Tuesday night Hehn was greeting early-comers to the game, and preparing to sell Bingo “papers,” as Bingo sheets are called now.

Tony Hehn, who will turn 100 Friday, volunteers two nights a week at American Legion-sponsored Bingo games. Waiting for the start of the games Tuesday night are Mary Wray, left, of Glenvar and Judy Houchin of Salem. Photo by Meg Hibbert

Although he doesn’t know it yet, Saturday afternoon he will be back at the American Legion Hall. His birthday is Friday, and his family and friends are throwing him a surprise birthday party at the place which has meant to much to him.

Until a bout of ill health earlier this year, Hehn also tended the gate and sold tickets for America Legion baseball and helped out with whatever was needed by the late Posey Oyler.

“I was Posey’s right-hand-man,” Hehn said. Oyler was the driving force behind the Salem-Roanoke Valley Baseball Hall of Fame.

Hehn received an award from that local hall of fame, too.

One wall of the downstairs study in their home in the Penn Forest neighborhood where he and his 98-year-old wife, Nancy, live independently is covered by sports awards and memorabilia, including Hehn’s bowling trophies.

“I was a good bowler,” he said, recalling how he bowled eight strikes in a row one night in league bowling in Marion where Hehn worked for Brunswick, the sports equipment manufacturer. Their team won the roll off and a three-day trip to a bowling tournament in Washington, D.C.

“I did a lot of things in my life,” Hehn said, smiling.

Those accomplishments include:

• graduating as valedictorian of his high school night school, at age 28;

• being a proud member of the Notre Dame University Class of 1942. Hehn attended his 65th college reunion a few years ago.

• until recently, playing bridge twice a week at the Brambleton Senior Center.

Hehn, who was from Reading, Pa., met his future bride while working in Marion for Brunswick where he was a supervisor. Nancy, who was from Tazewell, was working at Roses there. They dated for a year before they married. This year, they’ve been married for 68 years.

“We got married in a Catholic church in Asheville, N.C.,” he remembered, pulling out the couple’s marriage certificate from his desk drawer of treasures.

They had to keep their marriage secret at first, according to Nancy, because her employer wouldn’t keep married women.

An early photograph shows the couple at the Firestone mansion in Miami, Fla., in 1945, when Hehn was Army Air Corps Tech Sgt. Anthony Hehn.

“They let the services use that mansion,” he remembered. “Ever since then I was partial to Firestone when I bought something for the car.”

In the three-and-a-half years he served, the Hehns lived in Jackson, Miss., as well as Miami, he said, before returning to Marion after the war was over.

Hehn retired at age 65 after working 20 years for Brunswick, he said. “At one time, we made 50,000 pool tables for Sears and Roebuck in a year.”

The couple moved to Roanoke County in 1979, he said, to be nearer their only child, Mary Russell, who teaches at Patrick Henry High School and lives nearby in the Cave Spring area, and their only grandchild, grandson Tony Russell, an attorney with Gentry Locke.

When asked to what he attributes his long life and good health, Hehn said, “I don’t know why it is.”

The couple’s assistant, Sue Rohrer, insists, “It’s because you’re a good man.” And she added, “He’s a doll baby.”

Hehn admitted he never smoked cigarettes, after he and his two brothers tried rolling up corn husks and smoking them when they were growing up.

“I’ve had a good life,” he concluded.

“I was pretty perturbed,” said Sink. “It was not at all how I anticipated ending our season.”

Post 240’s Ryan Hepler tries to make the tag at home in last week’s Legion tournament game against Rocky Mount. Photo by Rebecca Evans

Botetourt was hoping to have its first winning season, but ended the year at 6-8. Post 240 was 6-6 during the regular season with one game that was rained out and couldn’t be made up. The team needed a good showing in the tournament to finish on the winning side of .500 for the first time in the 10 years of the program, but it wasn’t to be as Botetourt lost to Rocky Mount and Martinsville.

“We just didn’t play well at all,” said Sink. “We showed flashes of good things, but overall we hurt ourselves with errors. We made 12 errors in two games and you can’t do that against good teams.”

Botetourt got off to a good start last Friday when the locals scored six runs in the top of the second against Rocky Mount. However, Rocky Mount answered with nine runs in the bottom of the inning and Botetourt didn’t get another hit until the seventh in a 17-8 loss.

Martin Henderlite, Jaret White, Dustin Winand, Brian Ward and Ashton Swortzel all saw time on the mound for Botetourt. Dalton Lipes had two hits to lead the offense.

Now in the losers’ bracket, Botetourt played Martinsville in the second game. Again, things looked good early as Andrew Tucker drilled a home run off the Kiwanis Field scoreboard in the first inning.

Taylor Toppel started this game and pitched well through four innings. Botetourt trailed just 2-1 into the fifth, but Martinsville scored five times in the top of the fifth to open a 7-1 lead. Jame O’Neill relived, followed by Tyler Duke.

“I was hoping to save Duke for the third game, but it got to the point where I better use him because it didn’t look like there’d be a third game,” said Sink. “Our pitchers did well, but when you commit six errors you can’t expect to win.”

That ended the season for Post 240. Roanoke, Lynchburg and Big Island were still alive in the tournament going into Tuesday’s action, and the winner of the tournament will join host Danville in the state tournament.

Although Botetourt failed in the bid for a winning season, it was another step in the right direction for the locals. Sink saw a lot more positives then negatives.

“We played some of the best baseball in District 9,” he said. “We beat some good teams, and we 10-runned New River for the first time. We beat some teams that are still going.

“Going into the tournament, we were in the top four in runs scored and we had 12 home runs this season. We did a lot of good things.”

Botetourt will return most of the team, and all the starting pitchers. In four years as coach, Sink has sent eight boys on to college, including David Blanchard, Brian Mays, Josh Holsky, Caleb Dorton, Alan Watts, Brett Carroll, Tucker and Lipes. More importantly, the kids have had fun playing for Post 240.

“Everywhere we go, the other coaches wonder how we can always have a full team,” said Sink. “We have guys that want to be here. They don’t go to beach week because they’d rather be playing baseball. Our kids are very committed to this and our numbers continue to increase.”

So much so, in fact, that Sink may have some tough decisions to make for next year’s team.

“We draw from the smallest area, but we have one of the best turnouts,” said Sink. “I think that says a lot for our kids. They want to continue to get better, and we took another step forward this summer.”

Post 240 continues to pound the ball, scoring 35 runs in the three games. Botetourt scored 16 runs Friday night at Ferrum College in a game against Franklin County, one of the top teams in the district.

Jaret White follows through in a Post 240 game at Salem’s Kiwanis Field. Photo by Melanie Meador

“I’ve said all along that we’re going to hit,” said Botetourt coach Jeremy Sink. “The key for us is to throw strikes and play well in the field. If we do that, we’re going to be tough to beat.”

Botetourt opened last week’s play with a 15-1 win over Salem at the James River field, ending the game in seven innings due to “slaughter rule.” Brett Carroll had a single, a double and a home run to pace Post 240 and Dalton Lipes also had three hits. Dylan Powers had a homer and a double and Andrew Tucker had a single and a double.

On the mound, Martin Henderlite was masterful for the Botetourt nine, allowing just one run before Hunter Scothorn mopped up with a big lead. Henderlite yielded just two hits.

On Friday at Ferrum the Botetourt team fell behind 5-1 after three innings, but that’s nothing for this bunch. In the top of the fourth Botetourt plated 13 runs to break the game wide open on the field where Billy Wagner once pitched. Post 240 went on to a 16-7 win.

Tyler Duke was the hitting star in this one, with a single and two doubles to drive in five runs. Tucker had a single and a long homer and Lincoln Evans, Ryan Hepler, Powers and Lipes all had two hits.

Taylor Toppel pitched the first five innings for Botetourt to pick up the win. Jame O’Neill pitched the final four innings for a save and kept the Rocky Mount team off-balance.

“That was a big win for us,” said Sink. “Franklin County was coming off a win over Big Island, who many people think is the best team in the district. To beat them like that shows what kind of team we have. That will be a shot heard round the district.”

On Saturday Botetourt played at Big Island, and the team used the trip to visit facilities at Liberty University and Lynchburg College, the latter where coach Sink went to school.

“We have some kids who are interested in playing in college,” said Sink. “This gave us a chance to check out their facilities.”

Loaded with confidence after the big win at Ferrum, Botetourt jumped to a quick 4-0 lead against Big Island. However, the home team rallied for three in the third and two in the fourth and went on to a 14-4 win over Botetourt. Big Island was as good as advertised, stroking 19 hits off a pitching combination of Duke, Brian Ward, Ashton Swortzel and Dustin Winand.

Duke, Tucker and Evans had two hits each for Botetourt, but Post 240 couldn’t get the clutch hits. Botetourt left eight runners on base in the loss.

Now 4-3 overall, Botetourt has jumped out to a 3-1 division record. They’ll play a division game on Thursday night at James River when they play host to Roanoke Post 3 at 6 p.m.

On Saturday Botetourt will play a rare “two-field” doubleheader. At noon Botetourt will play New River at Lord Botetourt High School, and at 5 p.m. the boys will drive to James River to host Danville. Meanwhile, the junior Legion team will host New River in a junior doubleheader following the big boys at LB.

“It will be a good chance for people in the county to come out and see what we have going,” said Sink. “We’re really turning some heads.”

Sink is beginning his fourth year as coach, and the team has made great strides under his guidance. Once the doormat of the league, opponents haven’t been able to take Botetourt lightly in recent seasons.

Jeremy Sink begins his fourth year as Post 240 coach this week. Photo by Brian Hoffman

“We’re getting better every year,” said Sink. “We improved our record in each of my first two seasons, and last year we were in every game we played all year.”

This spring Sink had a record number of boys try out for the team, and a new Junior Legion team was started for younger players. Hans Simpson, the jayvee coach at James River, has an 18-player roster and a full schedule. He’ll be assisted by Troy Linkenhoker, a jayvee coach at LB, and former James River standout Caleb Dorton.

Sink will be assisted by his dad, Randy, and former high school teammate John Wilson. Post 240 will have 12 players who played for Lord Botetourt this spring, five who played at River, and Dalton Lipes, a solid utility player who is still age-eligible after a year of ODAC ball at Roanoke College.

Jeremy has a nice talent pool to draw from, even though the Botetourt team is stocked by just two schools. In comparison, the New River team draws from five to seven schools in the talent-rich New River area.

The local teams both had good seasons. LB won a record number of games at the school and won the Blue Ridge District tournament, while James River won both the regular season and tournament in the Pioneer District. Both teams made the regional in their respective classifications.

Hitting should be the strength of this year’s team. Botetourt hit well over .300 as a team and River’s “Murderer’s Row” of Andrew Tucker, Tyler Duke and Ryan Hepler was as formidable a middle of the order as you’ll find. This week Tucker, who will play at Hampden-Sydney next year, was named second team All-State in Group A and Duke, a rising senior, was an honorable mention selection.

“We’ll hit with anyone,” said Sink. “The key to our season will be to play good defense, and for the pitchers to throw strikes. If we do that, this should be our best season yet.”

Players from LB include Brett Carroll, Jame O’Neill, Lincoln Evans, Martin Henderlite, Mason John, Michael Mnich, Dylan Powers, Hunter Scothorn, Taylor Toppel, Ashton Swortzel, Landon Ward and Brian Ward. Players from River are Tucker, Duke, Hepler and pitchers Jaret White and Dustin Winand. Henderlite, an All-Blue Ridge pitcher, will be looked at as the ace of the staff.

The season opener was Tuesday at Kiwanis Field against Roanoke Post 3, but results were too late for publication. On Thursday, Post 240 will meet Salem at Kiwanis at 7 p.m., and Saturday is a three-team round robin with Vinton and New River. Botetourt will play Vinton at 10 a.m. and New River at 2 p.m.

The team has a 16-game schedule, with most games played on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The last game is July 13 with a tournament the following weekend, making for a shorter Legion season than in past years.

“We should be right in it this year,” said Sink. “I really like our team.”

Harker was the guest speaker at American Legion Post 93’s 61^st Memorial Day Service at Fairview Cemetery. He recounted some of the men he’d served with and was in prisoner of war camps with for five years in Vietnam.

The American Flag and the American Legion Flag fluttered in a gentle breeze as former Vietnam War POW David Harker spoke at Monday’s Memorial Day Service in Buchanan. Photo by Ed McCoy

He also talked about Hill, the only known Buchanan resident to die in Vietnam. Hill was killed 40 years ago on April 7. Around the cemetery, some 350 graves were marked with small American Flags in tribute to the military veterans buried there.

Post 93 also remembered three members who died in the past year—World War II veterans Dr. Guy Alphin and C.T. Kennedy and Korean War veteran Connie Sparrow.

Although the majority of the riders were veterans, many of whom served in the Vietnam War, others were passionate supporters of the annual run that calls attention to those not with them, those who were Prisoners of War and Missing in Action.

Air Force veteran Vernon Smith of Abingdon holds photographs of three fallen troops he is taking to the Vietnam Memorial, better known as The Wall, in Washington, D.C., on his ride from Salem with 450 other motorcyclists as part of the Run for the Wall. Photo by Meg Hibbert

They were on their way to a healing. ”My job is to get them to the wall safely,” said Pace “Pawkee” Bonner, who is part of the escort for more than a dozen years. “It’s a healing. Some of these older Vietnam vets fear the wall, because when they get there and see the names of people they knew, it all comes back,” said Bonner.

One of the healing aspects for the veterans along the way is seeing people gathered on overpasses, holding signs, waving and cheering, he pointed out. Many say it’s a homecoming they didn’t get when returning from the unpopular Vietnam War.

Being met along the route by happy, supportive people is a stark contrast to their return in 1960s and early 1970s, when Vietnam veterans were met with anger, jeers and people spitting on them.

“None of these groups coming home are going to get spit on as long as I’m around,” vowed Bonner.

Paraplegic Mike Donahue rode his Martin Conquest wheelchair-accessible motorcycle from from the starting point in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., to Salem and ultimately, The Wall. "It's my freedom mobile," he says. Photo by Meg Hibbert

Even though he’s not a veteran, Bonner helps provide final honors to men and women who are, as a motorcycle funeral escort for veterans.

“These guys ride with me now,” explained Bonner, pointing to 20 names on small enamel pins on the left side of his vest. “This is Capt. Lyerly, the first one I escorted in his funeral.”

The helicopter pilot who went down in Irag was a motorcycle rider, too, Bonner said, and one of the those helping to airlift people off roofs in Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

Many of the riders were carrying remembrances to leave at The Wall, such as Vernon Smith of Abingdon. “I want you to see these three,” said the retired Air Force aircraft mechanic who served at Danang, showing framed photographs of three fallen men.

“I just think it’s an honor their families let me do this,” he said. The three in the photographs were Thomas Whitten who died in Vietnam a week after he arrived; Giles Wilson Gilmer of Lebanan, Va., and Sgt. James Perry Singleton.

About half of the Southern Route motorcyclists coming through Salem had ridden all the way from the starting point in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., such as Mike Donahue who lives there. He was easy to spot among the riders leaving Salem Friday morning. Donahue is the only one riding a wheelchair motorcycle.

The T-12 paraplegic is riding one of the first three wheelchair-accessible motorcycles, the Martin Conquest, introduced in the United States. Some refer to his oversized, finned black vehicle as the Batmobile.

“I love it. It’s my freedom mobile. I’ve been waiting for 27 years to ride a bike again,” said veteran Donahue, who has been in a wheelchair since he was accidentally shot while serving in the Military Police in Virginia Beach in 1980.

It was the first Run to the Wall for Donahue, who has been riding his Martin all over California since the end of March 2009.

They left American Legion Post No. 3 after a breakfast of eggs, biscuits and sausage gravy, prepared by members of the Disabled American Veterans and the American Legion. The night before the riders had been fed by the Virginia Veterans Care Center, after eating lunch that day with students at Montvale Elementary School in Bedford County and visiting the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford.

In Arlington, they were to meet up with riders who came across the country via the Central Route. The massed motorcyclists, anticipated to be about 500,000, will form “Rolling Thunder XXIII” and ride from the Pentagon to The Wall on Sunday, May 30.

The service is sponsored by American Legion Post 93 and the public is invited for the outdoor ceremony.

Some 300 veterans’ graves in the cemetery will be marked with American flags that will be put in place by Post members and members of Boy Scout Troop 131 and Cub Scout Pack 207, which are under the leadership of Scoutmaster Jim Tolley and Packmaster Greg Childress.

Others taking part in the service to honor deceased veterans will be the Botetourt County Sheriff’s Department Color Guard, Post Commander Jimmy Eubank and Post Chaplain Clarance Stinnett. Special music will be provided by Sandra Brown and Adam Ferguson, and Charles LeFew will play “Taps.”

In case of rain, the service will be held in the Botetourt Funeral Home Chapel at 14920 Lee Highway just south of Buchanan.

The service will again be followed by the Fairview Cemetery Association’s annual dinner in the Buchanan Community House on Lowe Street. The dinner serves as a fund-raiser for the cemetery. The cost is $10.