BJ DRYE COLUMN: Remembering Roscoe Hatley and Geneva Moore
Sometimes we don’t even know we know someone until they are gone.
Roscoe Hatley died this week. He helped form Oakboro Fire Department and ran his own business for more than 30 years.
There’s a chance I went in his business and didn’t even know it. My grandfather, who was a mechanic, was good friends with Roscoe. I remember going with him to some shop in Oakboro when I was really young, but I don’t know which shop it would have been. I’m thinking it may have been Roscoe’s H & H Supply.
Sources tell me he was instrumental in forming the Oakboro Rural Fire Department and helped the Fourth of July Celebration continue.
A former classmate of mine reached out about her husband’s grandfather’s passing. With that I learned of my grandpa’s connection. Grandpa never said he was running to pick up supplies at H&H Supply; it was always running down to Roscoe’s.
Another recent passing was that of Mrs. Moore.
Mrs. Moore would have loved Sunday night.
Her favorite wrestler John Cena returned to the ring after many months of being gone.
But she couldn’t see him.
Although, maybe she did — from a skybox.
Geneva Moore died July 12 after a few months of illness. She was 89.
I had not heard from her lately, I think she called me sometime last year during COVID.
She was one of our loyal readers. I would not be surprised if she had a journal of her favorite newspaper clippings.
She would write in letters to the editor or just drop a note or give me a call about what was going on locally.
But her favorite topic to ask me about was wrestling. She knew I watched it and she loved to talk about her favorites The Undertaker and, of course, John Cena. She told me she wrote Vince McMahon a few times to critique things.
I don’t doubt it.
She had quite a life, working in medical settings. She did home health care until she was 85, something she never even mentioned to me.
We are running out of people like her — ones who are easy to talk with and don’t bring up hatred in every other sentence.