ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 25, 1995 TAG: 9512260055
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: HOLIDAY
DATELINE: DEERFIELD
SOURCE: Associated Press
RALPH HAMILTON HAS HELD lots of kids on his ample lap. And their kids. Now he feels as if the sleigh left him behind.
For the first time in more than 30 years, Ralph Hamilton won't don his red Santa suit this Christmas.
Hamilton, 77, has visited communities throughout Augusta, Bath and Highland counties as a volunteer Santa. But this holiday, he's recuperating from a stroke he suffered in early October.
``I feel like the sleigh left me behind this year,'' Hamilton said. ``I miss the children very much.''
Hamilton spent five weeks at Augusta Medical Center recovering from the stroke and pneumonia. During that time, he lost more than 100 of the pounds that had endeared him to so many.
``He almost didn't come home,'' said Hamilton's wife of 58 years, Sylvia. ``Three of the doctors didn't give him much of a chance, but he pulled through. One of the doctors called it a miracle.''
Hamilton began his career as the jolly old elf in 1962 in a suit his mother made for him. The occasion was a promotion for WABH, the radio station that Hamilton and his son, Jerry, started in 1960. The Hamiltons got out of the radio business 10 years later and the station evolved into the current WNLR in Churchville.
Hamilton later drove a school bus and worked as a tool room foreman during the construction of a dam, but his first love has always been his duty as Santa, he said.
``I have held kids on my lap, but then the next thing I know, I am holding their children on my lap,'' he said.
The people whose lives Hamilton has touched are quick to recall how he affects children.
``Wherever he went, in costume or out, kids thought he was the real Santa,'' said Churchville resident Gary Armstrong. ``He has the real beard and the real tummy, so kids have always come up to him all year long.''
LENGTH: Short : 46 linesby CNB