Velma Edwards Callaway (center) and husband Howard discuss her book detailing their lives with (WHO)

Alleghany native shares life story

In 1989, at the age of 57 Alleghany native Velma Edwards Callaway began working toward a lifelong dream of graduating from high school. Through night classes, her English teacher, Joan Short of Big Stone Gap, Va., not only helped her graduate, but also encouraged her to use information recorded in class journals as a start toward sharing the story of her life.

"The Life and Times of William Howard and Velma Louetta Edwards Callaway" details Mrs. Callaway's life, as well as a little bit of history of her husband's family.

The only daughter of Alvin C. and Etta Lou Edwards, Callaway was not short of entertainment because she had several cousins to spend time with when she wasn't doing chores.

"Mother put me to work, naturally, as I got big enough because it was just me and her there from the time daddy died until I was 14, when she remarried," Callaway said.

Growing up in the county, Callaway attended Pine Swamp Elementary School.

"Me and Edith Crouse were real chums," Callaway recalls of her school days. "We sat together in at least two or three different grades." Callaway attended school through the tenth grade and was in eleventh grade when, at the age of 16, she and her 21-year-old beau, William "Howard" Callaway, a native of Surry County, eloped.

"I kidnapped her," Mr. Callaway said with a chuckle.

The couple moved to State Road, where they resided for about a year before moving to Norton, Va. Prior to the birth of the couple's first daughter, Rosa Myrtle Callaway Carpenter, on May 30, 1950, Mrs. Callaway returned to North Carolina to give birth.

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