Crossing Road
Auto Kills Assessor
December 4, 19
Paul W. "Pop" Workman, Kanawha County assessor and former member
of the Legislature, was struck by a car and killed today at 8:30 on U.S.
119 a mile south of Elkview.
It was believed by those at the scene that the 73- year old man was on
his way to work when his car ran out of gas.
Larry Runyon, at Runyon's Sunoco Station, was one of the first on the scene.
He said Workman, who lived in the Queen Shoals developement in the Clendenin
area, apparently left his late model white Buick after it ran out of gasoline.
He was seen walking down the berm of the road toward Charleston on the
left side. In front of the Runyon station, he started to cross the highway.
Workman got about half way across and saw a truck coming south. Deciding
he couldn't make it, he started back for the berm. He was struck by a car
coming the opposite direction.
Runyon identified the driver as Elton Wesley King Jr. 23, of Charleston.
"He did did everything he could to stop the car," said Runyon.
He added: " I knew Mr. Workman. We all did. He was my teacher a few
years ago. Around here, I guess he was everybody's teacher."
Workman was dead on arrival at Charleston General Hospital where he was
taken by an ambulance from Albert Myers and Son Funeral Home in Elkview.
Ambulance driver Don Anderson said that whn he arrived, Workman appeared
to be alive, and must have died en route to the hospital.
The Workman family operates a tire business in South Charleston, W.Va.
State Trooper Kenny Hedrick was investigating. He is from the Blue Creek
Detachment.
Workman was one of the most popular candidates even presented by the Republican
party in a county where Democrats usually dominate the balloting.
He ran for the House of Delegates in 1962 and was one of the two Kanawha
Republicans elected to the lower house of the Legislature that year.
In 1964 he took on one of the most powerful political figures of the Democratic
party, the incumbent assessor, Sam MacCorkle. Aided by the indictment of
MacCorkle for failure to file Federal income tax returns, Workman bucked
the strong anti- Goldwater tide running here and was elected.
But political observers were convinced that, without the indictments, Workman
was rated an excellent chance to beat MacCorkle.
In announcing that he would seek the assessor's post, Workman said: "
I can devote my full time to this important office and bring to it the
devotion to duty which the people have a right to expect."
As assessor, Workman had to cope with the property reappraisal program
in the state's largest county, a heavy task involving the new reappraisal
figure on every piece of real property.
But it was as a teacher and a coach that Workman built his reputation and
his popularity.
A native of Lavalette, Wayne County, West Virginia, he was the son of a
Methodist Minister, Jefferson Bowen Workman, and Grace Wellman Workman.
He attended Wheeling High School and West Virginia Weslyean College from
which he was graduated in 1917.
That was just in time to go to the U.S. Army, in which he served 17
months in World War I. During his service he met his wife Violet Snow,
a Red Cross worker from Charlottsville, Va.
Noted Coach
He went to Bluefield in 1921 to enter the insurance business,
but gave that up to take a teaching job at Oak Hill High School. From 1922
to 1929 he taught and coached at Montgomery High School where he produced
outstanding football and basketball teams.
He went to Clendenin in 1929 to teach and coach. He quit coaching in 1954
but continued to teach at the school until his retirement.
He was named by the county court to the Kanawha County Parks and Recreation
Commission in 1960, and served untill his resignation last July 1.
Workman was a Methodist, a member of Clendenin Lodge 126 AF & AM, 32nd
degree and Shrine, the Lion's Club, the West Virginia High School Coaches
Association and the State Education Association.
He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Violet Snow Workman; two sons, Richard
W. Workman of South Charleston, and Paul B. Workman of Elkview, and four
sisters, Mrs. Irma Holderby of Huntington, W.Va., Mrs. Margaret Campbell
of Weirton, W.Va., Mrs. Inez Manser of Wheaton Maryland, and Mrs. Nell
Stemple of Oakland, Maryland.
The Knight and Young Funeral Home in Clendenin will be in charge of burial
services.
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