Writing it all down

Photos by Laurie Edwards

Jack Sutherland, an 87-year-old Wirtz resident, leafs through a marble composition book in which he is writing his memoirs.

A handful of Jack Sutherland's military honors, including medals for World War II, good conduct, purple heart, European African Middle Eastern Campaign and American Campaign.

Jack Sutherland's life story is a big one, starting with his birth on May 30, 1922 in Chattaroy, W. Va. The youngest of eight children, Sutherland said the doctor noted that it was a difficult and monumental birth.

"He said I was the biggest baby that was ever delivered out of 500," said Sutherland. "I was 15 pounds, 13 ounces. My mother almost died."

He has so many stories, including those involving growing up in coal country, riding a bull for eight seconds and fighting in World War II, that Sutherland has decided to pen his memoirs.

At 87 years old, he sits in an overstuffed chair in his Wirtz home, surrounded by manila envelopes filled with papers, photographs and newspaper clippings. As nurses bustle about filling his medication boxes and checking his blood pressure, Sutherland sorts through the memorabilia, is reminded of days past, and dutifully scratches the stories into a marble composition notebook.

"I've got a whole bunch of pictures and the stories behind them," said Sutherland. "What I figure doing is putting them in this book."

He's filled about 50 pages of the notebook with tight, but shaky, cursive. It starts with his mother, Elvira Edwards Sutherland, whose family once owned the gap in Smith Mountain.

"It was called the Bennett Place," said Sutherland. "That's where my mother learned to fish. She taught me and my brother."

Sutherland's grandfather once owned 15,000 acres from the gap to Virginia 40. Over time, the land was subdivided and sold. One of the last portions, owned by Sutherland's mother Elvira and two brothers, was sold to a utility that predated Appalachian Power's move to construct Smith Mountain Dam.

The brothers convinced Elvira to sign the papers. At the time, she was living in West Virginia with her husband William, who worked in the coal mines. The brothers got a few million from the sale, said Sutherland. Elvira did not.

"They [the brothers] gave my mother $500," said Sutherland.

When he learned of his uncles' suspect distribution later in life upon seeing the papers at the Pittsylvania County Courthouse, Sutherland encouraged his mother to go after her share. Sutherland said she declined, saying nothing good would come of the money and that God would punish them.

The family's property sales were verified through deeds filed in the courthouse, but a sales price was not included in the papers.

Sutherland never lived on the mountain, because his family moved to West Virginia before he was born. Sutherland said his father tried, but wasn't able to farm the land on the mountain, so they moved to West Virginia.

"My dad was working at that time for $2 a day in the coal mines," said Sutherland.

He was raised in Chattaroy. His mother wouldn't let him attend school until he was 7 years old.

"I was her baby," said Sutherland.

In high school, he played baseball, basketball and football as a Chattaroy High School Yellow Jacket. He graduated on his birthday, May 30, 1942. He signed away his youth the same day.

"The man was waiting there from the draft board to sign me up," Sutherland recalled.

He worked odd jobs for a few months before he was called up and sent to basic training. He then was deployed overseas to fight in France during World War II.

"It was tough," he said. "I've had some narrow escapes."

One was the time he was manning a tank trap and talking with a new replacement from Buffalo, N.Y., who was younger than Sutherland.

"He was standing close to me," said Sutherland. "I said, 'Come on, Frankie, let's go.' And he was dead."

Sutherland corresponded with the man's parents for several years, but not long ago, the letters stopped coming.

"I don't hear anymore, so evidently ..." his voice trailed off. "They were old then."

Sutherland is writing about Frankie and other members of the 309th Engineer Combat Battalion, with the 84th Infantry Division who died and are buried on foreign soil. There were 1,284 men in Sutherland's division who were killed in action. Another 5,098 were wounded, 154 of whom died later from their wounds.

Sutherland received an honorable medical discharge on April 26, 1945 for a concussion and a piece of shrapnel "about the size of a 50-cent piece" that lodged in his right foot during a battle. Sutherland dragged his bandaged foot across Europe. The shrapnel wasn't removed until he returned to the United States.

Sutherland's experiences as a combat engineer in the U.S. Army lend the title of his evolving memoir: "From the Hills of West Virginia To Hell and Back."

But the memoir has high points as well, recollections of which make Sutherland smile. Like the time he and fellow soldiers visited a Texas rodeo during training and they decided someone should enter the bull-riding competition.

The entrance fee was $50. The base pay was $21 per month and after paying for insurance, toiletries and laundry, the soldiers had a little more than $4 each. Sutherland said they all pitched in $5 to pay the entrance fee and elected Sutherland to ride.

"I rode the bull for eight seconds and won $500, the most money I had seen in my lifetime," Sutherland wrote in his notebook. "We went to the nicest restaurant in Fort Worth [Texas] and had the biggest meal in my life away from home."

The book also will include stories on moving back to Virginia in 1950. Unable to find work outside of the coal mines after his medical discharge, Sutherland came to Redwood to visit his sister and to plaster her house and his uncle's house in Sandy Level. The uncle recommended Sutherland work with some area contractors on plastering. In one day, he had contracts to plaster 15 houses.

"I came down here Jan. 1, 1950 and I've been here ever since," said Sutherland.

Living in Franklin County, he often waded and played in the rivers cutting through the area. Sutherland watched the lake fill up in the 1960s and in 1977, he bought his current home on Gills Creek in Wirtz.

The book also will include stories of the love of his life: the late Audrey Fitzgerald. Just saying her name makes a smile break across his entire face.

Sutherland was in his 50s, divorced with children, when he met her. They met at an Order of the Eastern Star meeting in Blacksburg. The two were on opposite sides of the refreshment table when Sutherland looked up and "saw this pretty woman."

"She winked at me and I turned around and I looked to see if there was anybody behind me and there wasn't," said Sutherland.

He asked for her phone number and they were later married. They had 32 years together before Audrey died at age 71 on March 12, 2008.

Since her death, his children and grandchildren who live in Franklin County visit often. He also has neighbors who pop in.

"I got some good friends," said Sutherland.

They keep him going, he said. And though his life has been large and sometimes difficult, Sutherland intends to keep going for quite some time.

"All my brothers and sisters are gone," he said. "I'm the last one out of eight and I don't see how I got this far."

Sutherland has his mind set on making a milestone to write about.

"I'm dead set on hitting the century mark," he said.