ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, November 18, 1996 TAG: 9611180086
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: A Cuppa Joe
SOURCE: JOE KENNEDY
The train rolled in from Washington that afternoon.
The sun was shining. People lined both sides of Jefferson Street and poked their heads out the windows of Norfolk and Western's offices. A couple of convertibles sat by the tracks, awaiting their important passengers.
The Jefferson Street crossing was packed when the great man appeared at the railing of the train's last car.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the broad-shouldered president with the polio-ravaged legs, had come to the valley to dedicate the Veterans Hospital.
Suttie Economy, age 9, stood with his family in the Jefferson Street throng. It was Oct. 19, 1934, one of the biggest days in Roanoke history.
Sixty-two years later, he stands by the Dog Mouth Fountain on the Roanoke City Market, and, with the railroad crossing bells clanging in the background, he says, "I left my parents and run up to the tracks. I tried to get close to Roosevelt, but the G-men wouldn't let me."
When the gleaming convertibles pulled away, "I seen some old women cry. They might have been crying with joy."
He says that day deserves to be remembered.
FDR riding on back of a train
The country was fighting the Great Depression. Roosevelt was pursuing a vision of salvation, and people who feared the loss of their jobs, their homes and their bank accounts were counting on him for help. A few miles from Roanoke, the government was erecting a $1.7million hospital for military veterans.
Jubilation reigned.
Roosevelt and his party rolled west past tens of thousands of cheering people on that half-holiday. In a neighbor's Packard, Suttie and his family followed.
Out at the hospital site, then part of Roanoke County, the president spoke from a gazebo, declaring the federal government's intention to assist not only the veterans, but also those who lacked "what reasonable people call the essentials of modern civilization."
Economy gestures toward Jefferson Street between Salem and Norfolk avenues, right next to the spot where the president's train stopped at 3:30 that afternoon.
"Put a plaza in there in memory of Roosevelt," he says. "Put a nice, big plaque up showing him standing on the back of the train, with cars on the tracks and G-men standing nearby, and in the background the old General Office Building and the Hotel Roanoke."
One idea among many
The idea is one of many that have come to Economy over the years - including casino gambling, slot machines and other things that would bring in outside dollars.
He has described it to City Councilman Jim Trout, U.S. Sen. Charles Robb and Mayor David Bowers. The mayor suggested that the Roosevelt memorial might be added to the linear park he favors, or placed in the old NW passenger station, if it becomes a visitor center.
Economy wants the memorial at the crossing, closed since the completion of the new market walkway. But talk won't make it happen. Suggestions like this one come up all the time. To succeed, they need popular support and financial backing.
Who knows whether the magic of that moment has resonance today.
Economy earned his living by running restaurants; he still rents rooms to veterans near the hospital, and he can give you a walking tour of the market area's high and low points. His inspiration for the FDR memorial is his child's-eye view of that magnificent occasion.
At the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, now within the boundaries of Salem, artifacts from the hospital's past lie under glass in the lobby of Building 2. At the base of the flagpole overlooking the athletic fields, a bronze plaque designates the site as FDR Plaza. A veteran, Economy was there the day it was unveiled, in 1994.
"If you take a moment to reflect in history as you stroll through the plaza," the inscription says, "perhaps you will hear the cheers, shouting and cries of the huge crowd as the president of the United States stood in a convertible waving."
Suttie Economy hears the cheers. A memorial would be "a great thing for the city of Roanoke," he says. "We get tourists here."
What's your story? Call me at 981-3256 or send e-mail to kenn@infi.net. Or write to me at P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke 24011.
LENGTH: Medium: 85 linesby CNB