Laurie Mrva

While you were laughing at the antics of Laurie Mrva’s Sister Leo in Attic’s production of Nunsense, you probably had no idea of the serious side of her life: she runs a local business that aims to help self-employed folks achieve success. Now, if you yourself have a business or are thinking of starting one, or you work as an outside salesperson whose income depends on acting like a business owner, that probably caught your attention.

Daleville’s Mrva hails from the town of Maine in New York state. Until she came to Daleville in 2005 to visit a friend, she never thought she’d live here. But “at the end of a week, I fell in love,” she said. “It felt like home.” This from a woman who had studied fashion merchandising. And had worked with the Footlocker company in New York City for 11 years, achieving executive level.

As part of her job she found “I have a talent and passion for helping my employees deal with obstacles to their careers. I got the ‘problem children’ who needed TLC. I worked with some who had been forgotten. One woman, I had to give her a 90-day notice, but told her if she [could learn to] come in with the correct attitude she’d keep her job. This was a cool thing to experience.

“A year after that, I worked with a man within the company. I gave him the opportunity to work at it and he became a totally different person. And got promoted to a position he had always wanted and had not been able to get in five or six years.”

So she learned how to develop what was inside people. And in running her business to do just that she has added assessment materials and coaching. No sooner had she started her business in 2008 than she signed up for Leadership Roanoke Valley. “My team’s environmental program, ‘Actions Change Tomorrow,’ was voted best program by our classmates.” This led to her joining the Cool Cities Coalition. She also volunteered at the Botetourt Environmental Expo last year.

Two of Mrva’s Botetourt clients spoke about her. Kim Mott, of Padgett Business Services, found Mrva’s coaching let her develop a business plan so that she can in turn help her own accounting clients reach their goals. Caleb Mann, of Mann’s Farmers Insurance Agency, has worked successfully with Mrva on various projects about his business.

As you might guess from her Nunsense role, Mrva, 36, has musical ability. She sings in her church’s choir and plays the cello. “Music has been a part of my life from a very early age: beginning dance at age three, performing in musicals from age six and playing the cello from age nine through college in orchestras. I now bring it out at holidays to accompany my church choir. Someday, I hope to become involved in an orchestra again.” Meantime, she’s involved with Attic, acting or doing sound or light work.

With all this talent and experience Mrva finds herself in demand by charities as well as clients. Now she’s working on the second Goodwill fashion show August 11 at the Jefferson Center. But she keeps her business goals always forward.

She loves working with people to help them overcome the frustrations holding them back so they can find greater success and fulfillment in their lives. How does she find clients? Through “a lot of networking.” The secret to her own success lies in believing in herself, persevering and figuring out how to overcome obstacles: not settling for status quo. Good secret for us all to know.

For more information, go to Mrva’s web site at www.achievesuccessllc.com

Lee Clark

The Roanoke location for the regional offices of the Red Cross fails to suggest the depth of its impact on Botetourt. So, you need know about the new Red Cross regional CEO, Lee Clark. Many supporters of the Rescue Mission already know Clark from their visits there, where he had been director of development until his recent move. That same pleasant man they knew there now runs the local Red Cross, and uses the help of Botetourt’s own Ann Layman, a volunteer who serves as secretary of the board of directors.

Maybe you associate the Red Cross with its blood giving programs, and rightly so. “Red Cross is the sole provider of blood and blood products at all area hospitals,” Clark said. “We have a very safe blood supply here,” he continued, “no problems with undetected illnesses.”

The blood services always need “lots of volunteers. And drives are held periodically all over Botetourt, including at Bonsack Baptist, the Botetourt Athletic Club, both high schools and Eagle Rock firehouse.” Clark suggests you keep an eye out for announcements, or go to their website for dates and times.

Other Botetourt aspects include the classes Red Cross offers teaching CPR [cardio pulmonary resuscitation] and first aid, because every second counts until the rescue squad can arrive. Other classes for would-be lifeguards in lifesaving skills, and would-be sitters in baby-sitting skills, provide not just things good to know. “These can give a young person, especially one from a low income family, a way to earn money with a summer or after school job,” Clark noted.

“One thing I have a passion for is the disaster service. Red Cross steps in when families are at their worst ebb — due to fire, flood, other disasters. We help people, comfort them, supply immediate needs.

“In Botetourt County, in the past year, five families were burned out. We helped them with food, clothing, hotel rooms, counseling, everything they needed to get through the immediate crisis, to get back on their feet. We can do grief counseling in such cases, especially for children. It’s traumatic for children to lose all their toys and belongings.”

Discussing disasters reminded Clark to mention that most home fires are preventable. “Mostly what we see are electrical fires and ones from alternative heating sources. The most important thing anyone can do is to have a working smoke alarm.” Five disaster action team volunteers live in the county so they can respond immediately to a fire. In case of a major countywide disaster, the Red Cross has shelter agreements with six county schools.

Red Cross also has a program which serves all members of the military and their families, especially important because Botetourt does not have a military base here. “We provide emergency communications between service members and their families, such as notification of a birth or death in the family, and financial assistance and counseling services, too.”

Clark, 47, grew up in Stuart but his college work at Radford University gave him ties to this area. Trained as a CPA, he started out doing straight accounting work. He soon switched to working for the Roanoke Times in finance, ending in marketing. Because of his volunteer work on the board of the Rescue Mission, he obtained his full time job there, where he had remained until now. With that accounting background, Clark handles the Japan relief fund work handily.

Clark urges everyone here in Botetourt to get and keep in working condition a smoke alarm. He much prefers that we all prevent fires than help with the aftermath. But for when fire or other disaster does occur, he sees to it the Red Cross gets and stays prepared.

For more information, go to www.RoanokeValleyRedCross.org.

Hal Bailey

If you had in mind a huge development for raw land, you’d probably do what the developers of Daleville Town Center did: call in Hal T. Bailey, 48, of Fincastle’s Engineering Concepts. As the only Botetourt firm to work on that project, Daleville’s Bailey and his team planned “everything except the buildings,” as he said. They worked on the layout, the roads, the water and sewer, the grading, the storm water drainage and everything else before the first bulldozer came in. If you didn’t know about their role, you wouldn’t know they’d had a part in it, because you don’t see most of what they do.

“The Town Center, Greenfield and The Glebe were similar,” Bailey said, “in that we were involved at the beginning. Worked on rezoning applications, the due diligence before they decide to go forward with planning, all the way through to construction.” This work covers both civil and environmental engineering.

And now, the firm also offers surveying, a preliminary step before developing land. Bailey calls his ECI Surveying a sister company to Engineering Concepts. “We’re trying to market surveying, such as boundary and topographic surveys.” The two ECI surveyors can work with the four licensed engineers of Engineering Concepts, or separately.

Their work locally has spread their reputation over the state. They also respond to requests for proposals. As a niche business, they can “go up against the large firms that do everything.” Right now, they’re working on some flood related projects for the city of Norfolk. But not every job rivals the Town Center in size. For example, they’re doing some work for Camp Bethel, a local church facility.

With jobs all over the state, Bailey cannot always predict his work hours. “We do whatever it takes. We have town council meetings and rezonings at night, and the work for Norfolk calls for overnight trips.”

Another local project dear to the hearts of Buchanan residents centers around the water distribution system for the town. “They have to have a lot of line replacement because so many lines [pipes] date back to the early 1900s and they’re leaking. We plan for appropriate line sizes and water meters that a radio can read from a distance.”

When you hear the name Bailey in Botetourt, you have to ask, “which one.” Two doctors, one a popular local veterinarian and another an endocrinologist in Roanoke, an airline pilot, a carpenter and an auto sales dealer make up his list of five brothers. His father, Dewey, has retired to The Glebe.

A Bailey by marriage, Hal Bailey’s wife Cindy, a frequent substitute teacher, went to Virginia Tech, as did he, but they only met when he was working in Richmond. But when they knew this was heading to marriage, they decided to live in Botetourt. Once back, he built on his experience with a 300 acre development in Richmond and started his own firm at age 29.

Bailey not only wanted to live in Botetourt, he wanted to live at his home place. So he and Cindy set about modernizing it, doing a lot of the work themselves. It took over four years, and they lived there while doing it, part of the time with an infant. “We both decided we’re glad we did it. And glad that it’s almost 20 years behind us. Insanity may be the best word for it,” he quipped.

Looking back on his success here, he said “it’s fun to go back and think about all the projects we worked on in the Roanoke Valley.” Plus he’s optimistic about 2011 and beyond. Just look at his record.

Beth Bailey Walton

Those who mourned the closing of the Botetourt Country Club now have reasons to rejoice. The golf course runs on a pay-as-you-play basis, no memberships, although it now is called the Botetourt Golf and Swim Club. To use the pool, you do have to join, but everyone, member or not, gets the added attraction of food service.

The food and pool part of this picture comes under the supervision of Fincastle’s Beth Bailey Walton, 50, daughter of Virgil Bailey, longtime supporter of local golf tournaments and player on this course. Walton has been offering reservation-only Friday night dinners on the club premises, although that changes this summer to once a month events. She welcomed 60 diners a week ago when the menu featured catfish in the club’s airy dining room. Another sold out night offered steaks. All dinners require reservations, which close a few days beforehand. If you want to know the dates, simply call or read her email newsletter.

The grill, serving hot dogs, hamburgers, sandwiches, salads and other such fare, opens in the morning to serve early golfers and stays open until dark. It sells wine and beer too, at appropriate hours. Walton features a menu special for Wednesday lunches. A ladies bridge group meets there once a week on Tuesdays. “Anyone who wants to come can join in,” Walton said. A book club may come, too.

You don’t have to swim or play golf to enjoy the sweeping view, which Walton says she does regularly. “You can see all the way from the cement plant to Eagle Rock.” A long time Botetourt resident, she once worked for the Clean Valley Council, helping spread its free programs to schools all over the valley. She got into managing the pool a number of years back when she and her family, including husband Mike, were members of the pool. “The next thing I knew I’m managing it [the pool]. They offered me this position [managing the food service, too] when the new owners took over in September.”

Walton takes the pool membership information and lets members know how much more than swimming they get. “We have a volleyball net, tennis court, basketball court, and space for the four square game.” And lots of trees for shade when you’ve had enough sun.

The pavilion can be rented for family parties or sports banquets. If you want to swim, too, you can get a day membership for your guests. For any large event, such as a wedding reception, she has a list of caterers as she can only do a limited menu with the kitchen they have. “We just finished the outside renovations, so I do hope to get the commercial kitchen equipment.” And no matter what equipment they have, they always need help 21 years old or more, for the summer. “Good for a college student,” she said.

On a pleasant day, the course will host over 150 players. Golfing comes under the supervision of two golf pros. John King, also the general manager, takes the calls for tee times and cart reservations, and he runs the pro shop as well. His brother Billy King joins him in this. Soon you can skip the call and get your play times online, when the web site is running fully.

Here you have extra options for this summer — more golf, swimming, sports, and a scenic lunch spot. Check it out!

Botetourt Golf and Swim Club
For golf and dinner reservations, call 540-992-1451
For more information about dates and events, call or go to www.golfbotetourt.com
To sign up for the email newsletter, call 540-992-1451
Family pool memberships cost $400, individual, $200.

Matt Edwards and Lord Botetourt student Chris Weikel. Photo courtesy of Priscilla Richardson, special to The Botetourt View

Ever driven past Botetourt Commons between 4 and 7 p.m.? You’ve seen a guy at the corner of the turn into the Commons, waving a sign. The sign advertises the Little Caesar’s pizza next door to the Goodwill store. So, more and more, Botetourt folks on their way home from work or school pull in to buy a $5 pizza. One of those “hot and ready” ones, as owner Matt Edwards says.

Bonsack’s Edwards, 30, grew up in Roanoke in a family that today runs its own packaging business. However, after working in the family firm he went to Greensboro, NC, to work for a group of Little Caesar’s stores. In two years, he learned what he needed to run his own franchise.

“They didn’t want me to leave, but they understood I wanted to do more on my own,” he said. “We wanted to live here for the schools, where we could retire at. You don’t realize how much you miss the mountains until you’re away.” Also his wife, Kelly, an intensive care nurse, got her exact same job again. So they came back in 2009.

Scouting the perfect site for his store required some research. He liked Daleville because it has 3.1 people per household. “That tells me that they have a child. That means pizza. Botetourt Commons is a great area, the heart of the area for retail. We’re the value leader with $5 for a large pizza. Goodwill is based on value and so are we: we help each other out. Customers come to Goodwill and see us based on value. In the same way, they come to us and see Goodwill.”

Edwards reaches out to the community. Those who bring in cat or dog food to the store get a free crazy bread, bread with Parmesan garlic flavor and marinara sauce. “Free,” he emphasizes. “No purchase necessary. We pay the sales tax, not the customer.” Then he transports the food to the Roanoke Valley Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RVSPCA). This effort for cats and dogs comes out of his and his wife’s love of their own three dogs and one cat.

Schools, teams and other organizations benefit from his fliers and coupon booklets. He has the fliers printed up and gives them to groups. If you use one on the date of the flier, your group gets 15 percent of the sales price on those items purchased with the flier.

Even better: his coupon books. He gives them to organizations at no charge. They sell them for $5, and each book has a coupon for one free pizza. “So you get your money back right away.” Plus the book includes coupons for other value buys. The group turns in $2 for each booklet and keeps $3. Corporate headquarters didn’t think this up, he did. And if you call his business office, at 540-266-7661, he’ll talk to any group about it. Since he works 55 hours a week at the store, he asks people to wait for his call back the next day.

So the next time you see the Little Caesar’s guy on the curb with the sign, you’ll know Matt Edwards brought his value pizza to Botetourt.

Julie Reusch

Today, you get to meet a Botetourt person and her business, one you probably didn’t know even existed. The person? Julie Reusch. Her business? The Village Herb Farm in Blue Ridge.

Reusch grew up in Botetourt as a Lunsford, living in the house where she now resides. Both sides of her family farmed, growing tomatoes for the canning factory. “This area was called at one time Zimmerman Town, and it was famous for its tomato canning until a blight came and wiped it [the tomatoes] all out,” she said. “My first job was in the canning factory, just down the creek from me. I worked illegally, underage.”

With the factory gone, after high school at Lord Botetourt, and a degree in 1972 from Virginia Tech, she ventured into the corporate world. She worked in management for Proctor and Gamble for 20 years before she left to come home. “A career in the corporate world was my parents’ dream for me. I’d had a number of assignments but was never happy in that environment, never really enjoyed it.

“Finally in 1994, I grew spiritually enough to give up the money and take a chance doing what I’d always dreamed of doing: start this herb farm.” But not alone. She’d met the man she’d marry, Greg Reusch. So, her parents Hugh and Helen Lunsford having died, she and he moved back to her home.

“Even though I’d grown up with farming, I knew nothing about it. So I went to Virginia Western and took horticulture classes. This was the first time I’d ever enjoyed school. Absolutely loved it. As a result, I teach a herb class at Western. It’s offered every year if they have a minimum number sign up for it.” Also, watch local listings for her basic gardening classes offered by the Botetourt Parks and Recreation Department.

This newbie farmer started in 1995 to prepare the foundation for her farm. She did landscaping with herbal trees and shrubs, such as witch hazel and gingkos. And she built her green house. For her first year in business, “I could have supplied [herb plants to] all of the United States of America. I had way over planted. We built it and they didn’t come. I ended up throwing a lot of things away. I had to get a feel for customers.”

She now opens starting April 15 of each year, selling her herb plants. For the rest of the summer, she grows for local farmers.

The herb farm, as a part time seasonal business, leaves Reusch time to teach practical yoga, a kind of yoga that doesn’t call for strenuous activity. She has certification from the Aerobic and Fitness Association of America to teach this version she calls “easy and good for all fitness levels.”

As a spare time activity, she manages the administrative end of her husband’s business of building boathouses, and handles all the accounting for both. Also, she writes humorous mysteries. She gets her mystery fix from Janet Evanovich’s poplar series about a bounty hunter in New Jersey, and from Alexander McCall Smith’s about the adventures of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.

How do you get to this farm? Just a little bit east of the Blue Ridge Library, you’ll see a turn off to Route 738, also called Webster Road. After 3 ½ miles on that, turn right onto Archway and then go about ½ mile to her entrance. Call her at 540-977-1462 if you need more information.

Come April 15, clear taxes out of your brain and go enjoy this scenic spot. And maybe even get some herbs for your yard, your kitchen and your garden.

Mary Young

One of the aims of this column? So you’ll know about more Botetourt folks than you’d come across in your own circle. So today, meet Mary Young, a not-so-young 94, who last May left her long-time home in Pennsylvania to move to The Glebe. Young blasts away any stereotype you may have about someone her age. To use the words of her young friend, Daleville’s Linda Allen, “she’s as sharp as a tack.”

Young, born in Philadelphia, grew up in Ardmore, a western suburb, spending summers in south Jersey, near Ocean City. As a youngster, she spent time with her grandparents in the same place she and her husband later had a summer home, Stone Harbor. This location meant “we all swam a lot. We went to the beach. It was three blocks away.”

Having been born in 1917, Young not only saw the beginning of the Second World war, she also participated in many of its aspects. “I had a friend whose husband was stationed in Pearl Harbor when it was attacked. He went on to fight and survived the war.”

Young herself met her late husband, William, on a blind date. After she had finished high school in 1934, she went to a business school, learning to be a secretary. She worked in the dean’s office at the veterinary school at the University of Pennsylvania. But she had to go back to the Jersey shore to meet her future life.

“My sister was supposed to go with him instead of me. But she backed out at the last minute and shoved me in place. At the time, he was still a student at a Germantown prep school for boys. He even spent a couple of years at W and L [Washington and Lee] and graduated from Penn. He liked W and L. He was an English major.”

They married in 1941 and had their first child before he went off to war in the Signal Corps for the duration. “Duration” described the normal service term back then. Once you were in, you stayed until the war was over.

Her husband returned to her and they had two more children, making a total of two boys and a girl. Today they all are married, and have grandchildren of their own. Young admits she can’t keep track of all of the birthdays of the ten great grandchildren. “I don’t have to, I get help.”

Young and her husband were the same age. Living in Ardmore, they both took up golf. He worked as a sales representative for a furniture company, and passed away 14 years ago.

Young played golf until recently. “I did 9 holes last year, end of that.” But life at The Glebe keeps her more than busy. She enjoys the music, “we have marvelous concerts here. Had some nice ladies from a church singing here yesterday. And we have very good food. Everybody gains weight.”

She goes to a Bible study, art class, book club, exercise workouts, and balance classes. “I did a little too much and had to stop. I was overambitious.” Her children stop by and host family reunions at the home of her son who lives at the lake.

Young enjoys good health, and doesn’t need a cane or walker. “Not yet, but you can’t expect to go on forever.” She attributes her health to drinking milk, and keeping active and her brain going. Do the changes she’s seen impress her? “The world changes, you just go through. You’re just living through stuff.

“Have to go get to my duplicate bridge class.”

Tony Pope

While you were working and taking care of the kids, a different concept in dining has taken hold in Troutville, just across the road behind the Bank of Botetourt. At Diana Dixon’s Pomegranate, fine dining, meaning excellently and professionally prepared and presented food, paired with live music, makes for a destination evening. As she calls it, a “casually elegant” time, not stuffy, where everything’s in one location with easy parking, too. “Come enjoy the food and stay – the live music starts around 8.”

The secret of the wonderful food at Pomegranate lies in the artistry of the executive chef, Tony Pope, 38. He had owned Le Bistro in downtown Roanoke for 4 years, but sold out last summer. Then a friend recommended him to Dixon, where he now dazzles diners.

Pope started life in West Virginia, but worked throughout the country for the past 14 years. He studied at the culinary school in Charleston, SC, after college. “In college, I worked in restaurants, waiting tables. I always enjoyed cooking, so I got a job cooking part time. That made me think about it as a career. I love everything about the restaurant business, working in restaurants and going to them.”

His talent shone through. Afer a spell at the Greenbrier as a sous chef, the second in command in the kitchen, he rose to executive chef in New York. Then came Le Bistro in Roanoke, and now he manages the kitchen at Pomegranate.

What does an executive chef do? “I manage food costs, do the buying, plan menus, also cook. I’m in charge of all of the duties of the operation.” Like so many management people, he averages a 10-hour day, sometimes going to 12.

When cooking, he loves to make fresh pastas, such as ravioli, and to prepare seafood and wild game. “I’ve had quail on my menu, and done a lot of venison and rabbit. We source local ingredients and support local farms as much as we possibly can.” And they grow many of their own herbs and tomatoes, some right there on the restaurant grounds. “I don’t do anything out of a can,” he emphasized.

Although he and his wife enjoy traveling, golfing, and hiking, for his work hours “I’m doing what I wanted to do, making people happy. It’s gratifying.”

Now what would fine dining do without wine? House and wine manager Alejandro Rivera suggests the perfect bottle to go with the food. He also uses the expertise of Botetourt’s own wine expert, Kimberly Eakin, who started her Wine Gourmet here in Daleville. Plus he sees to it that Botetourt wines appear.

How did Rivera, a native of Arizona, come to live in Botetourt’s Troutville? Easy. He met DeeAnn Bishop, Diana Dixon’s daughter, when she was studying Asian medicine. She now runs the Blue Ridge Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine Clinic and has been living with Rivera for 10 years.

“When I moved here,” Rivera said, “I worked at Frankie Rowland’s steak house as manager and wine buyer and trainer. I left to help open this restaurant. We’d been planning this for at least four years prior to opening the doors in November of ‘08.”

Planning continues. Dixon wants to add outdoor dining and a cigar lounge. And turn a huge second story into an art gallery, with space for banquets and weddings. To this end, she’s looking for investors.

Dixon has promised the use of her cellar for a Halloween haunted house. Appropriate, since she and some of her staff have seen a ghost. Mostly, as Pope said, “we’re eager to get word out. We want everybody in this area to know what we’re doing.”

For information about Pomegranate’s restaurant hours and names of bands performing, call 540-966-6052, or go to www.pomegranateva.com.

Buchanan’s Jean Robbins, noted for her work with Botetourt historical materials including Nannie Figgat’s diary, recipes and correspondence, led a group of ladies on February 25 to Blacksburg to hear a speech by Kira Dietz. Dietz, an archivist who works with the Peacock-Harper Culinary Collection at Virginia Tech’s library, spoke about what she does in her job.

Robbins introduced the speaker and gave a synopsis of her Botetourt historical research for those who missed her November speech. She continues to work with Gail McMillan, a Tech professor and librarian, researching Botetourt food and family history using this special collection.

The group also enjoyed a special showing of books and manuscripts from the collection. It included a handwritten booklet entitled “How to Cook a Husband,” humorous advice to a wife about how to keep her husband tender and good, from about the early 1800′s.

Submitted by Priscilla Richardson

Waltye Rasulala

A few lucky folks saw and heard Waltye Rasulala at an informal concert in front of the Botetourt Historical Society museum some years back, or singing at The Glebe. Now, you have a chance to get to know her better, hear more of her singing and more of her grandmother’s poetry.

To start with, her first name is pronounced wall-tea and her last is rah-sue-lah-lah. Her first name comes from the feminine form of Walter, after her father, Walter Winston Johnson, Jr. He practiced medicine in Covington for 50 years. She herself was born in Washington, DC, because her father wanted her mother cared for by a physician there under whom he had studied at Howard University. But she soon came back home, and grew up in Covington.

Came time for college, so Rasulala went to Westminster Choir College, in Princeton, N.J., for an undergraduate degree in voice, followed by a graduate degree in conducting. She then started her wide ranging career.

Her first job as a newly minted professional musician landed her in Wilmington, Del., where she shared the music leadership of a Presbyterian church with another director. From there she went on to DC as a music specialist for the public elementary schools. She divided her time between about 15 schools to give lessons. The classroom teacher observed and was supposed to follow through with assignments. Some did, and some didn’t, Rasulala noted.

Her next career move didn’t come from planning. “During summer vacation, coming back from Europe on an ocean liner, I sang in the ship’s lounge. A man from the Metropolitan [Opera] came up to me and asked me if I was interested in studying in New York. He gave me the name of a woman I ended up studying with.” She now supported herself in New York by working as a music therapist.

“You never know,” she said, reflecting on this turn of events. “You need to learn to audition. So I did, and signed a contract with a show. For three years I was in the chorus and also an understudy in ‘Dolly,’ on Broadway and then on tour.” She met her late husband on that tour, and married in 1970.

Then, having moved to California, she did more theater and gave recitals. “I prefer art songs and opera repertory. I love finding the poetry [that] songs are based on and seeing how various composers work their magic.”

On a visit back east to research community theater, she stumbled into television. Upon invitation, she auditioned for an ABC station. Two days later she was on air as the host of a children’s live educational televison show. To hosting, she quickly added producing.

She did that show for three years, all new each weekday. “We’d finish at 9 a.m. and start writing the next day’s show.” And followed that by doing the same thing back in Los Angeles. Then came an invitation to do her show at WRAL in Raleigh, which she did for 19 years, her longest job. She then worked for 4 years for a group that funded community projects, including music, and now is with a group that asks for grants for music projects for youngsters.

Just so she doesn’t forget music, she also works now as music director of the Church of the Nativity in Raleigh, and teaches in a program for students whose parents cannot afford private lessons. And has a private voice student of her own.

Mark your calendars for 7:30 p.m. April 8, when Rasulala will give a recital, including readings of her Covington grandmother’s poetry, at the Geraldine Lawson Performing Arts Center, Attic Theater’s home on Rt. 220, just outside Fincastle. No admission charge, but you will be asked for a donation for the Botetourt Historical Society. See you there!