Wayne Handy obit

Wayne Handy Obituary

 

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Wayne Jackson Handy, May 14, 1935-April 1, 2025. Wayne was born the youngest of five children in Eden, North Carolina and grew up on a farm helping his parents in the fields. He graduated from Reidsville High School in 1953 and in 1955 married Marjorie Louise Smith, from Casville North Carolina, after falling for her earlier at a local baseball game, a story he liked to tell. He and Marjorie remained married and he was devoted to her until her death in 2018. Wayne loved to sing and make songs. He had a velvet voice and played the ukulele, once appearing on the television show American Bandstand in 1957. In 1958 he enlisted in the US Army, spending two years in Alaska as a field radio operator before studying business at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating in 1962. He had a successful career in mortgage banking that moved him and his family to cities and states across the Southeast as well as Utah, finishing his career with Carolina Bank in Greensboro, and retiring in the mid-2000s. He was humble, gracious, modest, patient, meticulous, and hardworking. He regularly donated his blood and rang the Salvation Army bell at Christmas, among other acts of caring. He had an artistic, creative, sweet, and joyously playful side that delighted children and adults alike, and he enjoyed making up affectionate nicknames for those he knew and being silly. He had an irrepressible sense of humor and a funny sense of the absurd. His favorite pastimes were taking walks, building rock walls, fixing things, working in his yard, and spending time with his grandchildren. He was a naturally elegant man and a dapper dresser whose gentle voice and Southern accent gave him a gentlemanly air. Words used to describe him by those who knew him include sweet, kind, dignified, a genuine gentleman, and quietly charming. He was a unique and gentle person and a pleasure to know. Wayne was predeceased by his wife Marjorie, and is survived by sons Christopher Handy and Jeff Handy, daughter Meredith Brunel (Richard), grandchildren Louise and Henri, Carlene, Charlotte, Erendira and Matthew, and great grandchildren. He will be deeply missed by many. A graveside gathering and inurnment of ashes will take place at Bethesda Presbyterian Church in Ruffin at a date to be determined.

Wayne Jackson Handy was born on May 14, 1935, in what is now Eden, North Carolina. He grew up in neighboring Reidsville, North Carolina, a once thriving tobacco town and home to the American Tobacco Company. Wayne's father was a farmer and letter carrier, and his mother a housewife. The last of five children, Wayne enjoyed singing popular church songs with his sister, Frances. In 1956 he joined a Reidsville swing dance band called The Blue Flames, for which he provided the vocals.