Year: 1941
Henrietta Rogers Samples was born on December 24, 1881 in Halifax County, Virginia, to Wiley Rogers and Sallie Wade. In 1902, she married Stephen Samples, and the couple lived at 806 Saunton Ave NE in the former Kimball Neighborhood. Stephen worked for the N&W Railroad as a janitor and was mentioned in the Friday, July 4, 1924 edition of The World News article, “Keeping N&W Offices Clean Enormous Job.” The couple had four children—Rubie, Russie, Parker, and Annie Mae—and Henrietta devoted herself to her family as a stay-at-home mother. She died on January 15, 1941, at the age of 61. Henrietta is also our guiding angel at The Friends of Old Lick Cemetery. In 2019, Ellen Forbes Stick first unearthed Henrietta’s headstone, buried beneath the brush and brambles of the northwest corner of the cemetery. She discerned the need to clean and restore this historic cemetery and recognized it as a worthy educational project for the Social Studies Department of Roanoke City Schools.
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