Richard Robert Hanson, a man who loved life and was known regionally as the “father of the festivals,” died peacefully at his home in Amherst County on the morning of September 26, 2018. It was a rare sunny morning during a long stretch of rainy weeks. His family had gathered in the days before his death, and Richard tried valiantly to give comfort to all of them as they faced the possibility of losing him. Through laughter and tears, the love surrounding Richard was also shining, just like the welcome sun.
Richard was born March 28,1925, in Niagara Falls, New York. His parents were Alma and Cornell Hanson, who had moved to New York from Wisconsin Rapids after the birth of their first three children, a boy and two girls. In Niagara Falls, five more boys came along. Richard was the youngest of eight. His parents and all of his siblings except one preceded him in death. He is survived by his beloved brother Kenneth Hanson, of Providence, R.I.
Richard’s family moved from Niagara Falls to Lynchburg when Richard was in sixth grade. His teacher at Garland-Rodes Elementary School read Richard’s first essay to the class because it was all about how beautiful he thought Lynchburg was! Niagara Falls was an industrial city, and Richard couldn’t get over the lush greenery of Virginia, and going to a school set in a big park. There was even a tunnel underneath the park, and the children could hear the trains rumbling through. Richard’s lifelong love of trains and of nature, especially the wonders of Virginia’s great outdoors, were born right there at Garland-Rodes.
Richard, after a long career as an engineer at General Electric in Lynchburg, retired early, in 1984, and put that love of nature to work by clearing land and planting a vineyard. He named it Rebec, in honor of his youngest daughter Rebecca. The rebec is, coincidentally, an ancient stringed instrument, like a lute, and that became the logo for Rebec Vineyards and Winery. Richard loved wine, both making it and drinking it, especially Cabernet Sauvignon. He and his son-in-law Mark Magruder built the winery together by hand, a pole building re-constructed from an old barn on the family farm. Mark introduced Richard to the joys of garlic, and Richard went on to host the Virginia Wine and Garlic Festival at Rebec Vineyards for 20 years. In 2005, he turned Rebec and the festival over to Svet Kanev, a former Future Farmers of America exchange student from Bulgaria who had worked for many years as Richard’s winemaker, and both winery and festival are still going strong. Svet says that the upcoming festival, in two weeks, will be dedicated to Richard.
Back to Richard’s early life: After E. C. Glass High School and the University of Virginia, Richard was asked by a sister-in-law he idolized, Jean Claiborne Hanson, to caretake her family’s ancestral home, Geddes, in Clifford. It was there, at the home of Jean’s aunts, the amazing and wonderful Claiborne sisters, that he met the first love of his life, Ella McGinnis Caldwell, and her two little daughters, Anne Ligon and Patience Taliaferro, whose nickname was Patsy. Ella and Richard were married in Massies Mill on March 19, 1950. They went on to have two daughters of their own, Ella McGinnis Hanson and Rebecca Hill Hanson. Richard loved being the father of four daughters! It was a great blow to lose two of his beloved daughters, Anne and Patsy, in 2017, just as it had been to lose the wife he adored, his Ella, after 50 years of marriage. His surviving daughters, Ella and Rebecca, their husbands Mark Magruder and Reid LaClair, were the joy and comfort of his life. He thought of his sons-in-law as his sons. They all loved wine, but Richard and Reid, who brews his own beer, also loved sharing a good mug of beer together.
Richard has nine grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, and one great-great grandson, all of whom he loved so much, and all of whom survive him. Anne’s sons are Charles Caldwell Cake, nicknamed Chuck, who lives in Arlington with his wife Maria Ochoa Cake and their children Annemarie and Charlie, and Marion Richard Cake, who lives in Richmond with his fiancée Lisha Reynolds and his children Samantha and Zachary. Chuck and Marion have been instrumental in putting on the Garlic Festival since its inception. Richard could laugh and share stories with those two like he could with none other. Patsy’s son is Tommy Richeson, who lives in Montpelier with his wife Sonya. Patsy’s daughter is Elizabeth Jones, who lives in Glen Allen with her husband Lynn. Tommy has two grown sons, Matt and Dylan, who he shares with his first wife Cheryl. Elizabeth and Lynn Jones have three grown children, daughter Sarabeth and sons Will and Chris. Chris and his wife Amy are the parents of Zachary, Richard’s great-great grandchild. They live in Atlanta and are the only ones of Patsy’s family not living in the Richmond area.
Ella and Mark Magruder live in Amherst, a five-minute walk through the woods from the house where Ella grew up, and where Richard died. Their children, Conan and Mia, were raised there. Conan now teaches government, economics, and psychology at Prince Edward County High School and lives in Farmville. Mia married Chris Dammann, and after living in Charlottesville and working at Monticello during a particularly exciting phase of its restoration, has moved with Chris, a musician and composer, to Chicago, her father’s hometown, where Chris is working on a Master’s in musical composition.
Rebecca Hanson and her husband Reid LaClair live in Baltimore with their son Nathan LaClair, who is a freshman at the Friends School. Nathan, at 15, is Richard’s youngest grandchild and is an accomplished musician in his own right.
In 2001, Richard met the second love of his life, Lynn Andrew Lawrence, of Altavista. They married in August of that year, and had 17 happy and exciting years together, sharing all sorts of adventures, including a train trip and two driving trips cross country so Richard could show Lynn America’s beautiful national parks, which he had loved from his young adulthood on. His appreciation of nature and trains, instilled in elementary school, always held sway.
Richard gained two step-children when he married Lynn, Ruth Andrew Ellenson of New York City and Rabbi Micah Ellenson of Cheshire, Conn. Richard was happy to tell people he met that he had five daughters now! When Micah married Sara Baddin, Richard was thrilled to dance the night away at their wedding. He did love to dance! Micah and Sara’s little daughters, Lily and Rosie, added joy to his life. Lily loved riding on Richard’s “walker with wheels”. Richard became very close to Lynn’s mother, Lil Andrew, of Lynch Station, who survives him. She thought it was funny to have a son-in-law just four years younger than she. Richard took Lynn and Lil on a road trip to Niagara Falls to show them where he grew up, and the three of them had such fun together.
Although Svet Kanev, who now owns Rebec Vineyards, is not technically a relative of Richard’s, Richard could not have loved Svet and his family more. Richard and Lynn helped raise Svet’s son Nick, and think of him as a beloved grandson. And five years ago when Svet married his beautiful wife Shah, they came to love her and her darling daughter Shakhlo as well.
Besides his family, his winery and the Garlic Festival, so many other things in his life made Richard happy. He was proud to be a past president and founding member of the Clifford Ruritan Club, where he was instrumental in founding the club’s annual Sorghum Festival, which will be held next weekend. Proceeds from the festival helped the club buy the old Clifford School, and preserve its rich history. All four of Richard’s daughters attended the school, and he served as president of the PTA. If anyone would like to make a donation in Richard’s memory, one to consider would be The Clifford Ruritan Club Scholarship Fund, PO Box 34, Clifford, VA 24533.
Music and dance have been, and still are, vital to Richard and his family, all the way down to the great-grandchildren. Richard and his siblings grew up singing around the piano while his mother played, and learning to love opera by listening to records at home. His dear friends, Lynn and Ned Kable, helped Richard fulfill a lifelong dream by taking him to three Wagnerian operas at Lincoln Center, and gifting him with the best seats in the house for his 85th birthday.
He also managed an Amherst folk group, the Honnalees, featuring his banjo-playing friend Pete Hatcher. Richard even wrote four original songs for them.
Although Richard was not religious, he continued to love St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Clifford, where he is a member. He admired so many of the people there and the role they, and the church, play in the village of Clifford. Also, he was grateful to Norman and Joanna Harris for the exquisite job they did of restoring Geddes, the historic home that had brought him to Clifford in the first place, back in 1947.
Richard had always loved and enjoyed the nieces and nephews he knew, both on his side of the family and his first wife Ella’s side. In recent years, he had reached out to connect with long-lost nieces, nephews and cousins, and those relatives, from Wisconsin to Connecticut to California to Pennsylvania, have enriched his life immeasurably. One of them, Mike Lynch, took the picture of Richard that accompanies this obituary. Just four months ago Richard’s daughter Ella found his nephew William, who had been lost to him for 81 years, through ancestry.com. Richard and Billy had played together as boys, and they enjoyed a wonderful final reunion here in Virginia before Richard fell ill.
One final word of thanks to all the Centra physical therapists, CNAs, doctors and nurses, especially the hospice and home health teams who helped him live and die at home. Richard was so impressed by their caring and professionalism, especially in the middle of the night.
A memorial celebration, befitting Richard’s personality and beliefs, will be held in the spring, when the flowers in his yard are blooming.
Tharp Funeral Home & Crematory, Lynchburg, is assisting the family. To send condolences, please visit tharpfuneralhome.com.
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