ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 9, 1996 TAG: 9612090076
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: FERRUM
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
BILL VERNON was a respected bluegrass advocate. Sunday, fans and friends - more than 200 of them - gathered to remember the man and the music he loved.
The music industry lost an oft-quoted, much-revered advocate three weeks ago, when bluegrass commentator Bill Vernon died at age 59.
{REST} But perhaps the people who will miss him most are the ones lik Frank and Judy Howard, who may have known his encyclopedic side but above all else considered him a member of the family.
"We were his friends," Judy Howard said. "We like to think we were his special friends, but I guess everybody here was."
Nearly 200 of Vernon's friends and fans - even some who never met the man - converged on Ferrum College and the Blue Ridge Institute on Sunday for a sometimes-tearful memorial service and a joyous party, complete with bluegrass bands and a wealth of Bill Vernon stories.
The Howards, who drove in from Culpeper, met Vernon through one of their daughters not quite four years ago. Lisa Howard was working at the Prism Coffeehouse in Charlottesville, a local venue for bluegrass and folk music. She invited Vernon, a regular at The Prism, home for dinner, and that cemented the friendship.
"He came in and ate chicken with us," Judy Howard said. "And that was it - it was like we'd always known him."
They would see him fairly often, she said, even while she was working the night shift. "I'd come home and he'd be sleeping on the couch," she said.
Weston Vernon, who came in from Maryland for the service, said he knew his half-brother was a well-respected bluegrass expert, but he didn't realize until he came to Southwest Virginia just how many ordinary people Bill Vernon had touched.
Doug and Brenda Sampson of Wirtz were Vernon's next-door neighbors for the last six years. They never really listened to his radio shows - he was host of "In and Around Bluegrass" on public radio WVTF (89.1 FM) for almost 15 years and followed it with other shows in Rocky Mount and Charlottesville - but they understood why so many had come to pay tribute.
"People are faithful down south," Brenda Sampson said. "When they like you, they stay faithful to you. He had plenty of fans."
Vernon's faithful have even hit the Internet, where pages of tributes from around the nation have been recorded.
At the reception following the memorial service, members of Lost and Found, a local bluegrass band, played old favorites while guests passed around photos of Vernon and drank hot cider.
Julian Barnes of New Castle met Vernon while a student at Ferrum College and has been a devoted fan ever since.
"He was definitely into the old time, but would definitely give fair play to the Bela Flecks of the world," Barnes said. Often, he said, bluegrass experts suffered from tunnel vision, swearing allegiance either to the old guard or to more progressive musicians. Not Vernon. "He had vast knowledge, but he wasn't one-sided."
Dave Freeman, owner of County and Rebel recording labels and Record Depot, agreed.
"Bill was one of the main forces in keeping this music honest," said Freeman, a friend of Vernon's for 36 years. "He was sharp enough that he could see through phony stuff and pretensions."
Vernon wasn't drawn to bluegrass by the thought of money. Barnes recalled the first time he saw Vernon's car, an old yellow heap, sitting in a radio station parking lot.
"I thought, `What a crime. Here's this knowledgeable person, this God-like person, reduced to driving a rusted-out piece of Japanese junk,''' Barnes said.
If his youth were any indication, Vernon should have grown up to drive a BMW and live in a New York flat instead of in quiet Wirtz. He attended a prestigious Eastern prep school and an Ivy League college, and landed a job as a clerk on Wall Street. He was, said Weston Vernon, on course for a successful, lucrative career. But he would have none of it.
Instead, he headed for Southwest Virginia, where the bluegrass he had unexpectedly fallen in love with in the city was performed openly and proudly.
"He gave the term 'free spirit' a new meaning," Weston Vernon said.
Vernon's life has given hope to Lisa Howard, who is struggling to make a career out of being a disc jockey and an emcee, like Vernon, her mother said.
"Bill is one of the reasons that she's doing it, that she didn't give up and get an 8-to-5 job," Judy Howard said.
"Everyone will miss him being on the air and writing liner notes," Lisa Howard said. "But what we'll miss most is his friendship."
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: NHAT MEYER\Staff. 1. Mourners for Bill Vernon gather inby CNBthe Vaughan Chapel at Ferrum College for Sunday's memorial. Weston
Vernon, Bill Vernon's half brother, spoke at the memorial service.
2. Lost and Found members (from left), Sammy Shelor, Dempsey Young,
Barry Berrier and Allen Mills perform after the memorial service at
Ferrum College's Blue Ridge Institute. color.