Published May 21. 2026 11:45AM<\/p>\n
Virginia \u201cGinny\u201d Baer Ebersole, historian, archivist, chronicler, steward and guardian of The Lutheran Orphans\u2019 Home in Berks County, will be recognized with a special exhibit at 2 p.m. May 28, in the Rotunda Dining Room of the Lutheran Home at Topton.<\/p>\n
Ginny lived at the Home as a child and then again in her older years when it became the EverTrue Lutheran Home at Topton, an older adult Life Plan Community. She devoted her life to preserving its history, leaving behind a legacy of historical artifacts, photos, newsletters, magazines and furniture from the home.<\/p>\n
EverTrue is presenting the exhibit \u201cVirginia Baer Ebersole: The Home Collection\u201d to honor its history and Ginny. Ginny\u2019s friend, Brenda Hensinger, will do a short presentation with refreshments to follow. The event is open to the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor many years, I observed how carefully and meticulously, Ginny, as she was known to her friends and everyone was her friend, lovingly cared for the memories of all the children who lived at the home,\u201d Hensinger recalls fondly. \u201cGinny was not only the keeper of our history, but she lived it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The\u202fexhibit showcases portraits of Ginny, her home Vintage Chippendale Style Fall Front Drop Front Secretary Desk and its skeleton key, a love seat and additional vintage photos of Ginny as part of the display.<\/p>\n
Ginny left extensive archives that are being reviewed for future exhibits, such as the home\u2019s large newsletter collection, including the first issue of The Orphans\u2019 Home Paper published in January 1897. Kutztown University is partnering with EverTrue Lutheran Home at Topton as a teaching site, with history intern Azim Edens helping organize and catalog the home\u2019s archives.<\/p>\n
Ginny\u2019s passionate efforts made it possible to share \u201cThe Home Collection\u201d with local historical societies, residents and visitors to Lutheran Home at Topton.<\/p>\n
\u201cGinny didn\u2019t look for glory or recognition in her labor of love,\u201d Hensinger says. \u201cGinny kept the stories alive to remind the world that they mattered.\u201d<\/p>\n
EverTrue Lutheran Home PHOTOVirginia \u201cGinny\u201d Baer Ebersole devoted her life to preserving The Lutheran Orphans\u2019 Home in Berks County\u2019s history, leaving behind a legacy of historical artifacts, photos, newsletters, magazines and furniture from the home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published May 21. 2026 11:45AM Virginia \u201cGinny\u201d Baer Ebersole, historian, archivist, chronicler, steward and guardian of The Lutheran…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-199094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}