The Roanoker - September / October 2018 - 44

Whether famous on a national scope or
perhaps just locally, these celebrities now
rest in our region for all to remember.

CANDY MAN AND EVERY CHILD'S hero,
purveyor of penny sweets and owner of the
town's first car. A young soldier and father
who died in war in a distant desert nation
plagued by never ending war. A longtime mayor of
the Star City of the South who broke racial barriers
with kindness, devotion and fairness.
One needn't be a star of note to leave a lasting
legacy; the Roanoke region's cemeteries are peopled
by those whose lives were interesting, heroic, made
them celebrities in their own right, others who
excelled at their passion, and some who found
themselves simply in the right place (or the wrong)
at the right time.
Saturday afternoon TV was never the same for
cooking enthusiasts with the untimely passing of
Earl Laban "Laban" Johnson, 57, in 1997 from
complications from heart disease. The final resting
place of the amiable co-host of "Cookin' Cheap"
for 19 years on Blue Ridge Public TV, is located in
Evergreen Burial Park in Roanoke. Johnson and cohost Larry Bly were (and are, in Bly's case) civicminded Southern gents who loved to cook and throw
hilarious barbs at one another while in the kitchen,
a funky 70s set full of autumn gold appliances and
kitschy décor. "Cookin' Cheap" fare never consisted
of anything fancy, but mostly things like Ritz crackertopped casseroles served up on a busy weeknight
and cheesy potato skins zipped under the broiler for
Sunday football snacking. As one fan noted, "there
were more awful puns on this show than a century
of knock-knock jokes."
The Oakwood Cemetery in Bedford hosts the
earthly remains of a number of military men, among
them the famed and much written about Bedford
Boys of the D-Day invasion of World War II and some
lesser known but equally distinguished soldiers who
gave their all during the War Between the States and
more recently in Iraq.
The burgundy granite tombstone of Lt. Joshua
Booth can be seen from the intersection stoplight
at nearby Longwood Avenue and Oakwood Street,
most recently with the offering of a football placed
at the grave marker's base.
"Missing this hero never goes away," wrote a
friend online of Booth, who died at 23 at the hands
of a sniper in Haditha, Iraq, on October 17, 2006.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2018

"Love you, buddy."
Booth, of Sturbridge, Mass., near Boston, spent
boyhood summers in Bedford, with his grandparents.
He'd been in Iraq only a
month, leaving behind his
wife, then pregnant with
a son, and his 18-montho l d d a u g h t e r. H e h a d
earned a commission as a
U.S. Marine officer at The
Citadel before volunteering
to serve his country in Iraq.
He led three patrols a day
LT. JOSHUA BOOTH
to glean intelligence from
Iraqi citizens. Booth was buried following a military
parade through Bedford honoring him in a family
plot, although he had qualified to be buried in
Arlington National Cemetery.
A final resting place was designated nearby for
Confederate officer Jimmy Breckenridge, who it is
said flung himself into the path of enemy fire when
he learned of the death of his new bride, Frances
"Fan" Burwell Breckenridge, while he was away
at war. Fan was a daughter of Bedford's historic
Avenel Plantation, built in 1836 by the Burwell
family. Breckenridge's body was never recovered,
although his sacrifice is commemorated on a stone
memorial next to his wife's.
"To the children, he was the most popular man
in town," recalled the late Mary Lee Cake, longtime
owner and publisher of the Bedford Bulletin
newspaper of Cator Ragland, the town's owner of
its sole candy shop, who died at 69 in 1936. Cake
(formerly Mary Lee Richardson), used to rush to
Ragland's store on N. Bridge Street to buy penny
candy, a great joy for kids of the early 20th century.
Ragland, a lifelong bachelor, also owned the
town's first car, a 1906 "baby" or compact Cadillac,
which more resembled a little black carriage than
an automobile. The Caddy was delivered by its
manufacturer in 1906 to Ragland, who joyfully
piloted it through the streets of Bedford, delighting
people and terrifying horses, until 1911 when
rutted roads broke its crankshaft. It reposed in a
town junkyard until a college student, Thomas C.
CONTINUE TO PAGE 46

As director of the History
M u s e u m o f We s t e r n
Virginia, KENT CHRISMAN
led the Haunted Haunts
tour and was "al way s
asked, 'Have you ever
seen a ghost?'" to which he
would reply, "No, but I do
believe in the possibility,
and actually, supposedly,
for a brief time, one of
my relatives" haunted his
former home.
One of his relatives
told the story of a ghost
who slapped a man
arguing with a woman in
a bedroom of an old family
home.

Writer and farm owner
ANITA FIREBAUGH of
Troutville says she has seen
ghosts at various times in
her life.
"In the late 1990s," she
says, "when I was covering
the night meetings of
the Board of Supervisors
i n C r a i g C o u n t y, a
Confederate soldier walked
into the old courtroom,
TheRoanoker.com

LT. JOSHUA BOOTH: COURTESY OF DEBRA BOOTH

Celebrity
Cemeteries

Victorian arrangement,
which remained.
Marshall Langhammer,
Tot 's daughter and a
teaching pro golfer, says
she heard "noises in the
kitchen, a door opening
and somebody walking
up the steps" at one point.
Later, "I heard stomping
down the stairs, a door
slamming in the kitchen
and somebody walking
outside. Nobody was there,
but I wasn't scared. I just
thought, 'It 's a friendly
person who visits.'"

http://www.TheRoanoker.com

The Roanoker - September / October 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Roanoker - September / October 2018