Mrs. Bush Donates Land
For Public Park In Auburn
 

The gift is from Mrs. Benjamin Jay Bush, 1112 South Park Drive, Bowling Green, the former Mary Coke of Auburn. The contribution is in memory of the Coke and McCutchen families who have been Auburn community leaders for generations.

Mrs. Bush's parents were the late James Guthrie and Carrie McCutchen Coke of Auburn. Her husband who died in 1957 was a prominent Presbyterian minister and for four years was secretary to the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland.

The gift was disclosed this week when Mrs. Bush turned over deeds to 15 acres of land which she bought for the park site inside the city limits.

The land, purchased from Earl Lucas of Elkton and L. E. Porter of Auburn, is on the south side of Auburn near the water plant. It is just off U.S. 68 and is nestled by two creeks. Purchase price was $22,000.

In addition to Mrs. Bush's gift of $20,000, a supplemental gift of $2,000 was provided by Auburn industries.

"This has long been a dream of mine and I shall be happy to see it realized," Mrs. Bush said.

Tinsley announced that a long-range planning program for the park will be established after a survey of its potential is made. The Auburn town board will ask the state Department of Commerce's planning division to assist in the survey, Tinsley said.

The board also will appoint three trustees for the park gift, said Tinsley. The first three will be Grover Corum, manager of the Logan Telephone Coop, Mrs. Vernon Hadden, a school teacher, and the Rev. B. P. Deaton, a retired Presbyterian minister.

An advisory committee representing all the civic groups of Auburn also will help develop the park, said the mayor.

Eventually she married the Buckhorn School's director, the Rev. Harvey Murdoch and became assistant manager of the school. While there she became friendly with the mission's agricultural director, the Rev. B. P. Deaton. This friendship was acknowledged this week when the Rev. Mr. Deaton, now retired, was named one of the first three trustees of the new Auburn McCutchen-Coke Memorial Park.

The Rev. Mr. Murdoch died while they were still engaged in missionary work. Seven years later, his widow married another minister, the Rev. Benjamin Jay Bush, a widower who had been a friend of her first husband.

Dr. Bush, also a Presbyterian, was pastor of Second Presbyterian Church in Lexington for several years. Later the couple moved to his native state Michigan where he was pastor of Detroit's Westminster Church for 18 years.

For four years, the Bushes lived in Geneva, Switzerland where, Dr, Bush was the Presbyterian secretary to the newly-formed World Council of Churches. Upon his retirement they moved to North Carolina and finally settled in Bowling Green just before Dr. Bush's death 10 years ago.