by Carla Occaso

   Vermonters liked having Chief Justice William Rehnquist as a neighbor when he visited his country retreat by the shores of Caspian Lake.

   The part-time Greensboro resident was, according to Assistant Town Clerk Jeanne Eisner, “just part of the community.”

   She would see him walking around the small, picture perfect town in summer months or bump into him in Willey’s General Store, but she never really got to know him. “We’ve tried to respect his privacy,” she said.

   Rehnquist joined a local group called the “Romeos,” which stands for Retired Old Men Eating Out in Style, said Ellen Fabiani, longtime chef at the Highland Lodge, an inn and dining establishment in Greensboro known for having good food, great cross-country skiing, and hiking trails. The group would get together and eat out at area restaurants, she said. The Romeos came into the Highland Lodge once a week, usually on Wednesdays, and ate lunch. Usually they ordered simple fare, like BLTs. Often, they ordered a cup of soup and one of the restaurant’s signature sandwiches, the BCT, or, broiled cheddar tomato sandwich, Fabiani said.

   “He just loved it up this way,” Fabiani said. “We can see his house from the restaurant,” she added. And though she fed him many times, Fabiani never left the kitchen to meet him because, she said, “I’m kind of shy. I don’t go venturing out.”

   Rehnquist made his gentle presence known in other communities as well, where he is remembered as a nice, quiet man who had a flair for fun. When he visited Danville, he liked singing, food, friends, and Catherine Beattie’s homemade pies.

   Catherine’s daughter, Marilyn, runs the Creamery Restaurant in Danville where her mother’s pies are prized. Beattie remembers fondly how Rehnquist visited each summer—sometimes several times during a summer—since her restaurant opened in 1976.

   “He always loved the pies… He’s been coming here for 29 years,” Beattie said. “[but] we didn’t see him this summer… It’s sad.”

   He would use the dining room as a place to reunite with friends from Sugar Hill, New Hampshire. He would also come in with a larger group for an annual summer party, Beattie said, where Rehnquist stood around the piano and sang along with everyone else.

   The Danville restaurant was a stopping point favored by the Chief Justice. In fact, it was after eating the chicken special and peach cobbler at the Creamery on August 15, 2002, when Rehnquist visited Barnet Village as guest speaker for the annual Barnet Historical Society meeting.

   It was a beautiful summer evening when he walked into a crowded basement reception in the Barnet Congregational Church in the heart of Barnet Village. He made a point to eat homemade refreshments and shake hands with people who came from all over Caledonia County to greet him. Rehnquist towered over most of his hosts, but appeared to put them at ease by smiling warmly and listening attentively to their comments.

   Society member Duncan McLaren had invited Rehnquist to speak on whatever topic he chose. It was several months after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and before the invasion of Iraq following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and Rehnquist chose to speak on the topic of how the court views law during times of war.

   Rehnquist spoke of how courts have a tendency to turn civil proceedings over to military entities in times of war. Also, the government sometimes suspends the writ of habeas corpus protecting citizens against illegal imprisonment, he explained, using as examples court proceedings from the Civil War and World War II. One example included concerns arising after the attacks on Pearl Harbor during World War II when the territorial governor of Hawaii declared marshal law, and all civil cases were tried in military court for over a year.

   There is a saying, he said, “in times of war, laws are silent.”

   After his talk, Rehnquist joined interested audience members out on the lawn as dusk began to blanket Barnet and dew started to moisten the grass. But he did not leave until everyone who asked for an autograph got one. He signed books and other items as long as requested before returning home for the night.

   Rehnquist only visited the Northeast Kingdom a few more times after that. He died of cancer at the age of 80 in his Arlington, Virginia home, on September 4, 2005.

   Rehnquist served as the sixteenth Chief Justice of the United States from 1986 until his death. He served as associate justice from 1972 to 1986 after being appointed in 1969 assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel by then President Richard Nixon. Rehnquist was a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and a World War II veteran.