by Mary Wakefield Buxton –
URBANNA —
One privilege a writer has is opportunity to meet and know many people. Today I remember just a few of the “Old Guard.”
I met many senior past citizens of Middlesex County because we moved here in 1984 and I began writing a column for the Sentinel. Here are just some of the unforgettable people.
Virgil Gill of Remlik immediately stands out. A classic raconteur as was his son, Dan Gill, (who also has passed away but not until leaving Urbanna with the popular “Something Different” restaurant on Virginia Street) Virgil was a hoot. The renowned owner of a turkey farm, he had a rich sense of humor. He shared with me hilarious family history that he had written and I hope the family passes a copy to the library one day as it depicts a record of local life in earlier times which should never be lost.
Other early acquaintances were Bessie Mae Brown, who wrote me copious letters encouraging me as soon as I began to write for the Sentinel, Louise Gray, retired teacher and author, and Carl Dize, a World War II hero who had moved to Urbanna from Tangier Island after the big hurricane in 1933.
How many remember the “Countess Dudley” and her delightful column filled with mention of local wildlife? I loved her stories and also enjoy T.D. Harris’s weekly Around Deltaville column that is now the voice of Deltaville.
I was fortunate to be invited to visit the Rev. Sherman Holmes and his wife, Easter Holmes, and through early years of the Middlesex Rotary Club it was my privilege to enjoy friendship with both the beloved Rev. Chauncey Mann and local businessman “Doc” Jones.
I also knew senior Urbanna businessmen, R.S. Bristow of Bristow store, Robert Taylor of Taylor Hardware and “Doc” Marshall and his wife, Lucy, of Marshall’s drugstore; their son, Richard Marshall, who followed as a dedicated pharmacist for many years; and following Richard, their daughter, Becky Edwards. The Marshalls are truly a pharmaceutical family.
Lee Weber, first female member of the Middlesex County Board of Supervisors, was a woman I greatly admired. She brought no nonsense business acumen to county government. She could never go anywhere without being stopped by constituents who had concerns and even as she was dying of cancer she would stop and listen.
Charles Bristow of Bristow Funeral Home was one of the first persons to welcome us to our new home on Kent Street, which was across the street from our present home. He had a personality and heart as big as the sky. The local saying was Charles was “the first person to welcome newcomers to the county and the last person to bid them farewell.”
Dr. Brockett Muir, retired from private medical practice in Maryland, who was living at Rosegill, knocked on my door one day in 2001. He had read my column of grief over losing my father and had rushed right over. As he stood on my front porch he appeared to me rather like a leprechaun wearing thick, horn-rimmed glasses. He told me he would replace my father … a preposterous idea! But we became close friends and even writing partners until the day that he died.
Peggy Dent of Hartfield and Urbanna’s Cindy Pond were two of the sweetest ladies I have ever known and Deltaville’s Andy Turner was lots of fun. We tangled over my view that qualified women should be admitted to his alma mater, Virginia Military Institute. He sat down one day and wrote me a seven page letter in opposition. “But I couldn’t send the letter, Mary,” he later admitted. He was too much of a gentleman to risk hurting my feelings! Virginia gentlemen of his stature are slowly disappearing from this earth.
Father Boddie of Catholic Church of Visitation was another unforgettable person. When I interviewed him for a column in the Sentinel he had already heard that he was dying from a cancer that had started as a mere sore on his thumb and ended up spreading to his lungs.
He spoke of his earlier life raised by a Baptist aunt in Newport News who saw to it he went to Catholic Church every Sunday. Chosen for a scholarship to Peninsula Catholic School, he went on to Catholic colleges to become a priest. He served the church brilliantly and was adored by many both in and out of his flock.
I will never forget one conversation with him regarding Easter. “What if Jesus was still in the cave that morning when the rock was rolled back?” I asked. But I knew he was not about to be tricked by any smart aleck writer after a good story.
“Easter,” he said with a stern look, “is not a question of whether Jesus had risen from the cave that morning, Mary. It’s about whether Jesus has risen in you!”
Case closed. The man was head and shoulders above us all.
I’m thankful to have known so many of the Old Guard. My only regret today is there’s not enough space to write even more memories.
© 2020
