THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 4, 1996 TAG: 9608020193
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: 67 lines
Last Sunday, the old Hollywood Cemetery in Elizabeth City, N.C., was alive with people honoring a Real Daughter of the Confederacy.
A contingent of 50 people gathered at the graveside of one Sarah Dozier Wallace.
Led by the Chesapeake-based Norfolk County Grays, United Daughters of the Confederacy, a solemn ceremony was performed to dedicate a graveside marker honoring Wallace as the daughter of a Confederate soldier.
Wallace was the daughter of Pvt. Willis Dozier, who served in Capt. W.A. Duke's Independent Co. of 1st Company I, 32nd Regiment, known as the Jonesborough Guards of Camden Co., N.C.
To members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, whose members are descended from Civil War vets, to be a Real Daughter is a top honor.
The identity of Wallace and her status as a Real Daughter was discovered by accident last year by Billie B. Earnest, treasurer of the Norfolk County Grays' UDC. While shopping for her husband at a Norfolk surplus store she spotted Wallace's official 1912 certificate declaring her a Real Daughter and a member of the Gen. D.H. Hill Chapter of North Carolina UDC.
After purchasing the certificate and conducting research on Wallace's background and family history, Earnest and other members of her UDC chapter organized a fund drive to purchase a graveside marker honoring her as a Real Daughter.
Earnest said the ceremony featured about 50 participants and spectators from Virginia and North Carolina. A group of re-enactors from Company B of the Confederate State Marines fired three honor volleys over Wallace's grave and a number of uniformed members of the Norfolk County Grays' Sons of Confederate Veterans acted as official color guard.
Also included in the dedication were Norfolk County Grays' UDC president Katherine Clifton, who presented the service; Col. Robert Coleman, commander of the Magruder/Ewell SCV Camp and 1st Brigade commander; Earnest, who talked about finding Wallace's certificate; Ellen Bissell, president of the North Carolina division of the UDC; Worth Gregory, Wallace's great-grandnephew; and officers from other SCV and UDC chapters and organizations.
Earnest said Gregory, a retired dentist and Navy veteran, recalled anecdotes about his ``Aunt Sade,'' as Wallace's family affectionately called her; and a trio of singers from the Elizabeth City area sang an emotional a cappella version of ``Amazing Grace'' at graveside.
``It was all very moving,'' Earnest said. Good fortune
When Betty A. Barnes of Norfolk went shopping with her granddaughter about two weeks ago at the Phar-Mor store on Military Highway in Chesapeake, she experienced every shopper's nightmare.
She lost her wallet.
But out of her bad fortune, she learned about the goodness of strangers.
A stranger found her wallet and turned it in to the Phar-Mor store. An employee of the store, whom Barnes knows only as Karen, phoned her the next day.
Before Barnes knew her wallet was recovered she went to the Leggett store at Greenbrier Mall to purchase a new one. She told a clerk about her misfortune. She said she was most saddened by the loss of treasured snapshot.
``My son passed away six years ago and in that wallet I had the only copy of the very last photo taken of him,'' she said. ``That meant more to me than any amount of money.''
Barnes thinks the clerk's action helped get that photo back.
``As I was leaving, this young girl told me she would pray for me,'' she said. ``And I thought that was so nice and kind.''
The wallet was found in a corner of the Phar-Mor store. Barnes speculates that the finder had ditched the wallet after taking the money. by CNB