ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, June 21, 1996 TAG: 9606210054
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
IT'S ONLY FOR FOUR-TENTHS of a mile, but for John D. Hereford, carrying the Olympic torch is the greatest honor of his life.
John D. Hereford, the oldest Virginian among those who will carry the Olympic torch through the state today and Saturday, plans to take it easy in the summer heat.
``I'm going to walk, not run. It's supposed to be 94 [degrees],'' said Hereford, who was chosen as a torch bearer to honor his 50 years of volunteer work in the Clarksville area.
``I'm 90 years old, the second oldest in the country and oldest in Virginia,'' Hereford said. ``I guess it's about the greatest honor I ever had.''
Hereford will carry the torch about four-tenths of a mile Saturday afternoon.
Susannah Powell, 14, will carry the flame from the middle of the Robert E. Lee Bridge into Southside Richmond at 7:30 a.m. Saturday. Powell, who has mild cerebral palsy, does volunteer work that includes visiting a 95-year-old woman in a nursing home weekly.
Powell says she thinks the honor is well worth getting up extra early on a Saturday - she has to be there by 6 a.m.
``I have butterflies,'' she said about carrying the torch. ``I heard about a guy in Seattle who dropped it, so I wouldn't be the first.''
The schedule calls for the Olympic torch to cross the Potomac River into Virginia this morning. Some segments of the trip will be by motorcade, bicycle or motorcycle, with runners handling the rest.
Nationally, only 800 of the more than 10,000 torch bearers are Olympians. More than half of the others are community volunteers like Hereford and Powell.
The torch is a bundle of aluminum rods bound with brass, with a polished Georgia pecan handle. There are really about 10,000 torches - one for each bearer - and the person who carries the 31/2 pound, 32 inch-long stick can buy it for $275.
The torch will pause at Potomac Mills shopping mall in Dale City for about 10 minutes around 10 a.m. and stop at Kenmore Plantation in Fredericksburg for 30 minutes around 2:30 p.m.
The torch arrives at the University of Virginia Rotunda in Charlottesville about 6:30 p.m. and stays about 10 minutes.
It is expected in Richmond at the Tredegar Iron Works about 10:30 p.m. Festivities there start at 6 p.m. with five bands, including the Neville Brothers, slated to perform.
The flame leaves the State Capitol at 7 a.m. Saturday, following U.S. 1 most of the way to the state line. Stops are scheduled in Petersburg, at about 10:30 a.m. for 15 minutes; and South Hill, at about 1:30 p.m. for 30 minutes.
At about 3:40 p.m., a bicycle will carry the torch into North Carolina.
LENGTH: Medium: 59 linesby CNB