The Shadow
CLIFTON FORGE — Wilma McClung, who served as grand marshal of the Clifton Forge Christmas Parade Friday night, epitomizes love and loyalty for the town as she nears retirement.
Having completed her ride as grand marshall, she will now proceed to close out the disability cases she has on file at her office on Ridgeway Street.
In 2020, Wilma was widowed when she lost Thomas “Tom” McClung, her husband of 48 years, and as she nears the end of her long career of helping area citizens file disability claims. She considers closing her office as a daunting task.
Wilma said, “I’m not taking any more cases, and I am working to finish the cases I have on file.”
As for the honor of being selected to serve as grand marshal of the Clifton Forge Christmas Parade, she remarked, “I felt truly honored to have been selected to lead the Clifton Forge Christmas Parade.”
Born in 1948 in Barbour County, W.Va., Wilma attended Valley High School in Masontown, and Tom was born in Smoot, a town in Greenbrier County, W.Va.
Wilma’s father George “Howard” Holt and her mother, Catherine, worked for West Virginia University, in Morgantown. Her father left his job at a factory that manufactured faucets to work for WVU’s Personal Rapid Transit (PRT), the system devised to transport students from one campus to another to attend classes.
Her mother worked at the WVU as a CNA, a certified nursing assistant, for 26 years, and Wilma completed some classes at WVU. After she married Tom, the couple moved to Clifton Forge in 1977.
Richard, Wilma’s oldest son, was born in 1966 and Michelle Jeffries in 1968 before Tom and Wilma moved to Clifton Forge. While living in Clifton Forge, Wilma gave birth to Dustin in 1980 and Ashley in 1983.
She has six grandchildren, and she noted that before Tom died that she lost a step-grandchild to cancer and that her death weighed heavily on Tom.
Wilma recalled, “Just after we moved to Clifton Forge, I took my children to the theatre, and when I came to pick them up, the movie had not ended.”
While she waited for the film to end, she talked to Jack Sanford, the theatre’s part-time manager, and from that conversation, she learned that the theatre was looking for a full-time manager.
Wilma was hired by R-C Theatres Inc. of Reisterstown, Md. as manager of the Historic Stonewall Theatre, named for General Thomas Stonewall Jackson in 1968 after Irwin R. Cohen, owner of R-C Theatres Inc., purchased the facility and renamed it.
She managed the theatre from 1978 till Cohen closed the theatre in 1987. However, the closure led to the donation of the theatre to Appalfolks of America Association (AAA) on Dec. 20, 1991, and after basic restoration took place, Appalfolks staged “A Musical Tribute to the Railroad,” a two-act musical. Wilma performed in it as one of the dancers. The play was the first that had been staged in the theatre for decades.
Prior to the closing of the theatre, Wilma, a dance instructor, operated the Stonewall Dance Academy, a dance studio on the top floor.
She remembered, “When I was manager, I hired Tom to work at the theatre, and when R-C Theatres found out how handy he was, he was hired to build theatres.”
Tom’s job with R-C Theatres led him to build theatres up and down the East Coast from Hollywood, N.J. to Daytona Beach, Fla.
Wilma reminisced, “Tom was so good at what he did. He could run projectors, maintain them, build theatres and put the seats in them.”
The way Wilma wound up as a representative for disability was that after the theatre closed she began working as a transcriber for social security.
She recalled, “I was working for Chief Judge Costanzo, and one day he said that the Alleghany Highlands needs a disability representative and advised me to become a disability representative.”
Wilma earned her associate degree in general studies at Dabney S. Lancaster Community College where she graduated summa cum laude and her B.A. degree in sociology at Mary Baldwin College.
Eventually, she became the owner and operator of Disability Services of the Highlands located at 519 E. Ridgeway St. where she could be seen decorating the front window of her business with a Christmas tree on Dec. 1, to get into the Christmas spirit before leading the Clifton Forge Christmas Parade.
She is proud of her children who are working at jobs she says that they love. Richard is employed by Bluegrass Woods in Millboro as a fiberglass fabricator, and Michelle manages a campground in Morgantown.
Dustin is the purchasing manager for a subcontractor employed by WestRock, and Ashley, a guitarist like Justin, owns and operates Gala Adventures that organizes river rafting trips, caving expeditions, and other outdoor activities while he is not involved in woodworking.
Wilma’s involvement in The Historic Masonic Theatre, the name that was restored to the theatre after Appalfolks of America Association (AAA) donated the theatre to the Town of Clifton Forge in 2003, has been continuous beginning with her stint as theatre manager.
She served as director of the Stonewall Children’s Theatre that performed “Romeo and Juliet,” “Mid-Summer Night’s Dream,” “Dorothy Meets Alice” and “Brigadoon” during the years that AAA owned and operated the theatre.
After the Masonic Theatre Preservation Foundation reopened the theatre in 2016 following a $6.9 million restoration project was completed, Wilma, a member of the theatre’s board of directors, directed “Miracle Worker,” the play that she considers to be her most satisfying to have staged.”
She reminisced, “It was especially satisfying in that our lead dropped out early on, and I managed to find a replacement who really did well, so well that a lady who saw the play asked me if she was really blind.”
As for her move from W.Va. to Clifton Forge, Wilma confessed, “I truly love Clifton Forge, and I’ve loved it since I moved here.”
Wilma has received many honors during her career, and in 2012 she became a member of the National Association of Disability Representatives, a non-profit organization dedicated to the professional education and development of persons performing Social Security Disability and SSI representation for persons with impairments.
She has held the positon of Director of Safe Homes in Covington and as Executive Director of Project Horizon in Lexington that ministers to battered women.
In addition to serving on the board of directors for The Historic Masonic Theatre, she serves on the board of directors for Shenandoah Autism Center.
Wilma concluded, “I’m very positive about the future of Clifton Forge, and many new people are moving in and restoring old homes.”
As she led the Clifton Forge Christmas Parade along Ridgeway Street, the cheers from the crowd that filled her ears will perhaps serve as a life-long memory, an endearing auditory gift from her neighbors and friends who know of her rich legacy and others who may be unaware of Wilma’s good work that began when she was hired as theatre manager 43 years ago.
