With another blessed Thanksgiving gathering receding into fond recollection, a reminder arrived that one of the first instances of a Roanoke County residence festooned with Christmas decorations this year was
By Ray Cox
Special to The Roanoke Times
Roanoke Red Sulphur Springs and its successor Catawba Sanatorium as historic havens for treatment of tuberculosis having been discussed here not long ago, that sparked additional inquiry.
Q: Edward A. Turpin, my husband, was a tuberculosis patient at Catawba Sanatorium in 1956 when he was 6 years old. Is there a list of doctors or other information about the hospital during that era?
Marsha Turpin
Wytheville
A: Hospital records from 1910-1972, when it operated as a state-run facility to treat TB (since then, it has been a state mental health hospital), are hard to come by. Tisha Parrott of the current hospitalâs administrative staff said finding such information, if such were even available, would take time.
By Ray Cox
Special to The Roanoke Times
Incoming correspondence from our many contributors has been awash in additions to an ongoing discussion of the history of the regionâs many mineral springs.
As is sometimes the case with such listings, reader reaction may come in the form of gentle reminders (or scolding tut-tuts) that one or another potential member of the list went unmentioned.
The plea here to incomplete list-making is guilty. The only defense for such omissions is that comprehensive listing of 200-plus such healing gushers in Virginia and West Virginia alone is awkward in small space.
Anyway, it is always a pleasure to welcome pertinent additions to any conversation.