks away.

Have you bought your tickets yet?

This will be a formal dance/community social put on by the Bicentennial Executive Committee in honor of one of Warren County's former citizens; Lucy Virginia French.

The L. Virginia French Ball

will be held

at 7:00 pm

on June 7th

at the McMinnville Civic Center

Tickets are $12.50 each

Tickets can be purchased at

- Warren County Executive Building
- Warren County / McMinnville Chamber of Commerce
- McMinnville Civic Center
- Magness Library

-On the night of the event, tickets can be purchased at the door

This will be a great way for the community to come together!

Ladies, It's an excuse to get really dressed up and go out dancing....How often do you get to do that in McMinnville? Guys, this is the perfect idea for a date with your girlfriend/wife...

she'll think you're so romantic for thinking of it!

Bring the kids, bring your parents and grandparents....

It'll be a great event - a chance to hang out with your friends and/or family in a different

setting than the usual Saturday night,

you'll get a little history while you're there maybe,

and on top of all that - you're supporting your community!

We'll see you there!

Check the Warren County 200 Web site for more information on Lucy Virginia French, this event or any of the other upcoming Warren County Bicentennial events.

Who was L. Virginia French?

Lucy Virginia French (1825-1881) was a writer, poet and magazine editor of the Old South. Reared in Virginia and Pennsylvania, she met Col. John Hopkins French at a book store in Memphis, later moving to McMinnville after a whirlwind romance. They settled at the French Plantation Forest Home and Colonel and Mrs. French became the pillars of society as they lavishly entertained local folk as well as dignitaries who visited the town.
Mrs. French was a writer for several popular magazines of the time and became famous across the south and was recognized in national literary circles. When the Civil War erupted in 1861, she was supportive of the Confederacy and "refuged" at nearby Beersheba Springs where she kept diaries that she later became famous for.
That journal remains as a chronicle of the life in McMinnville during the Federal and Confederate occupations of the city.
After the war, French continued to write and publish until her death in 1881. She is buried in Riverside Cemetery in McMinnville. A Tennessee Historical Marker is now located at the sight of the Forest Home on Main Street here in the city.