ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, October 14, 1996 TAG: 9610140096
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BEDFORD
SOURCE: JOANNE POINDEXTER STAFF WRITER
CHARLES KLEBER LEE GREGORY is a Bedford institution and holder of its past.
Charles Kleber Lee Gregory was born Nov. 8, 1932, a day that has always been important to him.
But not because it's his birthday; it's the day Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president.
That doesn't mean, though, that Kleber is a Democrat.
"I try to be neutral and vote for the right president," said Kleber, who is known around Bedford as a photographer.
He goes by Kleber, a name he was given in honor of someone his parents respected. Also, he said, "Kleber was the first name I remember my mother calling me."
Kleber, who sports a navy blue jacket proclaiming him a life member of the Bedford Volunteer Fire Department, is a fixture around the city. The only time he ever left was to attend college in West Virginia, photography school in New York and to cover news events.
But he claims he's never had a job - at least not one where someone told him what to do and he got a steady paycheck. He's a free-lance photographer, and his work has been published in The Roanoke Times, The Bedford Bulletin, the former Bedford Democrat and the Lynchburg News & Advance and has been broadcast on WDBJ (Channel 7), Roanoke.
"Kleber's always had a passion for photography," said A.W. Rush, a retired Virginia State Police sergeant. "I believe there were times Kleber took photos for us to help in our investigations."
Because of its small staff, the Bulletin depends on people like Kleber, who has called in hundreds of news tips. He constantly listens to a police scanner. "I don't believe he sleeps," editor Rebecca Jackson-Clause said.
Kleber, with graying hair and a beard to match, says he gets a little confused these days, but he vividly recollects the aftermath of Hurricane Camille, covering a Ku Klux Klan gathering and the burning of a cross at a Moneta dress factory where then-Gov. Mills Godwin was visiting.
He says he was horrified at the cross-burning, which he describes as probably the only time he's been frightened on an assignment. He shot pictures of the burning cross and of Godwin's reaction.
He also had to photograph the Klan as members stopped traffic in downtown Bedford during school-consolidation hearings.
In 1969, Kleber flew with Godwin to survey the damage of Hurricane Camille in Nelson County. "For a long time, when it rained, I had flashbacks to Camille," Kleber said.
"The mountainside looked like a large claw, and there was little vegetation. The only remnants of one bridge was the rail tracks with no supports. The water had washed away all the trestle, but the rails were still intact. Also, there was a two-story house where the mud was all the way up to the second story."
Kleber has photographed his share of plane and helicopter crashes, and three stand out.
"It was sheer agony" to take pictures of the Brushy Mountain plane crash in Craig County that killed decorated World War II hero Audie Murphy in 1971. "It was hard to photograph and hard to get to."
Another crash, however, was easier to photograph. A pilot landed his plane on top of a tree on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
One helicopter incident, he said, was embarrassing for the state police, but they handled it gracefully.
Kleber doesn't remember all the details, but Rush does: The state police had been using helicopters only a week or two when one was sent to Franklin County. The pilot then flew into Bedford and landed in a field near the state police headquarters and had lunch. As he was leaving, he accidently flew into a power line. The pilot managed to land the heavily damaged chopper in front of a crowd.
"It was embarrassing, but I think we handled it very well," said Rush, adding he doesn't remember exactly how the accident was recorded in police records.
Kleber has hundreds of stories about his life as a photographer, volunteer fireman, and co-owner of an ambulance service, a funeral-home transportation service, and a telephone answering service.
He acknowledges there are some things he would do differently.
He would have gone into military service. Although he was given a physical exemption, "I feel if I was able to serve my country, I would have been a better person today," said Kleber, whose two brothers were with the Coast Guard.
Kleber also would take Social Security out of his free-lance pay. He comes from a prominent Bedford family but has few material things now. His father, Ed, owned businesses in Bedford and in Detroit and commuted between them. His mother, Eloise, was a civic-minded housewife who was involved with such projects as the building of a hospital for Bedford, garden clubs, theater, the armory and the bypass around the city.
His younger brother died a couple of years ago, but his older brother lives in Pennsylvania and helps support him. Kleber finds it hard to discuss that part of his life. "I have not been employed by anybody. It's all been free-lance work, and now I have to rely on others. I handled my money poorly."
Kleber and a partner - the late Clay Peters, a former newsman for WSLS (Channel 10) - also lost money on their ambulance venture in the early 1960s. They had a Pontiac station wagon to transport patients or bodies, but business was not that good, with funeral homes and volunteer rescue squads providing the same service.
As a boy Kleber took pictures of floral arrangements for his mother, and later for the yearbook at the old Bedford High School. In college, he spend most of his time taking pictures while majoring in history. He later attended a photography school in New York. After finishing, he returned to Bedford because he felt obliged to care for his aging parents.
He said he had a nervous breakdown after his mother died at age 84 in 1977 and has taken fewer pictures since then.
Restee Eanes, who worked for the Gregory family for 15 years, says Kleber was a quiet person. "He kept to himself and took a lot of pictures."
She says Kleber still calls her periodically. "He's a nice boy and will do anything in the world for anybody."
His interest in police scanners goes back to his childhood. His grandfather or great-grandfather - Kleber can't remember which - was editor of a Newport News newspaper in the late 1890s, and Kleber developed his interest in the news from their talks.
He always carries his scanners and cameras, and he's glad they're now smaller and less conspicuous. He's lost several scanners, but always replaces them because "I don't want to give them up."
Once, he recalls, he was using a camera with a flashbulb to shoot pictures in the Bedford courthouse; the state police were meeting in a room nearby. The flash exploded, and the troopers "came out scattering; very shook up, I think."
Now, Kleber says, age is catching up with him, and his health is not too good. He has hypertension, and says his medicine contributes to his confusion. He also has a limp, the result of a slip on ice.
"What really hurts me now is I've got memories of a lot of things but the photographic evidence is lost because the negatives have been lost over the years," he said.
He says he would like to be remembered as a friend to everyone. "I do not hate anyone. Not even the Klan. That was part of their life and not mine. It was a shameful part of our history.
"I have recorded the good part and not so good part of history, and yet it's history. I can't change that."
LENGTH: Long : 138 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: NHAT MEYER/Staff. Kleber Gregory is a life member of theby CNBBedford Volunteer Fire Department. He is also an accomplished
photographer. Gregory has submitted photographs to numerous papers
in the area since the 1940s. color.