Herbert Alford Wright, Sr.

Visitation, Sunday 6pm-8pm

Funeral, Monday 2:00pm

Herbert Alford Wright, Sr., 91, of Falls Mills, Va passed away on August 7, 2026. He was born November 16, 1934 in Boissevain, Va. He was the son of the late Joseph Franklin Wright and Nellie Mae Wright.

In addition to his parents he was preceded in death by his siblings Wanda Wright, Brenda Wright, Henry Wright, and George Wright, Bobby Hammett, and Jim Hammett.

Herbert is survived by his loving wife of 70 years, Joanna Leedy Wright and his three children: Herbert Alford Wright, Jr. (Theresa), Wanda Faye Kelly-Joyce (Shannon), and Kathy Anne Mayo (Steven). He is also survived by his grandchildren: Heath Wright (Amy), Heather Wilson (Benji), Alex Kelly (Miriam), and Hannah Edwards (David). He is also survived by his great grandchildren: Joseph and Eli Wilson, Alley and Abbey Kelly, and Baby Edwards. He also leaves behind other extended family members including brother-in-law Clyde Leedy (Pam) and John Broce whom he loved as a son.

The definition of a legacy as it refers to the impact of a life and its memory is as follows: How a person is remembered, including the good they did, the lessons they taught, and the people they helped.

Dad's Legacy began November the 16th 1934 in Bossivain, Virginia when he was born to Nelly Mae Hammett Wright and Joseph Franklin Wright. He was brought into this world by doctor Porter who really wanted to keep and raise him. Dad often thought about what his life would have been like if he would have been raised by Dr. Porter and if he would have also become a doctor. After his parents divorce, his mom and two brothers moved in with his step-grandfather, Arthur Lambert who dad called “Paw.”

Paw raised him with a toughness and that made dad the man he became: a self made man with great work ethics, never lazy and always wanting things done 2 days before he even told anyone he wanted them done. Paw said the day started at 4:30 AM which is why dad’s internal alarm clock got him up every morning at that time even through the last month or so of his life. Dad was the third son of his parents, and he loved his brothers, George and Henry. Henry was born crippled and required 17 surgeries in order to walk. Dad often recalled that he would give Henry blood. At that time dad would lay on one cot and Henry on the other as they would hook them up, so to speak. Later on, Dad’s mother had four more children, Bobby, James, Brenda, and Wanda. I asked dad one time what his most favorite memory was. He replied that it was him and Henry going to town and buying some Paps Blue Ribbon hot dogs and then drifting half way down the road to Rolling Park Holler in Pocahontas, where he was raised. There they would eat, drink, and listen to the Grand Ole Opry on the car radio.

Dad would tell about excursions with his double first cousin, Frances Lewis, whom he always called Sis. He was proud of their heritage as to the fact that their grandmother was a full blooded Cherokee woman. As a child, dad was a sickly boy and spent close to 3 years in bed with 3 or 4 different childhood diseases. This meant that he was not able to attend school, but his good friend, Lois Ann Davis, would go everyday to bring him his homework and to sit beside his bed to talk with him and help him with his work. After sometime, dad returned to school, he got into some type of altercation with the principal's son which in turn got him a visit to the principal's office. Whatever was said behind those closed doors resulted in what the family calls,”the Wright temper.” This particular event resulted in dad slugging the principal. The consequences were not going to be in dad’s favor, so he went to Tennessee to live with his uncle Ike. After time the “heat”, so to speak, died down and he returned to his beloved Rolling Park Hollow.

Dad has known hard work his entire life starting with raising chickens to sell as well as their eggs. He only stopped raising them when he came home one day and found out that his mom had given someone some eggs. He immediately killed the chickens and sold out his business. At age 12, he went to work at Greenburgs as a delivery boy where he also butchered for them. At age 14, he went to work at Pocahontas Bottling Company as a delivery driver even though he had no license until he turned 15. Dad stayed there close to 40 years where he eventually ran the production part of the plant. It was renamed Double Cola Bottling Company. When he decided to quit, they were unable to operate the plant without him and had to shut down. After he left Double Cola, Dad and Mom drove a vacuum truck cleaning parking lots at night. Then he worked for his friend Pete Bellini doing refrigeration work. However, I believe one of his favorite jobs was when he worked at NashFinch Company. Dad was there for 10 years and enjoyed every minute. He would recall many times of all the excursions they did there: like playing poker, shooting dice, pitching pennies, and any other form of gambling they could get away with. Dad made a lot of good friends there: Russell Kelly, Russell French, Chuck Pridemore, Robert Bourne, and Cy Gadd. It was a great time that dad carried with him until his death. Sometimes it makes one wonder what he actually did to earn that paycheck; not really, dad truly was a hard worker. In his adult years, he worked several other jobs. He worked and drove a wrecker for Leedy's Garage, and he also worked on vehicles and anything like that to make extra money.

Dad was a man that didn't sit still and didn't know the meaning of being lazy. In the fall, he would always butcher hogs or beef for people, so that he could make extra money for Christmas. He always raised our food and hung it out in the meat house. He would always brag about how many hams he would have, how big they were, and how much they weighed: things of that nature; things that men do. After he retired, he would go out to Leedy’s Garage and sit out there on an old truck seat to shoot the breeze with the men and the customers that came out there for services. With all that he accomplished in his work, Dad would say his greatest accomplishment was his family.

In 1956 he started his family with the birth of Alford Wright then 3 years later Faye and 3 years after came myself. Alford married Teresa, and together they had his first grandchildren, Heath and Heather. Heath married Amy. Heather married Ben Wilson, and they have two children, Eli and Joseph. Faye married and through that marriage she had Alex and then later got remarried to Shannon Joyce. Alex married Miriam, and they have two children Alley and Abbey. He affectionately called them “the girl” and “that little redhead”. I, Kathy, married Steve Mayo, and we had Hannah who married David Edwards. They have one child that will be born in December 2026.

I would say that dad's pride and joy definitely was his family, but running a close race was his beloved dogs, Taylor, Helen (BooBoo), and his favorite by far, Brutus (Brutie). He loved that dog more than anything and always talked about him, but above everyone and everything else the most precious thing to Dad was his wife Joan.

Dad and Mom met through the “first” Ms. Armentrout. When they started dating in 1955, Mom's family didn't like dad, and there was quite a bit of tension between them. One night dad got mad, took out his pistol, and shot Granddaddy's pet owl. Granddaddy walked into the house and reportedly told grandmother that that boy was crazy. From then on I guess, they had a healthy respect for each other which led to many years of wonderful memories as father and son in law. In order for them to get married, mama had to have her birth certificate, and her parents would not give it to her. So with the help of her brother Clyde, who broke into the trunk and stole the birth certificate, on November 12th, 1955 they eloped. Dad tells the story that he had to work that morning on the pop truck. When he got home they had to rush down to Tazewell to get the license before the office closed. So he, mom, his best friend PeeWee Gillespie, his Aunt Nell, and his brother Henry sped from Falls Mills to Tazewell to make it there just in time. He said that they then went to the preacher's house, and he remembered that the preacher's wife was cooking liver and onions. Dad always took care of Mama who has had dementia for the last 15 years or so. He did everything for her. He was so faithful, loved her, and always worried about her. When Dad got sick all he was worried about was “mama.” He told me, “You take care of Mama.”, and I assured him that Mama would be well taken care of.

How do you write about a man's life in a few lines in an obituary and truly get to know him? I don't think it's possible, but I just wanted to show you a few things about dad that you didn't know. He once told me that he saved somebody's life, a little boy, who accidentally poured some kind of heating oil or something down a heating register and it landed on top of the stove. A fire erupted and burnt the little boy. Dad quickly thought to get sheets and wet them and wrap them around that little boy, and he put him in the car with Mama. Mama sped him up to the hospital. The doctor said whoever put those wet sheets around that boy saved his life. That boy grew up, and his name is John Broce who now runs Leedy’s Garage. Dad loved him as a son till the day he died. I had a man this summer tell me that Dad stepped in and took care of his babies when he wasn't able to and he remembered it after all these years. He actually said that he and dad were still good friends like they'd always been with the exception they just couldn't hear each other as well as they once did. Many times dad also made sure that his brother’s family was cared for with food, toys for the kids for Christmas, and made sure they had bikes.

These are just a few things that dad shared about his life as told from my point of view and may be slightly different from someone else's memories. With that being said, we all know with any story the more it’s told the bigger and more interesting it becomes. Those are the things I want you to remember about my dad. He was a good man with a big heart who loved his family. He wanted to make sure they grew up to be good people. I recall one time Dad loaded up the kids in the neighborhood in the back of the pickup truck and took us all to the Dairy Queen. At the time the Dairy Queen had this thing going that if your receipt landed on a spot on the receipt tape where there was a red star then you would get your order for free. Well you can imagine the length of the receipt from loading up a lot of kids and taking them to the Dairy Queen. Lo and behold it rang up on the red star, and he was so happy because one thing my Dad loved more than food was saving money.

These are all just a few attributes of my dad and the legacy he left behind to help mold the next generations of our family. It does not fully describe who he was, but days before dad passed away, my mom summed up his life as only love could do. Dad had gone to bed early and mama was walking through the house with me to go to the kitchen to have pizza. She stopped and she said,

“I have a lot of respect for that man there. He's a wonderful person. He’s a good man.” - Joanna Wright