Photo Courtesy of the Virginia Mountaineer

by Cathy St. Clair
Reprinted with permission from the Virginia Mountaineer

Snow swirled in the air and a cold wind blew on top of Drill Mountain December 18 as a brief ceremony was held to unveil new road signs designating Rt. 624, Garden Creek as the Angela Dales Memorial Highway. "We are here today to celebrate the life of Angela Dales and to dedicate this highway to her memory," said Virginia Department of Transportation Resident Engineer Conrad Hill in opening last Thursday's ceremonies. "It is a somber occasion, but it also celebrates her life."

Angela Dales was killed in the Appalachian School of Law shootings in January 2002.

The signs, which will be erected this month along Rt. 624, designate the road from the mouth of Garden Creek at its intersection with Rt. 460 to the Buchanan/Russell County line as the "Angela Dales Memorial Highway." Bristol District Administrator Jim Givens noted he was glad to be a part of the ceremony, having just recently moved back into the area.

ASL President Lu Ellsworth spoke briefly, remembering Dales when she came to work at the law school in early 2001.

He noted she possessed a sense of grace, sensitivity, humor, wisdom and a love for people.

Many of the students who will graduate this May, he said, had a special relationship with Dales, who helped initially to recruit them and later became one of their ranks, choosing to attend law school and pursue a law degree of her own.

"Her life was cut short by this tragedy and out of this tragedy, we are here today," Ellsworth said. "Her memory will continue on."

Del. Jack Stump also addressed the small crowd gathered, who included members of Dales' family -- mother and father, Sue and Danny Dales and brother, Joe -- as well as current ASL Dean Jeremy Davis and Professor Paul Lund, who served as interim dean at the law school in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, which also claimed the lives of then Dean Tony Sutin and Professor Tom Blackwell.

"I get emotional when I think about the day this tragedy happened," Stump said. "Angela was here and gave her life trying to help others."

Sen. Phillip Puckett also spoke, noting the tragedy served to remind all of the brevity of life.

"She lived life to the fullest and that is a message for you and I," Puckett said.

He told family members his prayers were still with them and he asked them to focus on the good things and the happy memories they have of Dales.

Dales' brother, Joe, also addressed the gathering, noting that Angela had driven along Rt. 624 many times -- first in a 1980 Camaro, he said she loved to drive and later in a Dodge Neon -- as she traveled the road as either a student headed to Virginia Intermont and later as a recruiter for ASL She told students of the shortcut across the mountain to get to Honaker or toward Bristol and Abingdon and Dales said later Sam Weddington and Britt Jared had written a song about Angela's Way -- the Rt. 624 shortcut.

"We celebrate her life today", Dales said, as he struggled to hold his emotions in check. "We miss her and we love her."

Hill then asked for the Dales family"s assistance in unveiling one of the green road signs to be erected along Rt. 624 which designates the highway in memory of Angela Dales.

Earlier this year, the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors asked the Commonwealth Transportation Board to make the designation. The Commonwealth Transportation Board, at its meeting October 16, 2003, agreed to name the road in Dales' honor, noting she was a Buchanan native, mother, ASL employee, student and community leader.

"Ms. Dales' personal kindness and love for Buchanan County will be greatly missed by all those whose lives she touched," the CTB resolution noted. The ceremony concluded with the presentation of a smaller version of the sign for the Dales family to have as a memento of the designation.