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Feb. 16, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: Over the years Lexington has been fortunate in its share of newcomers. This was especially so around the 1990s, when some folks decided fairly late in life to come here. They had to wait until their work elsewhere was finished.
They were successful back in their big ponds, so why come to our small pond and fish in our waters? Maybe humans like being happy. And so they came, one carload at a time dropping off the interstate to see what it was like down there. They liked what they saw. But it was the people that sold them on putting down new roots here.
It wasn’t an invasion because they looked like us, although they talk a little differently. Still their names were our names. There was George and more than one Bob, a Rich, a Dave, a couple of Bills and Dicks, a Reed, a Mike, a Chip, a Ken, a Kay, more than one Tom, plus an Al and an erstestine (that is not a typo) who set up shop here. We got to know them; they got to know us.
Now, many have faded away. But none are truly gone. Their imprints can still be seen. Isn’t that all we ask of anybody? That you leave a place better than you found it.
However, to accomplish that you need new blood — blood that matches the old blood that made the community in the first place. Otherwise the place dies because there are no new roots.
Lexington got lucky a generation ago. New blood types matched the old. Was there a perfect match? Yes. His name was Dick Rathmell. And yes, Richard K. Rathmell faded away to North Carolina and finally faded on Feb. 12, 2023. Thank you, Dick and Jean, for coming. You kept paradise alive and made it better. DAVID REYNOLDS Rockbridge County
