Farmers Day June 2011

      Joe B. Roles named Parade Grand Marshall

                                                                                                        Joe B. Roles

Farmer’s Day is a wonderful celebration of life in Monroe County.  Every person who has lived there could tell a grand story about the serene and pleasant life there.  The Farmer’s Day selection for the Grand Marshall of the Farmer’s Day Parade for this year 2011, is Joe B. Roles.  Joe  was born in Union, West Virginia in the boyhood home of  Lt. Col. Andrew S. Rowan, a Monroe County hero of the Spanish American War.  The historic home is located on main street in Union.  Joe is a descendant of two established Monroe County families…the Roles and the Talbotts.  He is the son of  Brown Sequard “Doc” Roles and Myrtle Talbott.  Unfortunately, his mother died when he was only nine days old.  When he was three years old his father moved the family to Salt Sulphur Springs where he was raised.

Joe is a graduate of  Union High School in the class of 1951…and also a graduate of Concord College.  Joe went from hoeing corn at  “the Salt” to calling on The White House physicians as a pharmaceutical representative in Washington, DC.

                               Sue Caldwell Roles (now deceased)

The United Methodist Church in Union is where Joe married Sue Caldwell in May 1956, daughter of  Dr. B.B. and Nora Caldwell of  Union. Sue was a graduate of Union High School in the class of 1950, and a graduate of  Marshall College in 1954.  She returned to Union High School in 1954 where she taught English and History until the summer of  1957. Together they have two daughters, Cary Roles of Boston and Samantha Wood of  Wilmington, NC.

Born with a restless nature, Joe dramatically changed careers and became a ”Class A” building contractor and did commercial remodeling and government work as he was on the approval list to work for the CIA and FBI.  He worked until the age of seventy and inspected the home of the Director of the CIA.

As a member of the West Virginia Society of  Washington, DC, and “The Alumnus of the Year in 1989” at Concord College and a resident of  Annandale, Virginia…Joe’s heart has always been at home in West Virginia.   One day Joe’s bones will lay on Green Hill over looking the serene and beautiful Monroe County.

Joe B. Roles – Class of 1951

Some text was taken from the Monroe Watchman