No Time To Get Bored
Maggie Drennen gets things done, and she is still a dynamo at nearly 90. She is determined and energetic and in her own words, “I’m never, ever bored.”
She was born and raised in Charleston, W.Va. She and her late husband William M. Drennen relocated to the Washington, D.C., suburbs when President Eisenhower appointed William to a judgeship on the Tax Court of the United States.
When they first moved to the DC area, she taught elementary school. However, for most of her life she hasn’t worked for pay, describing herself as “a professional volunteer.”
Like so many West Virginians, Maggie never lost her sense of belonging to a place. “Once a West Virginian, always a West Virginian,” she declared. “I wanted to come back home when we retired.”
During the Drennen’s time in Washington, they frequently visited friends in the Eastern Panhandle. “There used to be a big house party for the Gold Cup Races,” she recalled. “That’s how we got to know Shepherdstown and met Henry Shepherd.”
She fell in love with Shepherdstown and made up her mind to buy retirement property here, though her husband wasn’t at all interested in retiring.
Henry Shepherd heard of her plan around the time he had decided to subdivide his farm. “He said I could have first choice of 10 acres,” she said. “I chose 10 acres, and then I wondered if that was the RIGHT 10 acres, because it was all so beautiful!”
She was so in love with the land that she ended up buying all of the available acreage. The question then was what she was going to do with it. She enjoyed bringing friends from the city to see it, and someone mentioned that it looked just like a site that had been developed into a beautiful golf course. For a long-time golfer, the germ of an idea that became Cress Creek had been planted.
Her husband had no intention of retiring and no time for the enterprise. “When I started this project, I was 70,” she recalled. “My husband said, ‘Why, at the age of 70, are you starting this?’ and I said, ‘Because I AM 70 and I can go up or down with this, and I am going to go UP!’ ”
She soon found herself at the middle of a whirlwind of controversy. Emotions were running high against development, and the town would not provide water and sewer.
“We had to pay to bring in water and sewer ourselves,” she recalled. “I had no intention of developing anything but a golf course, but I had to develop the property to pay for the water and sewer.”
Her daughter Dale’s husband, Henry Walter, worked with her steadfastly to create what is now Cress Creek.
Drennen is happy that many of her strongest opponents have had a change of heart over the years. “It’s gratifying that they appreciate what we’ve done here,” she said. “They know we made a first-class project and it hasn’t done any harm.”
Last year was the first year that Drennen, now 89, hasn’t played golf. She attributes this to her continued failure to improve her golf game rather than slowing down with age. “I can still do it physically, but I just can’t get any better,” she said laughing.
She has always been a walker. A lover of bluebirds, she had 20 bluebird houses set around the golf course. She walks around the course to check on them and evict the sparrows and wrens that invade.
As a long-time supporter of the Friends of Music, she serves on their board. “I only took a music appreciation class in college,” she says, “but I just love music.”
She has been a big supporter of the Contemporary American Theater Festival since its inception. She recalled that early on she considered withdrawing her support because she found some of the plays objectionable. “Not quite family entertainment,” as she put it. “I told Ed [Herendeen, producing director] that I couldn’t continue to support the festival and buy season tickets.” At that time, musical performances were part of the festival. “Ed asked me, even if I didn’t approve of the plays, to contribute to support the music. He asked me to sponsor a pianist.” She did.
She can see how that might seem odd, but she believes you can support something without condoning it if you feel it is beneficial in the long run. She has seen the festival grow into something that has helped the town immeasurably. She continues to buy season tickets, and her opinion on controversial plays has even mellowed. “Whether you like them or not, they make you think,” she said.
This spring she is starting on a 20-acre addition to Cress Creek, including a one-acre lake. “All one-acre lots—to save more trees,” she said. “Engineering drawings have been approved, and we hope to have lots to sell in midsummer.”
“I love Shepherdstown so much, and I very much love the project at Cress Creek,” she said. “I’m looking forward to the day that it can be owned by the membership and be an equity club. I never intended to own a country club. I want to make it a paying property that members can afford to buy. And I hope, when I can turn it over to the membership, that people will consider it theirs and support it.”
She added that there will be a benefit for the Good Shepherd Caregivers at Cress Creek on Wednesday, March 28, starting at 10 am. It is $25 a person, and half of the money goes to the Caregivers.  “We’ll have coffee and donut holes and play games—bridge, mah-jongg and bunco. Then we’ll have lunch and play some more.”