THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 5, 1994 TAG: 9411050631
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
Dr. David Phillip Meggs Sr., a retired Elizabeth City chiropractor and a valued adviser to the N.C. Democratic Party, died of cancer Thursday in Memorial Hospital at Chapel Hill.
He was 69.
Friends said that Dr. Meggs died at an hour when many leaders of the political party that he cherished and supported were getting out the vote Thursday night at a pre-election rally in his hometown of Elizabeth City.
It was one of the few major N.C. Democratic meetings that Meggs missed during the half-century of his busy professional and political life.
Meggs, a large, quiet man with a skewering sense of humor, was a familiar sight at national and state Democratic Party conventions where he sat, Buddha-like, watching the proceedings. From time to time, top political leaders would slip into a seat beside the chiropractor for whispered conferences.
Meggs, who retired after 40 at a downtown Elizabeth City office, encouraged his wife, Betty Sugg Meggs, and their two children to develop their own political styles.
Betty Meggs has for years been a Pasquotank County Democratic Party leader and a Democratic Party national officer.
Catherine Meggs, the daughter of the family, is chairwoman of the Pasquotank County Democratic Party. David Meggs Jr., who lives in Charlottesville, is an executive with a construction firm.
Dr. Meggs was a native of Camden County, member of Riverside United Methodist Chruch in Elizabeth City, a Kiwanian, and a member of the N.C. Chiropractic Assocation. He was a veteran, having served in the wartime merchant marine. Dr. Meggs was the son of the late John Franklin ad Minta Sawyer Meggs.
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at Twiford's Memorial Chapel, 405 E. Church St., Elizabeth City, with the Rev. Mack McMillan officiating. Burial will follow in Westlawn Memorial Park Cemetery.
Members of the family will be at the Meggs residence, 1418 Brothers Drive, Elizabeth City. They have requested that memorial donations be made to the Riverside United Methodist Church Parsonage Fund.
Twiford's Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements. by CNB