Museum of Western Art to host public reading of Declaration of Independence Wednesday

Kerrville dignitaries, historians and military heritage groups will take turns reading the Declaration of Independence aloud Wednesday at the Museum of Western Art, joining similar readings happening simultaneously around the country.

Doors open at 4:30 p.m., with the program starting at 4:45 p.m. with an introduction from the Daughters of the American Revolution. The reading itself begins at 5 p.m. sharp in the museum’s main gallery.

Suzanne Faught, regent of the Major James Kerr Chapter of the DAR, will give the introduction, and George Eychner will play the Star Spangled Banner on bugle.

Ten readers are lined up to take the document section by section:

• Darrell Beauchamp, executive director of the Museum of Western Art
• Pamela Slutz, a career member of the U.S. Foreign Service and former U.S. ambassador to Burundi and Mongolia
• Jerel Haley, Kerrville police chief
• Clifton Fifer, historian, educator and former coach
• Pablo Brinkman, owner of Brinkman Preferred Properties and vice-chair of the Museum of Western Art
• Jeff Harris, Kerrville city councilman and senior vice president at South Star Bank
• Julia Peters, commander and perpetual member of the Hill Country Chapter of the Military Order of the World Wars
• Tom Fox, author of “Deluge Before Dawn” and a MoWA board member
• Bob Dunlap, vice-president and color guard commander of the Kerrville-based Hill Country Chapter #31 of the Texas Society, Sons of the American Revolution

The Museum of Western Art is located at 1700 Bandera Highway in Kerrville. More information is available at museumofwesternart.com or by calling 830-257-4833.