ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, July 1, 1996 TAG: 9607010117
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: & Now This ...
Flowers will once again adorn Melody Caldwell's grave - but the grave will be in a different cemetery.
Caldwell's remains will be exhumed Tuesday and transferred to a new grave site at Old Tombstone Cemetery on Plantation Road.
Sherry Smith, Caldwell's mother, said the cemetery will allow the family to put live flowers and a picture of Caldwell at the site.
Smith had agreed in July 1995 to allow flowers to be removed from her daughter's grave in Evergreen Burial Park. Other plot owners had urged the cemetery manager to get rid of the flowers.
The plot owners were afraid the decoration did not agree with the cemetery's conservative appearance.
Smith said Old Tombstone was the only cemetery she could find that would allow the flowers to be arranged to her satisfaction.
"They were so nice over there," she said. "They said we could plant them and take care of them."
Smith was also able to buy other plots at the cemetery so her family could be together - something she said she couldn't have done at Evergreen.
Frank Roupas, who donated Caldwell's original gravesite at Evergreen, said he was "saddened" at the move.
Caldwell, who suffered brain damage in a car accident, died in a 1993 house fire that started in the motor of the hospital bed to which she was confined. She had been home for only four months after a five-year hospital stay.
- JONATHAN HUNLEY
Champ's drive to Hawaii
Ralph Spangler, a driver for Abbott Bus Lines in Roanoke, has added a fourth American Bus Association international championship to his long list of driving honors.
Spangler, a driver with 36 years' experience, took one of 12 regional driving titles in Raleigh, N.C., in March. Then, following a tough day of both written and behind-the-wheel competition on June 21 at Opryland USA in Nashville, Tenn., he was crowned the international champion once again.
He had also earned championships in 1989, when he was working with Greyhound Bus Lines, and in 1990 and 1994 as a driver for Abbott. He was a runner-up twice in the international finals.
A 58-year-old Floyd County native who lives in Roanoke, Spangler brought home a $5,000 cash prize for taking top honors and will have his travel expenses paid in October to the American Bus Association's annual convention in Hawaii.
- GREG EDWARDS
Pet detective hits paydirt
Pet detective Jeff Mitchell has made his first find.
His business license only having taken effect June 1, Mitchell, the proprietor of Lost Paws: A Domestic Pet Lost & Found Service, located a lost pure-bred collie June 26.
Mitchell got in touch with Bob and Sharon Stephenson on June 20. They had lost their 4 1/2-year-old dog, Muffy.
Mitchell then found out through sources that Amy Crack had found a dog resembling the description of the Stephensons' pet.
Crack, however, was on vacation. Many phone calls later, Mitchell learned she had left the dog with her boss, Forester Adams.
Mitchell then met Adams and examined the found canine. Even then, though, he wasn't sure the dog was Muffy.
The Stephensons gave Mitchell a picture of their pet. After another meeting with Adams, the pet investigator was sure he had his man, er, dog.
The moral of the story, according to Mitchell: When your pet is lost, always give an "exact, detailed description" of the animal.
- JONATHAN HUNLEY
LENGTH: Medium: 72 linesby CNB