LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - JUNE 11, 2023 by Lynne Belluscio This week I’ve been meeting with the fourth grade students to talk about the history of LeRoy and I have to check in every day at the Superintendent’s office on Trigon Park. I walk past this plaque each day, and I think I forgot to include it in the list of historic markers in LeRoy. The plaque was placed in the building in 1911 when the school was built. As most people know, the 1911 high school is located on the site of the former Ingham University. There are some details on the plaque that might be overlooked. Notice the flowers. They are Ingham roses. These beautiful white roses grew on the Ingham campus, probably in the greenhouse, because they are not hardy in the colder climates. In the LeRoy House front parlor is a small painting of the white roses, and it was a note on the back of the painting that gave a clue about the real name of rose. It is a LeMarc (Lamarque) Rose which was a cross between Blush Noisette and the Parks Yellow Tea-scented China. It is a climbing rose with a touch of lemon yellow. The scent has been described as “delicious.” Many years ago, I ordered Lemarque roses from the Rose Emporium in Texas. The roses were planted in the gardens in LeRoy House, but they did not survive the recent winter. So, I wanted to order three rose bushes for my garden at home. I was disappointed that the Rose Emporium had none available. But then I discovered a company in St. Paul Oregon that had Lamarque Roses and they are on their way. I decided to do a little more searching about the Lemarque Rose and I’mglad I did.As they say... “Here is the rest of the story..” I discovered that it was named for General Lamarque who was a French commander during the Napoleonic Wars. He was a member of the French Parliament who opposed the monarchy. When he died of cholera in 1832, it was his funeral that erupted into the protests and the construction of the barricades that Victor Hugo wrote about in Les Misérables. And coincidentally, the high school musical this year was Les Misérables. AWreath of White Roses Image: antiqueroseemporium.com
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