Four new Friends of Weymouth board members attended a June 11 meeting to familiarize themselves with the working committees and the running of the Center for the Arts and Humanities.

The chairmen of the various committees described their jobs, and the newly elected president, Tony Hantjas, filled in with his expertise on the building, grounds and programs.

Ann Arnold is the newly elected president of Women of Weymouth. A native Texan, in her early years she showed and exhibited horses. Arnold is a graduate of the University of Texas in Austin, Texas, and a former teacher. She has one son and four grandchildren.

Her husband's career took them from Dallas to Chicago, Ill., where they lived in the Lake Forest area for 24 years. They moved to the Sandhills 10 years ago. Arnold became interested in Weymouth and served the chairmanship of the room assignments at Christmas House last year.

"I believe that Weymouth makes a huge contribution in the areas of arts and humanities to the Sandhills communities," she says. "It is an honor to be a part of this very worthy project and to share dreams, duties and challenges with the brilliant volunteers and leaders."

Andrea Leach was born and raised in White Plains, N.Y. She attended Marymount College in Tarrytown, N.Y., and received her master's degree at Columbia. She was a junior high school teacher and while teaching school in Tacoma, Wash., met her West Point husband, who was stationed at Fort Lewis.

The couple had four children and spent 20 years traveling around the world living in Belgium, France, and London. Leach was able to join her husband one summer during one of his two tours of Vietnam.

After her travels, she retired to Chapel Hill. Always having been fascinated with flowers as a child, she turned a hobby into a career and arranged flowers for the Carolina Inn for 14 years.

Leach was first introduced to Weymouth several years ago when she did a flower arranging program with Ann McCallister for Women of Weymouth. Currently the two women work together arranging flowers for the Weymouth concerts and events. After commuting to Chapel Hill a few years she moved permanently to her home in Weymouth Heights in 2004. In addition to serving on the board at Weymouth, she is on the appearance commission for the Town of Southern Pines.

"I have a passion for Weymouth," says Leach.

Ray Owen is a Sandhills native, born and raised in Hamlet, and has lived in Southern Pines for over 30 years.

Owen is a graphic artist and a serious collector of early regional furniture and decorative arts. He has been a leader, lecturer, and curator for museums locally and statewide. He was exposed to Southern craft traditions during his childhood, particularly pottery and started turning at 15. In his late teens he was befriended by the noted preservationist and collector, Buffie Ives, who not only encouraged his collecting interests, but challenged him to understand the objects he gathered, and to share what he learned with others.

One of Owen's first public projects was leading a two-year study of early Moore Country craftsmanship for Moore County Historical Association, and publishing the findings in the booklet "Plain-Style: The Work of 18th and 19th Century Craftsmanship in Moore County, North Carolina."

He received an award of special recognition by the N.C. Society of Historians for "Plain-style." He also curated the first exhibition for the North Carolina Pottery Center on the creative expression of North Carolina potters in media other than clay titled "A Different Turn." Another project was the curation of the Bleuthantal Exhibit of Jugtown Pottery for the Greensboro Historical Museum which is a permanent part of their displays.

Pieces of Owen's collection will be featured in the upcoming book "American Furniture," published by Chipstone Foundation, and the book "North Carolina Redware: Origin of a Ceramic Tradition" published by the University of Georgia. Owen is a past president of the Moore Country Historical Association and is currently serving on the advisory committee for the Southern Pines Comprehensive Long-Range Plan. He also is a regular contributor for PineStraw magazine.

When Owen moved to Southern Pines in 1976, he met Jane McPhaul, who encouraged him to explore Weymouth and its history, and the place has shaped his opinions and tastes.

"I believe that I'm one of Weymouth's ghosts as I walk the Boyd woods late evenings," Owen says. "It has been my favorite place to reflect on my day. I think of dinner by candlelight, with Sam Ragan and friends back in the early 1980s, many late night drinks with writers and listening to the Weymouth stories for more than 30 years."

Owen recently played the role of F. Scott Fitzgerald at the May anniversary presentation of "A Thousand Things Time Will Never Let Us Say: The Correspondence of James and Katharine Boyd and Friends."

Susanne Daughtridge, like Owen, enjoyed Weymouth in the early 1970s. She bought a house in Southern Pines and regularly walked dogs and children through Weymouth with her friend, Diana Fiskin Self.

Her girls would go over and visit the ponies kept at Weymouth. In those days Weymouth was a part of their lives to the extent that an early supporter and volunteer gave her permission to take the children over to dip a few fish from the pond for their aquarium.

Daughtridge had a management business in Pinehurst for 15 years, handling accounting, budgeting, contracting, drafting by-laws and policies and assisting or acting for boards of directors of homeowners associations. Her hobbies include drawing, painting and horseback riding. She travels to visit family in Charleston, S.C., when she can and visits friends in the mountains in the summer.

"I have always been caught up with the charm of Weymouth," she says, "and I look forward to serving on the Friends of Weymouth Board."

Membership letters for the 2009-2010 season will be sent out in July.

For any questions concerning Weymouth and membership, call 692-6261.