Wytheville Enterprise Obituaries

Gladys A. Blair
Gladys Annette Blair, 90, formerly of Norfolk and Wythe County, died Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2008.
A memorial service will be held later.
Barnett Funeral Home in Wytheville is in charge of the arrangements.

Hazel W. Davis
Hazel Waddle Davis, 90, of Bland died Monday, Sept. 29, 2008.
Funeral service was held Friday, Oct. 2, at 11 a.m. at the Bland Funeral Chapel. Interment was in the Temple Hill Cemetery.
She was born June 16, 1918, in Bland County, daughter of the late Dunn B. and Minnie Fry Waddle. She was a member of the United Methodist Church at Greenhill and enjoyed gardening, sewing and cooking.
She was preceded in death by her husband, R. Dow Davis; son-in-law, Larry D. Lowman; two daughters, Linda Davis of Bland and Regina Lowman of Gahanna, Ohio; three nieces, Norma Jean Keesee, Peggy Peterson and Anna “Butchie” Crabtree; two nephews, Paul Barger and D.B. “Sonny” Waddle; two stepgrandchildren; special friends, Larry and Ethel Cox, Randolph Davis and Willard Peck; and many friends and neighbors.
Memorial donations may be made to the United Methodist Church at Greenhill, c/o Pamela D. Hill, 3344 Waddle Town Road, Bland, VA 24315.
Highland Bland Funeral Chapel in Bland was in charge of the arrangements.

Miller A. Davis
Miller Allen Davis, 83, of Wytheville died Monday, Sept. 29, 2008.
Funeral service was held Thursday, Oct. 2, at 7:30 p.m. at the Grubb Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. Harvey Atkinson officiating. A graveside service was held Friday, Oct. 3, at 1 p.m. at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church Cemetery.
He was a retired manager of Par Gas Co., a U.S. Navy veteran and a member of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Charles and Sarah Millirons Davis; and his wife, Virginia Yonce Davis.
Survivors include a son and daughter-in-law, Don Davis and Julie Tilson of Wytheville; two sisters and a brother-in-law, Mildred Matz, Virgie and Arnold Hamlin, all of Little Creek; a sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Dorothy and Alan Dunford of Wytheville; and special friends, Shirley Rosenbaum and Connie Richardson.
Grubb Funeral Home in Wytheville was in charge of the arrangements.

Sherman R. Dixon
Sherman Rufus Dixon, 85, of Wytheville died Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008.
Funeral service will be held Sunday, Oct. 5, at 2 p.m. at the Grubb Funeral Home Chapel with the Revs. Ted Anders and Tim McCobin officiating. Interment will be in the Evergreen United Methodist Church Cemetery.
He was retired from Wythe County Schools and was a lifetime member of Evergreen United Methodist Church and American Legion Post 9.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Peter Rufus and Lillian Corvin Dixon; daughter, Judy Dixon Hoback; three sisters; and a brother.
Survivors include his loving wife of 62 years, Ola Creger Dixon of the home; two sons, Charles Boyd Dixon of Grove City, Ohio, and Larry Ray Dixon of Logan Dale, Nev.; daughter, Nancy Dixon Spraker of Max Meadows; two brothers and a sister-in-law, Guy Daniel and Vera Dixon of Roanoke, and Alvin Buddy Dixon of Wytheville; six grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; several nieces and nephews; and many friends.
The family will receive friends Saturday, Oct. 4, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Grubb Funeral Home.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Evergreen United Methodist Church Cemetery, c/o Asbury Bridges Jr., 1390 W. Monroe St., Wytheville, VA 24382, or c/o Chalmer Frye, P.O. Box 144, Wytheville, VA 24382.
Grubb Funeral Home in Wytheville is in charge of the arrangements.

Freddie N. Jones
Freddie Neal Jones, 64, a longtime resident of Rural Retreat, died Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2008, at his home.
A memorial service was held Wednesday, Oct. 1, at 8 p.m. at the Lindsey Funeral Chapel with the Rev. Michael Hoyle officiating. A private inurnment was held Thursday, Oct. 2, at the Mountain View Cemetery.
He was the former owner/operator of Jones Nursery.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Dan and Faye Jones; two brothers, Robert Jones and Harold Jones; and a sister, Mildred Jones.
Survivors include his wife of 40 years, Jan Jones; four daughters and sons-in-law, Sherry and Jessie Crockett, Angela and Michael Peay, Brooke and Luke Malott, Ashley and Justin Crockett; grandchildren, Austin, Kennedy, Micah, Sienna, Kelsey, Garrett and Taylor; two god daughters, Sherrill Johnson and husband Derrick, Kelly Maynard and children; two sisters, Frances Sturgill of Rural Retreat and Mary-Ann Coley of Marion; two brothers and sisters-in-law, Bill and Anna Sue Jones, Jimmy and Margaret Jones, all of Rural Retreat; and several nieces and nephews.
Memorial donations may be made to the Rural Retreat Volunteer Emergency Service or the Rural Retreat Volunteer Fire Department.
Lindsey Funeral Home in Rural Retreat was in charge of the arrangements.

Inez Sexton
Inez Sexton died Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008, at Perry Point Veterans Hospital in Perryville, Md.
Funeral services were held Friday, Oct. 3, at Tarring-Cargo Funeral Home. Interment was in Harford Memorial Gardens with full military honors.
She was born in Wise County, daughter of the late LaFayette and Bertha Sexton of Wise County. She served in the U.S. Army from September 1951 to June 1975 in the medical field of the Women’s Army Corps. She had three tours of duty overseas and at many different military bases in the U.S.
After retirement, she kept busy with volunteer work and veterans affairs. She was president of the Golden Age Club of Aberdeen, Md., for three years. In 1983, she organized the Maryland Freestate Chapter 70 of the Women’s Army Corps Veterans Association in which she also held many different officer positions.
She was a charter member of the Women in Military Memorial and the WAC Fountain, too.
She is survived by two sisters, Lucy Brown of Texas and Barbara Griest of Bel Air, Md.; brother, Jerry Sexton of Aberdeen, Md.; and several nieces and nephews.
Memorial donations may be made to the Maryland Freestate Chapter 70 WAC Veterans Assoc., P.O. Box 423, Aberdeen, MD 21001.
Online condolences may be made at .
Tarring-Cargo Funeral Home in Aberdeen, Md., was in charge of the arrangements.

Clifton T. Waller
Clifton Thomas “Reginald” Waller, 78, of Wytheville died Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2008.
Funeral service was held Thursday, Oct. 2, at 2 p.m. at the Grubb Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. Sonny Ayers officiating. Interment was in the Berea Christian Church Cemetery.
He was retired from Pendleton Construction Co. He was preceded in death by two sisters, Frances Stuart and Elizabeth Frye; and a brother, Marion Bralley.
Survivors include a daughter and son-in-law, Renee and Ronnie Osborne of Wytheville; two grandchildren, Amanda Revers Osborne and Ronnie Andrew Osborne; two brothers, Maurice Bralley of Wytheville and Charlie Bralley of Elkton, Md.; special friend, Louise Collins of Wytheville; and several special cousins.
Grubb Funeral Home in Wytheville was in charge of the arrangements.

Emmett R. White
Emmett R. White, M.D., 79, of Rutherford College, N.C., died Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008.
Funeral service will be held Saturday, Oct. 4, at 11:30 a.m. in the Chapel of Heritage Funeral Service, Valdese, N.C. Interment will be the Mountain View Cemetery.
Born July 26, 1929, in Hamlet, N.C., he was the third of six sons born to the late Emmett and Hannah Hutchins White. A 1947 graduate of Coon High School in Wilson, N.C., he attended Wake Forest University. After graduating from Wake Forest University in 1950, he studied medicine at Bowman Gray School of Medicine, receiving his medical degree in 1954.
He performed a one-year internship at Georgia Baptist Hospital in Atlanta and then briefly returned to Hamlet to practice general medicine while waiting to enter the army. He served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps as a captain for more than two years, training at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, then practicing at Fort Jackson, S.C.
In 1957, he arrived in Denver, Colo., where he performed a year of residency at the University of Colorado in Denver and the Colorado Veterans Hospital. Next, he traveled to Chattanooga, Tenn., and for two years practiced medicine at Erlanger Medical Center, completing his residency in radiology there.
In 1960, he arrived in Burke County, N.C., after accepting a staff position at Valdese General Hospital where he founded the hospital’s radiology department. In 1967, he created the hospital’s radiation oncology department. He led the hospital’s radiology department for more than three decades and continued to work there off and on during his retirement.
In addition to his work at Valdese, he was on the staffs of Broughton Hospital, Grace Hospital and Sloop Memorial Hospital in Crossnore, N.C. He was co-founder of the Catawba Valley Radiological Society in 1964.
In the 1970s, he served as an associate professor of clinical radiology at Bowman Gray. In 1983, he was inducted as a fellow in the American College of Radiology, an honor bestowed on fewer than 10 percent of radiologists nationwide. He was a member of the American Medical Association, the North Carolina Medical Association and the Radiological Society of North America.
In the early 1960s, he assisted in forming the Rutherford College Water Corp., serving as its president for years. In 1977, he helped with the incorporation procedures for the town of Rutherford College. As a testament to his generous nature, he sold the town its first town hall building for the staggering price of $1.
A dedicated rock hound, he founded the North Carolina Rock and Mineral Society in 1961. He also was a member of the Rutherford College Lions Club, the Burke County Historical Society, the Burke County Genealogical Society and the Rutherford College Historical Foundation.
He was a past chairman of the Committee for Restoration of the Old Burke County Courthouse. In 1974, he and his beloved friend, Eunice Ervin, worked to incorporate the historic Quaker Meadows Cemetery in Morgantown, helping preserve it for future generations.
He authored three volumes of a historical biographical series, “Revolutionary War Soldiers of Western North Carolina.” The books contain biographical sketches on numerous soldiers, including summaries of their military service, later life, land holdings and census information.
A gentle, jovial man with a ready smile and sharp wit, he was a respected physician and avid historian who constantly welcomed an intellectual challenge. His capacity and memory for minutiae and dates was unparalleled.
Throughout his life, he passionately researched local history, the Civil War and the Revolutionary War, in particular the wars’ dynamic on state history. Nothing pleased him more than scouring libraries in search of a new tidbit of information.
Long before genealogy became a popular pastime, he combed graveyards all over North Carolina, scraping away grime from headstones as he catalogued information on ancestors and Tarheel veterans.
He was preceded in death by a son, Matthew Maynor White; three brothers, Linney Ray White, Jack White and Ed Lee White; and twin sister, Emma Joyce White.
Survivors include his wife, Martha Maynor White of the home; two sons and a daughter-in-law, Emmett Royce White Jr. and Gina of Niceville, Fla., and John Robert Hutchins White of the home; two daughters and sons-in-law, Beverly White Byrne and Pat of Niceville, Fla., Millie White Rothrock and Neil of Wytheville; two brothers and sisters-in-law, William and Barbara White of Brevard, N.C., Glen L. and Susie White of Dobson, N.C.; grandchildren, Patrick Byrne, Henry Wong, Michael Byrne, Emmett White III and Lizzie Rothrock; mother-in-law, Gladys Maynor of Rutherford College, N.C.; sister-in-law, Nancy Maynor of Rutherford College, N.C.; and beloved canine companion, Shiela.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial donations be made to The North Carolina Room, c/o of the Library Foundation of Burke County, 204 W. King St., Morgantown, NC 28655; or Burke Hospice and Palliative Care, 1721 Enon Rd., Valdese, NC 28690.
An online guestbook and obituary is available at http://www.heritagefuneralservices.com.
Heritage Funeral Home and Crematory is in charge of the arrangements.