Cornelius "Neal" A. Martin

Cornelius A. (Neal) Martin died on August 8, 2008, at South Roanoke Nursing Home, in his ninety-ninth year. Born December 16, 1909, at Boones Mill, he was a lifelong resident of Franklin County with the exception of the past 2 ½ years when he resided at South Roanoke. He was the son of William Henry Martin, a miller who was the proprietor of Bonbrook Mill on Maggodee Creek, and Frances Katherine Jamison Martin, a teacher. Following his father’s death in the Spanish flu epidemic in 1919, Neal and his mother moved to Dugwell. When the man hired to drive them to their new residence was unable to untangle the horse, Neal, then 10, took over and drove his mother to her new home. He was never defeated by a transportation problem, whether animal, motor vehicle or farm tractor. He was not partial to walking long distances. In 1933 he married Vivian Aileen Jamison, with whom he would have celebrated, their 75th wedding anniversary on September 2, 2008. They settled on farmland on what is now known as Dan’s Road in Boones Mill. Surviving the Great Depression, they developed a poultry operation which provided eggs to various grocers in the Roanoke area, including sales on the Roanoke City Market. At his retirement in 1975 he provided eggs to the Salem Mick or Mack and to Simpson’s Supermarket in Rocky Mount. When quizzed about the freshness of his product, he had a stock answer: “They could only be fresher if they were laid tomorrow.” Faced with the necessity of making his own way in life at an early age, his formal education was necessarily limited, a common circumstance in his generation. As an adult, he was dedicated to the cause of public education. He became a long-term member and chairman of the Franklin County School Board. A generation of Franklin County High School graduates possess diplomas signed by C.A. Martin. He was a Board member of Blue Ridge Public Television, director and Board Chair of the former Farmers & Merchants Bank of Boones Mill, trustee of Franklin Memorial Hospital, member and president of Boones Mill Lions Club, a Mason and Shriner, and, in his retirement years, a charter member and ultimately the senior member of the Boones Mill Coffee Club. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by two sisters, Myrtle M. Doss and Mary M. Martin. He is survived by his beloved wife of (almost) seventy-five years; by his three children and their spouses, C.J. Martin and Lynn Martin of Kenbridge, Va., Suzanne Martin Brown and Daniel Brown of Roanoke, and Mary K. Stafford and William Stafford of Goochland County, Va.; by six grandchildren, Neal Martin, Jenny Clark, Monty Stafford, Kristy Bauer, Daniel Brown, Jr., and Amy B. Peterson; and by 12 great-grandchildren. Neal will be remembered with affection by family and friends who may reflect that, although he had to grow up and become a man at an early age, he always retained in his personality much of the boy. “For as I like a young man in whom there is something of the old, so I like an old man in whom there is something of the young; and he who follows this maxim, in body will possibly be an old man but he will never be an old man in mind.” Funeral services will be held Monday, August 11, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. at Gogginsville United Methodist Church with Rev. Bradley S. Dulaney and Rev. J Willard Bowman officiating. Interment to follow in Mountain View Memorial Park with graveside rites by Isaac’s Lodge #29 A.F. & A.M.. Special appreciation is extended to the staff and caregivers of South Roanoke Nursing Home. Memorial contributions may be made to the Gogginsville United Methodist Church Building Fund, 111 Gogginsville Road, Rocky Mount, Virginia 24151. Friends may call after 2 p.m. Sunday, August 10, 2008 with his family receiving friends from 4-6 p.m. at Flora Funeral Service, 665 South Main Street, Rocky Mount.