‘Do something to make the community better’
BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
WARFIELD — When Ronald and Lori Workman ride down Main Street as grand marshals of this year’s Harvest Fest Parade, they will carry with them decades of memories — festivals that packed the streets, Christmas celebrations that drew hundreds, ballgames at the old Warfield gym, Easter egg hunts, flood relief efforts and countless hours spent trying to make their hometown a little better.
They will also be thinking about the people who helped them along the way.
“We were pleased to be recognized for our dedication here in Warfield,” Ronald said. “Without our citizens and our friends, none of it would have been possible. It’s all with them in mind.”
For the Workmans, community service has rarely meant standing on the sidelines. It has meant organizing, coaching, cleaning, planning, helping during floods and, sometimes, simply seeing something that needed to be done and doing it.
Ronald has lived in Warfield nearly his entire life, except for five years spent just up the road in Lovely. He served as mayor of Warfield for 32 years and now serves as Martin County District 5 magistrate.
His reason for becoming involved in his hometown was simple.
“I want to see Warfield cleaned up, to see Warfield do better,” Ronald said. “I just wanted more things than what we got done.”
Building up a town
Among the visible reminders of Ronald’s years in city government are the signs welcoming people to Warfield.
“Gary Cox designed these signs,” Ronald said. “We bought the lumber and he did all the work. I’m proud of that and just the way we cleaned the town up. I’m proud of working with the Warfield Liberty Festival for the years that we did.”
His time as mayor also brought challenges.
Warfield dealt with floods, a chemical spill that shut down the city for two days and a clogged drain in the center of town that created what amounted to a lake every time heavy rain fell.
The loss of coal severance revenue created another problem. At one point, the city struggled to pay the electric bill for its streetlights.
“Floods were probably the worst and biggest challenge,” Ronald said.
During floods, Ronald and Lori did what they always did: rolled up their sleeves. They helped organize relief efforts and distribution hubs for people affected by the water.
But some of the Workmans’ favorite memories come from the celebrations they helped create.
For years, Warfield’s Christmas program brought 300 to 400 people into town for the lighting of the Christmas tree, a Visit With Santa, live music and performances.
“We always did it the day after Thanksgiving,” Ronald said. “The out-of-towners talked about how great it was for the small town to have the Christmas programs.”
The community also partnered with the late Father Ralph Beiting for annual Easter egg hunts.
“Father Beiting was great. We got truckloads of toys every year from him,” Ronald recalled. “I remember one day he brought over a truck that had about 10 pallets of toys on it. When we gave toys out, we probably gave too many. Some kids got 15 to 20 different toys because of Father Beiting.”
Lori was there through it all, helping organize events and filling whatever role was needed.
“I would have my 2 cents in there. I would tell him what to do, but then he would do what he wanted,” she joked. “I was there to do whatever was necessary to move things along.”
When thousands came to Warfield
Few events demonstrated Warfield’s community spirit more than the Warfield Liberty Festival.
The festival began in the mid-1980s and continued for about 12 years. At its height, thousands of people descended on Warfield, filling the streets and bringing customers to local businesses.
“They would park from Collins Creek to Morrisey Booth’s,” Ronald said. “And what it did for the community — it brought everyone together.”
The Workmans are often associated with the festival, but Ronald quickly redirects the credit.
“When we first started, we had a lot of help,” he said. “It wasn’t just us. It was all the people here in the community that helped. We had probably 15 people in the community that worked to do this. People outside the community also came in to help with things like electrical wiring. It was a big job to get everything wired up.”
The Liberty Festival became known for its river raft race, a marathon headed each year by Dr. Bonifacio Aranas and a watermelon-eating contest, among other attractions.
“It was big then,” Lori said.
A small group tried to bring the festival back from 2012 to 2014, but the effort proved difficult to sustain.
“We just didn’t have the help or the funding,” Lori said. “There were about five of us trying to do it, and it was just too much.”
‘Kids need things to do’
If community events were one part of Ronald’s service, young people were another.
For decades, he worked with sports leagues at the old Warfield gym and Warfield Park and coached children from the time he was a young man.
“I’m an old Red Devil, and I just wanted to see all the kids have a chance to play sports as I did,” Ronald said. “I grew up playing sports and wanted to see the kids do better. Kids need things to do.”
He also helped coach school teams, assisting Victor Slone and Richard Delong at Warfield Middle School.
“My job was to make sure every kid got in the game,” Ronald said.
The memories children made were not always about the scoreboard.
Ronald recalled Josh Ball telling him years later that he could not play ball very well but always wanted to be there because the team went swimming and stopped for ice cream.
“We always got them ice cream,” Ronald said. “After every practice and every game, we had a swim party for them.”
Those children grew up, but many have not forgotten.
“Kids still come up to me and say, ‘Do you remember me?’” Ronald said.
He also remembers what Warfield was like when he was one of those children.
The late Glenn Copley operated a gas station where a basketball goal stood on the property.
“He would leave the back door open so we could put the ball inside when we were finished,” Ronald said.
Ronald remembers that small gesture because it gave children a place to belong.
Lifetime of service
Ronald joined the Warfield Volunteer Fire Department at age 17 and served for about 34 years before an injury in 1987 ended that portion of his service.
He later served on the department’s board and helped bring a new fire station to the city.
Today, one of his points of pride is Warfield’s fire protection rating of 6, which he said generally helps residents receive fair and reasonable homeowners insurance premiums.
Across the years, the Workmans’ involvement touched nearly every corner of community life: city government, the fire department, youth sports, festivals, holiday celebrations and disaster response.
Their philosophy was uncomplicated.
If something needed to be done, somebody had to do it.
Changing Warfield
The Warfield the Workmans know today is different from the one they remember.
After the city incorporated in 1982, it added streetlights and sidewalks. But over the years, Warfield also lost buildings and institutions the Workmans wish they could have preserved.
Ronald recalled the city bidding $80,000 for the old Warfield gym but losing the bid.
“We wanted to keep it, like a community center,” he said. “And like the old jailhouse, there were things in town that got destroyed.”
More than the buildings, however, he misses the people—particularly the children who once filled the town.
Warfield had a population of 364 in 1990.
“I’d say there are 150 people in Warfield now,” Ronald said.
The changes have strengthened the Workmans’ belief that another generation must step forward.
“A lot of kids don’t have any interest in civic duty,” Ronald said. “We’ve got to teach them.”
That starts, he said, with something as basic as taking care of the place where they live.
“People have got to get out and volunteer,” Ronald said.
Lori offered the same challenge to younger generations.
“Get out and volunteer. Get out and pick up a bottle, plant a flower, beautify it some way, somewhere.”
Ronald has not stopped thinking about what Warfield could become. He has long envisioned restoring the railroad bridge and developing a trailhead at the former coal tipple on Hode Road, complete with amenities that could draw people into the area.
“We’ve all got to work together to get things done,” he said.
‘It’s not just us’
When the Workmans take their place in the Harvest Fest Parade, they will also think of the people who helped build the community they love.
They named Claude Lowe, Herbert Dials, Tom Evans, Carol Stanley, Dolly Adkins, Ruby and Darrell Clark and Kathleen Price among those they remember — along with “so many more.”
Sharing the grand marshal honor with Lori means a great deal to Ronald. Still, he does not want the recognition to obscure the lesson he has learned after a lifetime in Warfield.
“It’s a big honor,” he said. “But as I said, it’s not just us. I don’t want to take all the credit. It was the people around us that helped us and worked with us all these years.”
For Lori, Warfield is more than the place where they live.
“This is the house that built us,” she said.
Ronald put it another way.
“I’m a Red Devil,” he said.
And after 32 years as Warfield’s mayor, Ronald is now serving as Martin County District 5 magistrate.
The boundaries have changed, but he and Lori see the work much the same way they always have.
“Do something to make the community better,” Ronald said.
Now, he said, he is simply looking after a larger community.
“It’s a bigger Warfield.”