Veterans tour the new “Old Dixie Theatre”

The Veterans at the Library held their weekly meeting Monday, June 9, at 9 a.m. at Franklin Memorial Library. With Chair Johnny Tapley presiding, they had 38 in attendance. Shari Watt provided a great breakfast of sausage biscuits, grits, donuts, watermelon, orange juice, cranberry juice, grape juice, apple juice and coffee. Chair John Tapley spoke about the upcoming events, and discussed the December 13, 2025, “Wreaths Across America” event. He noted that they need to walk as many Emanuel County cemeteries as possible to locate veteran’s graves. At the present, they will place over 2,500 wreaths this year. They then left the library and met at the new theatre at 10 a.m. for a guided tour by Melissa Kirby, Chair of the Downtown Development Authority. Melissa stated the 220 new seats will arrive on June 25, and she will meet with the designers of the out-front Marquie this week. The screen should be in place very soon and the projector will be moved to the back of the theatre. As soon as the seats are installed, then the carpet will be laid down the walkway. An announcement for a full-time manager was placed in The Forest-Blade last week and she has had several people interested in that position. The theatre should be open by the fall with first run movies and other interesting things happening at the “Old Dixie Theatre”.