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Lannie Davis Ballard, 84, left this worldly earth for a happier place on Oct. 12, 2023.
Lannie was born in Sophia, W.Va., on May 24, 1939, the son of Elgie Howard Ballard and Lilly Merle Davis Ballard.
He grew up in Sophia, a small coal mining town, where he proudly earned the rank of Eagle Scout with Gold Palm and was acknowledged for his achievements with an Order of theArrow ceremony. While a junior and senior in high school he served as a counselor at the Boy Scout Summer Camp.
During high school he also was interested in geology and requested a rock from every state. To his surprise he received a 50-pound sandstone rock with a hefty freight charge from one state. But, he did win some science fair awards for his display which excluded the 50-pound rock. He also enjoyed model building and while recuperating from two knee replacements in 2020 he finished a 20-mule team model he had since he was about 11 years old.
He was a hard worker beginning as a young boy cleaning office spaces, delivering the Grit newspaper and working at the A&P Tea Company grocery store in Beckley, W.Va. He always complained about being required to join the union and pay dues out of his part-time income he was earning as a teenager.
Upon graduating from Sophia High School in 1957, Lannie joined the U.S. Coast Guard and had to go all the way from West Virginia to the Eastern Shore of Virginia by bus to join. He was proud to serve his country and always believed it was his responsibility and duty and that this country owed him nothing. He spent most of his four years in the New Jersey and New York areas and gave up the slogan “join the service and see the world.”
When he reported for duty in the Coast Guard at Cape May, N.J., he was assigned to duty on an 83-foot patrol boat. There was a need for a cook and being the low man on the totem pole he was told “you’re it.” Trying to avoid that duty, he said he didn’t know how to cook and his superior officer said, “There’s the galley and there are cookbooks.” He became an accomplished cook and carried that throughout his life, becoming very particular about how food was prepared and especially being served hot.
In 1960, he married his childhood sweetheart, Loretta Dolores McCaleb, in Sophia. She was working for the U. S. government in Washington, D.C., and he continued to serve in the Coast Guard in New Jersey.
When he was discharged from service after four years, he attended Columbia Technical Institute in Washington, D.C., to study electro-mechanical drafting. While attending that Institute, he also worked part-time for The Wall Street Journal and The National Observer.
He and Loretta established residence in Arlington, and their daughter Lisa Deanne Ballard was born in 1963 in Washington, D.C. Shortly thereafter, they purchased their first home in Woodbridge for $15,900 and lived there for over 30 years. Their son, Lowell Dean Ballard, was born in Fairfax in 1966.
During their time in Woodbridge, Lannie was active in community and school affairs and served as president of the Marumsco Woods Citizens Association. He also became Rippon Elementary School’s first “Home Room Father,” taking over for Loretta when she went back to work full-time for the federal government.
After 10 years working as a design draftsman, he gave up his full-time job and went into business for himself running his own taxidermy shop. He always had an interest in taxidermy since he was a young boy. He was a self-taught, award-winning taxidermist, having taught classes at many taxidermy association meetings in Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina where he also served as a judge for the competitions. He was a leader in the National Taxidermists Association serving on the Board of Directors for 12 years, vice president for two years and was voted Director of the Year while serving. He was appointed by the president at that time to set up guidelines for a new position of executive director and get the search started for the first executive director. He was responsible for having taxidermists listed in the Denali Register of the American Hunter Magazine.
For a time period, he was the only taxidermist in Northern Virginia certified to receive exotic animals from other countries. He was very dedicated to the education of the younger generation, having displays in school libraries. He visited schools for showand- tell talks about his profession as well as wildlife management. He also opened his shop to numerous school students, girl scouts and boy scouts for tours so they could learn about the profession, hunting and the different animals. He and Loretta started the Virginia Taxidermists Association and were given the LifetimeAchievementAward for their efforts in doing so. Lannie was an avid hunter in his younger days, hunting in Canada, Montana, Colorado, Virginia and Wyoming.
Around 1995, with D.C. continuing to grow into the suburbs, they decided it was time to “get out.” So they began looking for property in Southern Virginia. Before I-64 and I-81, they had traveled through Lexington many times on their way to West Virginia to visit family, always stopping at the Southern Inn to eat when it was a family restaurant more like what Lexington Restaurant was. So the search began for property in Roanoke and then progressing to Lexington where they finally contacted a long-time and very special friend, Karl Mogensen, to help. Karl immediately made a call and they had the property they wanted. Their home was finished on the property in 1996 and Lannie moved in with Loretta finishing her 30-plus years with the federal government and moving to Natural Bridge in the fall of that year.
He went on a number of mission trips with his church in Woodbridge and Manly Memorial Baptist Church in Lexington. On the mission trips to Nickelsville, Va., he was always happy to teach the teenagers how to repair homes and safely operate chain saws and other equipment and Isabelle Huger recalled recently that he taught her how to pick a lock with his pocket knife he always carried.
After 18 years when he decided to get back into the work force, drafting was no longer done with a pencil. He had to go back to school to study Computer Aided Design and accepted a job with Des Champs Laboratories in Buena Vista inAugust of 1995 where he ultimately became supervisor over the Commercial and Industrial Design Departments until 2001.
After coming to Rockbridge County, Lannie decided to take up beekeeping which had always been a passion of his. He became an expert at beekeeping and served as the Virginia State Beekeepers Association legislative liaison for the past 20 years and served as the second vice president for a while. He served as president of the Shenandoah Valley Beekeepers Association. In 2006 he was awarded the L.L. LangstrothAward by the Virginia State Beekeepers Association for his contributions to beekeeping.
His current efforts were to get an historical marker in the Jamestown area commemorating the arrival of the honey bee to the United States and also to get legislation approved making the honey bee the Virginia state pollinator. He taught beginning beekeeping at a community college for several years.
He was very passionate about the Glasgow-Natural Bridge Men’s Prayer Breakfast that meets every other Wednesday at Faith Baptist Church in Arnolds Valley. He led the group for 17 years and believed that was his calling from God. He was very devoted to that group.
Lannie was a long-time member of Manly Memorial Baptist Church where he served on committees, served as a deacon and an usher for many years. Most recently he became a member of Faith Baptist Church inArnolds Valley after being a regular attendee at that church for the past three-plus years.
Lannie leaves behind his wife of 63 years, Loretta Dolores McCaleb Ballard; a daughter, Lisa Ballard, and husband, Ron Judge, of Roanoke; a son, Lowell Ballard and wife, Gayle Ballard, of Chesterfield; four grandchildren, Marc Judge of Waynesboro, Kaile Judge of Mechanicsburg, Pa.; Aidan Ballard of Richmond and Tressa Ballard of Chesterfield; and one sister, Drema Sutton and husband John of Front Royal.
Always eager to help others, when Lannie was diagnosed with breast cancer he wanted to share that, although rare, men do get breast cancer. And, then when he was diagnosed with liver cancer, he was again willing to share that, although rare, a person can have two different types of cancer at the same time. He has donated his body to the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine in the hopes that it will contribute to research of the human body and cancer as well as other diseases.
A celebration of Lannie’s life will be held at Faith Baptist Church, 15 Faith Baptist Circle, Natural Bridge Station, on Saturday, Oct. 28, at 11 a.m. with Pastor Terry Bostic officiating.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to ConnectionsPlus Healthcare and Hospice, 315 Myers St., Lexington, VA, 24450; Faith Baptist Church, 15 Faith Baptist Circle, Natural Bridge Station, VA, 24579; or Manly Memorial Baptist Church, 202 S. Main St., Lexington, VA24450.
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