Celeste Park History

Celeste Park History. Named in honor of Celeste Claiborne Greer (1957-1989). With the entire park sitting at 6.5 acres, 5.5 acres was donated to the town in 2006 by T. Keister Greer, a Rocky Mount attorney, and his wife Elizabeth. The park land sits adjacent to “The Grove” (now “The Early Inn”), which served as the Greer family's home. In donating the land for a park, Keister Greer specified that the park be named Celeste Park, in memory of his late daughter, Celeste Claiborne Greer. Celeste was born in 1957 and attended Chatham Hall, exceeding academically at the girls’ preparatory school. She loved nature and the outdoors, often describing October as a “rusty hinge”. Celeste died of complications from diabetes in 1989, just before her 32nd birthday. One acre on the eastern side of the park was donated by Sonny and Shirley Vaughn in 2010 to bring the total park acreage to 6.5 acres., The park presents a quiet, passive, contemplative area to its users with trails, trees, vegetation, and other botanical features in the center of Rock Mount, just as the Greer’s and Celeste liked. Celeste Park serves as the Town of Rocky Mount’s largest park. Park visitors will find the trail names are an ode to the Vaughn and Greer families as well as the family homeplace, “The Grove”., In addition to the Greer and Vaughn families, the Town would like to thank the dozens of individuals for their monetary donations to this park project. Financial contributions were made in memory of:, T. Keister Greer . Lillian J. Summey . Robert H. Williams . Virginia G. Williams