Several months ago, I was contacted by Chief Charles Lamoreaux of the St. Andrews Fire Department. He asked if I knew George Wolfe. George and I first worked together at St. Andrews back in 1970. Chief Lamoreaux told me that George’s wife, Rosa, was trying to reach me. She had asked him to relay her phone number to me in hopes I would contact her. Well, what transpired in that phone call and many others since then, has been an amazing trip back in time to when life was much easier, and friends were closer together.
First, let me set the stage here. I joined the fire department in 1967 and George followed shortly thereafter. In 1970, we were assigned to work together as a two-man crew at St. Andrews Station 3 on Ashley River Road. George was the acting Lieutenant, and I was his Engineer (driver). He lived in the Byrnes Down neighborhood West of the Ashley with his wife, Rosa, and their young daughter, Beth- Ann. I had married my high school sweetheart, Kay, in 1969 and we lived in the Trailmore Mobile Home Park with our newborn son Grant.
George had been a baker and cook in the Navy prior to coming to Charleston. He could work magic in the kitchen, and I would soon be the beneficiary of his talent. On our first day of working together, George offered me one of those opportunities few people get. He said that he knew I had a new baby at home and money had to be tight. So, he proposed that he would furnish all our food and prepare the meals every shift. My responsibility would be to wash the dishes, pots, and pans. We always ate amazing meals, no hot dogs, or sandwiches but roast beef, steaks, chicken, and always a fresh homemade dessert each day. As they say, I thought I had died and gone to heaven but, Lord have mercy, this man could leave a kitchen looking like a bomb went off so there was a trade-off.
But by far the most important thing George taught me was how to be a Daddy, how to love your family, and how to face your responsibilities as an adult.
George was so proud of his daughter, Beth-Ann, who was our Little Miss St. Andrews, during Fire Prevention week. He and I fought many fires together and enjoyed our time as fire department brothers. Rosa had been the Guidance Counselor at Fort Johnson High School. George and his family left Charleston in 1975 to return to his hometown in McAndrews, Kentucky. He returned to the coal mines, where he worked in his younger years. Rosa was an educator and the Guidance Counselor of Fort Johnson High School here in Charleston, and, after their return to Kentucky, she continues to serve the Pike County School Board to this day at the age of eighty-eight. Beth-Ann attended Morehead College in Kentucky and, after getting her master’s degree, began her career in Human Resources at the University of Kentucky. The common denominator for them was they planned to all retire and return to the Charleston they always loved. Unfortunately, George passed away from cancer in 2005 and Beth-Ann succumbed to kidney disease in 2017.
According to Rosa, the three of them had talked many times of their planned return to Charleston. After their deaths, and during her own estate planning, she wanted to honor their memories by donating to help firefighters. So, she reached out to me, and she has donated $ 25,000.00 to our Team in memory of George and Beth-Ann. I have been lost for words at this amazing gesture on her part. I think that George and Beth-Ann would be pleased. Please join us in thanking Rosa for this wonderful donation. We pledge to let memories of George and Beth-Ann live on in our work.
I am also pleased to share photographs of George with Beth-Ann, as Little Miss St. Andrews, and a photograph of me, George’s brother-in-law, Jake Hatfield, and George. Jake was a real-life Hatfield from Kentucky.