William W. & Lydia (Conner) Maxey

My dad was Willard Washington Maxey, son of Fred Thomas Maxey, whose father was William Washington Maxey.

We had this framed photo of WW and his wife Lydia in our dining room in Virginia Beach for a small number of years in the late 60's. I remember the trip to the Floyd County property in my dad's yellow '57 Chevy. I remember the orange dirt road, the fields of grass and the car running out of gas and people pushing it, (haha). I guess I was about 5 years old then. I don't have the details of where my dad actually obtained the photo, but I remember it being placed in his trunk on this trip, from whose house I have no knowledge but my aunt Doris Simmons might know.

The only other memory I have of that day was my grandmother Beula Brown-Maxey in the backseat with me and my brother Fred, pulling out her false teeth and entertaining us with them, snapping them at us like she was going to get us. "I'm gonna gitya," she said, chuckling. She was such a jokester.

My dad gave the photo to his sister, Doris Maxey-Simmons for safekeeping, and she's had it ever since. I last saw it about two years ago visiting with her.

I was told WW was a confederate soldier who was captured at an extreme point of the Eastern Shore of VA(?) but my memory of those details is very sketchy. (3RD CORP CO B 57 VA INF CSA reads a grave marker photo online).

I bear my grandfather's initials, and I was named after the county WW lived in.