Blue Ridge Country - July/August 2014 - 61

landlocked and out of luck. That's one of the reasons they bought their Mediterranean-inspired
home on the main channel.
The Sexton retreat has arched entrances and
doorways, tiled floors and bookcases built into the
wall on either side of a raised fireplace. Classic white
columns support the arches throughout, including
the grandest arch of all. Located in the back of the
house, the arch is a perfect proscenium for the view
over the pool, one that seems to extend into the lake
itself. Here in the patio, infinity pool, hot tub and
sumptuous seating areas are protected by the
screened enclosure, so large that the previous owner
couldn't find anyone locally to build it. He had to
go to Florida to find his craftsman.
Water surging from the rock fountain in the
middle of the pool mimics the springs that bubble
up from the ground in this part of Tennessee. The
pool spills into a series of waterfalls, creating a
sound that Marsha finds soothing, one that reminds
Jerry of the mountain streams he used to fish when
he was a boy. Jerry's the fisherman in the family;
Marsha is the boater.
"I have no idea what a trout stream sounds like,
nor do I care to," she says. "Give me some water
skis, a boat and my grandchildren, and I'm happy."
She loves getting on the water on her personal
watercraft. "You can just fly on those things," she
says.
Jerry doesn't go fishing nearly enough, he says,
but he hopes to do more of it this summer with his
grandson, who loves to fish, especially from the
dock. The grandchildren bait their hooks with night
crawlers and hook a lot of blue gill, while he angles
for crappie and small- and large-mouth bass. There
is nothing like a fried-fish dinner outside after a full
day of fishing.
"Fried 'taters, cornbread, chowchow and Vidalia
onions," he says, ticking off one of his favorite
meals. "You roll the fish in cornmeal and cook it in
an iron skillet in grease. You can feel a heart attack
coming on right away."
Marsha, an adventurous cook, uses the outdoor
kitchen all summer. Paneled in knotty pine, cooled
by an overhead fan, it has everything she needs,
including a 'fridge and plenty of counter space.
Evenings are cool on this side of the house, shaded
by the tall house. The Sextons' daughter and her
family live three miles away, and their son and his
family live eight miles away, so small family gatherings happen often in this Italian-inspired home.
Three times a year, especially the Fourth of July, the
gatherings are much, much larger. The adults grill
hamburgers and hotdogs while the kids play in the
water. There are big bowls of potato salad, coleslaw
and baked beans.
"And fried potatoes, if I'm lucky," Jerry says.

One of the things Sherry
Brown and John
Crawford love most
about living on Smith
Mountain Lake is the
community - new
neighbors have invited
them to join book clubs
and bunco games.
Community means
everything to Brown, who
grew up in the area and
is now living close to her
siblings.

Smith Mountain Lake, Va.
For Sherry Brown, living on Smith Mountain Lake is
all about family. She and husband John Crawford live
across the southwest Virginia lake from her sister and
brother-in-law and the bed and breakfast inn that
those two run. About two years ago, the two sisters'
brother and his wife built a home in Floyd, Va., about
an hour and a half away. The mother of the three sibJULY/AUGUST 2014 | 61

Blue Ridge Country - July/August 2014

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