The Farmville herald and farmer-leader. (Farmville, Va.) 1934-1957, 1954-01-19
Seen and Heard

vice a week, without fall, tht
poems Of l.. D. Whitaker appear
IN The Falmville Herald" fol
long time. ] had no idea in this
world who this L. D Whitaker
was. To my knowledge, I haC
never met this person.
From time to time I woulc
notice an elderly man in the Her
aid office. Not being any the
wiser, l thought he sold news
/ papers on the street corner o.
was farmer who had come IN
to inquire about something
Imagine my surprise when I
found out the Identity Of this
mani d. Whitaker himself.
Hmm, l thought as 1 tucked
him away in my BRAIN, POSSIBLE
ties for a feature So here it is
the result Of the interview, more
or less as it happened.
Characters
I've been told. said Doc.
Whitaker THAT Chris Peed and
I are the two town characters.
One time a lady came out to the
house looking for me, She was
told l had gone to town and to
look for man in khakis, prob
ably II need Of haircut and a
shave, with curly, odd looking
pipe resting on his chest, and if
he was wearing tie, it would be
held in place by 2-carat dia-
mond stick pin. She came look
ing. and she found me
That by and large. is the de-
Scripuon Of Dr.. Whitaker. But it
explains nothing of what he
really is.
Early Years
He was born in Baltimore, Md.
on November 27, 1885. He spent
his early life on a farm. and at
tended the public schools in
Baltimore. IN 1911. was graduated.
from the U. S. College of Veteri-
nary Surgeons in Washington, d.
c. IN the meantime spending his
vacations working as d.
breaker o~~'~''0"
man III Baltimore, and other
such ways to make enough money
10 keep III school.
Ever since i can remember, |
have been working at something
When I was a Kid OF eight years
of age l would go to "A neighbor
ing field and pick maybe 100
lunches Of bmebells. and then gc
downtown to sell them, My folks
used to say that if so"eho
would put me inside a tar barrel,
would find way to make some
money
Doc first practiccd il South
west Virginia and then in Nash
VILE. Tenn. where he became
deputy state veterinarian and 9
member of Board of Veterinary
Medical Examiners.
II don't like city life though
and in 1918 came to FarmyIlle
eo~"ed seven terms on The coun-
cil.n
Retirement
III 1914 Doc retired All my
life had always said l was go
ing to retire when l was so years
old was convinced it would
happen, and it did
Retirement has not meant thc
ccasing Of all activity for Or
Whitaker. 1t just means that he
is no longer a vet, and thus has
more time to devote TO all the
other things that interest him
I'm Of a very retiring DISPOSE
tion.' he says. 4 usually go t.
bed about u or l and read I'M
til 2 get up IN the morning any,
where from 10 to II, have break
fast, and then I don't eat agar
until 6 First thing after break
fast, ! spend about an hour read.
ing nay mail. which includes sew
cral papers and magazines. Thel
] spend a great deal OF time, dur
me the winter, i'll my shop max
ing furniture or some other con
trapuon In the summer time,
raise flowers. l love gardening
Then Just for diversion. III SIT
down and write couple Of
poems. And I'm an avid reader
You would think the time
would hang heavy on my hands,
he adds. but l sometimes think
the day is too SHIRT =
lnsoluble puzzles
Doc is crazy about puzzles
He makes them By the score out