ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, May 29, 1996                TAG: 9605290107
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG 
                                             TYPE: NEWS OBIT 
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER 

FORMER SUPERVISOR WAS EVERY SOLDIER'S FRIEND

Within his scrapbook of memories, Roy H. Collins kept a 50-year-old letter from a soldier who wrote: "Now I know why we fight, we fight to protect all the good people such as you."

Collins, a former member of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors who died Sunday, had more than 100 letters from the families of GIs, thanking him and his wife, Edythe, for letting them know their sons were alive.

Night after night at the end of World War II, the Collinses sat by their shortwave radio listening to Nazi propaganda broadcasts and scribbling messages from captured soldiers.

The Collinses faithfully sent postcards with the information to the soldier's families, most of whom didn't have access to the radio transmissions.

"It was the first word I had received from my boy who had been reported 'missing in action.' You can imagine how happy it made me," one mother wrote in reply.

Roy Collins said the grateful letters warmed him throughout his life, which ended over the Memorial Day weekend.

A Montgomery County native, Collins, 80, was a retired assistant postmaster in Christiansburg who served two terms as a county supervisor, from 1975 to 1983. He also served as a member of the county Public Service Authority.

Collins lived off Roanoke Street, in a house located behind fast-food restaurants, convenience stores and automobile dealerships, and saw the growth of Montgomery County come to his doorstep.

He liked to talk about the "old days," and spoke with melancholy about the loss of neighborhood ties and the community's agricultural character.

As a supervisor, Collins was a staunch fiscal conservative who advocated limited government. He once said that by expanding public services, "You are robbing the people of their initiative."

Collins also worked for decades with the county 4-H program, and was a lifelong member of Christiansburg Presbyterian Church, serving as deacon and elder. He and his wife, married for 55 years, had three daughters and four grandchildren.

His funeral was conducted Tuesday. The family requested contributions be made in his memory to Christiansburg Presbyterian Church.

LENGTH: Short :   50 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:   headshot of Collins