
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 12, 1994                   TAG: 9402120050
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

YELLOW SULPHUR SPRINGS OWNER CHARLSIE LESTER DIES

Charlsie Lester, the colorful owner of the Yellow Sulphur Springs resort, died Thursday evening. She was 94.

Lester, who earned the nickname "Pistol Packin' Mamma" after chasing poachers off her property with a long-handled pistol, inherited the antebellum hotel in the 1940s.

In its heyday Yellow Sulphur Springs hosted Southern gentry and Confederate generals. For the past half century Lester has rented the hotel's historic cottages to local citizens - mostly Virginia Tech students and graduates.

"She meant a lot to an awful lot of people here," said Gibson Worsham, an architect who has lived at the resort since the early '70s. He lives there with wife, Charlotte, and three children. "She had a sparkling sense of humor and always had the right ideas for everyone to follow. She was good at giving out advice."

Funeral arrangements haven't been made, but Lester will be buried at Blacksburg Cemetery.

by CNB