Deane benefit draws thousands to fairgrounds

A cake, baked at home by Sister Pullen of Craigsville, sold for $210.
Wayne Powell of Stanardsville paid $2,500 for the 1986 Ford F150 Explorer pickup Dale Conley of Geer donated. When Powell re-donated the truck, it sold for $2,550.
All told, the Gospel Bluegrass Festival and benefit —held at the Greene County Fairgrounds Sunday, June 7 to help an ailing Larry Deane—brought in “more than $50,000,“ says David Pullen, one of the organizers of the event.
Deane is part of The Deanes, a bluegrass gospel group that is estimated to have raised more than half a million dollars for the benefit of its community.  After he was diagnosed early this year with a rare form of cancer that is attacking his central nervous system, the community determined to give back. On Sunday it did.
According to Pullen, “well over 3,000” people paid $15 apiece to get into the festival. They came to hear The Churchmen, Dark Hollow, MD Mallory & Charlottesville Grass, Steve Minter, the Virginia Ramblers, former Statler Brothers tenor Jimmy Fortune and, The Deanes, complete with Larry.
They also came to bid.
“We expected 35 cakes to auction,“ says Larry’s sister-in-law, Tina Deane. Instead, 60 were donated and brought as much as $220 per cake. A tire, signed by Dale Earnhardt and taken from one of his base cars was donated and sold for $510. Former Statler Brother Jimmy Fortune donated a guitar. Others donated such things as a brass bed, a handmade quilt, a POW-MIA banner, and more.
And services were donated. The community did not charge the festival for the use of the fairgrounds, for parking or mowing services, for porta-potties or trash removal. None of the performers charged a fee, and Auctioneer Pam Collier called the auction for free. William Monroe High School Video Production Instructor Jimmy Stickley and two of his students recorded the event for free and took orders for DVDs, thereby creating yet another fundraiser for a member of the family that may well be one of Greene’s most loved.
“They’re just nice people … it runs in the family,“ says one of Larry’s longtime friends, Cotton Morris.
Deane’s father, Buzzy Deane, has been pastor of the Sandy Bottom Pentecostal Church in Rockingham County for 45 years. So his children, Deane once said, “were raised in church.“ His mother, Larry adds, is who gave him his musical roots - even though he wasn’t interested in playing an instrument until he was grown and off on his own.
“I was 32. My wife wanted to learn to play the banjo, so I traded my shotgun for one,“ Larry smiles. But his brother Eddie, then 17, claimed the banjo, Larry started playing mandolin, and in 1982, the brothers, along with Larry’s then-wife Myrna, made their first public appearance - at Mt. Mariah United Methodist Church in White Hall.
After that, says Eddie, “people started calling.“
And The Deanes started growing: Eddie married Tina in 1984, and she added her vocal talent to the group.
That same year, The Deanes made a Southern gospel recording. In 1987, they made their first Blue Grass recording, and in 1996, began their fundraising performances with monthly hymn sings at the Ruckersville Fire House.
“We ran out of room after three performances,“ says Eddie.  “We turned it into a Rescue Squad benefit at the high school in June.“
Eddie explains that while the group has had opportunities to make music their profession, they chose to stay home, and play for their community. “The community became part of our family,“ he says.
Gloria Oliver is part of that community.  “The whole Deane family is wonderful … they have been very good to my handicapped son … they invite him to sing with them on stage … they sang for his birthday party when he turned 30,“ she says.
Oliver got to know Larry Deane through his work as a member of the Facilities Maintenance Team at the University of Virginia, where he is known for his “whistle while he works attitude,“ according to a release issued by his employer when he was named the Health System’s employee of the month in February 1999.
The previous fall, as Larry was leaving work, he helped a family stranded in a hospital parking lot. Their car would not start. They were stranded, with no money. Larry drove the family to his home in Stanardsville and loaned them his own car. The family then drove to their home, some 65 miles away. They returned to the hospital the next day, where Larry hitched their car to a trailer and hauled it back to their home in Luray.
According to the news release, Larry was surprised to have been nominated for an award for his good deed.
The Deanes are “good people,“ explains Collier, looking around the sea of people who came Sunday to prove that what goes around, comes around.
“What you’re seeing here,“ points out Stanardsville native Graydon Lamb, “is Greene County at its best.“
Larry remains on disability. He is paid 60 percent of his salary, but has to pay for his own insurance, and bills for his treatment are mounting.  A minimum $50,000 is needed to cover his current and anticipated future treatments.
But he says he is not in pain, and he is still smiling, and still playing. “It’s a wonderful day,“ he says, looking out over his audience. “It’s so good to see so many pretty faces. There’s not an ugly one out there.“