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Saving the DELTA QUEEN…Again
Since 1927 the DELTA QUEEN has operated on
America’s rivers, whether it be the Sacramento, the San Joaquin, the
Mississippi or the Ohio she has always been a treasured treat for those
traveling on board as well as those watching her from the shore.
In those eighty years she has become a legend and
has had a life changing impact on hundreds, perhaps thousands of people
who have come to know her.
The “Grand Dame of the American Waterways”
as some have described her has been saved at one time or another from a
life as bad if not worst then that of her twin sister boat DELTA KING.
She was saved first by Captain Tom Greene after her
World War II service in the San Francisco Bay as a navy ferry boat. She
was bought and moved to the Mississippi River system to become at one
time America’s last overnight passenger carrying steamboat.
It was Captain Frederick Way, Jr., through his
writing of the book, Saga of the DELTA QUEEN, his stories in the
Waterways Journal and the S & D Reflector that
would tell her history and let the public know why it was important to
save the DELTA QUEEN.
After Captain Tom Greene’s untimely death, his
widow Letha would work to save the DELTA QUEEN and fulfill her husband’s
dream while being a mother to her four children.
Later it would be Richard Simonton, Bill Muster, E.
Jay Quinby, Betty Blake and a host of others who would scarify time and
money to keep her alive and well on the rivers of America.
Today she remains one of the very few examples of
the thousands of steamboats that once carried our forefathers west to
settle and develop our nation.
Now in 2007-2008 America is again being called on
to save this national treasure by joining thousands of others in
appealing to her owner, Majestic America Line, their congressional
representatives and their neighbors to help SAVE THE DELTA QUEEN…once
more.
Since 1939, the Sons and Daughters of Pioneer
Rivermen have worked to save and preserve the heritage of America’s
rivers and the boats that have operated on them.
As a tribute to the memory to all of those who have
worked so hard in the past to save the DELTA QUEEN, we encourage our
members to take an active role and do whatever is within their power to
contribute to the efforts to SAVE THE DELTA QUEEN.
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