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your homegrown newspaper
Vol. 18, No. 8
November 10, 2021
Homicide arrest pg. 5
No Coward’s Playoffs pg. 16
Epitaph
Players bring history to life in original musical about Montana’s first territorial govenor by Kristi Niemeyer for the Valley Journal
Swim meet pg. 21
M
ost Montana students have hopped off a school bus in front of the Montana Capitol in Helena and gazed up at the statue of Thomas
PHOTOS BY KAREN LEWING / PORT POLSON PLAYERS
Above: Vigilantes and Wilbur Sanders in Virginia City Montana. Top left: The part of Thomas Francis Meagher is played by Mike Gillpatrick of St. Ignatius.
Francis Meagher, erected in 1905. But how many know or remember much about the charismatic Irish renegade and Civil War hero who served twice as acting territorial governor? “We’re out to change that and present it in a way that’s entertaining and enjoyable,” says Port Polson Players producer and playwright Neal Lewing. He and his wife and co-producer, Karen Lewing, are staging w w w.va l le yj our na l.net
a full-scale musical dedicated to the brief but swashbuckling life of Meagher, titled “No Coward’s Epitaph.” The original show premieres Thursday at the Theatre on the Lake in Polson, and continues through Nov. 21. Lewing has been fascinated with Meagher for more than a decade. In 2009 his quartet, the Montana ShamRockers, was invited by the Ancient Order of Hibernians to perform for the
dedication of a Meagher statue near the spot in Fort Benton where he mysteriously disappeared. Lewing and his bandmate, John Glueckert, volunteered to write a few original songs about Meagher for the dedication “and for some reason it just resonated with me,” he says. “I couldn’t get enough – I still can’t get enough.”
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