My mother's father died on June 27th, 2005. Roughly 1 hour and 45 minutes before his 96th birthday. The last time I saw him alive was his 95th birthday. That's what this LJ tells me if I check the tags, but I can only remember anything as recent as his 94th birthday.



The last time should have been the 2005 Battle of Lewisburg Living History and Reenactment that was held in his honor but that ended up being the same weekend I was put into Crossroads for the first time.

Right now I just wanted to repost the tributes.

I finally got this ripped and uploaded the other night and I thought I would share it with you all.

William A. “Bill” Dysard was born in 1909 at Lewisburg, in Greenbrier County, WV. His father, Asbury K. Dysard, fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War. His son was born when he was 65 years old, and as Bill puts it, “that’s why I’m still here today at the age of 95.”

William Dysard passed away in June of 2005, just one day shy of his 96th birthday. He will be remembered by his many friends as West Virginia’s last living “Real Son.”



Part 1 Boyhood Memories (3:52)

Part 2 Boom Days (3:52)

Part 3 Lewisburg Memories (3:19)

Part 4 A “Real” Son (3:05)

My second home is Blockbuster.

I am now eligible and signed up for insurance through Blockbuster. In order for me to get these benefits I have to work 35 hours every week. Which equals 2 days off a week, which are always random.. My schedule is never the same but that's retail...

I don't think I ever talked about her but the bitch manager Jen is gone. She walked out on us.. Her boyfriend, who used to work at blockbuster as well turned her keys in last Tuesday.. She was already leaving Thursday, but I guess Monday night was so bad that she couldn't handle it.. She just couldn't handle BBV IMO. Monday sucked. I worked from 1PM to 12:30AM. Since she walked, Will, Mark and I have had to work all week long. its not cool. We're all so tired. But we have someone from Roanoke transferring....

I have about 12 hours of vacation time that I have to use before the end of October. That's only about 1 and a half work days, but Mark (my boss) said he could work it so I could have a full weekend off. I want to use that to go see Jay.. I haven't seen him in forEVAR.

My grandfather's 95th birthday was this Monday. We had a big celebration Sunday. Catherine drove down here to Staunton, and I drove us to WV. I talked with her, and I don't think she's doing so well... but better than before I guess. She's heavily medicated, trying to get by day by day. I think I may have already told some of you that she called my parents saying she wanted to kick Mark (her husband) out and needed financial support. Well I dont know if she will still do it. She changes her mind every day... because they still love each other or whatever. BLAH. There's also something she told me that bothers me ...that I dont feel like posting... If you ask me maybe i'll tell you.. =/

I traded in my Toyota and Honda and got a Volkswagen... So now I have 2 bills instead of 3...

I named her Blue Mary....

My granddaddy. The one I talked about here. He turned 94 this past Saturday. Cathy drove down here to the house and then I drove us over to Lewisburg. We hadn't been there in years, so it was kinda trippy. Open house was from 2-4pm. The birthday cake was from Walmart, and it had a picture of him on it. It was just so wrong, because mom cut him him half. Clear down the middle. Very Buffy of her... Actually I thought of Kung Lao first. There were so many people there I didn't know. Juanita, her sisters and nieces have gorgeous long flowing hair. So beautiful. I kept trying not to stare at her 19 year-old niece. I failed miserably. I think.

Everyone kept debating if Cathy looks more like Mom or Dad.... And I'm just standing there thinking "WTF?" I'd get like the once over and then they'd go back to looking at Cathy. Apparently I'm not old enough to look like either of my parents yet.. pffft.

Speaking of Cathy... She and Mark have been married 7 years. Holy Crap I didn't even realize how long it's been. That just means to me it's been 7 years since I 'graduated' from Poe Middle School. Well, that and she got married at my current age, 20. Mom and dad got married when they were 19. I can't even imagine myself getting married.. ^^;;;

^^ Apparently Granddaddy kept going on about wanting grandchildren. Later, Cathy and I were like "Shit, at least we don't have all the pressure, cuz there's our cousins Suzanne and Chris." Dad joked about bringing him our kittens though..

For those of you who have seen Wrong Turn. I would just like to state that my mother is from Greenbrier County. Lewisburg in fact. We've been visiting my Grandparents there ever since I was a baby. The only thing accurately portrayed about Greenbrier in that movie was that your cell phone does lose all signal. Everything else, not so much. Yet, I still highly enjoyed this movie. In fact I made Jay and Pern watch it with me. Granted I was the only laughing when the subtitle "Greenbrier County, WV" showed up on screen....

Charleston Daily Mail
Bill Dysard has an unusual past
His father was veteran of Civil War

Friday April 11, 2003; 10:00 AM

When Bill Dysard says his dad was in the war, he means the Civil War.

He's proud of that.

Dysard spent 49 years in West Virginia road maintenance. When he started, most of the work was done with scythes and shovels.

Minding his own business when it came to politics, he never lost his job when administrations changed. As a foreman for 30 years, he never asked a man to do something he wouldn't do.

He's proud of that, too.

Dysard has lived in the same house on West Washington Street in Lewisburg for 70 years. His wife, Eula, who died in 1997, had a way with flowers. Passersby on U.S. 60 can't help but notice the lawn, which is still a thing of beauty.

"I've always tried to do the job right," he said. "Actually, my wife said I was a little too tidy."

He and Eula were in the sanctuary every Sunday at the Old Stone Presbyterian Church, established in Lewisburg in 1783.

It is no coincidence that their son William Dysard Jr., 62, who received a math degree from Harvard in 1962, wound up a minister. Now the pastor of Kitchell Memorial Presbyterian Church in East Hanover, N.J., he's coming home for a visit the week after Easter.

The senior Dysard had lackluster grades at Lewisburg High, so he asked his mother's permission to drop out at 16 and go to work for the State Road Commission.

His father, Cpl. Asbury K. Dysard, who fought with the 26th Virginia Infantry from 1862 until the war ended in 1865, had died a couple of years before.

"When I was born, he was 65," said Dysard, who will be 94 on June 28.

"He lived to be 80. I can remember going to town with him, sitting in a buggy and holding the reins while he went into the bank."

The Sons of Confederate Veterans, a 30,000-member organization headquartered in Columbia, Tenn., is aware of only 133 real sons like Dysard. The United Daughters of the Confederacy in Richmond, Va., has 20,000 members, including most of the 120 real daughters known to exist.

Dysard doesn't recall discussing the Civil War with his dad.

"I don't remember him bringing it up, and I was just a kid and not much interested," he said.

His mother, Betty, was the widow of a Union soldier, John Hunter, with whom she had three children. She met Asbury Dysard when he moseyed into Lewisburg from Pocahontas County, introduced himself, and tried to sell her a tombstone.

Dysard has his father's enlistment and discharge papers, and most of his musket, which was retrieved from an outbuilding on the farm near Lewisburg where he grew up. Most of the stock has rotted away, but the barrel is intact and bears an "1862" inscription.

"The war's been over for 138 years," he said. "I guess I'm lucky to still have that much."

Dysard retired from the Department of Highways as an assistant county superintendent in 1975.

He started in 1926, the same year that West Virginia put up its first route markers.

In Greenbrier County, the state initially was responsible only for U.S. 60 and U.S. 219, which were nine feet wide, he said.

Crews worked 10 hours a day, six days a week, for 30 cents an hour. From spring through fall they installed guardrails, cut filth, cleaned culverts and patched potholes.

"One man had a bucket with a spout to pour tar out of," Dysard said, "and another man came behind him with a wheelbarrow full of gravel."

There was no work in the winter months and no goof-offs on the payroll at any time.

"You worked or you didn't stay," Dysard said. "That's the way it was when I started out."

Not until the 1930s did it become a matter of who you knew instead of what you did, he said.

"When the Republicans came in, they laid the Democrats off, and when the Democrats came in, they laid the Republicans off," he said.

"I was lucky that I never got laid off. I just did my job the best that I could and stayed out of politics."

That's something to be proud of.