The traditional Lion Dance performed by Chris Spoon and Johnny Hsu from the Shaolin Martial Arts Academy in Roanoke marked the conclusion of the Lunar New Year Celebration at Roanoke College on Jan. 26.

The Lion Dance at the conclusion of Roanoke College's Lunar New Year Celebration is performed by Chris Spoon and Johnny Hsu from the Shaolin Martial Arts Academy in Roanoke. Photo by Carrie E. Cox

A Korean student delegation from Wonju, Korea, Roanoke’s first Sister City, and teacher Jinny Kim joined in celebrating the Year of the Dragon. The middle school students were here for three weeks, staying in homes throughout the Roanoke Valley.

“It’s the next best thing to traveling,” said Salem resident Jeanette Hayes.

Her family, which includes 7-year-old Audrey who was with her and older children Jordan, 15, and Skyler, 13, hosted Hei Ri, who is 15 the way Koreans count years, or 14 in American years.

Dr. Bob Roth was active in Roanoke’s Sister Cities program after returning from 10 years as a medical missionary at Wonju Christian Hospital. Roth and his wife, Dot, were at the celebration.

Roanoke College students studying Asian culture and language took part in the event. Students in Japanese 102 sang two songs.

Adrian Gillem, a freshman from the Virgin Islands, and Xavier Chance, a freshman from Roanoke, enjoyed their first Lunar New Year at the college. “It is a big cultural thing on this campus. I’ll be coming here every year,” Gillem said.

He joins his Heavenly Father with his beloved father and mother, James (Jim) Foster and Virginia F. Paitsel. His surviving family includes his two devoted daughters, Robyn Foster-Newcomb and Michelle Foster Carper and husband, Bobby; grandchildren, Lisa Jorgensen and husband, Jason, Brooke Caldwell, Zachary Carper, and Brandon Carper; great-grandchild, Ashley Jorgensen; sisters, Genevieve Hannah, Jeanette Huffman and husband, Leslie, and Barbara Huffman and husband, Charles; special friend and companion, Francis Foster and family; and many special nieces and nephews.

James S. Foster

James originally lived in New Castle where he raised his family and worked at Lawrence’s Bestway as a meat cutter and state meat inspector. He was later employed by Malone & Hyde as a foods coordinator.

From there, he worked with Valley Rich as an inspector. Educationally, he studied ministry at Ferrum College. The family would like to extend their heartfelt gratitude to physicians Dr. David Wyatt, Dr. David Buck, Dr. Mike Boyd, Dr. Matt Skelton, and the staff at Carilion Thoracic Intensive Care and Springtree Rehabilitation Center.

A funeral service was held on Jan. 26 at New Castle United Methodist Church. Interment followed at Huffman Memorial Park. The Rev. Lorraine Taylor and the Rev. Penny Wilson officiated.

Donations made in James’ name may be sent to either the Craig County Rescue Squad, 184 Paint Bank Rd., New Castle, VA 24127 or Salem Rescue Squad, 201 South Broad St., Salem VA 24153. Online condolences to the family may be made at www.johnmoakey.com.

“I’m late leaving for the Salem Lions Club meeting because I had a situation here at home.” Uh-oh.

“The dogs got out of the fence and wound up at somebody’s house on Bear Creek and I had to go get them,” Bill said.

I figured our giant puppy, Catawba, and smaller friend, Skippy, had gotten out in the few minutes between Bill getting home from the tax office where he works in Roanoke, and when he called me.

Nope. They had been gone all day, visiting neighbors one and two roads away and who-knows-where else.

The first message on our answering machine was from Gale on Zana Drive shortly before 11 a.m. “There was a big yellow dog and a smaller black-and-white one. Maybe they’re your dogs?…I don’t see them now.”

Other messages sprinkled throughout afternoon reported dog sightings, from people who evidently got close enough to read Catawba’s tag that has his name, our last name and our phone number.

Skippy the terrier-Shihtzu mix slipped his new Georgia Bulldog collar off, of course, and lost it somewhere in the back yard. Maybe Catawba, the Golden-Great Pyrenees who could be mistaken for a pony, ate it.

At any rate, I don’t know if our wandering pair ran down Lawyer Drive and then over to Zana, or through the woods and over the hill.

We know for certain they crossed Wildwood Road, a Virginia Secondary Highway, to get to Bear Creek Subdivision.

One of the messages was from an unnamed jogger who, bless her, took the time to read Catawba’s tag and call.

When I telephoned another of the neighbors who had spotted the pups, she mentioned they had been near two dogs known to be territorial, and when those went after Skippy (through the fence? I didn’t think to ask), Catawba “whipped their butts.”

That’s our gentle giant for you, defending his little friend. He meets dozens of dogs of all sizes, breeds and temperaments on Saturday mornings at the Salem Farmers’ Market and when we take the pups to the Salem Rotary Dog Park. I’ve never heard him even growl menacingly at another dog, much less go for one who appeared threatening.

Bill got home in time to catch the phone when Ashley called, and got directions to her house where her family was holding onto our dogs.

“I drove up and opened the car door. Skippy came running to me and Catawba jumped into the car,” Bill reported.

The gate is bungeed now so that even if the wind blows it open – or Catawba figures out how to lift the latch like that black bear who opened my car door to get to the homemade cookies – it shouldn’t open.

We’ve gotten to meet by phone, at least, a couple of sets of neighbors within a mile or so that we didn’t know before. Thank you to all the people who either live or travel along Wildwood, Zana, Bear Creek and anywhere else you might have seen a big yellow dog and a smaller black-and-white one running free.

I wish I’d had a doggy cam view of their Great Adventure.

This afternoon House of Delegates’ Bill 46 died in the Agriculture Committee when no committee member made a motion to advance it.

The bill was filed by 8th District Delegate Greg Habeeb, a Republican who represents Craig County, at the request of constituents in Craig, Roanoke and Montgomery counties could have gotten the state out of the kitchens of people who can and want to sell pickles, chow chow, relish, salsa, pepper jelly and other preserved foods that contain vinegar.

For years, individuals prepared and sold home-canned acidified foods at farmers’ markets, as well as at their farms, and festivals.

Home-canned pickled products can still be sold at festivals and church bazaars, but not at farmers’ markets.

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services opposes the sale of home-canned pickles and other acidified foods because of the health danger if such foods are not processed properly, VDACS staff said.

The third time was not the charm for the bill. Two years ago when a Democrat from Charlottesville submitted a similar bill, it failed in committee. Last year another bill was withdrawn, according to members of the Virginia Independent Consumers and Farmers Association, because of large agribusiness opposition.

VICFA’s mission is to “promote and preserve unregulated direct farmer-to-consumer trade that fosters availability of locally grown or home produced food products.”

Joseph was a life-long member of College Lutheran Church and a past Trustee, a Virginia Tech alumnus in the Class of ’54, and a long-practicing architect in the Roanoke Valley.

Joseph D. Stoutamire Jr.

His professional and civic activities included membership in the American Institute of Architects, a long-time member of the Salem Rotary Club (past president and Paul Harris Fellow), past member and chairman of the Building Code Board of Appeals for the City of Salem which he served for 15 years, and a Virginia governor-appointed charter member of the board of the Department of Housing and Community Development for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Joseph is survived by his wife of 55 years, Cecelia (Celi) Zini Stoutamire whom he introduced at Salem Rotary Club meetings as “The best thing that ever happened to me!”; sons Danny and wife Lauren Scheuer Stoutamire of Massachusetts, Paul Stoutamire; daughters Eva Joyce, Andrea and husband Davy Hutchinson of Salem; grandchildren Seph and Sy Joyce, Townsend and Gracie Hutchinson, and Sarah Stoutamire; brother-in-law Eddie Zini and wife Betty of South Carolina. In addition, he leaves aunts Ula Vivian Burcum, Essie Long, Thelma Long, plus many beloved cousins and friends.

A memorial service will be held at College Lutheran Church on Friday, Jan. 27, at 2 p.m. The Rev. Wynemah Hinlicky and the Rev. Bill Wiecher will officiate. The family will receive friends in Stoutamire Chapel following the service.

The family expresses their heartfelt thanks to Dr. Bill Fintel, Dr. John Priddy, and the staff at Richfield Rehab 2nd Floor West. For those wishing to make a memorial, the family suggests the Building Fund at College Lutheran Church, 210 S. College Ave., Salem, VA. 24153

Recently Lonitz, who is now 92, was reunited with a Salem Boat restored by Moneta resident Don Smith and donated to the Salem Museum.

Horst Lonitz, 92, peers into the hatch of a Salem Boat donated to the Salem Museum. Lonitz and other German crafters were brought to Salem to build at the facility that is now Graham-White. Photo by Meg Hibbert

Seeing a Salem Boat “brings out the good memories,” said Lonitz. “They did an excellent job refinishing it,” he added, after carefully inspecting the mahogany runabout in the museum’s garage area.

Lonitz, who lives in South Salem with his wife, said he hadn’t seen a Salem Boat in years.

“I used to see some of them on the lake,” he added, referring to Claytor Lake where Salem and Roanoke-area people went in those days instead of Smith Mountain Lake which developed later.

The location where Lonitz and other craftsmen built Salem boats was the forerunner of Graham-White foundry. After Salem Boat Co. ceased production in the 1960s after building about 500 boats, Lonitz worked in the Graham-White pattern shop, later the machine shop and worked his way up to general superintendent.

He retired after 30 years with Graham-White. The company on Colorado Street is known today for manufacturing parts for the railroad industry.

The Salem Boat at the museum is christened “Home Again.” Lonitz peered into the hatch, looked over specifications with Smith and friend Bill Goold of Moneta, and then came up with a surprise announcement.

That clean-lined 15-footer wasn’t made in Salem, he said, with certainty. “It was brought over from Germany.” The clue was the absence of a small metal plate inside the hatch.

Smith located Home Again in Florida, and spent years restoring it. Salem Boats sold for $1,095 when new, which would be more than $9,000 in today’s money. The biggest competitor for Salem Boat was Chris-Craft. “They made the most but they didn’t make the best,” Smith said.

He has no idea how much money he spent restoring the craft that won vintage boat shows in five states before he retired it.

Smith said he and his wife Toni, who gave him a boat as an engagement present, made the decision to donate the boat to the Salem Museum in 2010 instead of selling it, because he wanted to Salem Boat to come back home.

Long-range plans are to finish off the basement area where Home Again is now and provide a fitting showplace for it, Salem Museum Director John Long said.

Although the Salem Boat is done traveling, Lonitz and his wife are not.

“We are what you call ‘travelers,’ ” he said. “We started traveling in the earliest days in a tent, later a trailer, then a motor home. We went to Alaska, Mexico, about every state in Europe, to China about 12 years ago, Egypt, Japan, and were in Scandinavia last year, Italy, Switzerland; we went every place.”

Next, they plan to go to Europe, back to his home town of Chemnitz in the Saxony region of Germany. “I have one cousin left in my home town,” he said.

Lonitz and his wife met when he was in the Luftwaffe stationed in Munich and married there. “Shortly before the war we moved to my home town. That area became East Germany.”

The change was the reason he fled to the United States, he added.

“People here have no idea what it means to live under a dictatorship,” Lonitz said, simply.

The couple have two children and grown grandchildren. They named their son Klaus Ditmar, “but as a little baby he looked to me like a little teddy bear. I called him Teddy and somehow that name stuck.” Teddy, now known as Ted to his friends, lives in the Read Mountain area of Roanoke County. He is retired after working for Kroger and Carilion.

The couple’s daughter, Rosie Martin, lives in Chesapeake where she retired from teaching English and German. The Lonitz’ grandsons are Brian and C.J.

“When our children were still very small, they were always asking me how everything was when I was growing up. One day I decided to write it, from birth to about five years ago.” His remembrances are more than 250 pages, Lonitz said.

No citizens signed up to speak at the hearing, and the only remarks were glowing praise by Supervisor Joe “Butch” Church for Community Planner Amanda Micklow and citizens who came up with ideas to give Glenvar identity.

The plan was “built from the ground up instead of from government down,” said Church, who represents Glenvar, Catawba and Masons Cove on the board of supervisors.

The center of Glenvar Village would be the new Glenvar Library now under construction at the intersection of West Main and Dougherty Road, the entrance to Glenvar Schools, Fort Lewis Elementary School and areas in between.

For planning purposes, the Glenvar Community Plan encompasses from Dixie Caverns and the Montgomery County line to the Salem City Line.

Supervisors’ Chairman Richard Flora explained to citizens in the audience that supervisors were not asking a lot of questions about the Glenvar plan because they had held a work session on the subject at the last supervisors’ meeting.

Now the Glenvar plan is officially part of Roanoke County’s Comprehensive Plan, which is a long-range policy and implementation guide county leaders use to make decisions on the overall growth and development.

The ideas of the way Glenvar should look and what people who live there want to see – and don’t want – came from a series of community meetings that started two years ago.

From that, 17 citizens were tapped for the Glenvar Community Focus Group to work with Micklow and other members of the county planning staff to create guidelines from the 101 visual preference surveys citizens completed, ideas brought up at the community meetings and by the focus group members.

For more details, see this week’s Jan. 26 issue of the Salem Times-Register.

He was a retired general contractor from Salem. Surviving are his wife, Laura Ester Dickens of the home, a grandson, Charles Calvin Gunter and wife Vickie of Salem; stepdaughters Barbara and Dean Bledsoe, Marsha Felts and Debbie and Ricky Simmons, stepson Albert and Connie Anders, great-grandchildren Ceil and wife Katie Gunter, Ramsey and Kyndal Gunter; step-grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great, great-grandchildren.

Mr. Dickens was preceded in death by a wife, Belva Horton Dickens; son Carroll Dickens, daughter Joan Gunter, stepdaughter Betty Russell, brothers Oden Dickens and Brad Dickens and stepson-in-law Robert Felts.

The night of Friday the 13th, the same captain and Italian-registry ship that Beverly Reger, Ricki Moushegian and Peggy Weaver from Salem and Katie Moushegian of Atlanta sailed on evidently detoured too close to shore, hit a rock and sank off the coast of Italy.

Salem residents Beverly Reger, Ricki Moushegian and Peggy Weaver, from left, and former resident Katie Moushegian sailed the same route from Rome on the Casa Concordia that sank last week.

The confirmed death toll – so far – was reported at more than a dozen out of 4,200 passengers plus crew.

Their cruise together in the fall was the second for Katie, the 19th or so for Reger, and the first for their other friends, Reger said. They sailed from Rome Oct. 23 and returned to the Roanoke Valley on Nov. 2. The first Reger knew it was the same ship was when Katie called her the day after the tragedy.

“She said, ‘You know, it’s our ship.’ ”

It was the same route and the same captain, too: Francesco Schettino, who, according to news reports, abandoned ship before making sure passengers and other crew were off.

Schettino was arrested and charged with manslaughter, shipwreck and abandoning ship, according to a letter Reger received this week from Alan Fox, chairman and CEO of Vacations To Go.

Passengers who told their stories to media after escaping from the sinking ship Reger said was the length of three football fields described chaos and confusion after the ship hit the rock, electrical systems failed as it sank and only a few of the lifeboats were launched.

Reger said from the friends’ experience sailing on the Concordia and the other 18 cruises she has been on, she can understand why passengers didn’t know what to do in an emergency.

“Basically, ships that sail out of foreign ports have 24 hours after sailing to conduct the muster drill (that instructs passengers in what to do in an emergency),” she said. “We had the muster drill o the Concordia on the second day, in keeping with the law of the land.”

Reger said on the friends’ October cruise, “We had people from 26 countries aboard the ship. We were made aware that crew would go through 15 or 16 languages with each announcement.”

She said on their cruise, “Sometimes you would stop someone and they didn’t speak English. They would find someone for you who did.”

Another aspect she found unusual compared about the Concordia compared to other cruises was that at its stops in Barcelona, Palermo, Malta and Mallorca, “They took on different people at different ports. There were maybe 25 people coming and going at each port,” she added.

Although she feels sorrow for passengers who went through the ordeal and those who died, Reger said from what she understands, the captain “took it upon himself to go off course. I do not believe he went inland when we were aboard. I know we did not see any land while we were at dinner. I’m fairly certain.”

She has thought about what it must have been like for the passengers that night. “I can’t imagine anybody who had not been on a cruise before and who had no idea what the routine was. I have no idea what I would have done,” Reger said. “I probably would have had a heart attack.”

The Concordia was a subsidiary of Carnival Cruise lines.

Only a few of the Concordia’s lifeboats were launched, passengers told media. Some jumped into the water and swam about 200 feet to the shore, where residents of the small island of Giglio, Italy, took them in, the CEO said.

Until they could be rescued, other passengers held onto railings and other stationary objects on the severely listing ship that had a 160-foot-long hole in the hull, CEO Fox said in his letter.

Reger had made the same cruise several years ago with her Aunt Molly, she recalled.

Will she take a cruise again?

Absolutely. “I would like to go on a cruise again in March. By then I will be tired of winter.”

And would any of them sail on a Costa ship again? Reger and Katie Moushegian, for whom the October trip was her second cruise, said they would.

“To me, it’s like a plane crash that’s pilot error…,” Reger said, adding, “This will not keep me from going on a cruise tomorrow, even if it was the Costa Line.”

The bank plans to expand on the back, but not touch the front of the building that is part of the New Castle Historic District listed on the National Register of Historic Places, said bank board chairman Pat Charlton.

Farmers & Merchants Bank has purchased the former G.W. Layman Insurance Agency building from Barker Realty that used it for the agency's office in Craig County. Photo by Gwen Johnson

Barker Realty and the bank were scheduled to close the sale on Jan. 17. The real estate company has owned the little building for the last 10 years.

“We don’t know exactly what we’re going to use the property for yet,” said Charlton Monday. “We’ve got to sit down with the architects,” explained Charlton, who is one of seven members of the bank’s board. “We just need more room. I can assure the public we don’t want to take away from the looks of the historic building. We’re glad we could purchase it from the Barkers.”

Barker Realty President George Barker said his company was not interested parting with the building at first. “When the bank approached us several weeks ago to see if we were interested in selling, we were not. Over a period of time we decided to go ahead and sell it to them,” added Barker, who did not disclose the purchase price.

Barker assured the community that agent Ginny Fisher is continuing to work for Barker Realty, from the Salem officer and from her home in New Castle

Barker added he is glad the bank has plans to use the building. “It will be a great addition to Main Street in New Castle,” he said. “For that reason, I’m glad to see it’s going to happen.”