By Michelle James
The Register-Herald
BECKLEY, W.Va. — Those who regularly attend the State Fair of West Virginia will probably recognize her smile.
It lights up her face as she greets friends and strangers or talks about the things she loves.
And though Covid-19 forced the cancellation of this year’s fair — taking with it the popular pottery shop she’s operated beneath the grandstand in recent years — that same smile is front and center as Maryanne Tuck Grimmett loads her “clay babies” inside her seafoam green Shasta Airflyte camper and makes her way across southern West Virginia.
“I love to travel, so it just seemed like a mobile pottery shop was the perfect solution,” Grimmett says, explaining she plans to sell her pottery in the parking lots of small businesses throughout the region. “My plan is to create fun routes, stay a couple of hours at each spot, and move on to the next one.”
The fair is the biggest event of the year for the Monroe County resident, and one for which she spends months preparing, but she says she’s not disappointed by the curveball…