The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-06-28
Tom, Dick and Harry Means
Byrd Brothers in old Virginia
Aviator Most Famous, But
Tom and Harry Not
Without LaurelS.


RICHMOND, Va, June 28-The
Old Dominion, which is the orator.
ical name for the State of Virginia,
has been extremely proud of great
many of it's sons, what with Wash
ington, Lee, Jefferson and the rest;
but it seldom regarded any of them
more highly than it regards Tom,
Dick and Harry.
Tom, Dick and Harry-in ordinary
speech that expression means some
thing like Everybody" but in Vir-
ginia it refers very definitely to
three men whom the State adnires
with whole souled southern fervor.
These three are the brothers
Bryd-Richard Evelyn, Harry Flood
and Thomas. Each has achieved
distinction in a different way.
Richard, the Aviator
To begin with, there is Richard
the Dick of the triumvirate. Until a
young man named Lindbergh came
along Dick was pretty generally con-
sidered the country's leading aviator
and he apparently intends to re-
gain that distinction in the near
future, having a flight to the south
pole in mind as soon as this business
of spanning the Atlantic is over. :
Then there is Harry. To the ma
ton at large he is less well known
than Dick-but not to Virginia. In
case you have forgotten, Harry
Floyd Byrd is the Governor of the
State-and is counted very good
one and very popular one, too.
Finally THERE'S Tom. The country
at large knows him not at all. Yet
he must be well worth knowing. Vir-
ginians think so.
A World War Hero
Tom is the interpretive, contem-
plative type. Lacking the flare for
direct action that motivates Dick
and Harry, his career has been, on
the whole, quiet and obscure. Yet
in 1917, when the call to arms came,
Tom was one of the first sons of the
Old Dominion to volunteer. He
served well in France, making
record for bravery and fidelity to
duty under fire.
When the war ended he retired to
the quiet of his country estate in the
Shenandoah valley, tending his
peach and pear orchards, enjoying
life hugely and emerging from his
retirement occasionally to congratu-
late one or the other of his brothers
for some new achievement.
Tom, Dick apd Harry come by
their bravery ard ability honestly.
Their grandfather, Col William
Byrd, was a man of mettle. So was
his wife, their grandmother, Mrs.
Jane Byrd, who is still living and
who is prouder than she can say of
her three grandsons.
An Adventuresome Career
She and William Byrd had been
married just two years when the
Civil War broke out. Byrd had
brought her to Virginia from Texas,
whittier she and her family had
when she was 7, via the
covered wagon from Tennessee. She
had known frontier life, and her
beauty and charm made her an
ornament to the Byrd plantation at
Winchester, Va. She saw her hus-
band and her two brothers enlist.
The two brothers were killed.
William Byrd was listed as missing
in action. and when month after
month passed and no word Of him
came it was thought that he, too,
had been slain; but the, young wife
refused to believe it.
At length the war ended. Still
one day, he came riding up to the
plantation, dismounted, and asked
gravely, Does the Widow Byrd live
here?"
1t developed that he had been
captured by Federal soldiers and
had been confined in a military
prison at New Orleans, unable to
communicate with his home.
Three Different Types
Mrs. Byrd loves to talk about her
grandsons, Tom, Dick and Harry.
The three were always of different
types, she says; Harry was ever
studious and grave, Dick venture
some and light-hearted, and Tom
quiet and interpretive. She is proud
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