Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 20, 1995 TAG: 9506200083
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ADRIANNE BEE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
But 1945 was a time when innocence could be short-lived; a time when teen-agers left their homes to fight in World War II. Along with the yearbooks, Layne Board signed papers to do what he could for their country.
A week before graduation, Layne Board, who had been named valedictorian for the Class of 1945, went off to boot camp.
He never got to give his speech.
But Saturday, at Board's 50th class reunion, he finally got a chance to say a few words to his classmates.
Twelve of the 18 Check graduates made it to the reunion to listen, and Board was glad to be among old friends whom he says "haven't changed too drastically." The class also had a chance to reminisce and sing the school song.
"The years have gone by fast," Board said, sitting on a couch in his cozy, Christiansburg home. "You get here and look back and it seems a really short time."
In 1945, he said, "there weren't all these problems like the drugs and everything you see today."
But there was a war on.
Board enlisted at age 17.
He wanted to be sure to get in the Navy. "At least you could get three good meals a day, you stay out of trenches and are pretty safe ... that is unless the ship blew up from underneath you."
A fellow student, E.S. Bell, gave a commencement speech to the graduating class while Board went to boot camp in Bambridge, Md.
"I also missed out on marching down the aisle with the cap on and that thing swishing back and forth," Board said.
"I remember it very well, his mother receiving his diploma for him," said Dianna Wimmer, a fellow member of Check's Class of '45. "I know he wished he could have been there."
From Maryland, Board went to the Norfolk Naval Station and Brooklyn Shipyard. He ended up as a cook on the destroyer D.T. Fetchler. He was lucky - he didn't have to go overseas, and avoided danger.
Board has that standard military modesty when he says "We didn't think the sacrifice was that great."
Over the years, Board has watched the New River Valley change. "When we moved here there were only about three or four houses," Board said of his Pilot Road home. His voice is drowned out every few minutes by passing cars.
Since August 1946 when Board was discharged from the service, he has dedicated his life to serving God and members of his community. During 30 of the 37 years he was employed with Burlington Industries, Board served as pastor at a church in the Longshop, McCoy area. "I just felt like I should do that," Board said. "Just had a feeling in my heart, it's a calling."
Board and his wife, Mildred, raised six children; one son died at age 19.
"Don't see how I did all that, guess I had a strength other than my own," Board said.
Ask the "retired" Board what he does in his spare time and he will look at you in disbelief. "What spare time?"
He conducts revivals, visits hospitals and pastors a church service every Thursday night at Meadowbrook Nursing Home in Shawsville. And then there's always the grass that needs to be cut.
In 1945, Board was voted best looking, most sophisticated and nicknamed Prince Charming.
Says classmate Wimmer: "He's still the same."
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB