Thomas L. Yancey

Source: Newspaper Obituary

Thomas Layton Yancey Jr., 88, of Harrisonburg died Jan. 8, 1992, at Sunnyside Presbyterian Retirement Community east of Harrisonburg. Mr. Yancey was a retired insurance man and community leader. He was born Aug. 26, 1903, at Yancey in southern Virginia and was a son of the late Thomas Layton Yancey Sr. and Mary C. Mauzy Yancey.

He graduated from McGaheysville High School and had attended Virginia Tech and National Business College of Virginia at Roanoke.

He represented Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. in Harrisonburg for 60 years.

Mr. Yancey helped organize the Rockingham Life Underwriters and served as its first president in 1954. For 31 of his 60 years with Massachusetts Mutual, he earned the National Quality Award. Mr. Yancey also was involved in many community and civic organizations.

He had been a member of the Harrisonburg Rotary Club since 1930 and served as president in 1937-38. He helped organize the Bridgewater Rotary Club in 1938 and received a Paul Harris Fellow Award from the Harrisonburg club in 1978.

Mr. Yancey had been a member of the Stonewall Jackson Area Council of Boy Scouts since 1937 and was the council's president in 1946-47. He received the Silver Beaver Award, the highest given for service to Scouting, in 1948, and in 1983, he received the Distinguished Citizen Award for outstanding service to the youth of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County.

Mr. Yancey belonged to the Harrisonburg Masonic Lodge and was worshipful master of the lodge in 1941.

He was elder emeritus and former Sunday school superintendent at First Presbyterian Church of Harrisonburg.

Mr. Yancey organized and was co-chairman of the first Harrisonburg United Way fund campaign and served on the organization's advisory board for many years.

On Oct. 27, 1933, he married the former Janet Biedler, who lives at Sunnyside Presbyterian Retirement Community. The Yanceys celebrated their 58th wedding anniversary in the fall.

Also surviving are two daughters, Donna Noll of Salt Lake City and Jane Etherington of Pittsburgh; a son, Robert Yancey of Charlottesville; a sister, Lelia Rolston of Kingsport, Tenn.; seven grandchildren; and three greatgrandchildren.

Dr. John Sloop and the Rev. John Earl will conduct a memorial service at 11 am. Friday at Sunnyside Presbyterian Retirment Community's Bethel Chapel.

The Yancey children will receive friends 7-8 p.m. today at Lindsey Harrisonburg Funeral Home. There will be no viewing.

Memorial contributions can be made to Sunnyside Presbyterian Retirement Community, the First Presbyterian Church of Harrisonburg or United Way.