
DATE: Thursday, August 14, 1997             TAG: 9708140452

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL  

SOURCE: BY LOUIS HANSEN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   87 lines

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: * A story in Thursday's Hampton Roads section, ``Riding the campaign trail,'' misidentified Jane Gatling, the mother of Roxane Gilmore. The women in a picture on page B7 were (left to right) Donna Henderson; her mother, Mary Jane Cathey; and Roxane Gatling Gilmore. Also, a quote in the story by Jane Gatling was mistakenly attributed to Mrs. Cathey. Correction published Friday, August 15, 1997. * RIDING THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

It was only the first event of the 16-hour campaign day, but the welcome banner misspelled her name, and there were few takers for the sausage biscuits.

Anyway, who swallows the eye-opener special when you can get a warm serving of Republican politics from a gubernatorial candidate's wife?

Favorite daughter Roxane Gatling Gilmore came home to Suffolk to campaign for her husband, James S. Gilmore III, and local House of Delegates candidate S. Chris Jones at one of three local stops Wednesday.

``The only jobs I've ever gotten were from things I learned in Suffolk - Latin and typing,'' she joked with the hometown audience of about 20 friends, classmates and supporters at downtown's Nansemond Grill.

The 43-year-old teaches classics at Randolph-Macon College, shuttles between baseball games and swimming matches for her two boys and crisscrosses the state in a sometimes pell-mell world of speeches, handshakes and tepid meals.

Roxane Gilmore is the primary stand-in for her husband, attending dawn-to-dusk meetings and public occasions throughout the state.

What the Main Street event lacked in precision, it made up for in septegenarian esprit. Many of the friends and supporters were seniors.

Virginia Brinkley, a retired teacher who taught Roxane some of her first irregular Latin verbs, sipped orange juice and beamed.

``Roxane is the kind of person who makes teaching all worthwhile,'' she said.

Jane Cathey, Gilmore's 77-year-old mother, pointed to the computer-printed sign hanging in the front window of the diner to welcome home ``Roxanne Gatling Gilmore.''

``It's spelled with one `n', you know,'' Cathey said over the din of slappy greetings and strong handshakes.

Cathey still lives in the Lakeside section near downtown, in the same house where Roxane grew up.

Roxane Gatling smacked her first volley at the Lakeside Park tennis courts, spent countless days at the old Morgan Library, and later, as a high school prank, rode horses with a posse of her friends to the drive-in theater on Route 460.

``It was a fun place to grow up,'' the Suffolk High School valedictorian said in an interview after breakfast.

Now, she starts most days at 6:30 a.m. - a quiet time, before her two sons, Ashton, 9, and Jay, 14, are awake.

Some days include three or four stops across the state, including innumerable fairs and civic organization meetings.

``A campaign is a major commitment for the entire family,'' she said.

It can be trying. ``In the summertime,'' when their boys are out of school, she said, ``it's hard to know what day it is.''

She spends days explaining her husband's proposal to curb the personal property tax to local civic leaders, and nights deciding the fate of her 9-year-old's aching desire to play midget football.

``Being a teacher helps me - I'm used to explaining things to people,'' she said.

A visit to Emporia bounced on and off her schedule Wednesday, although she was booked up with events through dinner and expected to arrive home in Richmond at 10:30 p.m.

``I don't think we consider it a sacrifice,'' she said. ``It's an important part of our lives.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

JOHN H. SHEALLY II/The Virginian-Pilot

Roxane Gilmore, left, wife of gubernatorial candidate James S.

Gilmore III, chats with Mary George Jones at Nansemond Grill in

Suffolk on Wednesday.

JOHN H. SHEALLY II/The Virginian-Pilot

Roxane Gilmore, right, wife of James S. Gilmore III, was greeted by

about 20 supporters, including her mother, Mary Jane Cathey, center,

and Donna Henderson, at a breakfast at Nansemond Grill in Suffolk

Wednesday.