Jesse Shelburn Doyle was born on May 14, 1917 in Franklin County.
This will be a little long.
Jesse left home around the age of 15 and moved to Bassett, Va with his friend Pat Martin and found work at Stanley Furniture Company. Other than a short period after his father Richard died in 1937, Jesse lived, worked and danced in Henry County. While there, he met his wife Edna Evelyn Chitwood.
Jesse and Edna married on Good Friday, April 15, 1938 in Bassett, Va. they were married by Dan Helms. Jesse was 20, Edna was 16.
Their first son, Walter Vernon Doyle was born on June 21, 1939 while they were still living in Reed Creek in the Stanleytown area of Henry County.
During a visit with Jesse(Grandpa) in the rehabilitation center in Stanleytown, I asked how he and grandma picked out my fathers name. He told me that they were getting ready to leave the hospital and hadn’t come up with a first name yet…they had already decided on Vernon, after a baseball player, but didn’t have a first name. The doctor came in for his last visit and they told him that they were trying to come up with a name. He half jokingly suggested his first name, Walter, and that’s what they went with.
Jesse was still working at Stanley Furniture in the 1940 census, and on his draft registration from Oct of 1940. His draft registration lists his description as 5’10, 160#, red hair and gray eyes.
On June 28, 1941 their second child, Ronald Dean “Ronnie” Doyle was born. I have no idea where they got his name, but they got it right.
Sometime between Ronnie’s birth in 41 and November of 1942, the family moved from Reed Creek to Snow Creek. I know they lived with Jesse’s mother for a little while and it would make sense that they were living there when their third child, Lois “Carolyn” Doyle was born on November 9, 1942. And possibly even when their fourth child, Jimmie Bernard Doyle was born on September 7, 1944.
During this period, the family moved out of Mary’s home and rented a house owned by Richard Hundley, located a few hundred yards down what is today Airport Rd. Their next move, in 1945 or 46 would be into the first home they owned.
Jesse’s Uncle Claude Hundley and his family were vacating their home located off of Cooper Mtn Rd and moving to town. Jesse was able to purchase this home for a set price, but the payments were “as much as he could pay after he sold his tobacco for the year”. Moving into this home was described by Jesse as feeling like a king moving in to his castle, he had a wife and four kids and now he had a place to put them. It had no running water, no bathroom, and “great big old fireplaces in there and you’d nearly freeze to death in the wintertime…burn up on front and freeze behind”. I’ve heard great stories about this house, waking up with snow on your blankets, grabbing your pants real quick to run to the fireplace in the morning….. Carolyn climbing out the kitchen window in her sleep and then having to knock on the front door to get someone to let her back in… hanging tobacco in the basement to get it ready to bag up before taking it to sell. None of these stories are told with any regret.
On October 25, 1954, Michael Terry “Mike” Doyle was born. Within a few years, the family built a new house and moved in around 1957.
Ronnie talked about how proud Grandma was of that house, and as long as she lived there is great reason to believe that never changed. It was almost always a Sunday or holiday when we visited there. It was almost always the exact same thing…we’d step up on the porch, look into the window of the den… Grandma and Grandpa would be sitting in their chairs, reading, knitting, or just talking to one another. By the time we’d go the next few steps to get to the door..they’d either be opening it, or walking in to the kitchen to greet us. Not much better than that memory. It was never anything other than a pleasant, relaxing, comfortable place where you felt safe and loved. The only thing that ever changed about that house was the length of the hall and the width of the front yard. We used to could run and slide down the hall and if we had enough speed from running through the kitchen, we could slide the full length of it, it’s not that far really. The front yard used to be wide enough for a baseball game, but it’s still wide enough for a game of croquet. Some of the odd things I remember, not odd because they were odd, but odd that I remember then include the ashtray with a little dog in it. I think this was the ashtray that the men used, the women hid in the bathroom to smoke. The few times I remember getting to spend the night there, I recall sleeping on a pallet (not a wooden one, just a few quilts then another quilt to cover up with), then almost always getting woke up to Grandma in the kitchen at what felt like 4 am…I’d fall back aslepp then wake up to a huge breakfast, fried eggs, biscuits, sausage, and apple butter (the only good apple butter I’ve ever eaten, btw).
I know Grandpa Doyle farmed, sawmilled, worked at Stanly Furniture and maybe even American Furniture. I know that Grandma Doyle worked occasionally too. I found where in 1959, she is listed in a Martinsville City Directory as being a machine operator at Lacy Manfacturing Company.
Jesse and Edna’s Children and Grand-Children.
Vernon (my father) left the home either right before or shortly after they moved into the new house and joined the Navy. After he returned he married Judy Carroll Bowles and they had five children.
Rhonda Lynn Doyle in 1963. Roger Leon Doyle in 1964, Randy Lee Doyle and Renee Louise Doyle in 1966, and then Walter Vernon Doyle Jr in 1971. They divorced in 1975 .. Vernon remarried in the nineties and he and his second wife Rana Diane Price had two more kids, a son Jesse Ryan Doyle in 1993 and daughter Emily Taylor Doyle in 1995.
Walter Vernon Doyle, Sr passed away on March 7, 1999 in High Point, NC.
On August 5, 1960, Ronnie was working in sales for a knitting company, when he married Mary “Aileen” Spicer who was also working in sales for a knitting company. They were married by John LeRoy Young Jr. They have four children, Ronald “Dean” Doyle Jr in 1963, Richard “Derrick” Doyle in 1965, Ravonda “Dawn” Doyle in 1969 and Robin “Denise” Doyle in 1974.
On December 23, 1961, Carolyn, while working in sales at a knitting mill, married Sidney Wayne Cobler a plumber. They were married by W.M. Stump Jr. They hadthree children, Wayne Milton Cobler in 1963, Cynthia Carol Cobler in 1965, and Charles Vincent Cobler in 1966.
Carolyn passed away on September 9, 2012 at the home of her grand-daughter Amanda Woods in Henry County.
On October 24, 1964, Jimmie, while working in sales for a knitting company, married Vivian Ann Washburn who was working in sales for a knitting company. They were married by W. M. Stump Jr. They had three sons, Jimmie Bernard “Jay” Doyle Jr in 1965, Ricky Darren Doyle in 1968, and Brian Christopher Doyle in 1975.
On January 20, 1977, Mike married Pamla Lynn Fleming in Dobson, NC. Pam was working for Spencer’s in Mt. Airy and Mike was a rock star. They have two children, Veronica Dawn Doyle in 1974 and Michael Terry Doyle Jr in 1978.
Edna Evelyn Chitwood Doyle passed away on September 2, 1999, Jesse Shelburn Doyle passed away on April 30, 2013. They are both buried at the Snow Creek Christian Church in Snow Creek, Va.