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Whether famous on a national scope or perhaps just locally, these celebrities now rest in our region for all to remember.
A candy man and every child’s hero, purveyor of penny sweets and owner of the town’s first car. A young soldier and father who died in war in a distant desert nation plagued by never ending war. A longtime mayor of the Star City of the South who broke racial barriers with kindness, devotion and fairness.
One needn’t be a star of note to leave a lasting legacy; the Roanoke region’s cemeteries are peopled by those whose lives were interesting, heroic, made them celebrities in their own right, others who excelled at their passion, and some who found themselves simply in the right place (or the wrong) at the right time.
Saturday afternoon TV was never the same for cooking enthusiasts with the untimely passing of Earl Laban “Laban” Johnson, 57, in 1997 from complications from heart disease. The final resting place of the amiable co-host of “Cookin’ Cheap” for 19 years on Blue Ridge Public TV, is located in Evergreen Burial Park in Roanoke. Johnson and co-host Larry Bly were (and are, in Bly’s case) civic-minded Southern gents who loved to cook and throw hilarious barbs at one another while in the kitchen, a funky 70s set full of autumn gold appliances and kitschy décor. “Cookin’ Cheap” fare never consisted of anything fancy, but mostly things like Ritz cracker-topped casseroles served up on a busy weeknight and cheesy potato skins zipped under the broiler for Sunday football snacking. As one fan noted, “there were more awful puns on this show than a century of knock-knock jokes.”
The Oakwood Cemetery in Bedford hosts the earthly remains of a number of military men, among them the famed and much written about Bedford Boys of the D-Day invasion of World War II and some lesser known but equally distinguished soldiers who gave their all during the War Between the States and more recently in Iraq.
The burgundy granite tombstone of Lt. Joshua Booth can be seen from the intersection stoplight at nearby Longwood Avenue and Oakwood Street, most recently with the offering of a football placed at the grave marker’s base.
“Missing this hero never goes away,” wrote a friend online of Booth, who died at 23 at the hands of a sniper in Haditha, Iraq, on October 17, 2006. “Love you, buddy.”
Booth, of Sturbridge, Mass., near Boston, spent boyhood summers in Bedford, with his grandparents. He’d been in Iraq only a month, leaving behind his wife, then pregnant with a son, and his 18-month-old daughter. He had earned a commission as a U.S. Marine officer at The Citadel before volunteering to serve his country in Iraq. He led three patrols a day to glean intelligence from Iraqi citizens. Booth was buried following a military parade through Bedford honoring him in a family plot, although he had qualified to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
A final resting place was designated nearby for Confederate officer Jimmy Breckenridge, who it is said flung himself into the path of enemy fire when he learned of the death of his new bride, Frances "Fan” Burwell Breckenridge, while he was away at war. Fan was a daughter of Bedford’s historic Avenel Plantation, built in 1836 by the Burwell family. Breckenridge’s body was never recovered, although his sacrifice is commemorated on a stone memorial next to his wife’s.
“To the children, he was the most popular man in town,” recalled the late Mary Lee Cake, longtime owner and publisher of the Bedford Bulletin newspaper of Cator Ragland, the town’s owner of its sole candy shop, who died at 69 in 1936. Cake (formerly Mary Lee Richardson), used to rush to Ragland’s store on N. Bridge Street to buy penny candy, a great joy for kids of the early 20th century.
Ragland, a lifelong bachelor, also owned the town’s first car, a 1906 “baby” or compact Cadillac, which more resembled a little black carriage than an automobile. The Caddy was delivered by its manufacturer in 1906 to Ragland, who joyfully piloted it through the streets of Bedford, delighting people and terrifying horses, until 1911 when rutted roads broke its crankshaft. It reposed in a town junkyard until a college student, Thomas C. Lewis, bought it for $150 in the 1950s and restored it. He drove it in the 1957 national Glidden Tour cross country. The car, last known to be located in St. Louis, was purchased a few years back by another antique automobile enthusiast for $92,500.
NASCAR’s Curtis Turner
NASCAR hall of famer and Floyd County native Curtis Turner, hailed by many as a father of motorsports, was killed in the crash of his twin-engine Beechcraft on Oct. 4, 1970, with golfer Clarence King as the pair returned home to Roanoke from Pennsylvania. Turner, who died at 46 in the mishap, was born April 12, 1924 on a small farm, his father, Morton, one of the biggest moonshine operators in the county, according to stories.
Daughter Margaret Sue Turner Wright is an accomplished and noted award-winning artist in the Roanoke region and beyond. She opened a racing museum in 2001 dedicated to her father and also has written a book about him, including his racing stats, available on Amazon.com. There also is a state highway marker in Floyd County in Turner’s memory in Floyd County.
Turner became the first stock car racer to make the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine, portrayed in a feature entitled “King of the Wild Road.” A builder of the Charlotte Motor Speedway, Turner is credited with more than 350 wins, including 18 Grand National races, among them his triumph in the 1956 Southern 500 in Darlington, South Carolina. Turner, who was said to love a good party, was almost unbeatable in his heyday (1944 to 1968, when he retired from racing).
Noel C. Taylor
Noel Calvin Taylor, 1924-1999, born in Moneta in Bedford County near what is now Smith Mountain Lake, was mayor of Roanoke from 1975 to 1992. An ordained minister, Taylor was widely considered one of the most influential leaders in the city’s history. Prior to becoming mayor, he was a leader in Roanoke’s African American community and helped facilitate the city’s peaceful desegregation in the 1960s.
A Republican, he was elected mayor in 1976, after having been appointed to complete the term of Roy L. Webber after his death in 1975. His lengthy tenure witnessed many changes in Roanoke, such as the revitalization of the downtown city market area and the opening of Valley View Mall.
Taylor was pastor of High Street Baptist Church in the northwest section of Roanoke from 1961 until his death.
Roanoke’s city hall, the Noel C. Taylor Municipal Building, and the Noel C. Taylor Learning Academy, a combined middle school and high school, were each named in his honor. Taylor is buried in southern Bedford County.
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