News

Plains helping plains auction

January 20

Bidding to aid Carters’ town

Auction with items from ex-president, wife to help preserve Ga. hometown sites.

By Sherry Long slong@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

PLAINS TWP. – Have you ever wanted to own a rare piece of art painted by a U.S. president?

People across the Wyoming Valley, the nation and the world will get the opportunity on April 12 when Cook and Cook Auctions in Plains Township conducts the Plains Helping Plains auction benefiting the Plains Better Hometown Program, a nonprofit organization working to preserve buildings in former President Jimmy Carter’s hometown in Georgia.

Space in the auction facility is limited, so reservations are needed. A donation of $25 will be required for people wanting to sit in the bidding gallery and a $10 donation for the people wanting to attend the event in the overflow bidding gallery. All the proceeds from donations and winning bid amounts will benefit the nonprofit organization.

“How many people have been in the room with a president? It’s for that privilege to say I was right there. …You are going to spend an evening with a president,” auction house co-owner Mark Parmelee said.

The auction will be streamed live on the Internet and phone orders will also be taken for those who can not attend in person, said Larry Cook, co-owner of the auction house. Cook and Parmelee co-own the auction company with their wives, Diane Cook and Annette Parmelee.

The four auction house owners each have their own favorite items. Annette , a gardener, loves the idea of auctioning potted flowers that will come directly from Rosalynn Carter’s garden.

“It’s something that would live on. Every spring you could look forward to this part of them,” she said.

The flowers are just one of 160 items the Carters have donated, many of them autographed. Other auction pieces include a framed painting of “The Pump House” that Jimmy Carter painted, a black dress worn by Mrs. Carter, numerous books written by the 39th president and first lady, a hand-crafted Turkish platter and African tunics and name badges worn by the Carters in 2008 when they traveled to Ghana.

“He’s only the second president that I know of that painted. Dwight Eisenhower painted and President Carter painted,” Larry Cook said.

The Cooks transported some of the items to their Plains Township store after visiting with the Carters, who they now call good friends, in November.

The Carters asked the Cooks to conduct an auction during one of the Cooks’ numerous visits to the president’s hometown of Plains, Ga., early last year.

The Carters will also attend the auction themselves, the Cooks pointed out.

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