The war overseas was devastating to a number of local families in a personal way. There were at least three service-related deaths in the military.

Cpl. Joseph Herman Cantrell IV, 23, of Westwood, Ky., son of Sondra Mullins Adkins of Ashland and Joseph Herman Cantrell III of Flatwoods, Ky., died April 4 in Iraq.

He and another soldier, Staff Sgt. Jerry C. Burge, 39, of Carriere, Miss., died from wounds suffered April. 4 in Taji, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle. Cantrell was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

Chief Warrant Officer Theodore U. Church, 32, of South Point, Ohio, died May 28 in Muqdadiyah, Iraq, when his OH-58D Kiowa helicopter crashed after receiving enemy fire during combat operations.

Also killed was 1st Lt. Keith N. Heidtman, 24, of Norwich, Conn.

They were assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment, 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

Pvt. Michael J. Slater, 19, of Scott Depot, W.Va., died April 21 in Taji, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his vehicle rolled over during combat operations. Slater was assigned to the 407th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.

Slater graduated from Winfield High School in 2005. Principal William Hughes remembered Slater as a student with a dream of being in the Army.

"From the ninth grade, his goal was to be in the Army," he said. "Reaching his goal cost him his life. It's kind of a sad irony I guess, but you know Michael was one of these kids that was little in stature, but big in heart."

The area lost leaders of emergency services and active law enforcement officers during the year, two in the line of duty.

James Arthur Ferguson, 68, of Wayne died May 16 at home. He was owner of Ferguson Monument Co. in Wayne, had served as a member of the Wayne Town Council, was a member of the Wayne Volunteer Fire Department for 30 years, its chief for 10 years, and also had served as Wayne County disaster coordinator. Ferguson was the first member of the Wayne VFD to become a paramedic.

Christopher Michael Jaros, 24, of Huntington died April 7 as the result of a car wreck responding to a call at the Ceredo Volunteer Fire Department. He was the first death in the line of duty for the department. He was employed as an oven operator at AK Steel.

David A. Poling, 32, of Crown City, Ohio, died in the line of duty, drowning in the Ohio River chasing a suspect on May 22. He was a probation officer for Gallipolis Municipal Court, a Gallia County sheriff's deputy, and the town marshal for Crown City.

Ronald Joseph Dickerson, 68, of Prichard, formerly of Kenova, died May 24 at home. He served as a police officer for the City of Kenova for 30 years, including 15 years as chief.

A number of regional and community leaders died in 2007. They made an impact both locally and nationally during their lives.

Bob Evans, 89, of Gallipolis, Ohio, died June 21, at the Cleveland Clinic. He was the founder of Bob Evans Restaurants in 1945.

Known not only for the restaurants and sausage products which bear his name and signature, Evans was a conservationist.

Evans championed year-round grazing and innovative pasturing techniques to help the small farmers keep their family farms.

He established the Ohio Appalachian Center for Higher Education, OACHE, centered at Shawnee State University, Portsmouth, Ohio. It helps students access opportunity to education in 29 Ohio and West Virginia counties.

Herbert H. Henderson, 78, of Huntington died Oct. 16. He was senior partner in the law firm of Henderson, Henderson and Staples. From 1966 to 1986 he was state president of the NAACP. He served as general counsel for the NAACP in 1984 and again in 1989-1990.

Henderson was the first black student to graduate from the George Washington University Law School (1958).

A 1997 editorial in The Herald-Dispatch opened this way:

"When the full history of race relations in West Virginia is compiled, few, if any, names will be written larger than that of Huntington attorney Herbert H. Henderson."

He was president of the West Virginia NAACP for 20 years, and was an adviser and counsel to the organization at the national level. He was lead attorney in the 1961-1965 Marshall University students' desegregation case, John Hereford vs. White Pantry Restaurant. That resulted in the White Pantry and Bailey's Cafeteria being opened to all races.

Margarette Riggins Leach, 81, a retired nurse and former member of the West Virginia Legislature representing Huntington and Cabell County, died Dec. 23. She sponsored, supported and helped create programs which provided health care assistance to those without access, including the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

She was a member of the House Finance Committee and a Budget Conferee, where the Senate and House versions of the state budget is discussed, blended and finalized.

"Margarette was good at balancing dollars to programs and agencies as they deserved and held them accountable," said U.S. District Judge Chuck Chambers, a former Speaker of the House.

She pushed for the Merritt Creek connector from Interstate 64 to W.Va. 2. The Prestera Center named a center for youth and families in her honor in June.

Named a West Virginia History Hero in 2004, Leach helped fund Guyandotte Civil War Days and was instrumental in the opening of the Jenkins Plantation Museum, the Madie Carroll House, and in bringing the bronze statue of Carter G. Woodson to its location in Huntington.

"Her commitment, her dedication and her knowledge were tremendous, and the entire state has prospered as a result of her advocacy," said Gov. Joe Manchin.

Jack Moses, 60, of Huntington died Nov. 11 at his home of cancer. In 1972, he began working in the family automobile business, Moses Automotive Network. He was past board member and director of the West Virginia Automobile and Truck Dealers Association.

Deryl Leaming, 75, of Charlotte, N.C., formerly of Huntington, died Nov. 16. He was director of the Journalism Department and founding director of the W. Page Pitt School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Marshall University.

William G. Kearns, 81, retired Marshall University professor of speech and drama, died Nov. 26 at home in Huntington. He joined the Speech and Drama Department as a professor in 1956, where he remained until his retirement. He was a member of the Emeritus Club, a society for retired MU professors; the Huntington Rose Society and was a patron of both the Paramount Arts Center, Ashland, and the Marshall Artist Series.

Edward J. Prelaz, 81, of Huntington died June 21 in Huntington. He was a professor at Marshall University for 47 years. He was a member of the MU Hall of Fame, MU Sports Medicine Hall of Fame and the M Club award. He played football for The Thundering Herd and was the athletic program's first trainer.

George Patterson, a man who was elected more times as Lawrence County (Ohio) Commissioner than any other, died July 30 at his home. He was 67.

"George was interested in helping people, no matter what their standing in life or their political party," said Lawrence County Auditor Stephen Burcham. "He was loved by many. He'll be missed by many."

Patterson, a former Coal Grove High School football star and U.S. Marine, was elected six times as Lawrence County Commissioner. That's more in that office than anyone else, said County Commissioner Doug Malone.

"It's a great loss for our county," Malone said. "He was always thinking about the people in the county. To be elected six times as commissioner shows the people trusted his leadership."

One of his earlier accomplishments was helping secure funds to deal with a drainage problem in the Burlington area that led to the development of Sam's, Wal-Mart and the Tri-State Crossings Shopping Center, pushing for a 911 system for the county and working for development of The Point, a 500-acre industrial park in South Point.

Gray Watson Hampton Jr., of Huntington died Sept. 10. He was associate pastor at First Presbyterian Church and an interim pastor for several other local churches, while also selling commercial and residential real estate.

In 1981, Hampton joined the Foster Foundation Board of Directors and in 1988 he became administrator of Foster Memorial Home.

He proposed the Woodlands Retirement Community to the Foster Foundation in 1988, and it opened in 1996.

Mel Efaw, 93, pastor emeritus of Grace Gospel Church, died Nov. 12. After attending Moody Bible Institute, he led singing for evangelists Billy Sunday and Gypsy Smith.

He become pastor the Fourteenth Street Mission in February 1939, later renamed Grace Gospel Church.

Alfred Knobler was not a native of the Tri-State region, but was committed to the Huntington community and left an imprint here through Pilgrim Glass Co., which he owned from 1949 until it closed in 2001, and through his philanthropic contributions.

Knobler died Nov. 21, at age 92.

He also had a lifelong interest in issues of social and racial justice, his New York Times obituary said. He endowed scholarships for minority students at Virginia Tech and the Alfred Knobler Journalism Fellowship at The Nation magazine. In New York, he was a benefactor and volunteer at the school where he grew up in the Bronx.

Here in the Huntington area, Knobler's contributions revolve first around Pilgrim Glass, which specialized in cameo glass and became the first known glass company in the world to carve six layers of glass.

Knobler also was a permanent sponsor of an after-school art program at Children's Place child-care center in Guyandotte.

Winslow Anderson, one of the first in-house designers at an American glass company when he was hired at Blenko Glass in 1946, died Dec. 10 at home in Milton. He was 90.

He stayed at Blenko until 1953, when he left to become design director at Lenox China and Crystal in Trenton, N.J., where he worked for 27 years with glass and china.

Anderson's work won many Good Design awards from the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

One of his most famous designs is the bent-neck decanter.

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Deb Novak, who interviewed Anderson for two Blenko documentary films, "Hearts of Glass," and "Blenko Retro," said it is her favorite piece made by the family-owned glass company that has been in Milton since 1921.

In the book, "Blenko Cool '50s and '60s Glass," by Leslie Pina, Anderson said he just about got back on the bus when he laid eyes on Blenko.

"Milton looked like a frontier movie town," Anderson recalled. "And the Blenko factory looked like a dump with corrugated metal sheets held together by two by fours. I almost turned around to head back to the bus. Luckily I didn't."

After hiring Anderson, who had never worked in glass, Bill Blenko left for Europe and asked Anderson to start a new line while he was gone.

"There I was, a potter, in charge with an entire line of blown glass, while my boss was in Europe. But that was one of Blenko's unique strengths -- its faith in its designers," Anderson wrote.

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