Barnie K. Day, 72, died Monday, May 12, 2025, of complications of Parkinson’s Disease and dementia, after hospitalization at Duke Regional Hospital. He was a native of Roxboro, N.C. and a graduate of both the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University in Durham. He used to say that he carried UNC in his heart.
Barnie is survived by his wife of 48 years, Debbie Edge Day, his sister Nancy Day Jordan of Roxboro NC, nephew Grant Jordan and his wife Bryson and their daughter Scarlett of Raleigh NC.
He is predeceased by his father Barnie Gray Day, his mother Nancy Jane Clayton Day, two brothers, Casey Day and Kenneth Day, his niece Ashley Marie and his nephew Ian Jordan.
Barnie was a student of vivid writing and a collector of stories, but he worked in a long and varied list of positions on his way to becoming a novelist. He was a newspaperman, radio news editor, editor of a string of small newspapers in Missouri, farmer, merchant, manufacturing executive, banker, rancher, medical administrator, local government executive, politician, Patrick County supervisor, member of the Virginia General Assembly’s House of Delegates and an electrifying writer with an eye and ear for a barn-burner of a book.
He also loved the rural mountain life, particularly the outdoors, the hunting, horseback riding, fishing and gardening, and at the end of the day he enjoyed a wee sip of the adult beverage offerings.
A journalist called him “Virginia’s Mark Twain.” Another observer named him “The Country Doctor of Political Satire.” And a book reviewer of his novel “The Last Pahvant”, published by Amazon Books, called him “The Pat Conroy of the Blue Ridge.”
But his friends and neighbors knew Barnie and Debbie as pillars of the rural Belcher Mountain Community near Meadows of Dan, VA. They knew what needed to be done, who was sick and needed regular rides down to Stuart for dialysis, who needed deer meat from a recent hunt to get their family through a long winter, who needed a big box of canned goods or some folding money so the grandparents could feed the grandchildren while the parents were serving time in the sheriff’s care on a drug bust.
It was Barnie who organized a fundraiser for the local fire and rescue departments. It was Barnie who came up with the idea to mobilize every tractor owner in the community to spend a day tilling spring gardens for the aging members of the mountain top. It was Barnie who led the creation of an annual oyster roast to raise money for the food banks of the Appalachian hillsides. He wanted no credit and sought none. It was enough, he once said, that we brought people together to help their neighbors.
Barnie considered himself a conservative Democrat who was wary of both the major parties. He was more interested in getting things done, and when he was in Richmond and debating in the House of Delegates, word would get around the Assembly. The House gallery would fill up with folks who wanted to hear what he had to say. It was often direct, funny, and on the spot. He was marked by some leaders as a future lieutenant governor of the Old Dominion, and it might have happened but for his diagnosis of Parkinson’s in his 40s. In future years it would take a toll on his body, but true to form, Barnie and Debbie took it on and fought it for decades. Only recently did Barnie need hospitalization.
There will be a visitation on Saturday May 24, at Brooks and White Funeral Home in Roxboro at 2 pm and a memorial service at 3 pm. Barnie’s nephew Grant will deliver the eulogy. Friends who have a story to tell about Barnie will be welcome to speak after the eulogy. For those who wish to make a contribution in Barnie’s memory, the family asks that donors send a check to local, state or national offices of the Parkinson’s Foundation.
Condolences may be sent to www.brooksandwhite.com.
