More Burke Vignettes, 1728 - 2020

Easter 2020 and the historic Coronavirus lockdown led me to enrich the overview and the appendix on this final version of my book honoring the Good Neighbors of my Burke hometown. There were many good neighbors during the pandemic and I included some of their stories beyond Burke, Virginia. The core remains My Saga of Burke, Virginia (our Foley hometown since 1980) that continues with this third book in the series. Delightful is the word to describe the hours I was privileged to spend with longtime Burke residents Delbert "Bill" Sheads, Dolores Latney Dennie, Glenn Curtis, MaryGoins Roots, Alison Hopkins Sowar as we traveled back to the days of their ancestors in our Burke hometown. We examined the 1940 Census and explored the many facets of the fascinating Coffer family stories starting in 1728 when they became leading pioneers of the Burke area before the Civil War. In this book, I enhanced the Coffer story with the remarkable Coffer-Pearson family connection - underscored by the emancipation of the five Pearson slaves by Francis Coffer IV in 1861 just as the Civil War was starting."More Burke Vignettes, 1728 - 2020: In Honor of Good Neighbors" aims to honor those Burke residents who did the right thing by the American ideal of human equality and good neighborliness. The Hopkins, Sheads, Curtis, Latney and Goins practiced kind neighborliness regardless of color - while the black community helped each other during segregation when Fairfax County was oppressing them, particularly in denying equal education. My theme is reflected in the story of Bill Sheads who saved nine black children during the 1941 Burke wildfire just as he was leaving for his American military service in WWII. And in this 2020 edition we thank our good neighbors who shared with us their wonderful friendship, tremendous love and remarkable memories of once-upon-a-time in our Burke community - particularly Bill Sheads and Mary Goins Roots who both passed on ahead of us in 2017.