Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 7, 1993 TAG: 9305070177
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CRITZ LENGTH: Medium
And don't be surprised if they hold off awhile before they rename a major road Mary Sue Terry Highway.
"She'll have to get as big as Mr. Philpott first," said Bobby Rogers, one of the barbers at the Friendly Barber Shop in Stuart.
Patrick County, population 17,473, has had its share of prominent Virginia politicians.
A.L. Philpott, the late speaker of the House of Delegates, was from nearby Bassett, but represented Patrick County and built unwavering support there.
Former Gov. Gerald Baliles' family is from Patrick County, and Baliles spent some of his school years here.
But Terry has more of a claim of being a Patrick Countian than Philpott or Baliles.
Terry grew up in Critz, where her father, N.A. Terry, raised hogs and operated Cooper's Mill. She went to Hardin Reynolds Memorial School and to Critz Baptist Church, just a quarter mile up the road from the school.
That Terry will win Patrick County in a gubernatorial election is unquestioned here. As her father put it, "She'll get 39 out of 40 votes in Critz."
Patrick County's votes may not add up to much, but Terry said her childhood "growing up in a small community, the daughter of school teachers, living on a farm, really grounds you."
"I think that an individual who had the opportunity to be part of a rural community, when you're called upon to do lots of difficult things, there's just more requirement for common sense," she said.
Not everybody in Patrick County thinks Terry has retained that common sense. Standing outside Critz Grocery this week, Frances Via Smart noted that she is just four days older than Mary Sue Terry.
"The Mary Sue I grew up with and the Mary Sue that's in politics now is a completely different person," Smart said, suggesting that Terry had lost touch with her rural roots.
Most local folks, though, are pulling for the 45-year-old Terry to become Virginia's first woman governor.
When the Rev. Billy Joe Dixon met the pulpit search committee of Critz Baptist Church to interview for his job, committee members were quick to point out that Critz Baptist was "Mary Sue's home church."
Dixon was equally quick to show a visiting reporter the church's refurbished nursery, which is furnished with Terry's old baby bed.
Terry spoke last year at the church's 100th anniversary ceremony. Dixon said the first time he met Terry, she had an apology for him.
"She said, `I nodded off in church last Sunday; I got up down at Dad's, and I didn't realize he had switched to decaffeinated coffee," Dixon recalled.
Over at the Coffee Break - a diner on Main Street in Stuart known as the unofficial town hall - conventional wisdom has it that Terry might as well start moving into the Governor's Mansion.
"She'll get it; I'll bet you $100," said Mary Alley. Alley said she remembers Terry's standard lunch order: two hotdogs, with mustard, onions and chili; and a chocolate milkshake.
Alley and her son, Denny, run the Coffee Break and have heard the opinions of many of Stuart's 900-plus residents.
Denny Alley said most Patrick Countians have been waiting four years for Terry to get her shot at the governor's office. In fact, Denny said most people think "she got jumped by Wilder - it wasn't really his turn to be governor."
Several people wondered if the county's one-item wish list would be addressed if Terry wins. Would the U.S. 58 improvement project finally get completed?
"A lot of people thought if Patrick County got anything at all, it would be during Baliles' term of office," Denny Alley said.
"They think what we didn't get then, we'll get now."
But if Terry does get U.S. 58 improved, it won't bear her name. Statewide and national figures, it seems, often hail from Patrick; to be officially recognized, they have to endure.
When the J.E.B. Stuart Highway - U.S. 58 - was renamed A.L. Philpott Highway, many Patrick Countians didn't appreciate it. The town of Stuart takes its name from the Confederate general.
Some thought the switch to Philpott was hasty. Others took advantage and swiped the J.E.B. Stuart signs as collector's items.
Chamber of Commerce Director Darla Coppins joked that Terry would have to settle for a secondary road.
"We could give her [Virginia] 103 or [Virginia] 8 or something," she said.
by CNB