Virginia Genealogy
Junius Parker Fishburn was a prominent Roanoke newspaper and radio executive, banker, and civic leader. President of the Times-World Corporation, he also served on banking, railway, utility, educational, and civic boards. A Princeton graduate and Presbyterian, Fishburn married Katherine Rodes Nelson in 1926; they had two children, Sally Hart and Robert Nelson.
Junius Blair Fishburn’s biography traces his rise from a young Roanoke banker to a leading financial, publishing, and civic figure in Virginia. It details his family heritage, marriage and children, decades with the National Exchange and First National Exchange Banks, leadership in business, major land and park donations, educational service, church work, and extensive organizational affiliations.
Charles Vernon Eddy of Winchester, Virginia, was a printer, publisher, librarian, civic leader, and prominent Freemason. Co-founder of the Eddy Press, he later led Handley Library and served numerous community organizations. Elected Sovereign Grand Master of the Allied Masonic Degrees in 1948, Eddy was also active in Presbyterian church work, the Red Cross, Boy Scouts, and local historical organizations.
Samuel Thomas Brown (1896–) was a Cornell-trained mechanical engineer, industrial executive, and consulting engineer who led several coal companies and the Virginia Iron, Coal and Coke Company. A United States Naval Reserve ensign, he belonged to prominent civic, fraternal, and business organizations and lived in Roanoke with his wife, Katherine, and their three children.
Major General Evarts Walton Opie (1893–?) of Staunton, Virginia, was a newspaper publisher, civic leader, and longtime Virginia National Guard officer. He led the 116th Infantry through expansion and wartime training, supervised combat replacements during World War II, and retired in 1946 as a major general. The biography also traces his family, Episcopal service, marriage, and children.
Eugene Paul Sakers (1922–?) was a Baltimore native who served in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II before becoming a commercial pilot, flight instructor, and executive secretary of the Winchester Chamber of Commerce. This biographical and genealogical account covers his education, career, military service, Episcopal faith, and 1949 marriage to Marcia Whipple.
Robert L. Lynn was a longtime Roanoke business leader and president of S. H. Heironimus Company, one of the Shenandoah Valley’s leading department stores. A Virginia Military Institute graduate, he was active in civic and religious organizations. Lynn married Virginia Dawson in 1935, and they had three children: Robert, Elizabeth, and Richard.
Robert Lee Lynn rose from a clerk in Roanoke’s Heironimus and Brugh store to president of the S. H. Heironimus Company, shaping its growth into a leading Shenandoah Valley department store. A civic, commercial, and church leader, he served the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, Calvary Baptist Church, and other organizations before his death in 1936.
William Daniel Staples (1907–?) was a Virginia lawyer, editor, and public-relations director. After graduating from Princeton and the University of Virginia School of Law, he practiced in Roanoke, served with the War Production Board, and undertook World War II military-government and civilian-supply assignments. He later directed public relations for West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company and married Mary Elizabeth Macdowell.
Frank Armstrong Sr. was a West Virginia-born fruit-products executive, cattle breeder, and longtime leader of the National Fruit Product Company. Born in Central Station in 1871, he worked in wholesale groceries before helping establish the company in 1913. He later managed 1,300 acres near Haywood, breeding Aberdeen-Angus cattle. He married Nellie Steel and had two children.