Strides
Friday, Feb. 28, 2020
Names that built Suffolk
Page 2 | February 28, 2020
Suffolk News-Herald | Strides 2020
If you’ve spent long enough in Suffolk, you’ve noticed that the same names seem to pop up time and time again. Many of those names are on buildings and streets throughout Suffolk. They have parks and schools and even whole communities named after them. Businesses honor them in their names. Plaques pay homage to their contributions. These are the names that have literally built Suffolk. But not only have these names contributed to the city’s built landscape, they also have helped shape its evolution as a community. What would health care in Suffolk be like without the influence of the Hoffler family or the Obici family? What would its educational legacy be like without Florence Bowser? What about the pair of military veterans, Col. Fred Cherry and Albert G. Horton Jr., who did so much to protect those freedoms we hold dear and left quite a legacy here? Indeed, what about the name of Nansemond, which was here before Suffolk began? We hope you enjoy this exploration of the names that built Suffolk. We are indebted to the original research of Kermit Hobbs and William A. Paquette; Phyllis Speidell, John H. Sheally II and Karla Smith; Annette Montgomery; as well as the archives of the Suffolk-Nansemond Historical Society, for the assistance provided, as well as other sources, noted in the stories, who were kind enough to help us.
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Table of Contents John Yeates —3 Nansemond — 4 Richard Bennett — 6 Seth M. Whaley — 8 John Holland — 9 Amedeo and Louise Obici — 10 Florence Bowser — 12 Dr. William Sr., Dr. William Jr. & Dr. Oswald Hoffler — 14 Col. Fred Cherry — 16 Mills E. Godwin Jr. — 18 Albert G. Horton Jr. — 20 Dr. L.D. Britt — 22
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John Yeates
BY ALEX PERRY Staff Writer
John Yeates was an Englishman who lived in Nansemond County in the 18th century, and his legacy is part of Suffolk’s crucial education foundation. According to “Suffolk: A Celebration of History,” Yeates owned land in the Belleville sector of Nansemond County. He was considered a “kind, generous, civic-minded individual,” and as such he built and financed two schools in Lower Parish, both for his children and neighboring families’ children. Chuckatuck and Lower Parishes were merged to form Suffolk Parish around 1725. The only reference to this change is a notation in the 1731 will of John Yeates. “Suffolk: A Celebration of History” states that his will provided for the perpetual endowment and support for the Driver and Belleville schools. The buildings, teacher salaries and a library were provided, plus free textbooks for the poor. The Virginia Legislature sold the
land of the two schools in 1866, but they “continued in use under Nansemond County control until the 1920s,” according to “Suffolk: A Celebration of History.” The Belleville site closed in 1921 and was sold in 1924 to Bishop William H. Plummer, who wanted to use the building to teach children of his faith, which was the Church of God and Saints of Christ. John Yeates High School opened its doors in Suffolk in 1965 in honor of the Englishman who helped the city’s early educational pursuits, before it became the middle school that stands today. Suffolk River Heritage Chairman Karla Smith said it’s fascinating that Suffolk had not one but two prominent men in city history who were devoted to fostering education. One was Richard Bennett, a colonial Virginia governor and prominent landowner, and the other was John Yeates. This shows how important it is to keep fostering educational pursuits in Suffolk, Smith said, “to ensure future generations will be able to make their way,” she said.
At top, the John Yeates Lower Academy. Above, the John Yeates Upper Academy, built in 1841. (Both courtesy “Suffolk: A Pictorial History”) Background image: the current John Yeates Middle School.
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Nansemond
Suffolk News-Herald | Strides 2020
BY TRACY AGNEW Editor
In the area formerly known as Nansemond County, perhaps no name has been attached to more landmarks, schools, businesses and the like than Nansemond itself. Even though the city eventually came to be called Suffolk, the area made up of 430-odd square miles used to be known as Nansemond County, with the relatively tiny town of Suffolk nestled in the middle. Nansemond was the tribal name of the first residents of this area, who lived here for hundreds of years, at least, before European settlers arrived. Nansemond was a word meaning “fishing point.” Many people have heard of Elizabeth Bass, the daughter of a Nansemond king who was baptized Elizabeth upon her marriage to John Bass. But people forget that Bass and other common “Nansemond names” are really English names. That is why Nansemond Indian Nation member Nikki Bass has done research into true Nansemond names — the names tribal members had before the Europeans arrived. In a book called “The History of Travel into Virginia,” by William Strachey, Bass located the names of four Nansemond leaders recorded by Strachey and other Europeans who explored the area. Strachey lists them as weroances, a term used for a chief
Above: the entryway sign into the Nansemond Indian Nation’s Mattanock Town. Opposite page, clockwise from top: the Nansemond Indian Nation logo (courtesy Nikki Bass); a dancer at a Nansemond powwow; an image of the Nansemond weroances named in the Strachey book; an exhibit at Mattanock Town. Background image: “Indian Village of Pomeiocc,” by John White. (Courtesy Nikki Bass)
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or leader. Their names were Weyhohomo, Amapetough, Weyingopo and Tirchtough. European settlers attacked Nansemond settlements on several occasions. They murdered kings and stole resources, including pearls and copper. One such attack happened at Dumpling Island, a sacred spot for the tribe. “It’s a traumatic story for our tribe,” Bass said. “This conflict is named as one of the first encounters that led to the first Anglo-Powhatan War.” Bass said knowing the specific names of four Nansemond leaders is important to her and to other members — and, ultimately, to Suffolk at large. “I feel it contributes to the story of Suffolk,” she said. “It gives them personhood. It shows it wasn’t just a tribe, it wasn’t just a nation; there were individual people whose lives were torn apart by what happened.” Because the Algonquian language had no written component, some tribes are not as fortunate to have recorded Indian names. “Preserving the names is really difficult, because our language was not written,” Bass said. “They’re like treasures. I think the fact their names were captured is a reminder to us that even through upheaval, there are always pieces of history to reach back for and hold onto.”
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Richard Bennett
At top, the Bennett’s Creek Park sign. Above, the signature of Richard Bennett. (Courtesy “Peninsula in Passage”). On opposite page, a Bennetts Creek Park Road sign; docks on Benett’s Creek; a historical marker for the home of Richard Bennett. (courtesy “Suffolk: A Pictorial History”) Background image: Bennett’s Creek.
Suffolk News-Herald | Strides 2020
BY ALEX PERRY Staff Writer
The impact of Richard Bennett has been far reaching and helped many in Suffolk through the Richard Bennett Trust. Richard Bennett was an English governor of the Colony of Virginia, and he also served in the House of Burgesses and on the Governor’s Council. “Bennett’s Creek, Bennett’s Harbor, and Bennetts Pasture Road are all namesakes of Richard Bennett, who established the Trust that bears his name,” according to the “History of the Richard Bennett Trust” document, in an email submitted by Richard Bennett Trust Secretary and Treasurer Thomas Hazelwood. According to History of the Richard Bennett Trust, Bennett was born in Somerset County, England, and was a member of a very wealthy and aristocratic family. He came to Virginia in 1628 to look after his family’s plantation Isle of Wight County, then moved to Nansemond County within a few years. In 1637, he was granted a patent for 2,000 acres of land between the Nansemond County River and what was to become known as Bennett’s Creek, according to History of the Richard Bennett Trust. He became a member of the Governor’s Council in 1637, and in 1651 was elected by the Grand Assembly to be Governor of the Colony under Oliver Cromwell, according to History of the Richard Bennett Trust. He served until 1655, and when Charles II returned to the English throne, Bennett once again became a member of the Governor’s Council, under Gov. William Berkeley. “According to Trust historian, Judge William W. Jones, Bennett was a for-
ward-looking resident of the Lower Parish of Nansemond County,” “History of the Richard Bennett Trust” states. “He had progressive views both in his political and religious attitudes and was a great humanitarian.” Bennett wrote his will creating the Trust in 1674, and later died in 1676, according to “History of the Richard Bennett Trust.” The Richard Bennett Trust was established in 1676 after his death and is considered the oldest continual charitable trust in the U.S., according to the Internal Revenue Service. According to a 2005 Suffolk NewsHerald story, Bennett left instructions in his will that his wealth be used to improve life for residents in what is now the Chuckatuck and Sleepy Hole boroughs of Suffolk. Records dating back as far as 1854 showed how the organization helped residents in various ways, “including buying coffins for paupers and providing monthly assistance for indigent residents.” Hazelwood said that the Trust continues to assist people by funding scholarships that are handled through the Access College Foundation, and by making students and contributions for local youth and service organizations. The list of more than two dozen organizations that benefit from these contributions includes the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southeast Virginia, Nansemond Indian Nation and the Suffolk Athletic Youth Athletic Association, according to an email from Hazelwood. “The Richard Bennett Trust has weathered three centuries of providing aid and comfort for countless people, and it will continue in this role,” “History of the Richard Bennett Trust” states.
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Seth M. Whaley
Suffolk News-Herald | Strides 2020
BY TRACY AGNEW Editor
Even before the business of growing peanuts prospered in Suffolk and caused the place to be dubbed the “World’s Largest Peanut Market,” there was another agricultural product the area that’s now the city of Suffolk was known for — logs. The southern area of Suffolk was brimming with timber in the early 1800s. As early as 1847, the land nearby was developed for both farming and logging operations, according to “Suffolk: A Celebration of History,” by Kermit Hobbs and William A. Paquette. In December 1877, Seth M.
At top, Seth M. Whaley; above right and background image, a sketch of Whaleyville in 1907 (both courtesy SuffolkNansemond Historical Society); above, the Bank of Whaleyville (courtesy “Suffolk: A Pictorial History”).
Whaley purchased a farm in the area and built a sawmill. Although he later sold his timber interests, the developing town was named for him. The Jackson Brothers Company built a narrow-gauge railroad to haul its timber to Suffolk. A better railroad later came along and increased the town’s prosperity, and along with that more churches, a bank and a district high school. In 1919, the lumber mill closed and was moved to North Carolina, Hobbs and Paquette wrote. These days, a smaller but strong community still exists in the village named after Seth Whaley.
Strides 2020 | Suffolk News-Herald
BY TRACY AGNEW Editor
The village of Holland shares its name with a low-lying European country known for its tulips. But while the village has embraced the connection, with street names like Netherland Drive and Windmill Lane, Holland is actually named after a person, not the country. According to “Suffolk: A Celebration of History,” by Kermit Hobbs and William A. Paquette, the path to settlement of Holland began in 1621, when a supply ship for Jamestown brought London Company promoter Gabriel Holland to Virginia. It is one of his sons, John Holland, and his descendants for whom Holland is named. John Holland received a land patent for paying passage for Englishmen to settle in the area, and it was his descendants believed to be the ones who settled the Holland area. The Holland family prospered, and their success encouraged many more families to move to Holland, according to Hobbs and Paquette. The area developed quickly. During the Civil War, many Holland residents fled to the other side of
February 28, 2020 | Page 9
the Blackwater River, but they returned following the war. Then came the peanut, making Holland a commercial center. The town was incorporated in 1900, and more than half of the first council representatives had the surname Holland. Holland suffered a fire on New Year’s Day 1910 that destroyed half of the homes and all but two businesses. Holland’s slow rebuilding got a boost when the agricultural research station was established in 1914. Nationwide, those who have heard of the little village of Holland most likely have done so in the context of its role as the founding place of the Ruritan Club. About 35 charter members formed the Holland Ruritan Club on May 21, 1928, at the Holland School Gymnasium after a meeting the previous month at the Holland Hotel. Its purpose was to bring together business leaders and the agricultural community. In 1972, Holland became part of the city of Nansemond, which merged with Suffolk two years later. However, Holland remains a village with a strong sense of place, community and pride, owing in the beginning to John Holland.
John Holland
At top, the Holland Hotel; above, Holland High School; background image, 1917 view of Holland’s Main Street after rebuilding from the 1910 fire. (All courtesy “Suffolk: A Pictorial History”)
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Amedeo and Louise Obici
At top, a nod to Louise and Amedeo Obici inside Sentara Obici Hospital; above and background image, the exterior of the hospital; opposite page, a portrait of the Obicis (courtesy “Peninsula in Passage”).
Suffolk News-Herald | Strides 2020 BY ALEX PERRY Staff Writer
The Obici name is deeply entrenched in Suffolk history, and it’s fair to say that the man himself has shaped the development of this city as a whole. Amedeo Obici was just 11 years old when he immigrated from Oderzo, Italy to America in 1889. His father died when he was 7, and his maternal uncle, Vittorio Sartor, invited young Amedeo to come live with him in Scranton, Pa. He spent his formative years with his uncle in Scranton, where he worked as a hotel waiter and later as a fruit-stand vendor, according to “Suffolk: A Celebration of History,” by Kermit Hobbs and William A. Paquette. “Intelligent, enterprising, and ambitious, Amedeo Obici soon grew tired of arranging fruit displays,” the book states. “Intrigued by a man eating roasted peanuts, he decided to peddle peanuts, himself, in nearby Wilkes-Barre, (Pa).” The Suffolk News-Herald declared Suffolk “the greatest peanut market in the world” as early as 1907, and the entrepreneur with the greatest impact on Suffolk was Obici, Hobbs and Paquette said in their book. By 1906, Obici and his brother-inlaw, Mario Peruzzi, had earned enough money from peanut sales to go into partnership. In 1906 they founded the Planters Peanut Company in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and in 1913 Obici built his first mass-processing plant in Suffolk, according to planters.com. According to “Suffolk: A Celebration of History,” the name “Planters” was thought up in a “back-room discussion” by Obici and Peruzzi. “A catchy name was needed and Obici liked Peruzzi’s word Planters, ‘one who plants peanuts,’” the book states. Obici was widely recognized as a
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marketing genius. Obici created nationwide advertising campaigns, and placed ads in the “Saturday Evening Post” that advertised “the five-cent lunch,” which was just peanuts and Coca-Cola. He also opened his own Planters retail stores to sell company products. Then there was the Suffolk contest that he sponsored, which led to the creation of the celebrated “Mr. Peanut.” A local teenager named Antonio Gentile submitted an animated peanut for the contest. Obici gave him $5, and a Wilkes-Barre artist later added the iconic cane, hat and monocle to the design, according to Suffolk: A Celebration of History. “Obici liked the idea of an ‘aristocratic’ peanut. The tuxedo was a symbol of class,” the book states. Obici and his wife, Louise, were generous enough to endow hospitals, donate to charities and provide well for Planters employees with their financial success. An article in the Suffolk-Nansemond Historical Society collection describes Louise as a “quiet, cultured and generous woman,” with a fondness for flowers, music and entertaining. According to “Suffolk: A Celebration of History,” she held an annual Weigela Festival on the grounds of Bay Point Farms, the 263-acre estate on the Nansemond River where she and her husband lived. The festival was named for a flowering shrub grown on the property that she loved, and the public could tour the estate during the festival, for a small fee that was donated to charity. The Obicis were childless and had no heirs or family members who possessed “the interest or the aptitude” to run the Planters enterprise, “Suffolk: A Celebration of History” states. Instead, Obici left his estate in trust to a hospital that was yet to be built — the Louise Obici Memorial Hospi-
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tal. This hospital opened in Suffolk in 1951, four years after Amedeo Obici’s death in 1947. It was undertaken as a memorial to Obici’s wife after her death in 1938, and that memorial continues to serve the Suffolk community today. “Amedeo Obici decided to build a hospital in Suffolk as a lasting legacy to her,” according to the website for the Obici Healthcare Foundation. “The hospital would also continue his philanthropy in the community by providing Suffolk’s citizens with local, quality healthcare.” The Obici Foundation was officially established in 1985 to oversee the funds Amedeo Obici left after his death. The foundation funded hospital renovations, equipment projects and community outreach to improve health care for “medically indigent” individuals in the late 1980s and 1990s. The foundation also
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helped to build the new hospital building in 2002, located on Godwin Boulevard, which became Sentara Obici Hospital after the Sentara Healthcare merger in 2006. Sam Glasscock served on the Louise Obici Memorial Hospital Board of Directors from 1966 to 2006, and for more than a decade on the Obici Healthcare Foundation. He was also instrumental in facilitating the merger with Sentara Healthcare. According to Glasscock, that merger helped carry on the mission of both the foundation and Obici himself: to provide local, quality health care for all Suffolk residents in need. “I just feel very good about the future of (health care delivery) in this area, and it would not have been possible without Mr. Obici’s care and forethought, and his concern about people in the area,” Glasscock said.
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Florence Bowser
At top and background, the current Florence Bowser Elementary School; above, a historical plaque for Florence Graded School; opposite page, a portrait of Florence Bowser (courtesy of her family).
Suffolk News-Herald | Strides 2020 BY JIMMY LAROUE Staff Writer
Florence Bowser left an indelible mark on education in Suffolk. It was felt when she began her nearly 60-year teaching career in 1892, and carried over her efforts from a neighboring area in coming to what was then Nansemond County in the Sleepy Hole District. It was felt as she organized the Sleepy Hole District Improvement League and spent many years raising money to build a new school. That school, a Rosenwald school, was built in 1920, paid for in part using money from the Julius Rosenwald Fund, which gave seed money for schools to educate black students in the segregated south. The Rosenwald School at Shoulders Hill, the school built with donations she helped to raise, was renamed the Florence Graded School in her honor. That four-room schoolhouse stood just a few feet from where the larger Florence Bowser Elementary was dedicated in 1963 and closed in 2016 as students went to Driver Elementary School until a new school was built. Both the Florence Graded School and the old Florence Bowser Elementary were demolished to make way for that new school, named, of course, Florence Bowser Elementary, which opened in 2018. And though she died in 1949, Bowser’s legacy is strongly felt today in that new school, shining not only in the halls, where a photograph of Bowser greets students daily, but also in the classrooms, where her ideals are carried out. Principal Melodie Griffin said it’s an honor to be in a building associated with such a powerful legacy. “We’re working to uphold the standard that she has established,” Griffin said. “Her desire was to have children be educated, children of color to be
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educated, and we’ve grown and evolved and we’re now educating children of all colors, all races, all ethnicities. “And we want to make sure that we are continuing to uphold that legacy of just pure dedication, commitment, spirit of excellence, to make sure that we are meeting the needs of our children individually and collectively, and meeting the needs of our staff, our parents, our community, individually and collectively. We do that under the umbrella of Florence Bowser.” Bonita V. Landy Gilchrist, one of Bowser’s great-granddaughters, said her great-grandmother had a deep respect for education and higher learning. Growing up, she would see Florence Bowser’s photo in her home and see her graduation cap and gown as a silent reminder to further their education. “It shows up in all of her descendant’s family members,” Landy Gilchrist said. “We all believe in higher education, and we value it above everything.” The current school, according to Griffin, embodies her vision and character as her staff tries to do what Bowser did, operate in a spirit of excellence. “Her legacy has grown from just educating one race of people, in body and spirit, to bringing them all together and connecting them, and now we’re educating all races of people,” Griffin said, “and we’re giving them quality education and making sure that we are pouring our passion and our commitment and our desire on those children so that they have that opportunity, the same as everyone else.” Griffin’s assistant principal, Cheryl Riddick, likes to say that Bowser took a seed that has blossomed to an oak tree, Griffin said. “We look at small Florence Bowser, and what that represented, what that meant, and for me to be able to be in
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both places,” Griffin said, “you can’t help but embody the spirit of Florence Bowser and what she represented, and what she meant.” It’s important for Griffin to uphold Bowser’s legacy, and to give to the next generation of leaders and educators at the school. “We walk in this building and you feel that sense of her spirit,” Griffin said. “When you think about what she started, which was so small and so tiny, and how it has impacted the
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community then, and how it continues to impact that community now. So, I feel a sense of the importance of the role that I have because she started her work, and that work has continued.” And what would Florence Bowser see if she walked through the school named for her? “I think if she walked through the halls of this building,” Griffin said, “she would be able to say, ‘Job well done. Vision achieved.’”
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Dr. William Sr. Dr. William Jr. Dr. Oswald Hoffler
At top, a drawing of the Suffolk Community Hospital started by Dr. William Hoffler Sr. (courtesy “Suffolk: Black America Series,” by Annette Montgomery); above, the Hoffler Apartments named for the doctors; opposite page, portraits of the three doctors (courtesy “Suffolk: Black America Series”); background image, the building on Tynes Street where Hoffler practiced.
Suffolk News-Herald | Strides 2020 BY JIMMY LAROUE Staff Writer
The granddaughter of Dr. William Hoffler Sr. remembered when he first moved his family from Hagerstown, Md., to Suffolk in 1930 and couldn’t get the house he wanted because it was not in the black section of the city. Instead, he bought a house on Pine Street, according to granddaughter Duanne “Dee Dee” Hoffler-Foster, and would live there until he died in 1979, with his home donated in 1984 to the First Baptist Church Mahan Street and turned into a convalescent home — First Baptist Hoffler Home for Adults. But he and other members of the Hoffler family did much to advance the cause of medicine in Suffolk. Just as he had done in his old hometown, the senior Hoffler started a hospital, Suffolk Community Hospital, in 1942. He later helped start a clinic with two of his sons, who along with himself left an unmistakable and profound legacy for Suffolk residents, particularly in the black community. What he and his sons, Dr. William Hoffler Jr. and Dr. Oswald Hoffler, accomplished was to provide access to quality medical care for black residents. While they all left their mark as doctors, Hoffler-Foster said they also left their marks as people, too, and influenced others along the way. We were taught community, serving your community, and doing the best you could in any and every thing you did,” Hoffler-Foster said. “But yet each loved family.” Dr. William Hoffler Sr. opened Suffolk Community Hospital, which was the first hospital for black patients in the city, on the corner of Spruce Street and Madison Avenue. That hospital closed in the early 1950s due to a lack of funding and with the
opening of Louise Obici Memorial Hospital in 1951. “He was the general practitioner,” Hoffler-Foster said. “He performed surgeries, he delivered babies, and it was a joke or saying that he probably delivered every baby in Suffolk for a long time.” Hoffler-Foster said he had plans to open up a new hospital on the site of what is now the Hoffler Apartments off of East Washington Street, and even bought the land for it, but it never materialized. In 1959, Hoffler Sr. and his sons opened the Hoffler Medical Center on Madison Avenue, and he was also a staff member at Louise Obici Hospital. Hoffler Sr. retired in 1973 after 52 years in practice. She said her grandfather had nicknames for everyone, and recalled those personal interactions she had with him, like the times he would “lose” his car keys and give his grandchildren a nickel to find them. Dr. Oswald W. Hoffler Jr. was a surgeon who began his private practice of surgery in 1952, and he was the first black physician to join the surgical staffs at the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters, DePaul Hospital, Norfolk General Hospital and Obici. He was appointed as the director of medical affairs at Norfolk Community Hospital in 1956, as the hospital partnered with Howard University to train the facility’s students. Notably, he made quite the impression on renowned Dr. L.D. Britt, who last year received the Suffolk First Citizen Award. “I became interested in surgery as a high school football star,” Britt told the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma. “I got an injury and I went to my family medicine doctor. He said, ‘You know, I want my son to see you.’ His son was Dr. O.W. (Oswald) Hoffler, one of the last
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residents of Charles Drew, and he was impressive. He was definitive. He certainly took care of my extremity injury. “I knew then that I wanted to be a surgeon. I knew I was going to medical school and I knew then I wanted to be a surgeon.” When Dr. Oswald W. Hoffler died the day before Thanksgiving in 2004, his wife Irene told the Suffolk NewsHerald, “I think he’d like to be remembered for serving mankind by training 500 (surgical) residents. He was a very dedicated person to the medical field. Anytime he helped train someone to do something to help the sick, it brought him great satisfaction.” Dr. William Hoffler Jr., Hoffler-Foster’s father, moved with the family to Suffolk when he was 5, beginning school at Andrew J. Brown Elementary and graduating Booker T. Washington High School at 15. He was an internal medicine specialist and a staff member of Louise
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Obici Hospital and Norfolk Community Hospital, and after a long career, he died in 1989. Hoffler-Foster said her father and uncle were opposites in personality. Whereas Dr. Oswald W. Hoffler was more conservative in demeanor, her father was much more demonstrative. “Daddy was the opposite,” HofflerFoster said of Hoffler Jr. “He didn’t care where I was or where we were, I had to hug him.” All of them treated their patients with compassion. “They saw patients whether they had money to pay for insurance or not,” Hoffler-Foster said. They were pioneers in medicine in Suffolk, and they took the time to get to know their patients. “I think in how I was spoiled, and I know how my father, uncle (and) grandfather handled their patients,” Hoffler-Foster said. “And right now, you don’t get that same treatment. It’s faster. It’s not sit-down-and-the-therapy type. It’s not the same.”
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Col. Fred Cherry
At top and background image, the exterior of Col. Fred Cherry Middle School; above, certificate of award of the Air Force Cross to Cherry; opposite page, a file portrait of Cherry.
Suffolk News-Herald | Strides 2020 BY ALEX PERRY Staff Writer
Col. Fred Cherry served his country and left a legacy in Suffolk that’s carried on by the students of Col. Fred Cherry Middle School. Cherry spent his childhood with his poor farming family, attending racially segregated schools in the city. But the Suffolk native would go on to become a colonel in the U.S. Air Force. He was a career fighter pilot who served in the Korean War, the Cold War and the Vietnam War. Cherry’s awards and decorations include two Purple Hearts, the Silver Star, the Air Force Cross, the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Bronze Stars with Combat V, and more. The list also includes the Prisoner of War Medal Cherry received after he was held captive in Vietnam for more than seven years. He was the first and highest-ranking black officer to become a prisoner in Vietnam. His fighter-bomber aircraft was shot down on Oct 22, 1965. His parachute opened just 200 feet from the ground, and the impact broke his left shoulder, left ankle and left wrist. Field workers took his weapons and imprisoned him, and eventually he arrived at “The Zoo,” a prisoner-ofwar camp. He was 37 years old. Cherry discussed his captivity in a speech he gave during a U.S. Naval War College talk in 2012. The talk described how prisoners were beaten, made to kneel on rocks and other sharp objects, subjected to solitary confinement and more. “We were severely punished as new arrivals,” Cherry said during the 2012 speech. His injuries were not treated until he was confined with another prisoner of war, Lt. j.g. Porter Halyburton, who spoke alongside Cherry at the 2012 presentation. Halyburton said during the 2012 presentation that he pushed the Viet-
namese to get treatment for Cherry by telling them he would die if he wasn’t treated. “I knew they didn’t want that, because we were valuable property,” Halyburton said in 2012. The North Vietnamese wanted racial tensions between Halyburton, a Southern white man, and Cherry to break them both. Instead, their friendship kept each other alive. That powerful friendship was chronicled in the book “Two Souls Indivisible: The Friendship That Saved Two POWs in Vietnam,” written by James Hirsch. “Their time together, seven and a half months, would represent less than 10 percent of their time as prisoners, yet it was the turning point of each man’s captivity,” Hirsch wrote. He also described “the layers of meaning” in Cherry and Halyburton’s “symbiotic friendship.” “Cherry would have died without his roommate — but in surviving he also rescued Halyburton from his despair,” Hirsch wrote. “Each man inspired the other and helped make that elemental decision, to live or die, easier.” Cherry was released from captivity on Feb. 12, 1973. He would go on to retire on Sept. 1, 1981, after attending the National War College and being assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency, and having served more than 30 years in the Air Force. He later started his own engineering company. Cherry died of cardiac disease at the age of 87 on Feb. 16, 2016. He is buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery, and his legacy continues at the school that carries his name. Col. Fred Cherry Middle School opened in Suffolk in fall 2018. The CYBER HAWKS STEM Club — Cherry Youth in Basic Engineering and Robotics — provides opportunities for middle-school students to be engaged in science and technology at
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Strides 2020 | Suffolk News-Herald
an early age. There are 15 students in the club as of the 2019-2020 school year, according to seventh-grade science teacher and club sponsor Leslie Bulger. The club’s robotics team competed in the FIRST LEGO League competition last year, as well as the and Sea, Air and Land Challenge. “Using robotics, such as LEGO Mindstorms Systems, in a hands-on laboratory environment, helps to promote various skills that are useful preparation for future careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics,” Bulger wrote in an email.
February 28, 2020 | Page 17
These activities are assisted by the Friends of Col. Fred V. Cherry, an organization co-founded by philanthropists Leah Gottlieb and Robert Stephens to support the club’s activities, and to preserve Cherry’s legacy in Suffolk. “The Friends of Col. Fred V. Cherry was formed in 2018 to encourage and advocate for the preservation of Col. Cherry’s legacy, love for learning and the sciences, and to provide a forum where diverse audiences can actively participate in cultural and academic experiences,” according to an email from Stephens.
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Page 18 | February 28, 2020
Mills E. Godwin Jr.
At top and background image, the exterior of the Godwin Courts Building; above, a Godwin Boulevard sign; opposite page, a portrait of Mills E. Godwin Jr. hanging in Riddick’s Folly.
Suffolk News-Herald | Strides 2020 BY ALEX PERRY Staff Writer
The name “Godwin” represents a Suffolk man who became a prominent figure in the history of Virginia leadership. Mills E. Godwin Jr. was the 60th and 62nd Governor of Virginia. He served his first term as a Democrat from 1966 to 1970, and his second term as a Republican from 1974 to 1978. Godwin was born on Nov. 19, 1914, and grew up on the family farm in Nansemond County. He attended public school in the nearby village of Chuckatuck and was educated at the College of William and Mary’s Norfolk Division, later known as Old Dominion University. He went on to graduate from the University of Virginia with a law degree on June 10, 1940, and entered the practice of law in Suffolk. He married Katherine Thomas Beale, a Chuckatuck school teacher, on Oct. 26, 1940. He also served as a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation during World War II, before resuming his Suffolk law practice after the war. He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates for Nansemond and Suffolk from 1948 to 1952, then served in the Virginia Senate from 1952 to 1962, and then as lieutenant governor from 1962 to 1966. Godwin’s first term as Virginia governor from 1966 to 1970 produced “an extraordinary record of accomplishments,” stated encyclopediavirginia. org. He earned the nickname “the education governor” by increasing state appropriations for public schools by more than 100 percent, improving teacher salaries, and for the first time the state government provided funding for kindergartens and summer schools, among other highlights. “Godwin’s greatest achievement in expanding opportunity for higher education was creation of the Virginia Community College System, which ul-
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timately became a network of twentythree colleges in all sections of Virginia,” encyclopediavirginia.org states. The governor also persuaded the General Assembly to provide more funding for mental health, state parks, ports, environmental protection and public safety, “all of which improved the quality of life for Virginians.” “Politics can be a balky servant or a tyrannical master, and yet the intangible rewards of public service continue to attract men and women of great ability,” Godwin said in his Address to the General Assembly that was held in Richmond on Jan. 14, 1970, according to the book “Selected Speeches of The Honorable Mills E. Godwin Jr.,” from 1966 to 1970. “During the four years of this administration,” he continued, “the members of this body and countless Virginians from every walk of life have come forward, as eager volunteers, to assume a portion of our labors. I wish it were within my power to accord fully to you, and to them, the honors that are so generously due.” He was an “outstanding speaker,” according to Barbara Warren, a former personal secretary to Gov. Godwin. She said he was a very organized and capable person, who knew the law and “knew what was best for Virginia.” “He was one-of-a-kind, really. He was amazing,” she said. The Godwins had also endured tragedy in their personal life, when their daughter, Becky Godwin, was struck by lightning and killed in Virginia Beach, just before her 14th birthday in 1968. The Becky Godwin Memorial Scholarship Fund was established at Oakland Christian Church in Chuckatuck, where she was a member. Godwin wrote about the memorial scholarship for his daughter, along with other memorials for Becky, in the book titled “Some Recollections.” Another was the Becky Godwin Scholarship at Nansemond-Suffolk Academy, and the school also named
Strides 2020 | Suffolk News-Herald
its Lower School Library the “Becky Godwin Memorial Library” when it opened in 1991, according to “Some Recollections.” “Becky loved to read and when she was deceased in August, 1968, St. Catherine’s School in Richmond named a section of its lower school library in her memory,” Godwin wrote in the book. “This is the fine private school attended by Becky when she moved to Richmond from Chuckatuck. She loved the school and its students and teachers.” Mills E. Godwin Jr. died in 1999 at the age of 84, and his wife Katherine in 2015 at the age of 98. Both are bur-
February 28, 2020 | Page 19
ied at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Suffolk. The Mills E. Godwin Bridge, also known as the Nansemond River Bridge, which carries drivers across the Nansemond River in North Suffolk, opened in 1982 and was named in honor of the former Virginia governor. Drivers will also spot Godwin Boulevard in the city, and the Mills E. Godwin Courts Building on North Main Street. There is also a permanent display room reflecting Godwin’s legacy at the Riddick’s Folly House Museum on North Main Street.
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Albert G. Horton Jr.
At top and background image, the Albert G. Horton Jr. Memorial Veterans Cemetery; above, the sign at the cemetery; opposite page, Horton’s gravestone at the cemetery and a portrait of Horton during his Navy service (courtesy Virginia Department of Veterans Services).
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Albert G. Horton Jr. was persistent about his pursuit of a cemetery for veterans in the Hampton Roads region. So dogged was his fight, he died of a massive coronary while at the keyboard typing another missive to then-Gov. Mark Warner. That was Oct. 16, 2002, about five years after he began his efforts. Though the land for the cemetery at 5310 Milners Road had already been bought, the Atlantic City, N.J., native had died before the groundbreaking. It was still another two years before the $6.5 million cemetery named after the Navy veteran was dedicated on Nov. 1, 2004. And it was still another month before Horton and his wife, Evelyn, would be the first to be buried there after being moved from another cemetery. “He wanted to be buried with his comrades-in-arms,” said Horton’s son, Albert G. Horton III. “He wanted to be buried in a veterans’ cemetery.” Horton Jr., a retired Navy quartermaster, wanted to serve in the military so badly that he added a year to his age in 1943 to enlist, as his mother had to sign for him to do so. After 20 years of military service, Horton Jr. knew he wanted to be buried in a veterans’ cemetery, according to his son. However, all of the available gravesites at the closest one in Hampton had been taken by 1993, leaving families of remaining Virginia veterans with the possibility of having to drive to Northern Virginia to visit the gravesites of their loved ones. By then living in Chesapeake, Horton Jr. organized and led the Hampton Roads Veterans Cemetery Committee and inspired people to
his cause with the motto, “If you don’t like it, change it.” He persistently and relentlessly pressured legislators and other government officials on the need for a veterans’ cemetery in South Hampton Roads. He was passionate about finding a final resting place for himself and his friends who served. As he pursued a site for a veterans’ cemetery, he picked up support. “He sat down and looked at the demographics and knew that the people in World War II were dying off,” Horton III said. “The Vietnam people were coming up and he wanted those people to have the same rights he had with the veterans’ cemetery and the veterans’ benefits. That’s what he was looking at, getting a place.” Though initially Horton III said his father had looked for a site closer to larger populated areas such as Chesapeake or Virginia Beach, he had no regrets about the 73 acres they found in Suffolk. “He was like a bulldog,” Horton III said. “Once he got a hold of something, he wasn’t going to let it go.” And now, with more than 13,000 people buried in 9,000 gravesites at the Albert G. Horton Jr. Memorial Veterans Cemetery, it is in the midst of its third expansion, and it plans to add three new gardens with 9,000 double-depth crypts, which will continue to make the cemetery viable for at least the next 60 to 80 years. “They’re thinking ahead now by putting in the crypts before they are needed,” Horton III said. “Dad would have liked to have seen that at the time, but none of the other cemeteries were doing that, so they didn’t put that in there.” His son believes that his father likely would not have wanted the cemetery named after him, but it is all good with his family. “I personally feel that he probably
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wouldn’t have wanted it named after him,” Horton III said, “but they decided to name it after him. It’s fine with us, but he was more of a behind-the-scenes type of guy rather than out in front.” Horton III said his father would be pleased with the way the cemetery has turned out, and the way it is
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February 28, 2020 | Page 21
growing to serve the needs of veterans in the region. And he would be happy, his son says, knowing that he has friends there, too. “A lot of his friends are buried out there,” Horton III said, “and I know he liked being buried around his friends.”
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Page 22 | February 28, 2020
Dr. L.D. Britt
Above, a plaque in honor of Dr. L.D. Britt at the Suffolk Health and Human Services Building; background image, the exterior of that building; opposite page, a painting by Jerome W. Jones featuring Britt (submitted) and Britt accepting the 2019 First Citizen Award by the Suffolk and North Suffolk Rotary Clubs.
Suffolk News-Herald | Strides 2020 BY JIMMY LAROUE Staff Writer
He’s already in the Hall of Fame of medicine, so what more was there to accomplish for proud Suffolk native Dr. L.D. Britt? Plenty. Though he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, one of the biggest honors in the health and medicine field, in 2016, Britt has remained true to the city that grounded and shaped him. The Health and Human Services building downtown dedicated plaques just inside both of its main entrances in his honor in 2018, and last year, he received the Suffolk First Citizen honor. Britt, born to parents Claretta White Britt and Vandious Britt on June 28, 1951, was the valedictorian of his class at age 16 at Booker T. Washington High School in 1968, and then graduated from the University of Virginia, Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health. He became the first African American in the United States to have an endowed chair in surgery and the first African American professor of surgery in Virginia. And, by most anyone’s standard, he’s had a storied and impactful career in medicine. He credited his parents with helping shape his career. Both, he said, had an unbelievable work ethic. “They focused on their children, and they gave us their work ethic,” Britt said, “and they gave us the commitment to do what’s right.” But he has also said the influence of a prominent African American doctor in the city forged his path into medicine. Britt, after suffering a football injury, was operated on by the son of the operator of Suffolk’s Hoffler Clinic, Dr. Oswald W. Hoffler. That helped lead to his interest in medicine. But the high-regard in which people hold Britt transcends his profession. “He just commands such respect,”
Mayor Linda T. Johnson said. “He is a lesson in how to be human, how to be real and how to get things done, and how you are in this world and what you’re here for.” When he gives presentations, he always starts with a photo of a railroad track that runs through Suffolk, which he says helps keep him grounded. It was Suffolk, he said, which “gave me my roots. It became sort of a positive reflection. It’s a real anchor, (and) I will not forget my roots.” Britt said none of his accomplishments and honors would mean anything if he were not a person of value. In his art collection at home, it is filled with people who appear to be in poverty. They all speak to him. “It tells me how fortunate I am and how fortunate you are,” Britt said. “Sometimes the best things in life are simple. Artwork has helped me with that. It’s not perfect, but I’m still learning.” Britt was the subject of an art piece as one of Jerome W. Jones Jr. and Jeromyah Jones’s 69 paintings outlining the 400-year history of African Americans in the United States. The art featured notable African Americans in many fields, including Britt. “They put on canvas achievement and positive images in a community that was often not seen,” Britt said. “That was the legacy that they established, and it should be embraced. They wanted to emphasize achievement, and they consistently did that when other people did not see that. They should be applauded.” The renowned surgeon has deflected praise of himself and his own legacy, but to many, that legacy is undeniable, as well as his humble nature. “He doesn’t put himself above anybody or anything,” said Roland Wilson, who went to school with Britt at Booker T. Washington High School and was taught by Britt’s mother. “He just stays on that level. He’s been that way all his life.”
Strides 2020 | Suffolk News-Herald
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Suffolk News-Herald | Strides 2020
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