Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, September 27, 1993 TAG: 9309270009
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
\ Matthew Broughton, a lawyer with Gentry, Locke, Rakes and Moore who flies himself to court appearances all over the state, read about David's wish in a story in the Neighbors section of this newspaper and offered to take him up.
"It was great," said David's mother, Carolyn, who went with him. David can't speak, but he didn't seem nervous at all, Carolyn said. In fact, he "grinned from ear to ear the whole time."
"It was an absolutely wonderful experience," Broughton said. "His face was just priceless."
Broughton and co-pilot Gerald McPeak flew David over his home - where his sister and grandparents waved to him from the lawn - over his school and into West Virginia. He also got to fly through a cloud.
The article brought in more than $3,200 in donations from readers who wanted to help David's family purchase special equipment that will allow him to communicate.
Robbins said she has been trying to write thank-you notes, but many of the donations came anonymously. "Everyone has been so kind," she said.
A Garden (City) variety lawsuit
When Holly and Sue Mutter started circulating a petition around Garden City, they were hoping to get rid of what they call a neighborhood nuisance.
Now they face another problem - a lawsuit for libel.
Michael W. Hudson, owner of the Garden City Cafe, took issue with the Mutter's claims that his establishment creates a public nuisance.
In the lawsuit, he accused the Mutters of discrediting his cafe by circulating fliers and petitions with "actual malice."
The petitions claimed that intoxicated patrons of the cafe on Garden City Boulevard littered neighboring lawns with beer bottles, cursed at motorists and blocked traffic, according to the lawsuit.
The cafe was also said to attract "a different kind of people."
Those statements were "false, malicious, defamatory, slanderous and libelous," just to list a few of the adjectives included in the $300,000 lawsuit Hudson filed in Roanoke Circuit Court. Sue Mutter declined to comment.
Snake, rattle and roll
As a personal fitness trainer at New Fitness Club for Ladies, Kim Newton gives other people workouts. But last week, when she was closing the Cave Spring Corners' club for the night, a copperhead snake gave Newton a workout she'll never forget.
Newton had stepped out a back door to shake out her mop when the copperhead slithered over her feet. "I took the mop and started beating it on the head and screaming," Newton said. "When I jumped, it took off into the club and took off into the Stairmaster."
So, Newton continued, Oscar the maintenance man took the Stairmaster apart, but couldn't find the snake. Newton, Oscar and some women who had been dancing to loud music - and were until then oblivious to Newton's screaming - searched for the snake.
"It turned out it was in the Stairmaster, and Oscar the maintenance man killed it with a twisty bar that the ladies use to work their legs," Newton said.
"So we're all a little terrified in the dark now, and we don't open the back door."
Gallimore saga moves to new stage . . .
To Elwood Gallimore, there's little doubt about whom the play "The Preacher Takes a Wife" is written.
"It's a man and his wife who have been married 20-some years, and he married a 16-year-old girl," Gallimore said of the play. "Where else is he getting it? It's obvious where it's coming from."
Gallimore, in case anyone forgot, is the Henry County preacher who last December informally married then-16-year-old Sabrina Simpkins. Ray Allen, executive director of the old Stonewall Theater in Clifton Forge where the play is being staged, says the play is "not a biography of Gallimore."
"Art does reflect society, though, and that was going on when the play was written," Allen said. "It is fictional, but it is about a preacher who takes a 16-year-old bride."
Gallimore said he doesn't think the theater should be allowed to present the play.
"In a way," he said, "I look at it as a mockery."
Roanoke's Bert Parks
Among the many impressive things about the first Ms. Virginia Senior Citizen Pageant, held at the Roanoke Sheraton Inn on Aug. 19-20, was the emceeing by Library Restaurant maitre d'/manager Lowell Hill.
Hill's charming commentary, debonair demeanor and sweet singing so impressed some representatives who were in town to view the local version that they invited him to give a repeat performance as emcee of the third annual Ms. National Senior Citizens Pageant, to be held Oct. 6-10 in Joliet, Ill.
Polly Beck of Richmond will represent Virginia, and Dotty Talbott of Dublin, the 1991 Ms. National Senior Citizen who was chairwoman of the Virginia pageant, also will attend.
Hill, who has been involved with pageants for many years, said he's really excited about the invitation. "In many ways, the seniors pageants have more appeal than the ones for younger women. There's just a wonderful spirit about them," he said.
To prepare for the event, Hill's been busy reviewing video tapes of the first two national pageants and working out his repertoire, which will include the classic song "Young At Heart."
"Who knows where this might lead?" Hill quipped. "Even Bert Parks had to start somewhere."
by CNB