Dale Merricks Wright

Dale Wright was born January 29, 1942 to Howard and Helen Merricks. She and her siblings, H. A., Tommy, and Nancy grew up on a working tobacco farm. Dale would fondly tell stories of her mother's cooking and fun times when family and friends would come over.  Her faith journey began at Midway Baptist church,  and she graduated from Gretna High School.  After graduation, Dale moved to Lynchburg with a group of girlfriends and worked at GE.  She would marry and have two children, Michelle and Mark, before moving to Buckingham.  Once her children started school Dale began working as a cafeteria manager for Buckingham County Public schools. She would do that job over 30 years with a stint at Southside Community Hospital. Though she never received an advanced degree, Dale took advantage of every opportunity to attend classes, workshops and seminars to add to her food knowledge base. She catered a number of local weddings, worked many summers in the Nazarene camp ground kitchen, and prepared numerous meals for her church,  first Maysville, Baptist and then Antioch Union Baptist. She fed a lot of folks in Buckingham County over the years!

 After her retirement from food services, Dale held two jobs she loved and believed in: election worker and Housewright House and Adam's Museum docent. Dale was very involved in her church, serving on numerous church and association committees and singing in the choir. She had a desire to help others and traveled to Argentina,  Panama, Honduras, and Mexico as part of teams to assist local churches in those countries. She enjoyed filling shoeboxes for Samaritan's Purse but felt a deep commitment to the kindergarten project of Hope for Appalachia; she even coordinated filling 60 bags for those students from her rehab bed this fall!

 In addition to food and church Dale enjoyed family trips to Disney and the Outer Banks. She regularly visited and supported the local public library. She loved attending Youth League baseball games  and other community events. She helped out with BCHS proms for a decade and baccalaureate services for about 20 years.

Dale is survived by her children, Michelle and Mark and wife Susan; her siblings H.A. and wife Mary Lou, Tommy and wife Diane, and Nancy and husband Aaron; her granddaughters Blair and Rachel and husband James; and grand-godson Jose; and numerous nieces and nephews. 

The family would like to thank everyone for their love and support for Dale as she fought cancer, especially family friends Joyce Wiseman, Nancy Eagle, Ann Cyrus, and Karen Farrar for their help and care. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to Hope for Appalachia through the organization's website hfavateam.com or mailed to Hope for Appalachia,  care of Mike Dodson, 7356 Beach Hill Lane, Boston, VA 22713.