GRAVETTE — The Gravette historical museum has a new curator. After serving as hostess to persons visiting the museum for 11 years, Sheila Martin recently gave notice she intended to quit to spend more time with family. Erin McVittie took over those duties last week. She has announced the museum also has new hours. It is now open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
McVittie is one of the newest museum commissioners. She joined the commission in January of this year when her friend, Stephanie McLeod, another recent recruit, asked her if she would like to come on board.
"I have always loved history," she said, "and I believe volunteering is important."
She had let it be known soon after becoming a commissioner that she would be interested in the curator's job if it was available so, when the opening occurred, she was the natural choice.
McVittie was born in Fremont, Neb., then lived in Colorado for a while before moving to Arkansas when she was five. Her family lived in Bentonville until they moved to Gravette, where her mother taught speech therapy, when Erin was in 10th grade. She graduated from Gravette High School in 1996.
After high school, McVittie took some college courses at Northwest Arkansas Community College, at John Brown University and at the University of Arkansas. She then met a young Irishman online shortly after Sept. 11, 2001. They corresponded for a few months and her friend, Alan Goonery, made his first trip to Arkansas on St. Patrick's Day, 2002.
McVittie and Goonery traveled back and forth between Ireland and Arkansas for a couple of years before they were married on June 18, 2004, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Since immigration laws made it difficult for Goonery to move to the United States, they spent the first six months of their marriage apart, Erin living here and her husband in Ireland.
McVittie's life took a dramatic turn when she moved to Ireland on Christmas Eve, 2004. She had been going to school and working at three jobs in Arkansas.
"Then I went from doing everything to doing nothing," she said.
Another problem was that she couldn't drive there. It was two years before she got a driver's license, so she walked everywhere in the little town of Mullingar.
Erin admits living abroad was an unforgettable experience
"Ireland is a beautiful country and I enjoyed my time there," she said, "but it was the little things that were so different."
She gave the water heater as an example.
"Here we leave them on all the time," she explained. "In Ireland, they're called immersion heaters and they're only turned on when you want to do laundry, wash dishes or something. Then you have to wait for the water to heat."
McVittie first got a job at a department store called Texas where she was manager of the cosmetics and lingerie sections. Fortunately, she only had to walk across the square to get to work. Later, after she got her driver's license, she took a job at a bank that was about a 45-minute drive away. She also got her yoga training in Ireland and worked in a yoga studio for a while.
Goonery worked at NEC, a computer chip company. Then, when the NEC operations were transferred to the Philippines, he became a professional poker player. After eight years of marriage, he and Erin decided they weren't suited to be married.
"We were two very different people," she said. "He was so quiet and I was outgoing. We could still be friends but the marriage wasn't working."
It was then she made plans to move home to Arkansas. By that time, McVittie's grandparents had died, so her mother moved to their home in Bella Vista. She came back in 2012 and moved into her mother's home in Gravette where she now lives. She remains close with Goonery and his parents and, with a godson, Sam.
"I love my Irish family," she said.
Erin enjoys the opportunity to serve on the museum commission. She further indulges her passion for volunteering by teaching water aerobics at the Gravette pool on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays through a Billy V. Hall Senior Center program. She also teaches a "gentle" yoga class at the center on Tuesdays and Thursdays -- focusing on stretching, deep breathing and balance -- and another full-on yoga class in the evening.
McVittie said that, although the regular hours are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the museum will be open all day on Gravette Day. She invites all to come to the Kindley House and annex that day and hopes to see many visitors there.
Community on 08/10/2016