Harry F. Byrd Jr. Tribute by Winchester Star

Daily News-Record 08/01/2013

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Special Section

A Life Of Leadership And Service

HARRY FLOOD BYRD JR. December 20, 1914 - July 30, 2013

Senator Carved His Own Niche In State, National Politics Byrd Newspapers

arry Flood Byrd Jr. inherited the most famous name in 20th century Virginia politics and went on to carve a unique niche of his own in American political history. Forsaking the Democratic party label of his father, he became the first Virginian ever elected to statewide office as an independent — and the first independent ever elected and reelected U.S. Senator in any of the 50 states. Byrd told the Virginia people: “I would rather be a free man than a captive senator.” Sen. Byrd’s declaration of independence in 1970 seemed to catch, and also to heighten, the leading edge of a wave of antiparty, anti-Washington, anti-gov-

ernment sentiment that blurred old party lines and altered the course of two-party politics, in both the state and the nation during the 1970s and 1980s. However, as political irony would have it, the stage for such a declaration was set as early as 1906, when Richard Evelyn Byrd, Harry Jr.’s grandfather, entered the General Assembly and initiated the Byrd political era in Virginia. From that year until 1983, when young Harry relinquished the “Byrd seat” that he and his father had occupied in the U.S. Senate for 50 years, the Byrd name inspired vigorous support. It also aroused sharp opposition that occasionally threatened, but rarely endangered and never defeated, any of

See BYRD, Page A2

Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr. studies the 1971 federal budget. Byrd served in the U.S. Senate from 1965-1983. He was the first independent ever elected and re-elected to the U.S. Senate. Byrd also served in the Virginia Senate from 1948-1965.

■ The Newspaperman Page B1 ■ In His Own Words Page B13

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GOV. HARRY F. BYRD SR. AND FAMILY IN 1926: Gov. Harry F. Byrd Sr. and his wife, Anne Douglas Beverley Byrd, with Westwood (left), Beverley, Richard and Harry F. Byrd Jr.

Byrd Took Independent Course In U.S. Senate FROM PAGE A1 Democratic party grip on Virginia Byrd politics. the Byrds in a state election. But whether he was identified as All three generaa Democrat or as an tions, the members of . . . Harry F. Byrd independent throughwhich served a total of out his long career — Jr. never strayed as state senator from 113 years in elected public office, were in1948 to 1965, as U.S. from the basic volved in one of the senator from 1965 to great cycles of politi1983, and as editor tenets and cal irony that have and publisher of famitraditions of marked Virginia hisly newspapers — Hartory. ry F. Byrd Jr. never Virginia In 1912, as speaker strayed from the basic conservatism. of the Virginia House tenets and traditions of Delegates, grandfaof Virginia conserther Richard introduced and put vatism. through the bill that solidified the His, like his father’s, was a special Democratic primary system for Virbrand of conservatism: rock-solid on ginia. In 1970, by daring to turn infiscal issues, but with occasional dependent, grandson Harry Jr. won a streaks of populism and a rare glint smashing general election victory — of liberalism in a few other areas. Its thereby delivering the coup de grace appeal, enhanced by the Byrd reputo the Virginia primary system. And, tation for integrity, cut across ecoin between, Harry Byrd Sr. made efnomic class lines and enabled him to fective use of his father’s primary See SENATOR, Page A3 law to develop and strengthen the

Above: Proud parents Harry F. Byrd Sr. and Sittie with their first-born, Harry F. Byrd, Jr. Right: Harry F. Byrd Jr. (left), a student of John Marshall High School in Richmond, poses for a photo with his then-governor father (center) and his uncle Thomas B. Byrd.

IN HIS OWN WORDS “I am convinced that we have too many laws, too

“I would rather be a

much government

free man than a

regulation, much too much

captive senator.”

government spending.”

“I have fought many lonely battles. Rightly or wrongly, I have not always trod the popular road.”

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From State Politics To The Capitol Senator

FROM PAGE A2

carry blue-collar as well as silkstocking precincts in his statewide campaigns. In 1980, he summed up his Senate creed in these words: “I am convinced that we have too many laws, too much government regulation, much too much government spending. The very wealthy can take care of themselves; the very needy are taken care of by the government. It is Middle America, the broad crosssection, the people who work and to whom the government must look for taxes — it is they who have become the forgotten men and women.” In 1978, Byrd successfully sponsored legislation mandating a balanced federal budget. Its 18 words were signed into law by the president on Oct. 10, 1978: “Beginning with fiscal year 1981, the total budget outlays of the federal government shall not exceed its receipts.” The Congress was soon to ignore its own law. When Byrd retired from the U.S. Senate at age 68, he had spent 75 percent of his adult life in elective office — having been on the ballot successfully 10 different times.

Family Life

Three generations talk to Admiral Richard E. Byrd at the South Pole in 1928. From left are Harry F. Byrd Jr., 14; his grandmother, Mrs. Richard Evelyn Byrd; and his father, Gov. Harry F. Byrd Sr.

son Greenhalgh, Charlottesville. He had 11 great-grandchildren: Griffin Thomas Thoreck, Connor Benson Thoreck, Owen Parker Thoreck, Julia Dana Thoreck, Olivia Marie Cochran, Margaret Courtney Cochran and Robert Samuel Cochran IV, all of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, Sydney Parker Byrd, Harry F. Byrd V and Palmer Oliver Byrd, all of Richmond, and Cooper Wilson Greenhalgh of Charlottesville.

Into The State Senate

Having met in 1937, Byrd married Gretchen Bigelow Thomson of New Orleans on Aug. 9, 1941. They had three children: Harry F. Byrd III, Thomas T. Byrd and Beverley B. Byrd. Mrs. Byrd died Oct. 26, 1989. He had nine grandchildren: Harry F. Byrd IV, Richmond; John Laurence Byrd, Herndon; Gretchen Christina Byrd, Richmond; Kathryn Imogen Byrd, Richmond; Courtney Byrd Thoreck and Amy Byrd Cochran, both of Cape Elizabeth, Maine; Thomas Wigton Byrd, Berryville; Langdon Byrd Greenhalgh, Berryville; and Blakeley Thom-

In 1947, at the age of 32, Byrd was elected to the Virginia Senate, where he served without opposition for 18 years. As state senator, he moved up to the chairmanship of the General Laws Committee, and became one of the Senate Finance Committee’s “big three” members with heavy clout in shaping state budgets. Never a showboating politician, he rarely spoke on the Senate floor, but worked quietly in committees. Reacting to newsmen’s complaints about the unnecessary secrecy of Senate committee meetings, he took the lead, behind the scenes, in

Sen. Byrd and his wife, Gretchen, on their 48th wedding anniversary. They met in 1937, married in 1941 and she died in October 1989.

persuading the Finance Committee to relax its closed-door habits. During the administration of Gov. Albertis Harrison, he served as chairman of the Advisory Board for Industrial Development. As vice chairman of the Virginia Outdoor Recreation Study Commission, he

Sen. Byrd (center) poses with his children and their spouses, (from left) Thomas T. Byrd and his wife Sharon; son Harry F. Byrd III and his wife Barbara; and daughter Beverley B. Byrd, at his 97th birthday party, which was held at Courtfield, the family home.

played a leading role in making plans to expand and protect the state parks, forests and wilderness areas. But perhaps the crowning achievement of Byrd’s state Senate tenure came in 1950 when he authored a bill that became known as the Automatic Income Tax Reduction Act. Its complicated formula assured state income taxpayers a rebate or credit whenever the state general fund surplus exceeded certain levels. For the years 1951 through 1954, Virginia taxpayers enjoyed savings of between 11 and 19 percent. During its four years, the income tax reduction law attracted nationwide attention — including an invitation for Byrd to address the Maryland legislature. Young Harry was well on the way to a run at the governor’s mansion, perhaps in 1961 if his father chose not to run for re-election in 1958, when Harry Sr. would pass his 71st birthday. (Most analysts agreed that Harry Jr. would not run for governor while his father remained in the Senate.) Throughout the agonizing times of the late 1950s Harry Jr. said little but stood firmly with his father on See CAPITOL, Page A4

BY THE NUMBERS

6,270

votes cast in the U.S. Senate

percent of roll calls answered in U.S. Senate

percent of adult life years spent serving in ballots Byrd’s name in elective office at elective office — appeared on, retirement state and U.S. Senate winning all elections

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Byrd’s uncles, orchardist Thomas B. Byrd and Adm. Richard E. Byrd, join the groom and bride, along with the groom’s father, Harry F. Byrd Sr., at the younger Byrd’s wedding on Aug. 9, 1941.

Sen. Byrd’s parents pose with their three sons on their 50th wedding anniversary. They are Beverley (left), Harry Jr. (second from right) and Richard (right).

Leadership Runs In The Byrd Family Capitol

FROM PAGE A3

Massive Resistance, a policy of opposing school desegregation. In December 1960, shortly before his 46th birthday, he announced he would not run for governor in 1961, even though political soundings indicated he would win. The two Byrds agreed that the son should not run for the state’s top office while the father was still the state’s top U.S. senator and recognized political chieftain. If there was any gubernatorial election year in which he would have run and won the governor’s office, he told a reporter later, it was 1961. Besides the father-son complication, to have done so would have committed him to the gubernatorial job into January 1966. By 1961 he was becoming more interested in going to the U.S. Senate as his father’ successor for the term beginning in 1965. Harry Sr. chose unexpectedly to run again in 1964 at age 77. He readily won re-election as a Democrat, even though opposed by a Republican nominee and five independents. For the first time since 1902, the state poll tax barrier was down; it was also the first Virginia election in which the total turnout reached or exceeded 1 million. Byrd polled 64 percent of the 928,362 votes counted for U.S. senator. The perceived liberal in the presidential race, Lyndon B. Johnson, received 53.5 percent of the Virginia vote. The 1964 returns suggested a Virginia paradox: The voters simultaneously made winners of the most conservative and the most liberal candidates they could vote for in the concurrent statewide races. To Harry Byrd Jr. they also indicated he was right in one of the political judgments on which father and son differed. Byrd Sr. stuck to the orthodox belief that, by restricting the potential vote, the poll tax helped the Byrds and the Byrd organization. He opposed poll tax repeal. Harry Jr. argued that the bigger the vote, the better he or his father would run: He quietly favored poll tax repeal. Young Harry read the 1964 returns as vindication of his judgment.

Above: Harry F. Byrd Jr.’s nine grandchildren (from left): Harry IV, Thomas, John, Courtney, Amy, Gretchen, Imogen, Langdon and Blakeley in a photo from 1989. Left: Byrd poses with his three great-grandsons (in front) Griffin, twins Conner and Owen; his granddaughter Courtney and husband Jeff Thoreck and son Tom in a 2002 photo.

Going The Distance Even before the 1964 election, it was evident to friends and family members that something other than age was beginning to impair the senior Byrd’s physical and mental health. By autumn 1965, Sen. Byrd Sr. himself realized how badly he was slipping. On the weekend after the Nov. 2 gubernatorial election had been won by the Byrd organization’s last gubernatorial candidate, Lt. Gov. Mills E. Godwin Jr., he wrote a letter of resignation, which Gov. Albertis Harrison made public on Nov. 10. Two days later, Harrison announced the appointment of son to succeed father for the interim until a special election for the unexpired term could be held on general Election Day in November 1966. The 1966 returns were mixed. Former State Sen. Armistead Boothe emerged suddenly to run against Byrd in the July Democratic primary. Byrd won a squeaker by a margin of 8,225 votes, or 50.1 percent of the 434,217 total. The concurrent primary race for Sen. A. Willis Robertson’s seat was even closer. Moderate state Sen. William B. Spong Jr. of Portsmouth defeated Robertson by just 611 votes. Conservative Byrd and moderate Spong had little trouble defeating Republican opponents in November — Byrd with 53 percent and Spong with 58 percent. GOP candidates, however, won four congressional district races to double representation from Virginia in the House (6th, 8th, 9th and 10th districts), a new GOP high mark for the 20th century.

When Byrd moved up to the U.S. Senate, he already knew most of the members on a friendly, first-name basis. He was warmly welcomed and remained a member of the Senate Democratic Caucus, even after he became an independent. The caucus leadership ignored or shrugged off several requests from anti-Byrd groups to oust the Virginia senator. Charles McDowell, Washington correspondent for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, wrote: “No matter how hard it rains (politically) in Winchester or Washington, residents of both cities observe that Harry F. Byrd Jr. can walk around in it without getting wet.” Byrd never sought to succeed his father as leader of the Democratic organization. A conscientious senator, he cast 6,270 votes over his long career while answering 96 percent of the Senate roll calls. He found he had to spend long hours studying legislation, grappling with the increasingly complex and rapidly growing problems of big government, and serving his Virginia constituents in many ways. It would have left him little time for taking over and performing the leadership chores of the conservative organization his father commanded for so many years. That, however, was not the main reason he opted against aspiring to the “Boss” mantle. His father had often advised him against it. “I saw first-hand how he tried to get out of that role,” young Harry recalled. “Several times he asked one,

and then another, to take over, but none he asked would accept the responsibility. So he encouraged me never to get in the position he was in.” As U.S. senator, Byrd performed much as he had as state senator, introducing few bills, engaging in little oratory, working diligently in his two major committees, Finance and Armed Services, having a high attendance mark and winning high marks from conservative groups for his votes on Senate roll calls. Among the 100 senators he was ranked near the bottom in number of bills introduced, but near the top in popularity. “I have always thought,” he remarked, “that we have too many bills, too much legislation that we just don’t need.” Once, in the late ’60s, Harry Jr. thought he saw a way to reunite and restore the disintegrating old organization. To save it from a split that might open the way for a Henry Howell victory in the 1969 Democratic primary, he proposed that key leaders should unite behind a candidate who could surely win, former Gov. Harrison. The draft-Harrison effort collapsed when Harrison “very firmly and very emphatically said ‘no’.” Byrd then took no part in the three-man primary contest, but supported William C. Battle against Howell in the runoff after Lt. Gov. Fred G. Pollard was eliminated. As the 1970 senatorial election approached, Harry Byrd Jr. studied trends of the late ’60s. Earlier events — poll tax repeal, redistricting decisions of the courts, the 1965 Voting Rights Act and other federal legislation, and the patterns of population growth — encouraged liberal Democratic factions to greater efforts. Many good Byrd friends and supporters had turned Republican. Others no longer called themselves Democrats. Pressures on Byrd to turn Republican increased. But, sentimental and traditional ties to the party of his father made him hesitate. Then, the action of a mid-winter meeting of Democrats gave him a clear focus.

Independent Voice On March 17, 1970, he explained over statewide television in these words: “Last month the Democratic See FAMILY, Page A11

Sen. Byrd poses with his sons, Tom (left) and Harry (right) after climbing Old Rag Mountain. Byrd’s last journey to Old Rag in the Blue Ridge Mountains was at age 80.

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A January 1952 story by Bill Garrard on State Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr., his business and political interests as well as his family was featured on the front of Virginia and The Virginia County, recognized as the official publication of the League of Virginia Counties.

Harry F. Byrd Jr. and his wife, Gretchen, on a trip to Europe in 1951.

This family photo was taken at the Byrdsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; home, Courtfield, in Winchester for the 1966 election campaign Senator Byrd won to complete the unexpired term of his father, Harry F. Byrd Sr. Senator Byrd was appointed to succeed his father by Gov. Albertis S. Harrison Jr. on Nov. 12, 1965.

The three sons of Harry F. Byrd Sr., Richard E. (left), Harry Jr. (center) and B. Beverley (right), worked together in the 1950s to grow apples in the Shenandoah Valley. Harry F. Byrd Jr. and Gretchen Thomson Byrd were married on Aug. 9, 1941, in Christ Episcopal Church, Winchester.

Lt. Cmdr. Harry F. Byrd Jr. was executive officer of a patrol bombing squadron of four-engined seaplanes during World War II. He served on the Island of Saipan, in the Marianas.

Harry F. Byrd Jr. with his son Harry F. Byrd III (left), daughter Beverley B., wife Gretchen and son Thomas T. at Courtfield, his home for more than 60 years.

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HARRY F. BYRD III FAMILY WITH POP IN 2007

A family photo from August 2007: Front row, left to right: John Laurence Byrd, Ashley Byrd with daughter Sydney, Harry F. Byrd Jr., Kathryn Imogen Byrd, Barbara J. Byrd. Back row, left to right: Harry F. Byrd IV, Gretchen Christina Byrd and Harry F. Byrd III.

BEVERLEY B. BYRD FAMILY WITH POP IN 2006

A family photo from June 2006: From left: Keith Harrington, Harry F. Byrd Jr., Jennifer P. Greenhalgh, Beverley B. Byrd, Blakeley Thomson Greenhalgh and Langdon Byrd Greenhalgh.

THOMAS T. BYRD FAMILY WITH POP IN 2006

Seated: Jeffrey Thoreck, Courtney Byrd Thoreck, Anne Glass Buettner, Zachary Buettner and Jeff Buettner. Standing, left to right: Julie Glass Barmak, Melyssa Byrd, Thomas Wigton Byrd, Thomas T. Byrd, Sharon M. Byrd, Harry F. Byrd Jr., Katherine Glass McKay, Edward McKay, Amy Byrd Cochran and Robert Cochran.

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POP AT 98: Sen. Byrd, whose grandchildren and great grandchildren called him “Pop,” celebrated his 98th birthday with family and friends in December 2012. The birthday cake highlighted many of his accomplishments. He’s seen below with his granddaughter Gretchen Christina Byrd and other family members.

GRANDCHILDREN WITH POP IN 2010:

GRANDCHILDREN WITH POP IN 2011:

Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr. (center) sits with his grandchildren at his 96th birthday party. Front row, from left to right: Courtney Byrd Thoreck, Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr., Gretchen Christina Byrd and Amy Byrd Cochran. Back row, from left to right: Kathryn Imogen Byrd, Thomas Wigton Byrd, Harry F. Byrd IV, Blakeley Thomson Greenhalgh, Langdon Byrd Greenhalgh and John Laurence Byrd.

The Senator (center) sits with his grandchildren at his 97th birthday party. Front row, from left to right: Courtney Byrd Thoreck, Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr. and Amy Byrd Cochran. Back row, from left to right: John Laurence Byrd, Blakeley Thomson Greenhalgh, Gretchen Christina Byrd, Harry F. Byrd IV, Thomas Wigton Byrd, Langdon Byrd Greenhalgh and Kathryn Imogen Byrd.

THE FIVE HARRYS: Harry F. Byrd III stands next to a portrait of his grandfather, Harry F. Byrd Sr., as his son, Harry F. Byrd IV sits next to his grandfather, Harry F. Byrd Jr., who holds his great-grandson, Harry F. Byrd V.

GREAT GRANDCHILDREN WITH POP IN 2011: Sen Harry F. Byrd Jr. (center) sits with his great grandchildren at his 97th birthday party in 2011. Clockwise from bottom left: Cooper Wilson Greenhalgh, Robert Samuel Cochran IV, Sydney Parker Byrd, Olivia Marie Cochran, Connor Benson Thoreck, Griffin Thomas Thoreck, Owen Parker Thoreck, Julia Dana Thoreck (who is holding Palmer Oliver Byrd), Margaret Courtney Cochran and Harry F. Byrd V.

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FOUR GENERATIONS OF BYRDS: Byrd stands in front of a portrait of his father, Harry F. Byrd Sr., with sons Harry F. Byrd III (center) and Thomas T. Byrd. With them are grandchildren Harry F. Byrd IV, John Laurence Byrd and Thomas W. Byrd.

Byrd is seen with his wife, Gretchen, at Rosemont, the Berryville home of his father, soon after he was appointed to fill his father’s U.S. Senate seat in 1965.

The senator and his son Tom hike Old Rag Mountain Trail.

Seven of the Senator’s grandchildren took him on a weekend trip to Richmond for his birthday present in 2008. Here, they’re visiting the Governor’s Executive Mansion.

THE FOUR HARRYS: Harry F. Byrd IV, Harry F. Byrd Jr. and Harry F. Byrd III sit under a portrait of Harry F. Byrd Sr., their great-grandfather, father and grandfather, respectively.

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POP AT 90 IN 2004: Sen. Byrd, whose grandchildren called him “Pop,” celebrated his 90th birthday with family and friends in December 2004. The birthday cake highlighted many of his accomplishments.

NINE GRANDCHILDREN WITH POP IN 2004:

NINE GRANDCHILDREN WITH POP IN 2006:

Grandchildren gather around Byrd at Courtfield, the family home, to celebrate his 90th birthday party in 2004. Seated: Gretchen Christina Byrd, Sen. Byrd and Courtney Byrd Thoreck. Second row, standing: Kathryn Imogen Byrd, Amy Byrd Cochran, John Laurence Byrd and Thomas Wigton Byrd. Third row, standing: Langdon Byrd Greenhalgh, Harry F. Byrd IV and Blakeley Thomson Greenhalgh.

Sen. Byrd’s nine grandchildren gather to celebrate his 92nd birthday in 2006. Seated front row: Amy Byrd Cochran, Sen. Byrd and Courtney Byrd Thoreck; seated back row: Kathryn Imogen Byrd and Gretchen Christina Byrd; standing: John Laurence Byrd, Thomas Wigton Byrd, Harry F. Byrd IV, Blakeley Thomson Greenhalgh and Langdon Byrd Greenhalgh.

GRANDCHILDREN WITH POP IN 2008:

THE NEWEST GREENHALGH IN 2009:

Seven of the Senator’s nine grandchildren took their grandfather for a weekend in Richmond for his birthday in February. Back row from left: Blakeley Thomson Greenhalgh, Harry F. Byrd IV, Langdon Byrd Greenhalgh, John Laurence Byrd, Thomas Wigton Byrd. Middle row from left: daughter-in-law Jennifer Greenhalgh, Sen. Byrd, daughter-in-law Ashley B. Byrd. Front row: Gretchen Christina Byrd and Kathryn Imogen Byrd.

Cooper Wilson Greenhalgh arrived in 2009. In July 2009, he’s pictured with his father, Blakeley, next to his mother, Jennifer, the proud great-grandfather, Sen. Harry F. Byrd, Jr., his grandmother, Beverley B. Byrd, step-grandfather, Keith Harrington and his uncle, Langdon Byrd Greenhalgh.

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CHECKING IN ON THE DAILY NEWS-RECORD: The senator reads the Daily News-Record, one of the Byrd Newspapers, in his Winchester Star office.

EXPANDING THE BYRD SCHOOL OF BUSINESS:

FOUR GENERATIONS OF HARRY BYRDS:

W. Randy Boxx (right), dean of Shenandoah University’s Harry F. Byrd Jr. School of Business, presents Harry F. Byrd Jr. with a gift of appreciation at the dedication ceremony of the school’s Halpin-Harrison Hall in March 2008.

Harry F. Byrd IV holds his newborn son, Harry F. Byrd V, pictured here with his grandfather, Harry F. Byrd Jr., and father, Harry F. Byrd III.

REMEMBERING A FRIEND:

LEADING THE STAR:

Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr. gave the eulogy for Paul Miller, former Gannett Co. Inc. CEO, during a memorial service in Rochester, N.Y., in 1991.

Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr. stands in front of The Winchester Star office in 2008.

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‘I Have Fought Many Lonely Battles’ FROM PAGE A4 some 506,300 votes out of 915,600 Family cast. The Democratic nominee (31 State Central Committee took an un- percent) and Republican (15 percent) trailed far behind. precedented step. For the first time The historian Virginius Dabney in in nearly 40 years, a Virginia senahis book, “The New Dominion,” had tor, if he is to seek re-election in the Democratic party, will be required to this to say about Sen. Byrd’s 1970 re-election campaign as an Indepensign an oath that he will support for dent: “Harry Byrd, Jr. put on a maspresident whoever is selected by the terful campaign …endowed with perDemocratic National Convention in sonal magnetism …” 1972. In 1998, Byrd recalled these mo“The committee is within its mentous days in an autobiographical rights to require such an oath. I do reminiscence, “Defying the Odds: An not contest its action. Independent Senator’s “I cannot, and will not, sign an Historic oath to vote for and support an individual whose identity I do not know and whose principles and policies are thus unknown. “To sign such a blank check would be, I feel, the height of irresponsibility and unworthy of a member of the United States Senate. “Occasionally there comes a time when one must break with precedent. “For me, such a time has come. “Being an independent Democrat I shall, at the appropriate time, file as an independent in order to preserve my freedom of action. “I realize full well the difficulties I face in this decision. The course I am taking is an uncharted one. But I would rather be a free man than a captive senator.” At that time, only one man had ever won election as an Independent candidate for U.S. senator, George W. Norris of Nebraska in 1936. Time magazine reported March 30, 1970: “His chances are poor, and Byrd may well finish third in a three-way race.” Campaign.” By turning independent, Byrd In the book’s preface, Larfaced a different risk: he and a ry Sabato, professor of government strong GOP candidate might split and foreign affairs at the Univerthe state’s conservative majority, sity of Virginia, observed: “Sen. thus electing a moderate-liberal DeByrd’s election as an Independent … mocrat. The Byrd luck proved good: No strong Republican could be found is a model for politicians who feel shut out by the two major parties willing to run against him; the Deand wish to find an alternative route mocrats nominated their most uneto office. And it is a lectable liberal. warning to the two Byrd’s 1970 foray News of his major political parties from two-party tradiretirement plans that their duopoly is tion proved itself to not invincible, that be a harbinger, and prompted an under the right set of perhaps the inspiraoutpouring of circumstances, a spetion of the “conservacial individual can tive coalition” politics tributes from manage to confound that dominated Virginia campaigns for fellow senators. conventional wisdom and deliver a message more than a decade. to the political establishment …” Some observers, of course, sugByrd’s 1970 victory set a state and gested that “conservative coalition” national precedent — the latter by was just a different name for the taking a majority against two-party same basic components of the opposition. durable old Byrd organization in a By 1976, the conservative coalinew guise. tion gave Byrd his most smashing Whatever else it was, Byrd musvictory. Running without a Republitered a solid 54 percent majority —

can opponent on the 1976 ballot, Byrd trounced Democrat Elmo Zumwalt by taking 57 percent of approximately 1,557,500 votes counted. Byrd’s winning total of 890,778 was an all-time numerical high for any previous Virginia candidate. As the leading symbol of, and coleader with Gov. Mills Godwin in the conservative coalition, Byrd rejected efforts to persuade him to adopt the Republican label. Not even the personal appeals of three presidents — Nixon, Ford and Reagan — could lure him into GOP membership. In 1980, however, as

Harry F. Byrd Jr. (center) with brothers Richard (left) and Beverley sit beneath a portrait of their father, Harry F. Byrd Sr.

Byrd poses with his father and two brothers in Berryville. From left are B. Beverley Byrd, Harry F. Byrd Sr., Harry F. Byrd Jr. and Richard E. Byrd.

his father had in 1952, young Harry felt compelled to break the Byrd “golden silence” and speak out emphatically in a presidential campaign. On Oct. 14, 1980, he endorsed Ronald Reagan and the GOP ticket in a lengthy statement that reviewed and summed up some of the basic thoughts that governed his career as the Independent Byrd. “In the United States Senate,” he began, “I have fought many lonely battles. Rightly or wrongly, I have not always trod the popular road. I know the heartaches of resisting the popular mood. “I am the only senator who is a member of both the Finance Committee and the Armed Service Committee. Perhaps this explains why I believe so firmly the two dominant issues facing the United States today are inflation at home and Russian aggression.” On Dec. 1, 1981, Harry Byrd Jr. surprised the Commonwealth by announcing he would not seek re-election in 1982. He and his wife, Gretchen, had discussed it at some length the preceding summer, and he had made up his mind at that time. “One of the most difficult things in politics — and also in business,” he remarked, “is deciding when to leave. I thought for me the right time was after 36 years of public office.” News of his retirement plans prompted an outpouring of tributes See BATTLES, Page A12

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Byrd Met Famous, Powerful During Life Battles

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from fellow senators. Republican Howard H. Baker of Tennessee — then majority leader — said Byrd was a “marvelous human being” with “warmth of humanity” and “calmness and reason” that stood out in Senate debates. Baker also hailed Byrd’s “independence, his political acuteness, his balanced judgment.” The Democratic minority leader, Robert C. Byrd (no kin) of West Virginia said the Virginian, as “champion of economy … and constant guardian of states’ rights in our constitutional scheme … has fashioned a truly independent role and has earned the admiration of all his Senate colleagues.” An earlier majority leader, Democrat Mike Mansfield of Montana, once described Sen. Byrd Jr. as “an excellent senator who represents Virginia and the nation with dedication, fidelity and integrity.”

Born To Lead Harry Byrd Jr., ninth generation descendant of the William Byrd who came from England in 1670, was born at Winchester on Dec. 20, 1914. His mother, the former Anne Douglas Beverley, came from another family deeply rooted in Virginia’s beginnings. Young Harry grew up playing — and sometimes doing apple picking chores — in the expanding acres of orchards that eventually made his father the nation’s top private applegrower. From childhood, listening to his father and grandfather, the boy was steeped in family political lore. Before his 10th birthday, young Harry drove with his parents across the mountains of West Virginia to hear John W. Davis accept the Democratic nomination for president. When his father went to New York for the 1924 Democratic National Convention, the boy would sit up late at night, bending over a primitive radio receiver, to listen for his father’s voice in the static-punctuated broadcasts of long, hot sessions continuing for more than a week through 102 roll calls. He attended his first national political convention (Democratic 1932) at age 17. There was a more vivid memory of the Virginia campaign rally during the 1925 Democratic primary for governor in which the elder Byrd was a candidate. At the rally, the boy noticed his grandfather taking a seat in a back corner of the hall, holding newspaper pages wrapped around something that turned out to be a pair of pistols. “Your father’s life has been threatened,” Richard Byrd explained. “If anybody starts anything, I’m going to be ready to shoot first.” A governor’s son, young Harry learned, could meet all kinds of interesting people who visited the executive mansion. The Lone Eagle, Charles Lindbergh, gave him a thrilling ride in the Spirit of St. Louis. One day Byrd encountered Lady Astor on her hands and knees playing with his youngest brother, Richard. When Winston Churchill asked for some mustard and none was to be found in the kitchen, young Harry was dispatched to run to the nearest store and fetch a jar. Years later, after World War II, when Byrd and his wife called on the prime minister in London, Churchill returned the favor by giving them a personally guided tour of the House of Parliament. Young Harry also felt the happy glow of kinship to his famous uncle,

Byrd met Presidents Lyndon Johnson (top), Gerald Ford (middle left) and Richard Nixon (middle right) during his tenure as a legislator. Throughout his life, he met famous Americans, including visitors to the Governor’s Mansion when his father was governor of Virginia. Byrd’s uncle, Admiral Richard E. Byrd, was the first person to fly over the North Pole. Byrd also met the late comedian Bob Hope (below) during the Apple Blossom Festival in Winchester.

Admiral Richard E. Byrd. As the first man to fly over the North Pole, and then the South Pole, the admiral was more famous outside Virginia than the governor. News pictures in 1929 showed young Harry at the microphone in Richmond talking to his uncle in Antarctica. (Fifty years later, in 1979, he himself would journey to the South Pole). The boy also enjoyed the excitement of riding with his uncle in a big ticker-tape parade up Broadway in New York. If there were advantages to being the governor’s son, there were also disadvantages. As a Rat at Virginia Military Institute in 1931-32, it seemed that just about every upperclassman wanted to make the boy named Byrd the most paddled Keydet in VMI history. He switched to the University of Virginia two years later to major in government. Though he made the dean’s list three semesters, he never got a degree. Decades later, Byrd would receive university honors, including honorary degrees from Shenandoah University, the University of Richmond and James Madison University. But during his own university days, there were too many pretty girls and parties in Richmond, and too tough a course in his selected language, Italian.

Ink In His Blood At Mr. Jefferson’s University, he

also discovered he was the only member of his class who subscribed to the New York Times, an interest prompted by his inclination to concentrate on developing his family’s newspaper, the Winchester Evening Star, rather than devote himself to the more extensive apple business. Thus, while Byrd became widely known in the field of politics and government, his first and consistent love was newspapering. After attending VMI and the University of Virginia, he returned home to run the two family newspapers, and became editor and publisher of both The Winchester Star and the Harrisonburg Daily News-Record. His newspaper career began in 1935 and continued until his death. During the early part of his jour-

nalism career, he was cited by the Freedom Foundation for excellence in editorial writing. In 1988, the Virginia Press Association named him “Virginian of the Year.” For 15 years, he served as a director and then as vice president of The Associated Press. Over his long public life, he also served on many other boards, including Winchester Evening Star Inc., Rockingham Publishing Co., Park Communications, O’Sullivan Corp., Shenandoah University, Tax Foundation and National Taxpayers Union. He was a 33rddegree Mason and honorary vice president of the Virginia Historical Society. Editing the Evening Star in the See PRESIDENTS, Page A13

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Lifetime Newspaperman FROM PAGE A12 patch reporter Allen Jones described him as “one of the most charming and one of the least communicative” late 1930s, Harry Jr. also had the members of the General Assembly. happy privilege of selecting queens Years later, Byrd confirmed anothfor Winchester’s annual Apple Bloser reporter’s suggestion that his causom Festival. In 1937, he invited tion in commenting on public issues Gretchen Thomson of New Orleans, was due in large measure to concern daughter of a family friend. She accepted — and, in 1941, also accepted that what he said might be misinterpreted as speaking for his father. another proposal. Shortly after they “I had to be very were married, as Byrd had been careful what I said,” World War II heated Byrd noted “and how I up, he applied for a climbing Old said it, and what I did, Naval Reserve comRag since his so as to be sure not to mission. It came reflect adversely on through on Dec. 6, childhood and him.” 1941— the day before At another time, he the Japanese attacked wanted to make explained: “We had an Pearl Harbor. it to the top unusual father-son reDuring World War lationship…. He treatII, he entered the again in his ed me more like a Navy and rose to the 80th year. brother, or a best rank of lieutenant friend…. We argued commander, serving as and disagreed at times, but once a executive officer of a patrol bombing squadron in the Central and Western decision had been made, we kept our Pacific. After the war, he returned to differences to ourselves.” Over the years, Byrd’s lonely and Winchester and his newspapers, and stubborn calls for austerity, economy became active in the apple business. and simplicity in government And politics. brought him admiring responses and appreciative mail from many states. The most touching came from a During Byrd’s tenure in the VirSee NEWSPAPERS, Page A14 ginia Senate, Richmond Times-Dis-

Presidents

His Reputation

Byrd, in the shadow of his father’s statue, was the publisher of numerous newspapers before serving in the U.S. Senate.

The Byrd family crest. It may not show in this photo, but during his tenure in the Virginia State Senate, the Richmond Times Dispatch’s Allen Jones described Byrd as “one of the most charming and one of the least communicative” members of the body.

From left, Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton greeted Byrd throughout the years.

Sen. Byrd speaks with then-President Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office.

Sen. Byrd speaks with then-Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey in January 1966.

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‘I Love The Newspaper Business’ Newspapers

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woman he never met — Miss Annie Bronson, a secretary employed at Harvard Law School. She willed her entire estate, including a comfortable accumulation of AT&T stock, to Harry F. Byrd Jr., to be used as he thought best “for the benefit of the United States.” He set up the Annie Bronson Foundation, with a small board of trustees, to award college scholarships to deserving young Americans and to aid the Freedom Foundation in its awards for patriotic service. While some critics saw Byrd as a tradition-bound inactivist, flawed by devotion to outmoded standards, others admired his steady dedication to Jeffersonian principles of limited government. Although some observers regarded him as a fascinating and charming Sphinx, most people agreed that, whatever else Harry F. Byrd Jr. may have been, he was an astute, shrewd, wellinformed analyst and judge of American politics, both state and national. Byrd retired from the U.S. Senate in 1983. At that point he had served in elected public office for 36 years (18 years in the Virginia Senate and 18 in Washington). After leaving the U.S. Senate, Byrd became chairman of a small group of newspapers, six weeklies and two dailies. He handled the investments for two separate companies and for his own personal portfolio. From 1983 to 1995, Byrd became a director of the O’Sullivan Corp., the largest manufacturer employer in his hometown. He also served as a director of Park Communications,

which published 41 daily newspapers and had nine television stations and 22 radio stations. In 1993 Shenandoah University honored Byrd by naming one of its schools the Harry F. Byrd Jr. School of Business. In 1994 he established a million-dollar endowment for the Harry F. Byrd Jr. Leadership program at the University of Virginia, which presents annual cash awards to 11 high school seniors — one from each congressional district — who “best exemplifies a combination of excellence of character, qualities of leadership and devotion to duty.” The selections are made by a self-perpetuating committee, now chaired by the Chief Justice of Virginia’s Supreme Court. In establishing this endowment, Byrd said, “Being a Jeffersonian in philosophy, I share Thomas Jefferson’s strong conviction that education is an ingredient vital to democratic government. It is my hope that over the years the Byrd Leadership Awards will focus attention on the importance of education; stimulate a desire for excellence on the part of students; enhance self-assurance by the selection committee’s vote of confidence; and provide recognition and financial assistance to students with leadership qualities.” The year 1995 marked two milestones for the former senator: He completed 60 years in the newspaper business, and at the age of 80 got to the top of Old Rag Mountain (elevation 3,300 feet), the highest climb in the Shenandoah National Park. Byrd had been climbing Old Rag since childhood

Byrd enjoyed the outdoors, spending time here at the top of Old Rag Mountain with former governor Gerald Baliles (left) and Richmond Times Dispatch political writer Charles McDowell. At an elevation of 3,300 feet, it is the highest peak in Shenandoah National Park. Byrd climbed the mountain as a child and returned at age 80.

and wanted to make it to the top again in his 80th year. In April 2001, he resigned as president of Rockingham Publishing Co., a post he had held for 55 years. His son, Thomas, succeeded him. In February 2002, the Virginia Legislature passed a joint resolution honoring Byrd’s public service. “The influence of Harry Byrd Jr., on the political life of Virginia during the 20th century was profound, beneficent, and lasting, and the ideas and ideals he espoused continue to ring true as the Commonwealth enters the 21st century,” the resolution stated. Also in 2002, Byrd established an endowment at Virginia Military Institute to give a public service award annually to a public official, elected or appointed, who exemplifies ideals of selflessness, integrity, patriotism and courage. In 2003, Virginia Military

Institute honored Byrd at its New Market Battlefield State Historical Park. VMI presented Byrd, a member of the Class of 1935, with a display honoring five generations of his family and their connections to the institute and service to the nation. VMI honored Byrd again on May 15, 2005, when it awarded him the prestigious New Market Medal. It is the same medal VMI gave to Byrd’s father 40 years earlier. According to the citation, Byrd received the award “in recognition of those same virtues of duty, honor, devotion and leadership which carried forward the VMI Corps of Cadets at the Battle of New Market on May 15, 1864.” Said Gen. J.H. Binford Peay III, VMI’s superintendent: “Senator Byrd’s contributions to the nation have been remarkable.” His service to journalism was remarkable, too, a fact

confirmed two years before the New Market award when Byrd was inducted into the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame in 2003. The award is sponsored by Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Mass Communications. At the time, Byrd said he continued to enjoy the newspaper business even in retirement, having seven papers delivered to him each day. “I never read a newspaper on Sunday. I take a day off,” said Byrd, who marked 70 years at the Winchester Star in July 2005. (A year later, the Virginia Press Association inducted him into its charter Golden 50 Club, which recognizes newspapermen in the business for 50 years or more.) But he never took a day off from enjoying his life as a newpaperman. “I love the newspaper business,” Byrd said at one time.

Byrd with his close friend, Wynnona Kirk, his secretary since 1982.

Barbara Byrd, Thomas Byrd and Harry F. Byrd Jr., tour the Admiral Byrd Middle School in Frederick County. The school is named for Harry F. Byrd Jr.’s uncle, Richard E. Byrd, the first man to fly over the North Pole, and later the South Pole.

Harry F. Byrd III, Barbara Byrd, Thomas Byrd, Harry F. Byrd Jr., Mrs. Joseph Massie, Richard E. Byrd III, Westy Byrd and Harry F. Stimpson III were on hand in 2005 when the Admiral Byrd Middle School opened in Frederick County.

Byrd attended Virginia Military Institute and the University of Virginia, but he joined the family business before he could graduate. In 2006, he received an honorary Ph.D. from James Madison University.

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Sen. Byrd was a newspaperman for much of his life: From 1935 until 1981, he was publisher of The Winchester Star.

Paris Waited, And A Newspaper Career Began By ADRIAN O’CONNOR The Winchester Star

he first thing he did was buy a desk — one of those second-hand, $5 jobs. Then, seated behind that desk, he started work at what was then called The Winchester Evening Star. The date was July 1, 1935. And though his political career took him first to Richmond, to the state Senate, and then to Washington and the U.S. Senate, Harry F. Byrd Jr. never stopped working at The Star, which has been owned by his family for more than 100 years. He has served in myriad capacities — as editorial page editor, managing editor and publisher, and finally, a member of the newspaper’s board of directors, a position he held until his death. Yet, it’s a career he never envisioned, especially at age 20 when all he wanted was Paris. Newspapers always held a certain appeal for Harry F. Byrd Jr. As a collegian at the Virginia Military Institute and then the University of Virginia, Byrd recalled on the occasion of his 70th anniversary at the Star, that he was probably the only member of his class to subscribe to The New York Times. On his daily reading list as well were his hometown newspaper, The Star, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Daily Progress of Charlottesville. “I’ve always loved reading newspapers,” Byrd said in a far-ranging interview conducted in April 2005. “But I did not plan to make it a career at The Star.” Though he had worked at the newspaper for one summer in the

sports department, Byrd had his reasons for not wanting to make journalism his life’s toil. “First, I was reluctant to go to work for my father (former governor and then U.S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd Sr.), and, secondly, I was inclined to a broader horizon than Winchester and Frederick County,” he said. Byrd and his friend and classmate at U.Va., Murat Williams of Richmond, planned to work for an international firm — Freeport Sulfur Co. — of which the latter’s uncle was president. The company had offices in New York … and Paris. “That appealed to me,” Byrd said. But newspapering apparently held a latent appeal as well. Byrd wrote a five-page letter to his father telling him how he thought The Star could be improved. The elder Byrd’s response was considerably shorter — a few sentences noting that some of his son’s suggestions had merit, but others were “totally unrealistic.” Then came the kicker. As the younger Byrd recalled, “He said, ‘You won’t be able to really know, unless you come here and try it.’ Then a short sentence, ‘Why don’t you give it a shot?’ ” Byrd said that he can remember neither “the good ideas (nor) the bad ones. I’ve thought about it at least 100 times, but I can’t find the letter.” The next time father and son were together, they talked about both letters. But Harry Jr., then 20, left his father’s company, knowing “what authority I would have and not have” if he were to accept the offer to return home and work at the family newspaper. “That conversation helped me

with one of my problems about going to work at The Star,” Byrd said. “It eased my concerns about working for my father. “But I still kept thinking about the possibilities of being with an international company. New York and Paris were still on my mind.” The allure of big cities and bright lights would have to wait. In midJune 1935, he accepted his father’s offer and returned to Winchester. And, for all his travels, both as an elected official and a newspaperman, he never truly left. “Throughout these past 70 years,” he says, “I have never for one moment regretted it. “And not until 1951 did I see Paris.” The Star was “a small newspaper with a small staff” when Harry F. Byrd Jr. walked into its offices at 33 E. Boscawen Street to start his career in journalism. Coincidentally, the newspaper’s telephone was also 33. Two full-time employees virtually ran the show. John Hoover was “telegraph editor,” meaning that he oversaw the Associated Press news wire, and doubled as managing editor. Hoover was one of the newspaper’s original employees, dating back to July 4, 1896, when he assisted founder John I. Sloat in launching The Star. Thus, with Byrd still gracing the newspaper with his experience and expertise even at his 70th anniversary, The Star boasted an unbroken link to its founding. Such continuity — over a century — is a rarity in journalism these days. The other full-time employee responsible for the day-to-day news

operation of The Star was longtime business manager Ralph “Fuzzy” Fansler, who initially joined the enterprise as a newspaper carrier. Rounding out the staff were a sports editor, a society (now lifestyles) editor, and three reporters. Three linotype machines produced the news copy, which was then cranked out on a 12-page Goss rotary press. Among Byrd’s earliest charges were to further develop the newspaper’s editorial page and to help Fansler with accounts receivable, some of which, he said, went back to the 1920s. One local attorney, in particular, was “about seven or eight years behind” in paying for some of his legal advertisements, Byrd remembered. “I began visiting him monthly and then weekly,” he said, “but he was never able to see me. When we finally got together, he said he could find no record of the advertising having been inserted.” So one afternoon, after The Star had gone to press, Byrd commandeered seven employees — and seven red wagons. Loaded with bound copies of the newspaper, the little cavalcade left The Star building and proceeded over to North Cameron Street and then down Rouss Avenue to the attorney’s offices. And there the evidence was presented. “I got half of the amount [owed to the newspaper] that day and decided to forget the other half,” Byrd said. The Star’s new editor also commenced taking stock of the newspaper’s makeup, which, he said, still exhibited an “1890s style.” Seeking ideas and inspiration, he subscribed to as many 30 daily See STAR, Page B2

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newspapers and began integrating modern concepts in The Star’s design. “I learned a great deal from both Mr. Hoover and Mr. Fansler, and, after a year or two, each said he had learned a lot from me,” Byrd said. “We had a fine relationship.” He benefited as well from a hands-off approach adopted by his father in Washington. Young Harry Byrd was on his own, which suited him fine. “It was my father’s style in business matters to either immerse himself in details or to almost completely withdraw,” he said. “So fortunately, for me, he gave almost no supervision.” Byrd assumed the position of editor virtually from the day he purchased that old desk in 1935, but he cannot recall precisely when the title of publisher was added to his job description. But following an incident in 1938, he felt fairly secure the position was his. In that year, Byrd’s father informed him that the local state senator was telling one and all that Harry F. Byrd Jr. was “ruining” The Star. “[My father] asked me what I had to say about that,” Byrd remembered. “I said I did not agree with him [the state senator], and that’s the last I heard of the incident. After that point, I guess I assumed I was publisher.”

strong support for the establishment of a local hospital. He practiced law in Winchester, but eschewed the public spotlight, Byrd said, most likely because of poor health. His wife and daughter, in the mid-1890s, also published the Winchester Times. The colonel’s son — Richard, or “Mr. Dick,” to his friends — followed a similar path, in a sense, as he entered the whirl of politics and journalism early in life. He held public office for 28 years — 20 as

become famous later in life. With The Star deeply in debt and its lone source of newsprint, the Antietam Paper Co. in Hagerstown, Md., unwilling to provide credit, young Harry Sr. negotiated a deal: Antietam would continue to supply The Star’s newsprint — but only one day’s supply at a time, cash on delivery. For the better part of a year, Byrd spent many a morning selling ads, collecting debts, and persuading older businessmen to keep

ipation in the newspaper business, it is difficult to say with precision,” his son and namesake said. “But it is appropriate, I think, to say it occurred when I returned from World War II military service in 1946.” By then, the junior Harry Byrd had been with The Star for more than a decade and had run the newspaper more or less on his own. His father, meanwhile, had attained iconic status both in Virginia, as head of the Democratic Party, and in Washington, as

Harry F. Byrd Jr. was known primarily as an elected public official. He served state and nation as such for 36 years — the last 18 in the U.S. Senate. But this remarkable span of service was dwarfed by his tenure at The Star. Thus, it is no surprise that an inevitable question arose during a three-hour interview with Byrd in April 2005: “Looking back over 70 years, would you say that politics or newspapering courses most through your veins?” “I never really thought about it in that context. The short answer is, ‘I really don’t know,’ ” Byrd said with a laugh. “And the long answer, I’m afraid, is a rambling one.” In truth, this “answer” represents a short family history — the Byrd legacy in politics and journalism over five generations. The story begins in the mid-19th century with Col. William Byrd, the senator’s great-grandfather, who was born in Winchester and educated at Virginia schools (VMI, with a law degree from U.Va.) before emigrating to Texas. There, in the Lone Star State, he became both a newspaper editor (the Austin Gazette) and a member of the Texas legislature. Before the Civil War, Col. Byrd was named state adjutant general and then, during the war, was an officer in the Confederate army. His obituary in 1898, notes his great-grandson, said that following the war, he returned home, to Winchester, “broken in health and in fortune.” What’s more, there is no evidence that, upon coming back home, Col. Byrd participated either in journalism — even though his son, Richard Evelyn Byrd, owned the weekly Winchester Times in partnership with Thomas W. Harrison — or in politics, save for his

Sen. Byrd (left) examines a new press in 1969 at the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg with former editor and general manager D. Lathan Mims (right).

commonwealth’s attorney for Frederick County and the last eight in the Virginia Assembly, where he served as Speaker of the House of Delegates for three two-year terms. To date, “Mr. Dick” remains the only lawmaker elevated to the Speaker’s post in his second term in the House. He left public office in 1913 at the age of 53 and practiced law until his death in 1925. Byrd said his grandfather “was regarded as a brilliant lawyer and orator, but was not a businessman.” This became evident during his ownership of The Star, which he purchased in 1897. By 1903, the newspaper was all but bankrupt. To save The Star’s flagging fortunes, “Mr. Dick” turned to his oldest son, Harry Flood Byrd, named for his wife’s beloved brother Hal, a powerful Virginia lawmaker. Harry F. Byrd Sr., future governor and U.S. senator, was but 16 when he assumed the reins of The Star and rescued it from financial ruin, using the classic “pay-as-yougo” principles for which he would

their accounts with The Star. But when the noon train arrived carrying the next edition’s supply of newsprint, he was always there, money in hand. And thus was born the concept of “pay as you go.” His father left the newspapering to him, though “Mr. Dick” reserved the authority to write editorials for The Star. Just a teenager when he started his career in journalism, the elder Harry Byrd entered political life in 1915 when, at age 28, he was elected to the Virginia Senate. Ten years later, he was in the Governor’s Mansion, Virginia’s youngest chief executive since Thomas Jefferson. In 1933, after making his mark as one of Virginia’s more progressive and fiscally conservative governors — a rare combination — Harry F. Byrd Sr. was appointed to serve the unexpired U.S. Senate term of Claude A. Swanson, who had been named Secretary of the Navy by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. “As to when he left active partic-

“watchdog of the Treasury” from his post as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. “My father [much like his father] left newspaper work in mid-life,” the younger Sen. Byrd says. “But he never left political life until his health prompted him to resign from the U.S. Senate just a year before his death. “So I think you could say that politics definitely took precedence over newspapering in coursing through his veins.” Not so for Harry F. Byrd Jr. “With me,” he says, “it is not so clear, although it probably would be newspapering. I retired [from politics] after 36 years in elected public office, at age 68, but as a member of the board of directors of two newspaper companies, I am still, to a degree, involved in the newspaper business at age 90.” Appointed to fill his father’s seat in the Senate in 1965, he served in that capacity until 1983. Two years earlier, Byrd, like his father and grandfather before him, officially See PUBLISHER, Page B3

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Newspapering Coursed Through Veins Publisher

employ to get married. “Ralph said, ‘Dammit, I trained her and now she’s going off and getting married,’ ” Byrd recalled with a laugh. “And then he said, ‘Who’s she marrying anyway?’ And I said, ‘Well, she’s marrying me.’ “Ralph took it in good grace. I had always called her Miss Thomson in the office. He didn’t even know I was dating her.” Harry and Gretchen were married for 48 years before her death on Oct. 26, 1989.

FROM PAGE B2

turned over The Star’s day-to-day operations to a son, whom he had first put to work in his early teens doing odd jobs in the press room and composing room. In 1973, Thomas T. Byrd took over The Star’s daily operations as general manager and, on March 5, 1981, succeeded his father as publisher. He represents the fourth generation of the Byrd family to hold that title at The Star and the fifth generation to run a newspaper in Winchester.

“For outstanding achievement in bringing about a better understanding of the American way of life.” — Medallion presented to Harry F. Byrd Jr. for editorial writing by the Freedoms Foundation, Valley Forge, Pa., 1953 One of Harry F. Byrd Jr.’s first duties at The Star was to reinvigorate and enhance the newspaper’s editorial page. It was a task that suitably melded his — and his family’s — penchant for politics and journalism. If there was one constant in the senator’s decades at The Star, it was been editorial writing. Even in his seventh decade, he contributed the occasional opinion to the top left-hand corner of Page A4. Asked if any one particular editorial still resonates in his mind, Byrd immediately recalls what he wrote on the afternoon of Dec. 7, 1941 when The Evening Star, as did many newspapers the nation over, quickly cobbled together an “Extra” on the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, home of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific fleet. His prose was sparse, and his sentiments clear and to the point: “The developments of the past 12 hours are almost unbelievable. The madness of Japan is staggering … “Yesterday, the people of the United States were peace-loving, peaceful. Today, we are no less peace-loving, only less peaceful. “Yesterday, our people were sharply divided, wholly disunited. Today we are as one. “Every resource of this resourceful nation — of these united people — will be used to annihilate our enemy.” But Byrd also vividly remembers an editorial he penned in response to a considerably less momentous [albeit memorable] event — a speech by President Franklin D. Roosevelt calling for the defeat of incumbent Democratic Sen. Walter George of Georgia. Following his landslide victory over Republican Alfred M. Landon in 1936, Roosevelt was riding high. But a number of more conservative Democratic senators — Bennett “Champ” Clark of Missouri, Millard Tydings of Maryland, and “Cotton Ed” Smith of South Carolina, among them — strongly opposed the president’s New Deal legislation, as did a majority on the Supreme Court, dubbed the “nine old men.” Walter George was part of that former group. In 1938, Roosevelt spoke at a political meeting in Georgia, excoriating George and urging his defeat. But then he ended his speech with the words, “God bless you, Walter.” Back in Winchester, Byrd seized the moment, writing a front-page editorial citing “good reasons for

From left, Byrd, Raymond Crist and D. Lathan Mims, then the editor and general manager of the Daily News-Record, at a company Christmas party.

Sen. George’s re-election” in the Democratic primary. He headlined the opinion with Roosevelt’s closing words, “God bless you, Walter.” George was re-elected. But endorsements were rare in those days, at least in presidential elections. As Byrd noted, The Star, in the first 40 years of its existence, uniformly backed the Democratic nominee for the White House. But, for the next 40, it did not endorse either presidential candidate. In the past quarter-century, the newspaper has officially backed the Republican hopeful. In 1950, two years after his first successful run for the state Senate, Harry F. Byrd Jr. was also elected to the Associated Press Board of Directors. Elevated with him was Paul Miller, president of the Gannett newspaper chain. Youth was clearly not at a premium on the board. At the time, Byrd was 35, Miller was 42 — and the 16 other members were all in their 60s, 70s, and 80s. In fact, as Byrd recalls, the editor and publisher of the Oakland (Calif.) Tribune was 84 — “exactly double Paul’s age.” Miller proved to be one of Byrd’s “closest and dearest friends” — the first employee of the AP to rise to its presidency. Before moving to Gannett, Miller had been the AP’s bureau chief in Washington. New rules dictated that an AP director could only serve three successive three-year terms. But, after leaving the board in 1959, both Miller and Byrd were re-elected — the former in 1960, the latter in 1961 — the first time that had ever happened in the history of the AP. Byrd later resigned his directorship when he was appointed to succeed his ailing father in the U.S. Senate. Emerging from Byrd’s friendship with Miller were a number of writing assignments for Gannett. In 1951, for instance, Byrd spent eight weeks in Europe interviewing political leaders, starting in Great Britain with

Winston Churchill. Over his seven decades with The Star, Harry F. Byrd Jr. made several key hiring decisions and was blessed with relationships he has long treasured. From the early days, there was John Hoover and Ralph Fansler. Then, in 1954, seeking an editor to oversee operations at The Star’s sister newspaper in Harrisonburg, the Daily News-Record, Byrd went to New York to speak with Wes Gallagher, the AP’s general manager. Gallagher recommended the organization’s former bureau chief for North Carolina and South Carolina, who by then was raising funds for Wofford College. By company policy, the AP could not rehire this man. But Byrd certainly could offer him a job. And that is how Lathan Mims, longtime editor of the Daily NewsRecord, came to Harrisonburg. Seven years later, Byrd called on his associates at the AP once again, this time for a new editor at The Star. Though the AP wouldn’t specifically recommend the person he had in mind for the position — West Virginia bureau chief Jack Davis — Byrd hired him anyway. Davis served as executive editor and, three years later in 1964, took on the duties of general manager. He left The Star in 1973 when he was hired by Virginia Gov. Mills E. Godwin as a special assistant. For 39 years, Audrey Jones was Byrd’s personal secretary. In addition to running his office at The Star, Jones would, at times, travel to Richmond during General Assembly sessions. There, in the Senate chamber, Byrd would dictate correspondence, which Jones would type on her return to Winchester. Finally, one day in the summer of 1941, Byrd and Fansler were discussing personnel. The former noted that a replacement would have to be found on the news staff for a certain Gretchen Thomson, who was leaving the newspaper’s

“Yesterday, the people of the United States were peace-loving, peaceful. Today, we are no less peace-loving, only less peaceful. Yesterday, our people were sharply divided, wholly disunited. Today we are as one. Every resource of this resourceful nation — of these united people — will be used to annihilate our enemy.” » from Byrd’s editorial on Dec. 7, 1941, after the invasion of Pearl Harbor

Looking back over 70 years, Byrd said his foremost accomplishment as a newspaperman was being the first publisher of a daily newspaper in Virginia to take his publication from “hot” type to “cold.” Offset printing came to The Star in 1964. “Today,” Byrd said, “that is the standard for virtually every newspaper in the United States.” But the publisher himself was neither in the newspaper office nor even in Winchester on the day of the big change. “After I made the decision to go offset, Jack [Davis] decided to accomplish the changeover in one day,” Byrd said. “I told him I would not object, but that the best way for me to be helpful to him would be for me to leave the city, which I did.” More than 40 years and a U.S. Senate career later, Byrd didn’t miss many days at The Star. To the end, he sat behind his desk — though not the original $5 secondhand version — and plied the trade of journalism. He was still reading at least seven newspapers daily, and still did “research in areas that could be helpful to current operations.” Old habits, he admitted, die hard. In 2004, much as he did seven decades ago as a fledgling editor, he subscribed to 30 different newspapers nationwide — all in The Star’s circulation range of between 20,000 and 30,000 — for 10 weeks at a time to compare and contrast composition and makeup. In the same vein, he also undertook a study to compare the number of locally bylined stories in The Star and Daily News-Record with those of “15 or 20 other newspapers, some in Virginia and some nationwide.” In other words, Harry F. Byrd Jr. stayed busy and vitally interested in the business of a lifetime, one that he nearly bypassed for a “broader horizon” — and Paris — some 70 years ago. He enjoyed it and, in a special sense, things have changed very little since the day in 1935 when he took pen in hand and, in that letter to his father, offered his suggestions for improving The Star. “I like being in a building where newspaper people are,” he said. “And, although I have no authority in regards to operations, I sometimes will make suggestions, which sometimes are accepted and, more often, are ignored. “But I enjoy thinking about newspaper matters, though I do try to hold to a reasonable number the ideas I might throw out. It’s a habit I acquired many years ago. When one gets older, habits are difficult to break.” How true, but once a journalist, forever a journalist.

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Harry F. Byrd Sr. with his daughter, Westwood Byrd, and his son, Harry F. Byrd Jr.

The June 1948 issue of PIC, the magazine for young men: Father’s Day issue featured three Harry F. Byrds: Harry Flood Byrd III (center) with his father, Harry Flood Byrd Jr. on his right and his grandfather, Harry Flood Byrd Sr. to his left.

Harry F. Byrd Jr., 10, stands next to his mother Anne Douglas Beverley, his father Harry F. Byrd Sr., then governor of Virginia (1926-30), brothers Beverley (left), Richard (on the chair) and sister Westwood in this 1927 family photo.

Howard O. Allen / Allen Studio

FATHER AND SON: Harry F. Byrd Sr. and Harry F. Byrd Jr. talk during the annual Byrd picnic in 1960.

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“My father was not only my father, but my dearest and closest friend.”

Harry F. Byrd Jr. (left) shares a moment with his father, Sen. Harry F. Byrd Sr.

Harry F. Byrd Jr. stands as his father, Sen. Harry F. Byrd Sr., sits with his dog, Pamela, in 1965. Sen. Byrd Sr. died in October 1966.

Sen. Byrd signs copies of The Winchester Star on its 100th birthday. He started working at the Star on July 1, 1935. He was publisher of Harrisonburg’s Daily News-Record starting in 1946. During the early part of his journalism career, Byrd was cited by the Freedom Foundation for excellence in editorial writing. In 1988, the Virginia Press Association named him “Virginian of the Year.”

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Sen. Byrd, flanked by Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors President Sam Witt (left) and VMI Superintendent J.H. Binford Peay III, watch as the VMI band march in review during an event in 2005 where Byrd received the New Market Medal. Byrd’s father won the medal 40 years earlier.

Sen. Byrd — with former congressman and Secretary of the Army John O. Marsh Jr. at a VMI event — was in the class of 1935 at Virginia Military Institute.

New Market Medal Recipients 1962 — Charles E. Kilbourne, former VMI Superintendent and Medal of Honor recipient; 1964 — George C. Marshall, former General of the Army; 1965 — Harry F. Byrd Sr., former Virginia governor and U.S. senator; 1971 — Lemuel C. Shepherd Jr., former Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps; 1974 — Colgate W. Darden Jr., former governor of Virginia and president of the University of Virginia; 1978 — Mills E. Godwin Jr., two-time governor of Virginia; 1980 — Elmon T. Gray, Virginia legislator; 1984 — John D. deButts, former chairman of AT&T; 1994 — Robert H. Patterson, former chairman of McGuire Woods Battle and Boothe; 2000 — Sol W. Rawls Jr., fomer chairman of SW Rawls Inc.; 2005 — Harry F. Byrd Jr., former newspaper publisher, Virginia senator and U.S. senator; 2006 — John O. Marsh Jr., former Secretary of the Army and former Congressman.

VMI Superintendent J.H. Binford Peay III and Sen. Byrd pose with the New Market Medal, which Byrd won in 2005. The New Market Medal is VMI’s highest honor. Only 12 medals have been awarded in more than 40 years.

Sen. Byrd (center), with the help of his son Harry F. Byrd III, stands to shake hands with the Honorable Robert Gates, former secretary of defense, as Norfolk Mayor Paul D. Fraim, president of the Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors (left), and VMI Superintendent J. H. Binford Peay, III, (right) look on. Sen. Byrd stands with the Honorable Robert Gates, former secretary of defense, on Oct. 30, 2012.

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“Rightly or wrongly, I have not always trod the popular road. I know the heartaches of resisting the popular mood.” » Harry F. Byrd Jr., candidate for Virginia state Senate, 1947

LouAnn Thompson, festival president, chats with Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr. as he prepares to ride in the 2013 Apple Blossom Festival’s Grand Feature Parade in Winchester.

Sen. Byrd and J. Kenneth Robinson at an Apple Blossom Festival parade. Each served on the first float May 3, 1924. Byrd was the last survivor of the 1924 festival.

Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr. (second from right) shares a laugh with former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, retired Virginia Supreme Court Senior Justice Harry L. Carrico (left) and former Secretary of the Army John O. Marsh Jr. after O’Connor received the Harry F. Byrd Jr. Public Service Award at Virginia Military Institute on March 26, 2008.

Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr. speaks with Norman Vaughan, a member of Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s 1928-29 Antartica expedition, and Dr. James Davis at Shenandoah University in 1995.

Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr. was an active member of the board of directors of Rockingham Publishing Co. and Winchester Evening Star Inc. for more than seven decades. Managers and directors of both companies gathered in December 2007 for board meetings for both companies. From left to right: Peter S. Yates, editor and general manager of the Daily News-Record; John O. Marsh Jr., director; Sen. Byrd Jr., director; Harry F. Byrd III, director; Thomas T. Byrd, director; Thomas W. Byrd, assistant to general manager of The Winchester Star; Robert P. Black, director; and Harry F. Stimpson III, director.

Sen. Byrd, 87 at the time, gave his last public speech to the Virginia Senate in 2002, some 55 years after his own election as a member of that body. He was honored for his years of service. Joining him in this photo from the Richmond Times-Dispatch were then-Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine (left), Winchester-area State Sen. Russ Potts and Loudoun County Sen. William Mims, whose father was once the editor of the Daily News-Record.

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“The influence of Harry Byrd Jr., on the political life of Virginia during the 20th century was profound, beneficent, and lasting, and the ideas and ideals he espoused continue to ring true as the Commonwealth enters the 21st century.” » Virginia’s Legislature, in a 2002 resolution

Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr. at Bridgewater College in 1982.

Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr. was on hand in 2008 as the Winchester Rotary Club installed its first woman president. Sharen Gromling (left) incoming president, Sen. Byrd, club president in 1940, and outgoing president Bernie Demski marked the occasion at the club’s June 26, 2008, meeting.

Sen. Byrd with the Hon. Mills E. Godwin Jr. (center) and the Hon. Raymond R. Guest Jr.

Virginia’s governor Gerald L. Baliles (left) and Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr. take a break halfway up Old Rag Mountain in 1987.

Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr. congratulates Ralph D. Shockey as he is named 1997’s Citizen of the Year by the Winchester-Frederick Chamber of Commerce. Earlier that night, The Winchester Star was recognized by the chamber as Large Business of the Year.

Sen. Byrd with the Hon. John O. Marsh Jr., the Hon. Russ Potts, Jack Hardesty, the Hon. Charles Robb and the Hon. Alson H. Smith.

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Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr., who was a member of the United States Senate Armed Services Committee and the senior U.S. senator from Virginia, speaks with his constituents on the steps of the Richard Brevard Russell Senate Office Building.

The Rev. Billy Graham visited Sen. Byrd at his home, Courtfield, in 1972. Graham was grand marshal of the Apple Blossom Festival. Sitting next to the senator is B. Beverley Byrd, his nephew, and his granddaughter, Courtney, is on his lap.

Sen. Byrd enjoyed civic life, including judging pageants (above) and supporting the local fire department (right, with Bill Hume, then the fire chief in Harrisonburg).

Dr. Laurence Gold and Sen. Byrd (right) leave Christchurch for Antartica in 1979 in observance of the 50th anniversary of Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s historic flight over the pole in 1929. Admiral Byrd was Sen. Byrd’s uncle. Gould was second in command of the 1929 expedition.

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Sen. Byrd celebrated the 50th anniversary of The Winchester Star Leadership awards on June 12, 2004, with an event featuring past winners.

Sen. Byrd is shown with former leadership award winners (from left) Ricky Leonard (1976, Warren County High School), Wendell Dick (1958, James Wood High School) and Gary Pope (1969, Clarke County High School). Sen. Byrd is smiling at a comment being made by Michael Foreman, a 1959 Handley High School winner (not pictured).

Sen. Byrd and son Tom pose for a photograph with Wynnona Kirk, Sen. Byrd’s secretary since 1982.

THREE GENERATIONS AT THE STAR: Sen. Byrd with grandson Thomas W. Byrd (left) and son Thomas T. Byrd in the Senator’s office at The Winchester Star. Of five generations of Byrds who worked at the Star, Sen. Byrd was the third (beginning in 1935), his son Thomas T. the fourth (1971-present) and Thomas W. (Nov. 2007-April 2009; 2013-present). The Byrd family acquired the newspaper Oct. 1, 1897. Richard E. Byrd was the first Byrd publisher (1897-1913) and his son, Harry F. Byrd Sr. succeeded him from 1913-1935. The Star was founded July 4, 1896, by John I. Sloat.

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Sen. Byrd celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Daily News-Record Leadership Awards in 2005 with a banquet in Harrisonburg. As of 2013, 255 awards had been presented, totaling more than $675,000. While at the event, Byrd met several former winners, including Rebecca Liddle, a winner in 1995 (left) and Carlissa Shiflet Alexander, a winner in 1986.

As publisher, Sen. Byrdâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s son, Tom, (right) has continued the leadership awards. The awards program started in 1955.

At the 50th anniversary celebration, Sen. Byrd expressed hope that the program would continue for at least another 50 years.

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75 Years Winchester Star Honors Sen. Byrd’s Diamond Anniversary At The Newspaper This is an editorial that ran July 3, 2010, in The Winchester Star to honor Sen. Byrd’s 75 years at the newspaper. For retired U.S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr., the association began with a letter long and detailed — and a secondhand $5 desk. Though his grandfather and father — Richard E. and Harry F. Byrd Sr., respectively — had overseen the fortunes of The Star for nearly four decades, 20-year-old Harry Jr. was dreaming of Paris, and a job with Freeport Sulfur Co., when he penned that fateful letter. Written to his father, it explained how he, Harry Jr., thought the newspaper could be improved. That prompted a paternal response from Harry Sr., and, ultimately, a conversation between father and son, one that left the latter on firmer footing as to what his responsibilities and authority would be should he accept his dad’s offer to work at The Star. So Harry Jr. purchased that desk, and, on July 1, 1935 — 75 years ago today — took a seat behind it at the newspaper’s office at 33 W. Boscawen St. and started work. The rest is history. Though a distinguished political career took him to halls of power in Richmond and, then, Washington, Sen. Byrd has remained a constant — a fixed “Star,” if you will — at this newspaper. Over the years, he has served as editorial page editor, editor and publisher, and member of the Board of Directors, a position he, at the age of 95, still holds. Seventy-five years, imagine that.

Sen. Byrd celebrated 75 years at The Winchester Star on July 1, 2010. During his time at the paper, he has seen the industry evolve from the use of “hot lead” and cold type to the computer-driven pagination of today’s publications.

While it is commonplace these days for folks to live well beyond those “threescore years and 15,” it is hard to fathom a professional — or marital, for that matter — association of such longevity. For instance, this country, just this week, observed the passing of one of Sen. Byrd’s longtime colleagues — who happened to share the same last

name — and we marveled at the length of his legislative service. But Robert C. Byrd’s 58 years in Congress are still a far cry from Harry F. Byrd’s 75 years at The Star. Perhaps a more apt comparison can be found in the sporting realm, in the person of Penn State football legend Joe Paterno, poised to begin his 45th season as head coach of

the Nittany Lions. Nonetheless, when “JoePa” landed in Happy Valley as a 24-year-old assistant to Rip Engle in 1950, Sen. Byrd had already been at The Star for 15 years. And now he is celebrating — or, more appropriately, we are celebrating — his diamond jubilee at this newspaper. No less than five generations of Byrds have steered The Star’s ship since the family assumed ownership of this enterprise in 1897. The vital link, of course, is the man we still affectionately call “The Senator.” Consider, for perspective’s sake: The Star has been around three days short of 114 years, the Byrds have owned it for 113 — and Sen. Byrd has been actively involved in its operations for 75 of them, nearly two-thirds of its history. We’ll forgo the cultural and political changes he’s witnessed, and focus momentarily on those in the newspaper business. In that vein, let’s just say he’s seen “hot lead” and cold type, manual Royal typewriters and desktop PCs, paste-up and pagination. And we’d venture to say that while politics has been Sen. Byrd’s life, newspapering has been his love. Or it is vice versa? For our part, we’d opt for the former, summoning as we do Sen. Byrd’s perennial presence and interest in our daily endeavors and the joy he receives in crafting the occasional editorial for this page. Seventy-five years removed the day he first set himself behind that $5 desk, Harry F. Byrd Jr. is still the brightest “Star” in our sky.

Still Bloomin’ After 95 Years Byrd Attended Every Apple Blossom Festival Since 1933 By MARIA HILEMAN The Winchester Star

Lucille Ball, the madcap redhead with the wide, lipsticked smile who stole America’s heart at the dawn of the television era, once melted at the sight of a Clarke County orchard awash in white apple blossoms. “She had tears streaming down her face,” recalled former Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr. of a car ride he took with the star to the Rosemont estate in Clarke County when she came to Winchester in 1964 to serve as grand marshal in the Grand Feature Parade of the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival. “She said she wanted to ride on the hood of my car while I drove through an orchard. She had her own movie camera and she wanted to take pictures of the apple trees in full bloom.” Byrd said she told him, “We don’t have anything as pretty as this in California.” Years later, when Byrd called Ball to compliment her on her daughter Lucie’s vocal performance at a White House dinner, he said she recalled the orchard incident and told him she still looked at the movie.

The Apple Blossom Festival, steeped as it is in 83 years of tradition, is as much about nostalgia as it is about the creation of new memories. At a time when parades are waning in popularity across the nation, Winchester’s traditional rite of spring is still going strong. Byrd, 95, has a singular perspective on the annual event that brings out 250,000 people in pure celebration of the natural beauty of a Shenandoah Valley springtime. “The thing I like best about it is that every group in the community participates,” he said. “This year there are 2,500 community volunteers giving of their time and efforts to make it a success. The community has embraced it.” The Lions Club, he noted, has put on the Grand Feature Parade for 70 years. Thomas Wood Baldridge served as director-general of the event for 30 years (1938-1968), earning the sobriquet “Mr. Apple Blossom” and bringing a deep sense of continuity to the planning of the festival year after year. But few traditions surpass Byrd’s own association with the event. He was in the queen’s court as a page on the

Sen. Byrd was involved with the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival most of his life and spent almost 40 years recruiting celebrities, including Lucille Ball and Bob Hope, for the festival.

float in the first Apple Blossom Grand Feature Parade in 1924 as a 9year-old boy. He selected and escorted a pretty young woman named Gretchen Thomson from New Orleans when she was the Apple Blossom queen in 1937. And four years later, he married her. He has attended every subsequent festival except for 1932 and 1933, when he was a cadet at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington and could not get home to Winchester for the event. For many years from the 1930s through the 1970s, Byrd took an active part in recruiting celebrities for the festival. During those years he served as editor and publisher of the Winchester Evening Star, 18 years as a Virginia

senator and 18 years in the U.S. Senate. In 1948, he recruited Bing Crosby to be the grand marshal when the singer was at the height of his popularity. Byrd recalled how he convinced a colleague, Sen. Stuart Symington of Missouri, to deliver a letter to comedian Bob Hope at Christmas in 1974, inviting him to be the grand marshal of the parade in 1975. Symington and Hope were golfing buddies and were planning to spend Christmas together. Hope had been the grand marshal in 1949. When Hope called Byrd in response to the invitation, he said, “I should not accept your invitation.” When Byrd asked why that would be, Hope said, “Because it’s

taken you 26 years to invite me back.” But he came that year, nonetheless. Byrd also recalled Ball’s acceptance when she returned his phone call from the clerk’s office just off the Senate floor in the Capitol Building in Richmond. A young aide burst into a formal session of the Senate to announce loudly that “I Love Lucy” was on the phone for Sen. Byrd, he said. He invited Bing Crosby’s daughter Mary Frances Crosby to be the queen in 1948, and made sure she called home to talk to her family at 5 p.m. each day. Byrd and his wife hosted Apple Blossom queens as guests in their Winchester home for 20 years from the early 1950s through the early 1970s. While the memories of celebrities flow easily, it’s clear Byrd has a particularly soft spot for the queens. When he finished at the University of Virginia in 1935 and returned to Winchester to become editor of the family-owned newspaper, Byrd became involved with the festival. He said “elderly people” had been choosing the queens, and he was asked to take on the task at the age of 20.

“Those running it felt I was a good age, and I got to talk to a lot of pretty girls,” he said with a hint of a mischievous smile. “I sort of liked that job.” He still remembers the first young ladies whom he invited to be queens and where they came from: Cornelia Larus (1936) of Richmond, who was the friend of his friend Frank McCarthy from VMI; Gretchen Thomson (1937), his future wife; and Adelaide Moffett (1938), a nightclub singer from New York. He said he chose the queen for her personality, for the prominence of her family, for her maturity, and whether he felt she would make a good impression. The daughters of Presidents Gerald Ford and Lyndon Johnson and the granddaughter of President Dwight D. Eisenhower have served as queens. These days, the former senator sits on the sidelines, watching the Grand Feature Parade from a cozy chair on the porch of a private home along Washington Street. As the floats pass slowly in front of him, one senses that visions of long ago Blooms are certainly passing by as well.

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Small-Town Papers Have Advantages This article appeared in the September 1955 edition of the American Society of Newspaper Editors newsletter.

I have written editorials for 20 years for two small-town dailies 68 miles apart, as editor of one and as publisher of both. Not having tasted the heady wines available to the big city editor, I shall attempt to argue the case for the small newspaper and the one-man editorial page. The one-man page necessarily must suffer from lack of diversity, or at least intelligent diversity. A small-town editor suffers from lack of adequate reserve facilities. He must rely too much on memory. Too often must he omit information which would strengthen his piece, but which is not available at the newspaper office itself. In the metropolitan field I assume that each editorial writer more or less specializes in certain fields and becomes an authority. This, I admit, has definite advantages; but doesn’t it tend to narrow one’s viewpoint? The excellent reference and research facilities of the metropolitan newspaper, together with an adequate number of editorial writers, certainly make available basic material for a well-rounded, factual and interesting editorial page. But I submit that a smalltown editor is closer to the public and to the views of the citizens as a whole than are editorial writers in the large cities. The editor of a small paper is, I believe, more an integral part of his community. He is thrown socially, politically or businesswise with every group. He is more readily available and, of course, must see, regardless of how busy he is or how inconvenient it might be, any local citizen who comes to his unprotected office. In a small town there is no such thing as saying “Mr. Byrd is in conference and cannot be disturbed.” A small-town editor generally is known by name or sight, or both, to a substantial number of his readers who do not hesitate to stop him on the street or telephone him at home or office (My secretary says to insert at this point that the same applies to her). It seems to me that editorial writers on the large papers not only are not as close to their readers, but do not have percentagewise as many opportunities to obtain the views and feelings of those who read the editorials. Maybe this is why metropolitan editorial pages frequently are out of step with election returns. (Or maybe I am just trying to pick a fight). To me, editorial work on a small newspaper is fascinating — and I feel certain that the same fascination would apply to editorial work on a large newspaper. However, I prefer the small newspaper, despite the severe limitations in obtaining a wellrounded editorial page. For better or for worse, the philosophy of the page is one’s own, and is so recognized by the readers. If I have sold anyone on the overwhelming advantages of small-town newspapering, I shall turn my desk over to the first caller — and take a month’s vacation.

FLOOD h i s

o w n

Friday, August 2, 2013

BYRD

B13

JR.

w o r d s

A Heritage Bought With Blood Published Oct. 1, 1953, this editorial received the George Washington Honor Medal of the Freedoms Foundation. When the author of the Declaration of Independence wrote that “if the choice were left to me whether to have a free press or a free government, I would choose a free press,” he was not thinking of a freedom conferred for their own benefit upon owners of newspapers. Thomas Jefferson and his co-revolutionaries had lived under a government controlled press. They realized what the Virginia Constitution cited: “Freedom of the press is the great bulwark of all liberty: if it is restrained, all liberty fails.” It is difficult for a newspaper man to discuss the significance of a free press without conveying the impression that he has a selfish motive — that he favors a free press merely because he is a part of the press. So in preparing this, I tried to put myself in the frame of mind of too many Americans — “what difference does freedom of the press make to me? I am not a newspaper publisher, or editor, or writer. It’s of little concern to me whether the American press is free or controlled.” This is a somewhat plausible attitude — certainly to us of this complacent generation. For more than 160 years the American people have enjoyed a free press; we have not lived under a government controlled press or a church controlled press. So in preparing this I said to myself, “Maybe my motive is selfish, maybe if I were not a newspaperman I would not worry about the freedom of press as guaranteed by our Constitution.” Then I re-read the Constitution and some of the debates of the constitutional convention of 1787. I then realized anew that those who insisted that the very first articles of our Constitution guarantee to every American of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of the press were not newspaper publishers or editors. (They were merchants, lawyers, frontiersmen, farmers, soldiers.) I realized anew, too, that freedom of speech and freedom of religion and freedom of the press are synonymous. They mean, one and all, collectively and individually — simply freedom of expression for the individual, within the bounds of common decency. And after all was not this the reason — the real reason — our forefathers gave of their blood and of their lives? It was for that one magic word — liberty: Liberty to worship God in any manner we see fit, and liberty to express our views on any subject, whether orally or in writing. This is the most priceless heritage a people can possess. No, the framers of the Constitution of these United States did not spill their blood merely that editors and publishers might be free to print and comments on the news without restraint; they did it to assure liberty of action and liberty of expression to the individual citizen. They realized that individual freedom could not survive if the government, the church or any other group had any control, however, remote, over the channels of expression. Therefore the channels of expression must be free. The Signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Framers of our Constitution realized the importance, nay the necessity, of a free press for the very reason that we today do not. They had lived under a government controlled press.

They were not interested in a free press for the newspaper’s sake; they were interested in a free press as the only effective way to protect their own individual liberties. All history tells us that the one sure way to regiment a nation is first to regiment its mind. Dictators have had diverse personalities, have handled differently the emotions of their peoples, have varied their propaganda approach. But throughout history, all from necessity took the same basic step: Each subjugated the press as logic told them they must do in order to promote and maintain their dictatorships. It was true of Hitler; it was true of Stalin; it was true of Mussólini: it was true of the royal rulers of France and of Great Britain; it was true today in Argentina, in Czechoslovakia, in Poland. Read the words of Nikolai Lenin, founder of Communist Russia, in a speech in Moscow, 1920: “Why should freedom of speech and freedom of the press be allowed? Why should a government which is doing what it believes to be right allow itself to be criticized? Ideas are more fatal things than guns. Why should any man be allowed to buy a printing press and disseminate pernicious opinions calculated to embarrass the government?” Dr. Gainza Paz, publisher of the famous Argentinan newspaper, La Prensa, seized by the Peron government, uses these words to explain why a dictator fears an uncontrolled press: “News from free countries comes to oppressed peoples and teaches the benefits of liberty. News from an oppressed and terrified country teaches a bitter lesson to other countries which still have all or part of their freedom. News makes them reflect. Every dictator knows these elemental principles very well. Therefore, every dictator hastens to raise barriers against the circulation of news within his country, impede the entrance of news into it and forbid the dispatch of news from it. News must be kept down.” But, you may say, what guarantee does the public have that the press will not abuse its freedom? The only truthful reply is that there are no absolute guarantees. There are corrupt and disreputable newspapers just as there are shyster lawyers, quack doctors, dishonest merchants and grafting public officials. But the overwhelming majority of newspapers, like the overwhelming majority of lawyers, and doctors and merchants and public officials are honest, conscientious and patriotic. Were it otherwise, America long ago would have ceased to

be the great nation it is today. No, the American press is not perfect. It makes mistakes — and plenty. We agree thoroughly with Benjamin Franklin that “abuses of expression ought to be suppressed, but,” continued Franklin, “to whom dare we commit the care of doing it.” This is the crux of the whole situation — “to whom dare we commit the care” of determining what the people may or may not read. American newspapers are free from restraint before publication but they are held responsible after publication. They must face the courts is libelous statements are printed. This is a citizen’s recourse against an unscrupulous publisher. Another safeguard against a newspaper abusing its rights is the severe competition to which all newspapers are subjected. There are approximately 1,900 daily newspapers in the United States with a daily circulation of more than 50,000,000; and there are 10,000 weekly newspapers. Practically all of these are under different ownership, all have different editors and news writers. You here in this community have access to — delivered here daily — at least a dozen different newspapers. The only control over the channels of expression a free nation can allow is control by the people themselves in refusing to patronize unworthy publications. So when we in free America consider the subject of a free press, let us consider it carefully; let us consider the alternative; let us look at those countries in which the press is not free; let us, too, look back to 1776 and to our priceless heritage of liberty given to us by the blood of those who regarded freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of the press as the foundation of our democracy. Let us remember that freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press are synonymous — that we can’t have one without the others. And let us remember that the Dark Night can fall here just as it did in Argentina. An American president only a few years ago proclaimed his “inherent” right to seize newspapers and radio stations, if, in his opinion, it would served the best interests of the country, a theory the Supreme Court overruled. But the Supreme Court changes just as do presidents, and so long as human nature, essentially powergasping, continues as it is, the threat to the liberties of the individual citizen always is a possibility. Eternal vigilance on the part of the public is essential.

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Daily News-Record 08/01/2013 B14

Friday, August 2, 2013

Copy Reduced to %d%% from original to fit letter page SPECIAL SECTION

The ad below was published by The Winchester Star on July 1, 2010, in recognition of Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr’s 75th anniversary with the paper.

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THE WINCHESTER STAR

WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 2013

A4 WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 2013

THE WINCHESTER STAR

WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 2013

A6 WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 2013

THE WINCHESTER STAR

TheWinchester Star Monday, August 5, 2013 118th YEAR No. 27

WINCHESTER, VIRGINIA 22601

75¢

Harry F. Byrd Jr. laid to rest By VIC BRADSHAW

n More photos | A3, A10

The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Hundreds of local residents and state political leaders said goodbye to former U.S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr. Saturday afternoon at a funeral service at Christ Episcopal Church that recalled his devotion to his nation, his state and his family. Byrd, who at 98 was America’s oldest living former U.S. senator, died Tuesday at his Winchester home known as “Cour tfield.” He and his father, former Gov. Harry F. Byrd Sr., held the same U.S. Senate seat for 50 years, with the younger Byrd serving from 1965 to 1983. The Rev. John Danforth, who

served in the Senate with Byrd, recalled his former colleague during a homily that he carefully noted was not a eulogy, because he was instructed that there would be no eulogies. For decades the Byrds were the state’s pre-eminent political power brokers, and many an elected leader or candidate sought and received Harry Jr.’s counsel. Danforth said his friend’s passing has been called the end of an era. “Why should we concede that this is the end of an era?” asked Danfor th, whom Missouri residents elected to three Senate See Byrd, Page A3

Political leaders pay their final respects By LAURA MCFARLAND The Winchester Star

JEFF TAYLOR/The Winchester Star

Grandchildren of the late U.S. Sen. Harry Flood Byrd Jr. carry his casket into Christ Episcopal Church in Winchester for funeral services Saturday. Byrd died Tuesday at age 98. The grandchildren are (clockwise from the bottom) Thomas W. Byrd, Blakeley T. Greenhalgh, Kathryn I. Byrd, Gretchen C. Byrd, John L. Byrd, Amy Byrd Cochran, Courtney Byrd Thoreck, Langdon B. Greenhalgh and Harry F. Byrd IV.

WINCHESTER — A light rain drizzled down on those who came to pay their final respects to former U.S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr. Saturday. Current and former political leaders joined friends and family at Christ Episcopal Church to say goodbye to the man who dedicated much of his 98 years to public ser-

vice. Byrd was buried in Mount Hebron Cemetery, and on the walk to the cemetery after the funeral service, former U.S. Sen. John Warner reflected on his longtime friendship with Byrd. When Virginians first elected Warner to office in 1978, Byrd had already been in the senate for 13 years. Warner, 86, remembers Byrd See Leaders, Page A3

As family members at left look on, members of the U.S. Navy Ceremonial Guard of Washington, D.C., carry the casket of former U.S. Sen. Harry Flood Byrd Jr. from the hearse Saturday in Mount Hebron Cemetery.

The U.S. Navy Ceremonial Guard fires a 21-gun salute during the funeral for former U.S. Sen. Harry Flood Byrd Jr. in Mount Hebron Cemetery.

A member of the U.S. Navy Ceremonial Guard salutes family members of former U.S. Sen. Harry Flood Byrd Jr. during his burial at Mount Hebron Cemetery in Winchester on Saturday. Holding the flag that draped his father’s casket at right is Thomas T. Byrd, publisher of The Winchester Star.

Terror threat is predicted through Aug.

Star Scientific cooperating in U.S. probe of McDonnell

By AHMED AL-HAJ Associated Press

A prominent political donor and his dietary supplement company have been cooperating for several months with federal prosecutors in a fastmoving public corruption investigation of Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, according to three people familiar with the probe. Jonnie R. Williams Sr., chief executive of Star Scientific, has turned over personal financial records and sat for interviews in which he provided firsthand accounts of luxury gifts and more than $120,000 given to McDonnell (R) and his family members since 2011, the people said. Star has given prosecutors access to corporate records and offered information from other company officials. The three spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case is in a sensitive stage. The cooperation is an ominous sign for McDonnell, suggesting that federal prosecutors are focused on trying to build a potential criminal See McDonnell, Page A9

ON WINCHESTERSTAR.COM Check out the digital replica of today’s edition on the Web site and read your paper online every morning.

JEFF TAYLOR/The Winchester Star

A Winchester police officer exits the United Bank branch on Berryville Avenue after a robbery Saturday morning.

Local man held in robbery of oft-targeted bank branch By LAURA MCFARLAND The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — A local bank that has been robbed multiple times in recent years was robbed again Saturday morning, and a suspect has been apprehended. Authorities in Maryland are hold-

ing Charles Franklin Adams III, 45, of Stephens City, for allegedly robbing the United Bank at 1041 Berryville Ave. The bank was robbed about 9:40 a.m. when a man walked inside and demanded money, according to See Robber y, Page A9

Two Sections, 20 Pages Bulletin Board ............A7 Classified Ads .............B4 Comics .......................A8 Dear Abby...................A7 Editorials ....................A4 Health ........................B4

Local ..........................A6 Nation ........................A5 Obituaries ...................A2 Out of the Past...........B4 Sports.........................B1 Virginia News .............A7

SANAA, Yemen — Security forces closed roads, put up extra blast walls and increased patrols Sunday near some of the more than 20 U.S. diplomatic missions in the Muslim world that Washington had ordered closed for the weekend following warnings of a possible alQaida attack. The closures came with a call for Americans abroad to take extra precautions throughout August, particularly when using planes, trains and boats, though some veteran expatriates shrugged off the warnings. “I have been here long enough to know where and where not to go,” said Brian Edwards, a professional basketball player from Detroit who has lived in Egypt for nearly six years. “I feel generally safe.” Some warned, meanwhile, that such security measures are not sustainable. “It sets a precedent,” said Shadi Hamid, an analyst with the Brookings Doha Center. “What happens if you keep on getting credible threats?” The countries with closure orders covered much of the Muslim and Arab world, from See Terror, Page A9

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MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 2013

Byrd from Page A1 terms. “Ther e’s no reason why Harr y’s civility should not continue. . . . His cheerfulness and civility did not expire with his death.” Byrd, who studied at both Virginia Military Institute (VMI) and the University of Virginia, was an orchardist and a newspaperman (publisher of both The Winchester Evening Star and the Daily NewsRecord in Harrisonburg). He also served in the Virginia Senate from 1948-1965. But he was best known as a U.S. senator, starting as a conservative Southern Democrat but breaking with the party in 1970 after refusing to pledge to support whomever was chosen as its candidate for the 1972 presidential campaign. “I would rather be a free man than a captive senator,” Byrd said on March 17, 1970, in declaring that he would campaign as an Independent. That fall he made history, becoming the first Independent elected to statewide office in Virginia and the first Independent U.S. Senate candidate to win a majority of votes despite competition from both major political parties. Byrd repeated that feat six years later, becoming the first U.S. senator to be both elected and re-elected as an Independent. Danforth referenced Byrd’s independence as a senator and recalled him as having a concerned but positive outlook for his country. He always spoke up when he felt it necessary. “He was never charmed by the sound of his own voice,” said Danforth. “But in matters of principle, he had to speak.” The topic of many of Byrd’s speeches was government spending, as fiscal conservatism was a family trademark. Danforth said Byrd usually made his thoughts known to the Senate chamber shortly before any budget vote, but his remarks generally were limited to about 10 minutes and he never acted as an obstructionist. “The senators were not going home until Harry was heard on his gr eat issue,” Danfor th said. “. . . He said his piece, and that was it.”

The Senate was a collegial place in their time, said Danforth, who briefly served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations following his time on Capitol Hill. He contrasted that with today’s Congress, which he said “all seems so joyless, so deadly. Harry would have said, ‘Cheer up, life is good.’ ” Danforth also said he never saw Byrd ride the U.S. Capitol subway system used by many members of Congress. “He was a walker,” Danfor th said, “ramrod straight, walking briskly to the Capitol as though he still were at VMI.” While the former Missouri senator has personal remembrances of Byrd, he said that over the past few days he had heard favorite recollections from family members “about the man they loved and called ‘Pop.’ His most esteemed title isn’t ‘Senator,’ it’s ‘Pop.’ ” Danforth said that for the rest of their lives, family members “never will stop tr ying to make Harr y Byrd proud.” The service drew many of Virginia’s current and former political leaders, including U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine; Gov. Bob McDonnell; former U.S. Sens. John Warner, Charles Robb and George Allen; former Govs. A. Linwood Holton Jr. and Gerald L. Baliles (Allen, Kaine, Robb and Mark Warner also served as governor); U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf; and former Lt. Gov. John Hager. Byrd was laid to rest in Mount Hebron Cemetery beside his wife, Gretchen Thomson Byrd, and at the feet of his parents, Harry Sr. and Anne Douglas Beverley Byrd. His nine grandchildren served as pallbearers. Four of them read Scriptures during the service. A former lieutenant colonel in the Navy during World War II, Byrd’s flag-draped coffin was carried from the hearse to the grave site by eight sailors. The brief graveside service included sailors in the Navy Ceremonial Guard providing a 21-gun salute and the playing of taps.

The Rev. John Danforth (center), a former U.S. senator, was the officiant at the burial of former U.S. Sen. Harry Flood Byrd Jr. on Saturday in Mount Hebron Cemetery. Assisting are the Rev. Webster S. Gibson and crucifer Evelyn Gibson.

— Contact Vic Bradshaw at vbradshaw@winchesterstar.com

Winchester Star photos by Jeff Taylor

Thomas T. Byrd stands with his daughter Courtney Byrd Thoreck as he holds the flag that draped his father’s casket Saturday in Mount Hebron Cemetery. At front, saying goodbye to his namesake and greatgrandfather, is Harry F. Byrd V.

At the funeral Saturday in Winchester are (from left) U.S. Sen. and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner; Susan Allen and her husband, George Allen, a former U.S. senator and Virginia governor; and Charles Robb, former U.S. senator and Virginia governor.

Former U.S. senator from Virginia John Warner (from left) his wife, Jeanne Warner, and his chief of staff of more than 20 years Susan Magill pause as the hearse carrying former U.S. Sen. Harry Byrd Jr. passes by after funeral services at Christ Episcopal Church in Winchester on Saturday.

Leaders from Page A1 Thomas T. Byrd (left) greets former Virginia Gov. A. Linwood Holton while Holton’s son-in-law, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, and his wife Virginia “Jinks” Holton look on. All were attending Byrd’s father’s funeral Saturday at Christ Episcopal Church in Winchester.

U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-10th, (standing at center) and his wife, Carolyn, talk with former Virginia Lt. Gov. John Hager at “Cour tfield,” the Winchester home of former U.S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr., after his funeral service Saturday.

becoming a mentor and a “great teacher. I looked up to him as my big brother in the Senate.” Byrd made an impression when he met people, always offering a big smile and a firm handshake, Warner said. “When he shook your hand, you knew it. He cracked your knuckles and he pumped your arm up and down.” His firm handshake aside, Byrd had “a gentleness” about him and a way of talking to people that made them feel special, said Kay Bolliger, co-chairman of the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival Celebrity Committee. She worked with him for years on business related to the communitywide festival and knew how much he loved the tradition. He appeared in the first Apple Blossom Festival as a page, once served as a grand marshal and minister of crown in the same year, and only missed two festivals in its long history. In May, he made his last festival appearance in the Grand Feature Parade as an honorary grand marshal. Bolliger recalled visiting Byrd at “Cour tfield,” his Tennyson Avenue home, to talk about him being

the honorary marshal. “It was very touching to see the joy he has for the festival and the community,” she said. Byr d’s interest in the world around him never wavered. Up until shortly before his death, he was still reading six newspapers a day, said Mary Anderson, who served as his caregiver for more than two years. He was “sharp as a tack” and loved engaging people in conversation, she said. He was also a kind person, she added. “No matter what you did for him — even something as simple as getting him a glass of water — he always thanked you.” After moving to Winchester in 1974, retired physician Dr. Harry Poling and his wife, Ann, would often see Byrd walking around town or eating at local restaurants. He always greeted them and was “ver y personable.” They also attended the same church as Byrd, Christ Episcopal, where the funeral ser vice was held. Last year, Poling ran into Byrd and mentioned the first time their paths ever crossed — about 50 years ago. He was delighted to find Byrd remembered the occasion.

Poling was valedictorian at Gar field High School in Woodbridge, but instead of him giving the traditional valedictory address, Byrd was invited as the keynote speaker. “I was eternally grateful I didn’t have to give that speech,” Poling said. “I was happy to sit in the bleachers and listen to the senator speak.” Tricia Stiles, legislative assistant to state Sen. Jill H. Vogel, R-Upperville, knew Byrd by his reputation long before she met him. When she finally did meet him, she found him to be a “magnificent human being.” Attending Saturday’s ser vice alongside Vogel, Stiles said she appreciated that two important aspects about Byrd were recognized during the funeral service. First, he considered his most important role as that of a family man. Second, he was a gentleman politician, she said. “I think the call for continued civility in politics delivered in the homily was important because that is how he behaved.” — Contact Laura McFarland at lmcfarland@winchesterstar.com

A10

WEATHER & NEWS

MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 2013

Today’s outlook

Precipitation Januar y Februar y March April May June July August September October November December Total

2013 2012 Avg. 3.58 1.74 2.74 1.46 2.91 2.15 2.82 2.28 3.45 1.66 2.39 2.88 4.14 4.71 3.65 5.06 2.40 3.65 4.38 6.65 3.05 *0.62 3.93 2.82 4.61 3.35 6.26 2.96 0.75 3.19 2.89 2.51 23.72 41.52 36.40

THE WINCHESTER STAR

Seattle 77° | 57° Billings 86° | 59°

Tuesday — Mostly cloudy. A 40 percent chance of showers or thunderstorms. Overnight, mostly cloudy with a chance of rain. High: 78. Low: 65.

Today

Tonight

Mostly sunny. Northwest winds around 5 mph.

Mostly cloudy. A 30 percent chance of rain.

79°

69°

San Francisco 64° | 55°

Minneapolis 81° | 61°

Denver 90° | 59°

Los Angeles 77° | 61°

Wednesday — Cloudy. A 50 percent chance of rain. Cloudy overnight with a chance of rain. High: 82. Low: 69.

El Paso 99° | 70° Houston 100° | 79°

Chicago 73° | 63°

New York 79° | 64°

Detroit 72° | 61°

Washington D.C. 79° | 66°

Atlanta 91° | 70°

Miami 91° | 75°

Thursday — Rain or storms likely both day and night. High: 85. Low: 65.

Fronts Cold

Warm Stationary

Pressure Low

High

*Month to date

Regional temperatures SUNRISE

SUNSET

6:16 a.m.

8:21 p.m.

OHIO

Washington 79° | 66°

W.VA. Charlottesville 81° | 59°

KY.

Ultraviolet index 0,1,2 minimal — 3,4 low 5,6 moderate — 7,8,9 high — 10-up very high

Roanoke 84° | 59° Bristol 84° | 57°

TENN.

Across the country

PA.

Richmond 82° | 61° Norfolk 79° | 68°

N.C.

Anchorage Atlanta Boston Chicago Dallas Honolulu Los Angeles New York

-10s

Highs/Lows 65/55 87/74 76/59 75/65 102/81 88/74 80/60 79/61

-0s

10s

20s 30s 40s

50s 60s

70s

80s

90s 100s 110s

Winchester temperatures Sunday Year ago Sunday

High 77 89

Low 59 68

Information from the National Weather Service and WINC Radio.

Harry F. Byrd Jr. laid to rest

JEFF TAYLOR/The Winchester Star

The procession for former U.S. Sen. Harry Flood Byrd Jr. moves toward his gravesite in Winchester’s Mount Hebron Cemetery Saturday.

Funeral attendees exit Christ Episcopal Church in Winchester Saturday after services for former U.S. Sen. Harry Flood Byrd Jr., who died Tuesday. He was 98.

Funeral attendees make their way through Mount Hebron Cemetery Saturday for the burial of former U.S. Sen. Byrd.

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Byrd family member by marriage Patrick Nickerson leaves “Cour tfield,” the Winchester home of former U.S. Sen. Harry Flood Byrd Jr., with his 3-month-old son, Van Woodrow Bennett Nickerson, after fellowship following the funeral for Byrd Saturday.

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Attendees at former U.S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr.’s funeral gather at his Winchester home, “Cour tfield.” for fellowship and food following the service Saturday. At right are former Clarke Board of Supervisors Chairman Jack Hardesty and Winchester Mayor Elizabeth Minor.

Issue Date: st/ar/

EDITORIALS

Today’s Quote

Our views and your views on today’s issues

Adrian J. O’Connor z aoconnor@winchesterstar.com

The Winchester Star

People without an internalized symbolic system can all too easily become captives of the media.

Saturday August 10, 2013

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” (1990)

OUR VIEWS

Ethics reform in Virginia politics needs to happen But, do it during the regular General Assembly session

uring the heat of the summer months, the pressure on Virginia’s top elected official and those that aspire to the state’s highest office has been turned up considerably when it comes to one topic: ethics. Over the past several weeks, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has found himself embroiled in a messy situation involving his (and his immediate family’s) relationship with political suppor ter Jonnie Williams, who runs a company called Star Scientific. Gifts to the first family and loans to a family related business have put the occupant of the governor’s mansion under intense scrutiny. There have been apologies and returned gifts and repaid loans, and the inevitable investigations are still under way. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican nominee to succeed Mr. McDonnell, has also faced questions regarding gifts he received f r o m t h e v e r y s a m e M r. Williams. And Ter r y McAulif fe, the Democratic candidate for governor, has been targeted for his involvement in a company called Green Tech. Mr. McAuliffe used to head Green Tech and that firm is now the focus of an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. All of this is very sordid, and not the Virginia way, many observers would say. While politics in the Old Dominion has proven to be a rough and tumble exercise for many decades, the whiff of scandal that permeates the behavior of all three of these men is clearly something voters in the Commonwealth are not used to. With all that said, there is little doubt that the next General Assembly session will be filled with bills designed to tighten up V irginia’s ethics laws.

Clearly, there will be no shortage of proposals to legislate what had been ruled by common sense for many years. And, there is likely much to be said for tightening up this often messy byproduct of politics. Many called to public service do so at great personal sacrifice, often giving up more lucrative job opportunities for a much lower government salary. While in office, they often rub shoulders with the wealthy and powerful, and the allure of gifts can be intoxicating. But, we must remember, that in all cases, these folks asked the voters to put them in the offices they seek or hold. Going in, they know the score, and the voters expect them to set the standard for ethical behavior, not test the limits. Leaders should always ask the question whether they should do something before even getting to the question of whether they can. Sadly, that does not happen nearly as often as it should. Not surprisingly, fixing the rules in Virginia that help foster this problem has become political. Earlier this week, Mr. Cuccinelli suggested that the General Assembly be called into special session to address the issue. To put the taxpayers through the expense of such an endeavor to fix decades old regulations because of the behavior of a few is unnecessary. As Shenandoah Valley Delegate Todd Gilbert, R-15th, told the Daily News-Record earlier this week, “I’m sure the attorney general is eager as we all are to address the issue, but we generally feel like the regular session is just a few shor t months away and we are already working up plans to address it at that time.” Agreed. The problem needs fixing, but it will best be addressed outside of the specter of a heated political campaign.

Correspondence The Winchester Star’s editorial page offers a forum for commenting on matters of interest to the community. Submissions to the editorial page must follow these rules: ◗ Letters to the editor must be no more than 150 typed or legibly written words. They must be double spaced. All submissions to the editorial page must include the author’s name, signature, address, and telephone number and are subject to editing. ◗ Writers who want their work to be considered for publication in Open Forum, The Star’s reader-written opinion column, should limit their submissions to 500 words. E-mail submissions must also adhere to these guidelines, or they will not be published. Correspondence intended for the editorial page should be addressed to: Editorial Page Editor z The Winchester Star 2 N. Kent St., Winchester, Va. 22601-5098

COMMENTARY SEN. HARRY F. BYRD Jr.

Homily for a ‘gentleman’ Danforth: ‘ministry of refreshment’ fitting memorial to Byrd The Rev. JOHN C. DANFORTH

One name in the Bible stands out today. This person appears only once and it’s in Paul’s second letter to Timothy — Onesiphorus. All we know about him is what Paul said in a single verse, but that verse says a lot: “May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphor us, because he often refreshed me.” Harry and Barbara, Tom and Sharon, Beverley and Keith, nine grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren, from all of us who are here today, and from countless others whose lives were touched by him, may the Lord grant mercy to the household of Harry Byrd, because he often refreshed us. The family has shared some personal memories of Harry. Their recollections have nothing to do with the public Harry Byrd. They don’t mention his three terms in the Senate, his place in Virginia history, or his political philosophy. They are about sitting in a booth at a local restaurant, about refurbishing a battered suitcase, about a family trip to Richmond. They are about the man they loved and called “Pop.” The greatest legacy one can leave is the love of a family. The most esteemed title isn’t “Senator,” it’s “Pop.” Here’s a prediction for all of the generations of the Byrd family. For the rest of your lives, you will never stop trying to make Pop proud. Harry Byrd refreshed his family and he refreshed us. All of us have our own memories of how. I think it was mostly by his manner, his cheerful way of greeting us, his energy, his independence. Those of us who have been in Washington know that there are little subway cars that connect the Senate office buildings with the Capitol. In the six years I overlapped with Harry, I never saw him riding the subway. He was a walker, ramrod straight, marching briskly to and from the Capitol as though he were still at VMI. Those energetic marches were, to me, visible signs of the spirit of Harry Byrd. Then there was the personal warmth, the twinkle in the eye, the always encouraging word. If a pollster had asked Harry if the countr y was heading in the right direction or the wrong direction, no doubt how he would have answered. He worried about the country, but he was positive in his manner. He was deeply concerned about federal deficits, and he made controlling them his personal re-

The Rev. John C. Danforth

sponsibility. By Senate standards, he was taciturn, never charmed by the sound of his own voice. But on matters of principle he had to speak. For reasons I never understood, the Senate did most of its business at night, often late at night. I have clear recollections of sitting on the Senate floor, awaiting final passage of budget resolutions, tired and wanting to go home. Just before the vote, Harry would rise at his desk and ask for recognition. Senators were not going home until Harry was heard on his great issue. He didn’t speak for long, maybe 10 minutes or so, but he said what he had to say. In the Senate, speaking or threatening to speak, can be an obstruction, a means of getting one’s way, or an annoyance. But Harry Byrd wasn’t obstructive. It was never “my way or else,” and he certainly was not an annoyance. He said his piece, and that was it. It’s interesting how many people use the same word to describe Harry, “Gentleman.” They say that his death marks the end of an era, the last remnant of a bygone time. They long for Harry’s civility that they think has been lost forever. But politics has always been rough. At least nowadays people aren’t beating members with canes on the Senate floor. So why concede that this is the end of an era? There’s no reason why Harry’s civility shouldn’t be our standard today and tomorrow. A few days ago, I spoke with Harr y Byrd III. He made clear what he expects from this service. It’s supposed to be short, and it’s supposed to be upbeat. That’s important to the family, and only fitting because Harry Byrd was upbeat.

Here’s what I think is upbeat: That the cheerfulness and energy and civility that we admired in Harry didn’t expire with his death, that we will honor them for years ahead. Like Onesiphorus, Harry often refreshed us. It’s our job to turn that into the future tense. The dictionary definition of refresh is “to cheer or enliven the mind or spirits.” That’s a description of Harry and a mission for us, especially for us who are active in politics. I’m sure that many people asked Harry whether politics had changed since he retired. It certainly seems so, at least from a distance. Recall the Senate of Harry’s time. Russell Long and Bob Dole and Pat Moynihan and John Chafee who, like Harry, gave the place joy and spirit. Now it all seems so joyless, so deadly. By his manner if not by his words. Harry would have said, “Cheer up, life is good.” Life is good. Harry’s life certainly was, all 98 years of it. But Harry didn’t want this service to go on and on about him, and he didn’t want us to be mournful. In fact, he left very specific instructions that there should be no eulogies. Ther e’s a dif ference between a homily, which this is, and a eulogy. A eulogy is all about the deceased. A homily is about the faith of the church. The family wanted the service to be upbeat. Well, our faith is upbeat. It’s the gospel, the Good News. We believe in the Resurrection. That’s the heart of Christianity. Paul said that if Christ has not been raised, our faith is in vain. This is why we have this ser vice in a church. We believe that in Christ, God brings life out of death. How’s that for being upbeat? Another way of saying this is that in Christ God enlivens us, refreshes us. The good news is about refreshment. The work of the Church is the work of refreshment. For us who try to follow Christ, our job is to be ministers of the Resurrection, and to bring refreshment to the world. To do this work, we look to the lives of those who have gone before us. That is why the example of Harry Byrd is so important. That is why the ministr y of refreshment will be our memorial to him. May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Harry Byrd, because he often refreshed us. The Rev. John C. Danforth delivered this homily at the funeral service for U.S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr. last Saturday at Christ Episcopal Church in Winchester.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER

First lexicological war: Throw a dictionary at ’em WA S HI N G TO N — Jen Psaki, blameless State Depar tment spokeswoman, explained that the hasty evacuation of our embassy in Yemen was not an evacuation but “a reduction in staff.” This proved a problem because the Yemeni government had already announced (and denounced) the “evacuation” — the word normal folks use for the panicky ordering of people onto planes headed out of country. Thus continues the administration’s penchant for wordplay, the bending of language to fit a political need. In Janet Napolitano’s famous formulation, terror attacks are now “man-caused disasters.” And the “global war on terror” is no more. It’s now an “overseas contingency operation.” Nidal Hasan proudly tells a military court that he, a soldier of Allah, killed 13 American soldiers in the name of jihad. But the massacre remains officially classified as an act not of terrorism but of “workplace violence.” The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three others are killed in an al Qaeda-affiliated terror attack — and for days it is waved off as nothing more than a spontaneous demonstration gone bad. After all,

famously declared Hillar y Clinton, what dif ference does it make? Well, it makes a difference, first, because truth is a virtue. Second, because if you keep lying to the American people, they may seriously question whether anything you say — for example, about the benign nature of NSA sur veillance — is not another self-serving lie. And third, because leading a countr y through yet another long twilight struggle requires not just honesty but clarity. This is a president who to this day cannot bring himself to identify the enemy as radical Islam. Just Tuesday night, explaining the U.S. embassy closures across the Muslim world, he cited the threat from “violent extremism.” The word “extremism” is meaningless. People don’t devote themselves to being extreme. Extremism has no content. The extreme of what? In this war, an extreme de-

votion to the supremacy of a radically fundamentalist vision of Islam and to its murderous quest for dominion over all others. But for President Obama, the word “Islamist” may not be uttered. Language must be devised to disguise the unpleasantness. Result? The world’s first lexicological war. Par r y and thrust with linguistic tricks, deliberate misnomers, and ever more transparent euphemisms. Next: arm o r - p i e r c i n g o n omatopoeias and amphibious synecdoches. This would all be comical and merely peculiar if it didn’t reflect a larger, more troubling reality: The confusion of language is a direct result of a confusion of policy — which is served by constant obfuscation. Obama doesn’t like this terror war. He particularly dislikes its unfor tunate religious coloration, which is why “Islamist” is banished

A ‘reduction in staff’?

from his lexicon. But soothing words, soothing speeches in various Muslim capitals, soothing policies — “open hand,” “mutual respect” — have yielded nothing. The war remains. Indeed, under his watch, it has spread. And as commander in chief he must defend the nation. He must. But he desperately wants to end the whole struggle. This is no secret wish. In a major address to the National Defense University just three months ago he declared “this war, like all wars, must end.” The plaintive cry of a man hoping that saying so makes it so. The result is visible ambivalence that leads to vacillating policy reeking of incoherence. Obama defends the vast NSA data dragnet because of the terrible continuing threat of terrorism. Yet at the same time, he calls for not just amending but actually repealing the legal basis for the entire war on terror, the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force. Well, which is it? If the tide of war is receding, why the giant NSA snooping programs? If al Qaeda is on the run, as he incessantly assured the nation throughout 2012,

why is America cowering in 19 closed-down embassies and consulates? Why was Boston put on an unprecedented full lockdown after the marathon bombings? And from Somalia to Afghanistan, why are we raining death by drone on “violent extremists” — every target, amazingly, a jihadist? What a coincidence. This incoherence of policy and purpose is why an evacuation from Yemen must be passed off as “a reduction in staff.” Why the Benghazi terror attack must be blamed on some hapless Egyptian-American videographer. Why the Fort Hood shooting is nothing but some loony Army doctor gone postal. In the end, this isn’t about language. It’s about leadership. The wordplay is merely cover for uncertain policy embedded in confusion and ambivalence about the whole enterprise. This is not leading from behind. This is not leading at all. Charles Krauthammer is a political writer. His column is distributed nationally by the Washington Post Writers Group.

LOCAL

Local par 3 course expands

Winchester l Frederick County l Clarke County

Golden Apple executive golf course was converted from a nine-hole, par 3 layout to a 12-hole course including three par 4s in the spring to give players a chance to use their drivers but not take up half their day on the links. Full story B3

Cynthia Cather Burton and Gregory Shriver l citydesk@winchesterstar.com

Valley Pike by Adrian O’Connor

‘The Senator’ I knew For me to say how much I respected and admired Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr. would not only be self-serving, but tantamount to engaging in superfluous sentiment. That is, it’s been said by folks far more significant than I. And in far more expressive fashion as well. Anyway, it goes without saying that as successor to Sen. Byrd as this newspaper’s editorial page editor, albeit several times removed, I considered him a mentor, a guide, and, yes, a friend. As such, I will miss him . . . greatly. But all that said, allow me this observation: He spoke in paragraphs. Of all the things that amazed me about Sen. Byrd — and there were many, including the fact that his 78 years of service to The Star provided a link to this newspaper’s founding 117 years ago (he worked with one of the original editors, John Hoover) — his rhetorical dexterity did so the most. As editorialist and occasional feature writer, I had ample opportunity to avail myself of Sen. Byrd’s insight, wisdom, and perspective, born of 36 years of elective politics and more than twice that in the newspaper business. I would go to his office here at The Star, plop into my accustomed chair, and, after some initial chit-chat, pose my first question. A decidedly pregnant pause would follow, during which he would ponder it, chew on it a bit more, and then mull it even further. During these first such encounters, I was somewhat fidgety, wondering if he deemed my questions trite, overly prosaic. But then the words — carefully measured, meticulously considered — would come, in complete sentences, each built on the one preceding it. OK, as both a politician and a newspaperman, the senator’s life was predicated on wordsmithing. But the man, by then, was deep into his eighties and, later, his nineties. He was, simply stated, a wonder, at least to me, who needs a keyboard to string two coherent sentences together. And so I’ll forever cherish these sessions. There are other things I’ll treasure as well. The senator’s laugh, for one — high-pitched, almost a giggle. And his way of saying “All right,” the two syllables all stretched out, when I would take my leave after one of our chats. And then there was a sweet tooth more pronounced than even mine — and that’s saying something. I remember him digging into the Boston cream pie at one dinner we attended at the Travelodge. I also recall one holiday season when my wife, knowing his affinity, picked up a chocolate-drenched Twinkie for him at her church’s Christmas bazaar. Predictably, he raved about it the next day. With such unforgettable people, you forever remember the first and last times you’r e blessed by their company. For me and the senator, the first time was in November 1992, my last interview before getting this job. We sat in a long-gone Piccadilly eater y called “My Sister’s Place” and talked politics. The last time was two weeks ago at “Cour tfield,” his home on Tennyson Avenue. Again, we talked politics. It was then I realized what I most respected about the man — that even as his body gave way to age’s exigencies, his mind remained vital, his spirit never waned. But was this truly a revelation, or just realization anew? About a decade ago, The Star ran an extended series about “those who inspire us.” For my part, I wrote of three men — my father, former Winchester Mayor Stewar t Bell Jr., and Sen. Byrd. So fortunate am I to have sprung from the seed of one and to have known the other two, just a little bit. Now all three — Dad, “Mr. Winchester,” and “The Senator” — are gone, after living deep into their nineties, their lives as rich, layered, and fulfilling as they were lengthy. And so it is my hope and even my prayer that I may be given the chance not only to match their longevity but also to prove myself worthy of the example they set. v Adrian O’Connor is editorial page editor at The Winchester Star

The Winchester Star Thursday August 1, 2013

Parent group concerned over teaching methods in Clarke By REBECCA LAYNE The Winchester Star

B ER RY VI LL E — Karen Cur tis, whose thr ee childr en attend Clarke County Public Schools, remembers her frustration from last year. Her fourth-grade daughter had, on average, two hours of homework a night, often what she considered unengaging worksheets. Sometimes her daughter had to wake up early to finish it, which made her tardy to school. “She experienced failure on a consistent basis,” said Curtis, 41, a high school teacher in Loudoun County. Berryville resident Kristy McCracken, 36 — who teaches third grade in Loudoun County and has two children in the Clarke division

SCOTT MASON/The Winchester Star

Karen Curtis (left) and Kristy McCracken, who have children in Clarke schools, disagree with how the division assesses younger students.

— said her first-grade son was spending 45 minutes each night on homework. Curtis and McCracken found they were not alone in their frustration. Other parents of elementary and middle school students in the division had similar issues: too much homework that was often “busy work” or content the child hadn’t learned in class; too many tests and quizzes and not enough hands-on activities and projects; students bored in class; and “instructionally inappropriate” material that didn’t fit their child’s learning level, like assigned reading books that were too easy. Some parents said their children had become unenthusiastic about attending school. In April, Curtis held a meeting See Parents, Page B2

FREDERICK COUNTY FAIR

JEFF TAYLOR/The Winchester Star

Winchester’s then-interim police chief, Maj. Fred Hildebrand, gets a congratulatory hug from his son, Fred, after being promoted to the rank of colonel at Rouss City Hall in Winchester in 2004.

GINGER PERRY/The Winchester Star

Chet Boden, 10, walks Evan Lineweaver's heifer around the show ring on Wednesday. Evan, 14, was telling the youngsters attending the Frederick County Fair’s day camp about raising, caring for and showing cattle at the fair.

Day camps school kids on farm-related issues

Hildebrand, 78, served three times on interim basis By MELISSA BOUGHTON

Aim to get them interested in showing animals

The Winchester Star

By MATT ARMSTRONG The Winchester Star

CLEAR BROOK — About 20 local youngsters are getting the chance to learn about all aspects of livestock, raising animals and other farm-related issues this week as par t of the Frederick County Fair’s day camp. Mandy Simons, the 4-H agent for Frederick County, said the goal of the c a m p s — which caters n Today’s fair to children up schedule | to 9 years of Page B4 age — is to show the kids what goes on at the fair and the effort that farmers and animal presenters put in. “We think there could be more interest on the youth end . . . Getting kids interested, even if they start in rabbits and poultry, those

Former police chief for city dies

Evan Lineweaver talks to day campers about raising his cows to show at the Frederick County Fair. are pretty easy as far as livestock goes and then maybe they could get interested in some of the other species as well,” Simons said. She added that the day camps have been going on for several years, but not last year due to low enrollment. “A lot of these kids are actually eligible to show [animals] now,

and some of the younger ones will be, and so we’re trying to get that interest going,” Simons said. Evan Lineweaver, a 14-year-old Frederick County resident and 4H and FFA member, spoke to the campers Wednesday morning about raising and showing cattle and the prices associated with See Fair, Page B4

WI NC HE STE R — Frederick E. Hildebrand, a community leader and longtime police officer, died Monday. Hildebrand, 78, three times served as the interim chief for the Winchester Police Department. Described by many as a “humble man,” Hildebrand was active in giving back to the community, both through volunteer work at Congregational-Community Action Project (C-CAP) and through service at his church, Brucetown United Methodist. “I think his life was all about service to the community,” said his son, Frederick D. Hildebrand, 52. “He left us memories of sacrifices, love and passion. “He left the community a lasting legacy of true leadership in its purest form.” The first time Hildebrand served as interim chief was 1980 — when the police department was at 126 N. Cameron St. Its current headquarters is at 231 Piccadilly St. See Hildebrand, Page B4

Mom, son start foundation to help out schools in need By REBECCA LAYNE The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — A mother and son duo who have spent most of their lives in education have teamed up to provide books for students in need both locally and nationwide. Laura Robb and her son, Evan, 47, started the Educator 2 Educator (E2E) Foundation about six months ago. It is a nonprofit organization intended to provide print and e-books to high-

poverty schools — from preschool to 12th grade. “Students absolutely need books that motivate and engage them at all levels,” Laura said. She has taught grades four through eight for 43 years, with most of her career spent at Powhatan School in Boyce. She has written more than 20 books about literacy for teachers and students. Evan taught grades six through eight for seven years and is

See Foundation, Page B4

SCOTT MASON/The Winchester Star

Laura Robb and her son, Evan Robb, are starting a nonprofit organization to provide books to underfunded schools.