Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 27, 1990 TAG: 9007270123
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PETER MATHEWS NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: PEARISBURG LENGTH: Medium
About 600 people, including perhaps a third of the House of Delegates, came to honor the longtime legislator, who died Tuesday of pancreatic cancer at age 51.
They filled the pews, balcony and choir section and crowded into the aisles and vestibule. About 20 more stood in the warm sunshine outside the First United Methodist Church during the memorial service.
Stafford's widow, Barbara, watched from the front row. To her left was her 16-year-old son Chris and to her right, Stafford's sister Betsy. Stafford's two daughters, Elizabeth, 7, and Mary, 6, sitting on her aunt's lap, watched quietly.
Two of Stafford's House desk mates, Lacey Putney and Arthur R. "Pete" Giesen, paid tribute to the conservative Republican, who entered the House in 1971 and won re-election 10 times.
They described a sometimes caustic, always outspoken man who never compromised his principles.
Giesen told of being an usher at the Staffords' 1981 wedding, in which Stafford simply went on the radio and invited everyone instead of issuing invitations.
Giesen married two years later, and the Staffords accompanied the newlyweds on the second week of their honeymoon. "Giesen's over 50 years of age - he'll need rest on the second week," Stafford quipped.
"You haven't been on a real honeymoon until you've been on a honeymoon with C. Jefferson Stafford," the Waynesboro Republican said.
Putney, I-Bedford, recalled the combative Stafford's relationship with a House Finance Committee colleague with whom he often skirmished, Richmond Democrat Jean Cunningham. "She often disagreed with the ornery little rascal, but she loved him like a brother."
Among the mourners were Attorney General Mary Sue Terry, former Rep. William Wampler, state GOP Chairman Donald Huffman, most of the General Assembly leadership and virtually all of the legislators from the Roanoke Valley and 9th Congressional District.
House Speaker A.L. Philpott walked over to Barbara Stafford and, after a few quiet words, handed her a flag that had flown over the Capitol.
At noon, friends and family filed out of the church for the short drive to Birchlawn Burial Park, where they stood on a grassy hillside and listened as Joe Gollehon played "Taps." A retired Army bugler, Gollehon, 63, was Stafford's band director at the old Pearisburg High School.
Stafford had played the cornet there.
by CNB