Priscilla Richardson

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"Just let me get Pocahontas out of my chair so I can talk," Warren Billings said over the telephone. Well, Pocahontas is one of his several cats, so that clued me in to how charming his conversation would be. We two cat lovers hit it right off.

But why should you care about Billings? The immediate reason: He will be speaking about "Why Not Jamestown?" to the annual Founder's Day dinner of the Botetourt Historical Society tonight. A more general reason: Billings knows more about early American history than just about anyone else you could meet. Especially 17th century Virginia history. After all, he grew up on Jamestown Island, because his mother worked for the park service there. Then he went to the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, and followed that with graduate work in history for a doctorate. He now holds the title of distinguished professor of history emeritus at the University of New Orleans.

Lest you think my statement about the depth of his knowledge exaggerated, I refer you to 14 pages of small print listing his books, articles, speeches and honors. And he hasn't confined himself to Virginia. He has done so much work on Louisiana law history, as well as the history of Virginia law, that he once served a year as a visiting professor of law -- at a law school. In addition, his research on Sir William Berkeley goes into every aspect of that man's life as he became a national founding father.

You may well wonder how this man came to be invited to Fincastle. Here's another example of the Botetourt network. Our own Judge Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo served on the Jamestown 400th Anniversary Commission with Billings. And by the way, this was a "federal entity named by the secretary of the Interior," Billings explained. They worked on the national level, not just in Virginia.

So Trumbo and Billings became friends. "I went to William and Mary, too," Trumbo said, "and lots of my professors were his colleagues and friends." So that's how it turns out that Billings is coming tonight.

Serving on the 400th anniversary commission as the only professional historian in the group let Billings "develop a close relation with some of the people," he said. "I'm glad it's all over with, but I will miss those contacts. Glad I got to do it."

Now he can get back to his annual spring tour with another friend covering some part or aspect of Virginia. He's visited every county, seen most every historical marker and place, and still loves going back for more. Plus, he and his wife, the law librarian of Louisiana, have homes both in New Orleans and in Williamsburg, dividing their time between them.

But back in Louisiana, the University of New Orleans had $100 million worth of damage after the 2005 hurricanes. So much so that "it will probably be a generation to get the school back to where it was before the storm," he concludes. "It was one of the major public urban schools in the country."

Although he finds it a "struggle and challenge" to research and write after the storm damage, he does have plans for new books. "I like to work on several different topics at the same time." As the historian of the Louisiana Supreme Court, he is working to overcome the view "that nothing about law took place south of the Mason-Dixon line." All the court records reside in the UNO library, so he plans to create a work all others who come later will have to reckon with.

His first love will always be Virginia's 17th century, but he also is working on the stories of some 19th century Virginians. "They used 19th century technology to make money and make Virginia a better place," Billings said. "I like exploring the connection between technology and the evolution of society and culture over time."

So he now is visiting 21st century Botetourt. If you haven't got a dinner ticket ($25, 6:30 p.m.), call Weldon Martin at 473-2636, to see if there's still room at the Fincastle United Methodist Church Family Life Center tonight. I'll see you there.