It was in the early Spring of 1939 that the first copy of The Roanoke Tribune rolled off the press at #5 Gilmer Ave. in NW Roanoke, thus beginning what we celebrate today, as 80 years of Living Legacy!
Founding Editor F.E. Alexander, a legend in his own right, was born on April 14, (as best we can tell with no legal confirmation or registration of Black births during that era). He was orphaned at a very early age and adopted by the Robert Alexander family in West Virginia, having walked there along the railroad tracks while a youth.
He is recorded to have been baptized by Captain Charles S. Schaeffer, founder of First Memorial Baptist Church of (then) Cambria, VA,–that Alexander ironically changed many years later to Schaeffer Memorial Baptist Church–against the wishes of the congregation that did not want it named for a White man. I was 7 years old when the family moved from Lynchburg upon his acceptance of the call to pastor there.
Rev. Alexander was a World War I veteran and served as a Sergeant in the 802nd Pioneer Infantry in France. As an ambitious youth he entered the printing profession after acquiring broad experience on such newspapers as The Atlanta World before beginning his own printing establishment in Roanoke in a section of Claytor’s Filling Station at #5 Gilmer Ave. in NW Roanoke after accepting pastorate of Schaeffer Memorial Baptist Church and subsequent founding of The Tribune–serving specified Roanoke and Charlottesville, VA and Bluefield, WVA editions.
Like Capt. Schaeffer, F.E. Alexander was not afraid of challenge. In fact he not only welcomed but seemed to diligently seek it–almost as a form of amusement. Not only did he work tenaciously against all odds to establish and maintain a medium with which the Black community could proudly identify, he also became even more famous for his active involvement in politics, serving on several local and state councils and committees while making two unsuccessful bids for Roanoke’s City Council (1953 and 1966). He was a Black, moderate Democrat during a period when neither was popular and his philosophy of moderation during the early stages of integration was equally unpopular among his constituents.
Rev. Alexander remained editor and publisher of The Roanoke Tribune for 32 years prior to retiring in 1971 following his July 4th auto accident while attempting to exit I-581 entering Roanoke from which he never returned to The Tribune. When he passed away on December 13, 1980, he had earned a name and place for himself in the annals of Black History in particular while passing on a living legacy to the community-–through his family and subsequently to the world through its present circulation throughout the United States including Alaska and Hawaii. Circulation once extended also to Europe and Japan prior to 911, limited now only within United States territory.
ENTER SECOND GENERATION–Claudia Alexander Whitworth, born November 7, 1927 in Fayetteville, WVA, my mother’s homeplace, the second of four children of Fleming E. and Sedonia Rotan Alexander (one died during infancy). My father at the time was pastoring Schaeffer Memorial Baptist Church of Cambria,VA.–encorporated later into Christainsburg. The esteemed Dr, Vernon Johns of Lynchburg delivered his installation address.
With a November 7 birthday, I was allowed to enter first grade in Lynchburg at age 5. Upon relocating with the family to Christiansburg, I entered 3rd grade at Hill School adjacent to daddy’s church and, with only 7 grades of elementary school and four in high school at Quaker schools, I graduated from Christainsburg Institute at age16–especially with the excellent instruction of such dynamic teachers (mostly from Roanoke) as Ms. Connie Johnson-–(later Hamlar); Ms Ruth DuPree, Ms Ruth and Roberta Claytor, etc. Another distinct advantage was that my mother, a 1922 graduate of Ohio State University, had taught high school English and French for several years prior to being sent to teach at a school in West Virginia where she met Daddy. Upon re-entering the teaching profession (in Virginia) however, she was appointed to a school that you had to leave the highway just before approaching Bristol, VA, and drive only a mile or less– before having to WALK (or ride horseback) the remainder of the way to the top of the mountain! ! There all 6 or 7 grades were in ONE ROOM with ONE TEACHER!
I can’t remember too much about that experience as when we left to spend Thanksgiving break with our mother’s family in Fayetteville, WVA, I refused to return with the family, but spent the remainder of her teaching obligation (which she faithfully executed without complaint) with her parents in Fayetteville, finishing 3rd grade by going to elementary school with Momma’s oldest sister who taught 1st & 2nd grades at Kamore Elementary throughout her teaching career,
Upon graduating from Christiansburg Institute I did not want to enter college following my experience with my family educators! As that horrified my mother, after relocating to Roanoke to (hopefully) work with Daddy on his Roanoke Tribune by learning to operate his newly-aquired linotype machine, (which he neither asked for nor wanted, I decided to go elsewhere to learn the trade. After searching a map of the United States in an old history book, I decided upon Dayton Ohio to try my independent wings. I had never heard of anyone in or from Dayton, Ohio and it looked about the right size to try my country wings–and not too far away if I had to return home. So, with my life’s savings of $50, I was ready to set sail.
It just so happened that a piano tuner came by and I advanced him the $20 he charged as I could get it back when Daddy came to preach on Sunday. WRONG! “I didn’t tell you to do it and I’m not going to replace it!” Now I have $30 and my ticket has to come from that!
When the appointed time arrived I was heading out the door for the train when the phone rang. It was my brother in New York, now an executive with IBM. When I told him of my trip he immediately offered: “I was in the army with a guy from Dayton, Ohio,” and offered me his name and contact number. Upon my arrival there I made my way to the YWCA which in those days offered housing for male and female respectively.
Upon dialing the number my brother’s friend came immediately to pick me up and while sitting in their back yard having lunch, a car passing through the alley put on breaks and shouted, “Claudia! Claudia Alexander?
It was a former resident of Fayetteville, WVA that had married her school teacher and left the area. But she was more my sister’s age and I have no idea how she could possibly have recognized me!
She immediately took me to retrieve my luggage from the “Y” and I stayed with her while getting a job briefly before relocating to The Big Apple (NYCity), where I was immediately hired at the New York Age as a linotype operator–where I really got my experience before returning home.
