You may be unaware that Friday was a big day in Roanoke. But if you were atop Mill Mountain during late morning you couldn’t have missed what happened.
Roughly 70 people gathered at the foot of Roanoke’s most prominent icon, the Mill Mountain Star. They showed up in honor of another Roanoke icon — Brenda Hale.
At age 76, Hale is serving her ninth term as president of the Roanoke branch of the NAACP. That came after other careers — first in the U.S. Army, from which Hale retired as a sergeant first class, and later in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, where she nursed sick veterans.
In the past 12 years, she’s been feted with honorary doctorates from Bethlehem Bible College, Word of Life Theological Seminary and Roanoke College.
Titled “Roanoke Star Dedication to Dr. Brenda Hale,” local luminaries abounded at the ceremony. Among them were Mayor Sherman Lea; former two-time mayor David Bowers; Verletta White, the superintendent of Roanoke’s school system; and Nancy Agee, CEO of Carilion Clinic.
The honor bestowed to Hale Friday is a temporary one. It grew out of a creative fundraising ploy by the Roanoke Kiwanis Club, a civic group that’s never been shy about pulling stunts to raise money.
Last year, the organization “appropriated” the star and auctioned it off for yuks as part of their annual pancake breakfast. Sam Lionberger was the inaugural purchaser. It was fun.
In May, in advance of the second auction at Twisted Track microbrewery on Shenandoah Avenue, a small band of Kiwanians hatched a plan.
Sheila Umberger, Rupert Cutler, Eric Danielsen, Ryan LaFountain, Steve McGraw, Cheri Hartman and Dr. David Hartman pooled their money and decided to buy the icon in honor of Hale. Their winning bid was $650, said club Treasurer John Montgomery.
And then they set about inviting 100 or so people to Friday’s event. They cast the dedication with a “Citizen of the Year” vibe. And the spectacle oozed patriotism.
Organizers passed out handheld American flags to onlookers. Events commenced after a stirring rendition by Cherice Davis of “The Star Spangled Banner.”
Hale, dressed in red slacks, a white top and an American flag scarf, listened as one speaker after another sang her praises in what felt like a roast of appreciation.
“We know you represent everything that’s great about our country,” Cheri Hartman said to Hale during introductory remarks.
Hale is “the spirit of multiracial unity in Roanoke,” said former city councilman Rupert Cutler. “That’s my friend, Dr. Brenda Hale. What a wonderful asset she is to the community and the world at large.”
“Brenda is a friend to everyone,” said Gloria Randolph King, first vice-president of Roanoke’s NAACP branch. “She fights on behalf of every cause for every person who needs it.”
“She’s fought social justice issues at the local, state and federal level,” said city Councilwoman Stephanie Moon Reynolds.
“The first word that comes to mind is champion, a champion for our children,” said White, the schools superintendent.
Lea, who’s served on the Roanoke City Council since 2004, called her “this great servant to the community. … Thank you for your commitment and dedication to improving lives.
“President of the NAACP is not an easy job,” the mayor noted. It involves taking public positions on issues that are not always popular — something with which he’s well-acquainted. “You have to have something on the inside, that commitment to serve others,” Lea said.
After those tidal waves of appreciation, Hale made her way to the podium. She started off by telling the crowd that every time she arrives back in Roanoke from out of town, she knows she’s home when she sees the lights of the Mill Mountain Star.
“The star is so special to me, and it has been all of my life,” Hale said. “To have this honor here, on Mill Mountain, means the world to me.”
Then she told a story that surely made some jaws drop. (She elaborated on some details in a conversation we had later.)
Hale was born in 1945 at Burrell Memorial Hospital, Roanoke’s black hospital in the days of segregation. She was the second-born of five children, and the eldest girl.
One night when she was 7, Hale and her siblings lost their parents suddenly and tragically.
Her mom and dad had been out at the Elks Club, then on Wells Avenue in the Gainsboro neighborhood. When they returned home, the couple argued and the dispute grew more heated.
Her father beat her mother until she was down on the floor of the family’s kitchen, with her back up against some lower kitchen cabinets. Then he shot her at close range with a shotgun — as then 7-year-old Brenda used a dish towel to wipe the blood from her mother’s bashed face.
The shot was fatal, and her father went away to prison.
As a result, Hale and her siblings were broken up, literally. Subsequently, Brenda was sent to Bridgeport, Connecticut, where she was raised by a great uncle and great aunt. They let her return to Roanoke each summer. And after she graduated high school in Bridgeport, Hale moved back here.
She told the crowd that her great aunt and surrogate mom, Clara Watson, was a fount of wisdom and determination.
“She told me, in your lifetime, people will hate you because of your color. They will hate you because of your clothes. They will hate you because of your hair, your shoes. You have to rise up above that hate, and show up every day.”
“I started working at age 9, and I haven’t stopped yet,” Hale added. “I don’t know how to stop … Success is not a destination, but something you choose every day of your life.”
The ceremony was more than words. After those were exchanged, the crowd moved to the entrance of the overlook, kind of on the star’s backside. There the Kiwanians unveiled a double-posted sign displaying a plaque with Hale’s photo on it.
“The Roanoke Star Adopted by People Honoring Dr. Brenda L. Hale,” it reads.
It’ll stand there until at least late next spring, after the Kiwanians auction off the star in honor of somebody else.
So you’ve got roughly 10 months to check it out in person.
