“Eatonland” by Sue Oile Dowse is the area near the Eaton cemetery near California School. Dowse was raised in the Rockport area and is living in Nebraska where she plans a West Virginia Day celebration on Thursday at her art gallery. (Photo Provided)

PARKERSBURG — A transplanted West Virginian living in Nebraska has organized her first West Virginia Day celebration there.

Sue Oiler Dowse was raised in the Rockport area and graduated in 1956 from Parkersburg High School where she was a member of the T&T Art Club. She’s the daughter of the late Harry and Norma Oiler of Lauckport.

“The memories of Rockport are some of my best,” she said.

Dowse left home at the age of 29 to become a missionary with the Oriental Missionary Society, ending up in Comstock, Neb., where she has been married for 38 years.

Dowse will celebrate West Virginia Day on Thursday with a reception from 5-9 p.m. at her gallery in Comstock, The Gallery: Art and Creativity Center.

“Nature’s stained glass” is the Church of Christ at Wadesville by Sue Oiler Dowse, a Wood County native who moved to Nebraska decades ago. Dowse will hold a West Virginia Day reception on Thursday at her art gallery in Comstock. (Photo Provided)

West Virginia achieved statehood on June 20, 1863, by proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln.

Few West Virginia transplants live in Nebraska, she said.

Four years ago Dowse met Rex and Carolyn Mihlbach, who are from near Ravenswood. The Mihlbachs were visiting their son and his ranch near Taylor, Neb. It turns out, Dowse said, she was distantly related to the Mihlbachs.

The Mihlbachs visited the gallery and went through Dowse’s photographs of lower Wood County. She did paintings from the photos.

Ten years ago, Terry and Joy Rawn and three daughters from Charles Town, W.Va., relocated to Sargent, near Comstock, to manage a dairy farm. While looking for a church, a friendship was made during an introduction at Sunday school, Dowse said.

Sue Oiler Dowse is a Wood County native living in Comstock, Neb., where she plans a West Virginia Day celebration Thursday at her art gallery that will include her work of local scenes, including “The Becky Thatcher,” a rendering of the boat that once was docked in Marietta. (Photo Provided)

The Rawns were invited to the Dowses for dinner on a June 20 when they were served soup beans, corn bread, sweet tea and apple pie served on mismatched plates and silverware. The families spent many holidays together, until the Rawns moved away, she said.

That was a sad day, Dowse said, and she has since been on the lookout for other transplanted West Virginians in Nebraska.

Dowse planned a West Virginia Day celebration in 2023, but was unable because of scheduled commitments. She is a member of the board of the Association of Nebraska Art Clubs.

“I am definitely going to have it this year,” she said.

The celebration and reception at the gallery, a 100-year-old church she purchased in 2005, will include cuisine indigenous to West Virginia, such as Grandma Oiler’s ham salad, Johnny Appleseed apple cakes, yeast rolls with churned butter and apple butter and sweet tea, among other items, she said.

“Almost Heaven” is a satirical portrayal by Sue Oiler Dowse about what Sandhillers think about West Virginia. (Photo Provided)

“We will have West Virginia food,” Dowse said.

Admission is free and shoes are optional, she said,

The reception will include six panels of West Virginia art, among other exhibits, In addition to Dowse’s renderings. The reception will include two prints by the late Dr. Robert Crooks of Wood County of the Buckley Chapel and the Scott Log Cabin and a print of Satterfield’s Jewelry Store on Market Street by Marge Teague of Williamstown. The Oiler family briefly lived in the log cabin after her father enlisted during World War II.

An ink collage, “Almost Heaven,” will be the centerpiece of the exhibit. It is a satirical ink drawing.

Dowse attended the Herron School of Art. After using up night school hours in art, she had to change her major, earning a teaching degree in English with a minor in journalism.

Sue Oiler Dowse’s gallery, The Gallery: Art and Creativity Center, in Comstock, Neb., where on Thursday she will hold a West Virginia Day celebration. (Photo Provided)

Her dreams of art were fulfilled when she married her husband, Doyle, a descendant of the first white family in Custer County, Neb.

She also plans to have a booklet of short stories about her memories from West Virginia, “Almost Heaven: Growing Up in West Virginia,” on Thursday at the reception.

She also would like to hear from old friends in West Virginia who can send letters to the gallery at 80797 Oak Grove Road, Comstock, NE 68828.

Jess Mancini can be reached at jmancini@newsandsentinel.com.