By ANGELA SCHMOLL, Associate Editor
The Mt. Airy News
MOUNT AIRY — Majority Whip Roy Blunt turned a campaign fund-raising trip with Rep. Virginia Foxx into a chance to indulge his love of Mayberry with a tour of the town Thursday morning with Squad Car Tours.
Stopping at all the Mayberry attractions, along with the Robert Smith House, the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History and the granite quarry, Blunt ended his tour with a stop at the Mayberry Courthouse at Wally’s Service Station on South Main, which Squad Car Tours calls home.
“I’m a big fan of the show,” said Blunt, who chatted up Mayberry characters with Tanya Jones and posed with the Andy Griffith statue during his stop at the Andy Griffith Playhouse. “I’m pleased to be able to come.
“I’m from Branson, Mo., and it’s true, there are Mayberry fans all over the world,” he said.
He said he was impressed with how much like his hometown Mount Airy really is. “I was surprised how much this community is like a lot of the communities I represent in southwest Missouri. A lot of the early Missouri settlers came from this part of North Carolina. My family moved from North Carolina to Tennessee, then to Missouri. It looks a lot like this part of North Carolina as well.
“I was at an event in my district Saturday, and they were playing the same music you play here,” he added. “We call it Ozark Mountain music there, and you call it Southern Appalachian.”
In addition to the Mayberry attractions of Mount Airy, Blunt also praised the Mount Airy Museum as an effort to secure the area’s heritage.
Wednesday evening he joined Foxx for a fund-raising stop in Mount Airy and left for a similar visit in Virginia after the end of his tour.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Tanya Jones, left, director of the Surry Arts Council, discusses Mayberry ties with Roy Blunt, Congressional majority whip, during his visit to Mount Airy with Rep. Virginia Foxx Thursday. Blunt, who said he is a big Mayberry fan, visited the Mayberry attractions with Squad Car Tours after joining Foxx for a campaign fund-raiser Wednesday evening.
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