Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 17, 1993 TAG: 9306170410
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-18 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By RANDY WALKER SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Gwaltney said he wanted to take Turner because "he was the recreation director at the time. We had talked casually over the last 10 years about going back and never had a chance to do it, and I figured he's retired and it would be a good opportunity to take him with me."
Turner, who became director of the Salem Department of Parks and Recreation on May 1, 1952, said he was looking forward to the tournament. "It's a nice trip; I like to go up there." The department had organized the Salem marbles tournament and co-sponsored Gwaltney's trip to the nationals in 1952.
Turner, 82, lives alone in a Salem condominium. Scattered about the living room are mementos of his lifelong involvement in sports.
A trophy bears the inscription "ROANOKE COUNTY TENNIS ASS'N/MEN'S SINGLES" and the name of "CHA'S TURNER" next to the years 1930, 1931 and 1932.
Those three victories marked the beginning of Turner's decades-long domination of the Roanoke City-County Tennis Tournament. He won the tournament 17 times, the last time in 1957 when he was 47. Other players jokingly called the event the "Charley Turner Open" or "Charley Turner's Tournament."
As seniors at Jefferson High School, he and his twin brother, Rawley, won the state scholastic doubles championship. He and Rawley also played on the school's state championship basketball teams of 1929 and 1930.
Charley and Rawley appear in a sepia-toned photograph of the Turner family in the 1930s. In addition to the twins there are three other brothers and one sister - handsome, smiling young adults, gathered around a kindly looking father and mother. "They're all dead now," Charley says.
Charley F. Turner was born on June 30, 1910, in North Carolina. The family moved to Danville, then to Roanoke. From Jefferson High School, Turner went on to Roanoke College, where he was active in sports.
After graduating in 1934, Turner worked as manager of a sporting goods department, state probation officer in Roanoke County, and physical education director and basketball coach at Andrew Lewis High School. At some point - he can't recall when - he and his wife, Mary McDanald Turner, moved to Salem.
Through these years, Turner continued to play sports. He says he won a badminton championship 13 times, probably the Roanoke championship. "Being a racquet man, badminton wasn't no big deal. Hell, I could play."
In 1975 he retired, and the tennis facilities at what is now the Salem Civic Center were officially named the Charley F. Turner Tennis Courts in recognition of his 23 years of service to Salem.
The following year, his wife died.
Today, Turner's family consists of his daughter, Emily Turner, who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.; his son, Charley McDanald Turner, who lives in Salem; "about five grandchildren" and three great-grandchildren.
As he approaches his 83rd birthday, Turner still plays golf at Hidden Valley Country Club.
"I got a 19 handicap. I beat it once in awhile, not too often. 'Course, when you play the same course all the time, you know where the trouble is, but you're never going to score if you can't hit it a long ways, and I can't hit it very far."
After a lifetime in sports, he has "an attic full of trophies" and a framed certificate attesting that he is enshrined in the Athletic Hall of Fame of Roanoke College.
And he has memories of thrilling moments - such as the time he made two free throws in overtime to win the state basketball championship for Jefferson High.
There's also the memory of his remarkable string of tennis championships.
"I probably did more playing than most of the young people my age," he says.
"Charley just worked harder at it than most of us," one tennis opponent said in a 1977 newspaper article. "Charley was consistent and determined. He was a great competitor and he always kept his cool. He was a real gentleman."
Said another: "And he was such a nice fellow while beating our brains out."
by CNB