ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 5, 1996 TAG: 9604050109
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA AND BETTY HAYDEN
A 64-year-old Salem man died Wednesday in Christiansburg when a backhoe rolled onto him.
Paul Henry LePhew, a minister for the Body of Christ Church in Salem, died at a machinery garage at 2205 Roanoke St. when a backhoe he was helping his son-in-law repair began to roll. Christiansburg police said the backhoe, which was apparently in gear, caught LePhew's foot. He could not escape.
Investigator Tom Lawson said an inquiry is continuing.
LePhew was retired from the Roanoke County Transportation Department. He also had worked for the city of Salem.
Rev. J.P. Hale, pastor of the Church of Jesus in Dublin, knew LePhew for almost 25 years.
He said God called LePhew to preach in the 1970s, when Hale was pastor of Body of Christ. Hale was ministering to both congregations and asked LePhew to take on the Salem church in 1976.
"He was a very sound person, very strong in the faith," Hale said. "He was the same outside [of church] as he was inside. If he told you something, he made it good."
LENGTH: Short : 32 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB