VCC Magazine Fall 2018

V irginia C apitol C onnections , F all 2018 12 90Years of Living, 66Years of Marriage, 52 Years of Fire Service, and 36 Years in Lobbying. So far. Charlie Singleton is still a gentle force to be reckoned with. He’s a big, friendly man, brimming with justifiable pride when you get him on the subject of his devotion to fire service in Virginia. Singleton was born in Wake County, North Carolina, but spent most of his life in Virginia. At first it looked like his calling was farming. “I loved to farm,” he said. Through high school, he spent every summer on a tobacco farm, toiling to his heart’s content. ThenWorldWar II happened. He was called to military service in 1946. The war was won, but technically his country still needed men to finish the job. Singleton was no longer “behind the plow.” He was off to Fort Knox, Kentucky, Germany, and Vienna, Austria. Once there, he was assigned to the motor pool—soldiers who drove the higher ups around. He drove congressmen and senators, some generals, most often by jeep. There was one unforgettable day when he was told to drive the black Mercedes Benz of one Adolf Hitler. Singleton was discharged from the Army and joined the Army Reserve. At that point—it was 1948—he went on board with what was then called C & P Telephone Company in Lynchburg, Virginia. He worked hard as a lineman, and lived in beautiful Madison Heights, Virginia. In just two and a half years—1950—he was called back to military duty. This stint in the military took him to Kentucky, California, Japan, and Korea. He was severely hurt in Korea, though not through combat. He fell 45 feet and broke an arm and bruised a kidney. He was headed toWalter Reed Hospital, but his bed kept being taken by soldiers with worse wounds than his. Singleton was discharged in 1951 and went back to the phone company in Lynchburg. He was good at his job, and was promoted to installer/repairman in Fairfax County, Virginia. (Here’s where the story gets personal for this reporter. He spent a lot of time on the friendly street where I grew up. We were in the same time and place. We probably met, without knowing.) Life got better when he went to a dance and met the charming Vi. She was in charge of setting it up for the dental society. Singleton somehow got an invitation and “we danced several times.” The dance was followed by phone calls, romance, and marriage. Singleton visited a fire station in the course of his rounds as a telephone installer. The routine visit was abruptly cut short by an emergency call from Fairfax Circle. A Trailways Bus had overturned. Every available person was needed to respond, and Singleton, our phone man, was “ordered” to rise to the occasion. They knew that Singleton knew first aid, and that’s what was needed most. That incident in 1952 resulted in Singleton being asked to sign up as a volunteer firefighter, a job that suited him well. That was a different time. Most firefighters were volunteers. Singleton was assigned to the station in Vienna, Virginia. Thirty years later, he moved from “boots on the ground” to lobbying lawmakers, working on legislation that would be helpful for volunteer firefighters.When asked to take on this new, arguably almost as daunting, role, he claimed he knew “nothing” about lobbying. But his colleagues knew he would be good at it, and he accepted the challenge. He even describes standing beside a flickering fireplace when the decision was made. Singleton kept working as a volunteer firefighter and was even given the honor of serving as a volunteer battalion chief, supervising both paid and volunteer firefighters. Singleton later retired from active fire duty and moved to Ebony, Virginia, and eventually back to Madison Heights. He has made close friends along the way, like Jack Finley and Dickie Atkins and many others. He said his last good-bye to Finley a fewmonths ago in a funeral fit for a man who served well. Finley was carried to the cemetery in an antique fire truck with a full fire service escort, beneath banners of American flags. Singleton still works on the legislative committee of the Virginia State Firefighters Association (VSFA). (For that matter, he still lives with Vi, takes care of a beautiful home, and even cuts his own acre or so of grass). He expressed a moment of pride when telling the story of his grandson, Mark Escherich, stationed at Fort Belvoir. Escherich was instrumental in getting the use of idle helicopters for fire and emergency services in the surrounding community. Singleton has served with a kind heart and a strong hand. The best news is, he’s still going. Bonnie Atwood, J.D., is editor in chief of Virginia Capitol Connections Quarterly Magazine. The Singular Charlie Singleton By Bonnie Atwood Editor’s note: As we go to press, Charlie Singleton is recovering from a serious accident. All of us at Virginia Capitol Connections wish him a speedy and full recovery. V