Nelson County, Virginia & Towson, MD
By Tommy Stafford
All too often I find myself penning a remembrance about someone that passed through my life after moving here to Nelson County. The list is long. Many of them have passed on. Bob Ward comes to mind. So does Ed Dinwiddie, Frank Ott, Brian O’ Rourke, Tom Marker, and Steve Crandall, just to mention a very few.
I can never, ever, walk into Basic Necessities in Nellysford without thinking of Tom Powell. Or his late wife Barbara as well. The last 20+ years of my life has been spent in and out of Basics as we call it locally. Heck, my kids grew up in that place from the days of a car seat in the corner, to the teens they are today.
Just like normal I was in Basics in late December 2023 getting ready for lunch and Mae Collins, who might as well be my sister now, told me. “Tommy, we got a phone call yesterday, Tom Powell is gone.”
Above the crew at Basic Necessities give a big sendoff to Tom Powell just before he moved to Maryland in 2018. (Click on image directly above to see the photos and video)
You see, Tom has been gone from here for several years. Five years to be exact. After his wife Barbara died many years ago, Tom thought it was time to move on and not be wandering around alone in their home back in Stoney Creek. He stuck it out here longer than any of us thought he would. But eventually, he sold the house and moved closer to sister in Maryland.
Tom was so popular at Basics they named a sandwich after him. The Powell! Later he and I laughed because I hacked his sandwich and then named mine the Tommy Panini! I still get that sandwich to this very day. Thank you Mae.
Tom was an interesting man. I loved sitting and talking shop with him. So was his wife Barbara. She was a big time lawyer for Shell, Tom was a photo editor for National Geographic for over two decades. Before that he was a real newsman in the family newspaper business back in Iowa. Both of them spent most of their final years here in Nelson. They were world travelers, great art collectors and more.
Tom got the chance to make one more international trip late last year before he returned back to Maryland and passed away after a brief illness.
Even though Tom hasn’t lived here for years and he physically hasn’t been in Basics during that time, he was always present. He still will be even after his passing …just in a different way.
I’ll break tradition Tom the next time I am there and have a Powell, and raise a glass in your remembrance.
It was a good run my friend. Fly high!
