Individual Details

Charles Stevens Wassum Jr.

(28 May 1913 - 7 Dec 2003)

Obituary of Charles Stevens Wassum, Jr.

Charles Stevens Wassum, Jr, age 90, a lifelong resident of Marion, died Sunday, December 7, 2003 in the same home where he was born May 28, 1913 to Charles S. Wassum and Maggie Cornett Wassum.

Charles graduated from Marion High School and attended Washington & Lee University where he was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. In 1938 he married Elizabeth Venable Warriner, the year she was May Queen at Marion College. He was a veteran of World War II, having served in U.S. Navy, a 32nd Degree Mason and a member of the First United Methodist Church in Marion.

In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by three sisters, Mattie Preston Wassum Kabrich, Margaret Wassum Huff, and Janie Wassum Boyd.

Charlie, as he was known to his many friends, was an entrepreneur. In high school he and Pete Peterson brought big name bands to Marion. Some of these bands were Ted Fio-Rita, Bernie Cummins, Blue Steele, and Red Nichols and His Five Pennies. They also had Guy Lombardo and his orchestra at the Bristol Hotel in Bristol.

After college, he continued in the business started by his father, the Royal Oak Boxwood Farms, planting formal gardens and estates from Tennessee to New England. He regularly exhibited in the New York Flower and Garden Show at Grand Central Palace in New York City and the National Flower Show at the National Guard Armory in Washington, D.C. He planted boxwood at the White House and Lincoln Memorial, along with hundreds of other prominent buildings and homes. Many of the nurserymen in Smyth County can trace back their knowledge of the nursery business to Charlie and his father.

In the early 1950s Charles began the development of his farm into the residential areas of Wassona Park, Panorama Drive, and Forest Hills, a project that continued for many years. Also in the early 50s, he and George Greer built the Virginia House Inn. Perhaps closest to his heart was the part that he played in the creation of Mt. Rogers National Recreation Area. Charles was one of the original visionaries instrumental in its creation. In the early 60s he assembled extensive tracts of land, putting them together like a big jigsaw puzzle, to form the beginning of what became the vast park, bringing over a million people a year to the area today. He loved the land of Southwest Virginia and Smyth County, and enjoyed traveling and seeing it to his last.

Throughout his life, Charlie also had an affection for New York City. As a boy he accompanied his father there on business trips. He recalled the dates of many of those trips by the notable events that occurred while he was there; He witnessed the ticker tape parade up Broadway in 1927 for Charles Lindberg for making the first solo transatlantic airplane flight, and the one in 1926 for Gertrude Ederle for being the first woman to swim the English Channel. Charles was there for Rudolph Valentinos funeral, also in 1926, and later when the Hindenberg, the German Zeppelin burned in 1937 in Lakehurst, New Jersey. He knew New York in the roaring 20s during Prohibition and the time of the speakeasies. He and Elizabeth spent their honeymoon in New York City in 1938. For 20 years he maintained an apartment there, not far from his daughter.

Surviving are his wife of 65 years, Elizabeth Warriner Wassum of Marion, on son and daughter-in-law, Dr. Charles S. Wassum III and wife, Anna-Stina of Marion, one daughter and son-in-law, Erwin Wassum Rowland and husband, David, now of Marion, six grandchildren: Michelle Wassum Engebretsen of Denver CO, Charles S. Wassum, IV, of Bluff City, TN, Christopher Wassum of Troutville VA, Mary Wassum Martin of Warm Springs VA, Christina Wassum Falin of Roanoke VA, and Matthew W. Wassum of Marion. Eleven great-grandchildren, and one sister, Evelyn Wassum Wright of West Palm Beach, FL.

Graveside Services will be held Tuesday, December 9, 2003 at 11:00 a.m. at Rose Lawn Cemetery with Dr. Charles S. Wassum III officiating. Seaver-Brown Funeral Service is serving the Wassum Family.

Events

Birth	28 May 1913	Marion, Smyth, Virginia
Residence	1920	Marital Status: Single; Relation to Head of House: Son - Marion, Smyth, Virginia
Residence	1930	Marital Status: Single; Relation to Head of House: Son - Marion, Smyth, Virginia
Residence	1934	Lexington, Virginia
Residence	1935	Marion, Smyth, Virginia
Marriage	26 Oct 1938	Crewe, Nottoway, Virginia - Elizabeth Venable Warriner
Residence	1 Apr 1940	Marital Status: Married; Relation to Head of House: Son - Marion, Smyth, Virginia
Residence	1990	Marion, Smyth, Virginia
Death	7 Dec 2003	Marion, Smyth, Virginia
Burial	7 Dec 2003	Marion, Smyth, Virginia

Families

Spouse	Elizabeth Venable Warriner (1918 - 2005)
Child	Charles Stevens Wassum III
Child	Erwin Warriner Wassum

Father	Charles Stevens Wassum (1875 - 1940)
Mother	Margaret "Maggie" Montgomery Cornett (1877 - 1949)
Sibling	Mattie Preston Wassum (1902 - 1993)
Sibling	Margaret Cornett Wassum (1905 - 1991)
Sibling	Janie Catherine Wassum (1909 - 1977)
Sibling	Evelyn Coyner Wassum (1915 - 2004)

Endnotes

1. Ancestry.com, 1930 United States Federal Census (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002), Year: 1930; Census Place: Marion, Smyth, Virginia; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 0006.

2. Ancestry.com, 1920 United States Federal Census (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010), Year: 1920; Census Place: Marion, Smyth, Virginia; Roll: T625_1914; Page: 11A; Enumeration District: 109.

3. Ancestry.com, 1940 United States Federal Census (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012), Year: 1940; Census Place: Marion, Smyth, Virginia; Roll: m-t0627-04295; Page: 21B; Enumeration District: 87-6.

4. Ancestry.com, U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015).

5. Ancestry.com, Virginia, Marriage Records, 1936-2014 (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015), Virginia Department of Health; Richmond, Virginia.

6. Ancestry.com, Virginia, Birth Records, 1912-2014, Delayed Birth Records, 1854-1911 (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015).

7. Ancestry.com, U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2014), Number: 226-70-8641; Issue State: Virginia; Issue Date: 1965.

8. Ancestry.com, U.S. Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 1 (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010).

9. Ancestry.com, U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-1990 (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010), "U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012"; Yearbook Title: Washington and Lee University Yearbook, 1934; Year: 1934.

10. Ancestry.com, U.S., Cemetery and Funeral Home Collection, 1847-2018 (Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2011), Publication Place: City, USA; Web edition: http://obit.seaverbrown.com/obitdisplay.html?id=92649&listing=All.

11. Ancestry.com, U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012).

12. Ancestry.com, U.S., Obituary Collection, 1930-2018 (Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006), Newspaper: Bristol Herald Courier/Bristol Virginia-Tennessean; Publication Date: 01/ 4/ 2004; Publication Place: Bristol, Virginia, USA; Web edition: http://www.tricities.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=TRI/MGArticle/TRI_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031772519234&path=/features/obituaries&s=1054237353321.

13. Ancestry.com, Web: Virginia, Find A Grave Index, 1607-2012 (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012).

14. Ancestry.com, Web: Obituary Daily Times Index, 1995-2012 (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012).