At the Eighty-fourth Annual Meeting of The Garden Club of Virginia held in Harrisonburg, Virginia, May 18 – 20, 2004, Rebecca Lea McGovern (Mrs. Francis) was awarded the De Lacy Gray Memorial Medal for Conservation.
This award, a memorial to Mrs. Leslie H. (De Lacy) Gray, given by the Dolley Madison Garden Club of Orange and awarded by the Conservation Committee, is given to an individual member or an individual club of The Garden Club of Virginia. Outstanding service in the dissemination of knowledge of the natural resources of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the conservation and wise development of these resources are criteria for the recipient.
Mrs. McGovern is a member and former President of The Garden Club of Danville. A recipient of The Garden Club of Virginia Horticulture Award of Merit, she served as Director of Public Relations for The Garden Club of Virginia for the term 1963-65, and has served on many committees for her club and has worked as a member of many conservation and garden related clubs and organizations in Danville. Specifically, she helped protect the Dan River from erosion by personally planting hundreds of trees along the southern bank denuded by road construction and by encouraging both school students and the public to participate in the volunteer organization, City Beautiful. Mrs. McGovern’s dream of making Danville a finer place in which to live has been her lifetime achievement in conservation and beautification.
