I received the nicest email this week from Connie Harris Webb Boyd. She was asking about the large, lovely home that once stood where the Family Dollar now sits in Meadows of Dan. That house was originally built by Dr. William Isaac Jones, a chiropractor and a man truly ahead of his time. Later, the property was purchased by Lee and Callie Handy, who ran a store, café, and dance hall directly across from where the Meadows of Dan Post Office now stands. In more recent years, the house was known as the Plasters home.
Connie’s message got me thinking about Callie Handy and her remarkable life, which spanned an incredible 107 years. Callie was born on June 12, 1900, to John William “Will” Handy and Nancy Annah Belcher. Her father was the son of James Jefferson Handy and Martha Elizabeth “Patty” Hall Handy, while her mother was the daughter of John Belcher and Nancy Evelyn Brammer Belcher.
Callie was the youngest of five children born to Will and Nancy in the Mountain View community of Meadows of Dan. The oldest, Ollie, was born in 1887 but passed away at the age of three. Their second child, Euell, born in 1889, married twice—first to Nancy Louannie Howell and later to Oma Craig after Louannie’s passing. Euell lived to be 99 years old.
Nancy Lannie Handy, the third child, was born in 1891 and married Joseph Andrew Underwood of the Rock Castle community. They made their home in Riner. The fourth child, Homer Handy, was born in October 1898 but was killed at the age of 19 in Russell County, Virginia, when a coal car ran over him in the mines.
From the beginning, Callie’s childhood was marked by hardship. Her mother, Nancy Annah, suffered from crippling arthritis and was bedridden for as long as Callie could remember—she never once saw her mother walk. When Callie was just nine, her sister Nancy married and left home, leaving the household responsibilities to young Callie.
Two years later, Callie’s mother passed away at the age of fifty. Her father enrolled her in Mountain View School, hoping she could get a formal education. But Callie, who couldn’t read at the time, found herself far behind her classmates. According to her grandson Arnold Goard, she cried every night until her father allowed her to leave school and work alongside him and Homer on the farm.
Things began to improve when Callie was thirteen. Her father remarried a widow, Rozina “Zinnie” Virginia Conner Brammer, who understood hardship herself. Zinnie was born on March 22, 1862. Her father, Alexander Conner, was killed in battle just six months later, and her only brother, William, died of diphtheria five days after that.
Zinnie had previously married Jesse Britt Brammer in July 1884, and they had three daughters: Georgia Beulah, Florence Alice, and Lillie Elizabeth. Many older folks may remember Georgia as Mrs. Beulah Edwards, who ran a country store near Slate Mountain Presbyterian Church. Florence married Samuel Nelson Wood, and Lillie married German Haden Wood.
With Zinnie’s arrival, Callie gained not just a stepmother, but three older sisters. Zinnie taught Callie how to dress, fix her hair, and—most importantly—how to read, write, and do basic math.
When Callie was 105, she was interviewed by Betty Skeens for the Martinsville Bulletin, and she recalled that by the time she was seventeen, she had grown weary of farm life. Homer had died, and more responsibility had fallen on her shoulders. So, Callie made a bold decision. She sold two lambs for $8 and, along with her best friend Ona Ruth, planned to escape. They caught a ride with the mail hack traveling between Hillsville and Stuart, then boarded a bus to Draper.
Not long after, Callie came down with the Spanish flu. Her father, having heard she was sick, made his way to Draper and told her to come home when she was ready. The day she first stepped outside to the porch, she heard people in the streets crying out, “The war is over! The war is over!” She was grateful just to be alive.
Callie did return home, and only six weeks after Armistice Day, she married Lee Handy on December 26, 1918. Together they had six children: Annie Myrtle (b. October 12, 1919), Virginia Pauline (b. August 31, 1921), James Denver (b. August 10, 1923), Thelma Ardell (b. 1925), Delcie May (b. 1927), and Lena Irene (b. 1929).
According to Arnold Goard and the Martinsville Bulletin interview, Lee and Callie started out farming and tending to an apple orchard. Later, they opened the store, café, and dance hall in Meadows of Dan—originally the Charlie DeHart store. Lee also served as a deputy sheriff and hauled pigs to the market, though Callie said he always made it home in time to keep the peace at the dances.
When their store burned down, they purchased another building and rolled it to the same spot. Their youngest daughter, Irene, told Arnold that during the Carter Family’s travels across Virginia, they played music at the dance hall. Irene and June Carter Cash, both just young girls at the time, became playmates.
In 1945, Lee and Callie moved to Roanoke and opened another store. Sadly, Lee’s health declined, and he passed away in May 1955. Callie struggled with depression, but she turned her life over to God and was baptized in the river on a cold November day.
She never remarried and outlived her only son, two of her daughters, and a beloved granddaughter. Her grandson Arnold wrote, “She has given the ones who follow her high morals, good ethics, and a love for God and country.”
Callie celebrated her 107th birthday on June 12, 2007, and passed away peacefully just eighteen days later, on June 30. Over the course of her extraordinary life, she witnessed a century of monumental change: two World Wars, the Great Depression, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, the Civil Rights Movement, the moon landing, the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Persian Gulf War, and the 9/11 attacks. She saw Patrick County transform with the arrival of the telephone, electricity, automobiles, and later, television, computers, and the Internet. Her life was more than just a personal journey—it was a living timeline of the 20th century.
Woody may be reached at rockcastlecreek1@gmail.com or (276) 692-9626.
