Martha Stewart's Midnight Release

By Linda Orlando

Martha Stewart’s private jet landed at about 2:00 a.m. Friday morning at Westchester County Airport, and a few minutes later the 63-year old homemaking guru was whisked away to her 153-acre winter estate 40 miles north of midtown Manhattan to celebrate her release. She will spend the next phase of her sentence, five months under house arrest, at her $16 million estate in Bedford, NY, about 550 miles north of the prison.

The town of Alderson, WV, where the prison is located, has enjoyed an atmosphere of being a tourist mecca since Inmate 55170-054 entered the Alderson Federal Women’s Prison on October 8, 2004. A long processional of Martha Stewart supporters, celebrity friends, and just plain curiosity seekers have made the 12-mile drive off the interstate to see where the Queen of Style was locked up for five months for lying about a stock purchase. The prison opened up in 1927 and has housed other well-known women including Billie Holiday, Tokyo Rose, Axis Sally, and Squeaky Fromme, but Martha Stewart was arguably the most famous and media-hounded convict of all.

Mayor Luther Lewallen said that Stewart’s presence in their town of 1,100 has been a good thing. "As people came in, they found things they liked in the stores," he said. Betty Alderson, who is married to a descendant of the town’s founders, has sold more than 1,300 t-shirts that say "West Virginia Living, It’s a Good Thing," a play on Stewart’s "it’s a good thing" catchphrase. At $17 each, the shirts helped pay Alderson's bills last fall after Martha arrived. According to Alderson, "The town needed an economic boost. Every business in town has profited."

The town made a big deal of Stewart's release, with Alderson selling two new shirt designs and a commemorative mug that reads, "I spent time in Alderson, W.Va." Visitors coming to commemorate their heroine’s freedom not only purchased trinkets and souvenirs, but also brought or sent mementos of their own to show support for the gardening guru. Stewart supporters have sent in about a thousand day lilies, and residents plan to plant them in a sunny spot and call it "Martha’s Garden,"--no doubt to encourage a continuing stream of curiosity seekers even though Martha has given up her inmate status to return to national celebrity status. Jackie Hord, of East Hampton, NY, brought hundreds of crocus bulbs (Martha Stewart brand, of course) last fall, and residents of the town planted them so Stewart would see the colorful display as she left town. A recent cold snap and several inches of snow kept the bulbs from blooming, but Martha wouldn’t have been able to see them anyway since she left in the middle of the night.

Many people took breaks from work and daily routines to travel to Alderson to celebrate Martha’s release. Linda Blaney, who lives near Seattle, gathered several friends and they all traveled across the country to show their support. "We want to make sure she knows we were there and let her know we support her," Blaney gushed. "This would not have happened to someone else. They slam-dunked her because of who she is." Blaney brought with her a Stewart-brand sheet bearing the signatures of Stewart fans in the Seattle area so she could hold it up in the hope that Martha would stop and speak to supporters as she left the prison. Unfortunately, Martha probably couldn’t see the sheet since she left in the middle of the night.

The Dinner Bell restaurant in Alderson has also profited from Martha’s presence in the town, and the restaurant cooked up some Martha Stewart Swedish Meatballs to say goodbye to the town’s favorite convicted felon. Dinner Bell owner Annette Kellison hired a couple more workers and extended her hours to accommodate the influx of well-wishers, but her feeling about Martha isn’t quite as warm and fuzzy as that of many of her customers. "It’s a phase; she’s here, she’s gone. We’re still here," Kellison commented. "This is our community, it’s not hers. She didn’t want to be here to start with."

Martha Stewart came to Alderson for just a few short months, and put it on the map forever. And for the residents and merchants of Alderson, that’s a good thing.