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Abe Lincoln impersonator gives Girard students a history lesson
The Vindicator (Youngstown)
Photo
Gerald Payn looks the part of Abraham Lincoln dressed in a long black suit coat and trousers along with the trademark top hat. His wife, Marilyn, plays the part of Lincoln’s spouse, Mary Todd. Payn portrayed the 16th president for students at Girard Intermediate School Monday.
The Vindicator (Youngstown)
Photo
Abraham Lincoln, as portrayed by Gerald Payn of Wooster, engages fifth-graders at Girard Intermediate School during a presentation Monday. Greg Bonamase, principal, said the enrichment program “is designed to bring history alive.”
By LINDA M. LINONIS
GIRARD
A bearded man, stand- ing 6 feet 4 inches and garbed in a long, black suit jacket, presented an imposing figure as he discussed the Civil War, the presidency and slavery with 125 fifth-graders at Girard Intermediate School on Monday.
Gerald Payn of Wooster, one of 200 men in the National Association of Lincoln Presenters, portrayed Abraham Lincoln during morning and afternoon presentations to six classes.
“The enrichment program is designed to bring history alive,” said Principal Greg Bonamase. “Hearing about history” in this manner, he said, makes an impression on the students.
Bonamase said the fifth-graders study U.S. history as part of social studies. So the visit by the Lincoln presenter was timely.
Claudia Corb , gifted and talent coordinator in the Girard school district, made arrangements for the event.
“I think this kind of presentation helps kids see the past ... and that helps them understand life today,” she said.
Payn, in a resounding deep voice, said he talks to students from the prospective of April 14, 1865, and mentions he (Lincoln) and his wife, Mary, would be attending the theater that night. “This way, I can speak about his whole life,” Payn said.
Payn has been a Lincoln presenter since 1999. He said he was inspired to do so after seeing a Civil War encampment by the Wayne County Historical Society and James A. Getty of Gettysburg, Pa., a well-known Lincoln actor and historian. The Lincoln presenter said history wasn’t a favorite pursuit, but he has learned many facts of Honest Abe’s history to play the part convincingly.
Payn, a farmer turned teacher, was accompanied by his wife, Marilyn, who plays Lincoln’s wife, Mary Todd. “I found out she was an accomplished seamstress,” Marilyn Payn said. She makes the costumes for herself and her husband. She sits and watches as her husband performs. “I’m set decoration,” she said.
Payn said he did 86 presentations in 2009, the 200th anniversary of the birth of the 16th president. He said he averages about 75 presentations annually, some for a couple of hours and others at three-day Civil War encampments.
Payn, as Lincoln, told the students he grew whiskers so “he would look better,” though he considered it being an “affection,” that is “showing off.” But he admitted to being a “homely fellow” and whiskers wouldn’t hurt.
He shared a glimpse into Lincoln’s family. “I was born in Kentucky, but my parents were against slavery, so we moved to Indiana when I was 7,” he said.
At 19, Payn continued, the future president took a boat trip down the Mississippi River and saw slavery on the riverfront plantations. “This was the land of the free,” he said, noting that these folks had been taken from Africa, brought to America under miserable conditions and then put into bondage.
Payn shared the distress of the president, who was saddened by the thousands of casualties and deaths in Union and Confederate forces in the Civil War.
He also sneaked in some math for students by asking them what “four score and seven years ago” meant, and that led to the Gettysburg Address. In the 272-word, three-minute speech, Payn asked students to remember that the nation was “dedicated to these principles of liberty and equality” and that “government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”
Students asked questions about slavery, the Emancipation Proclamation and Lincoln’s life as president.
Payn also visited fourth-grade classes.