James Bruce Hager, Lieutenant-Colonel, United States Army (Ret.), 78, of Alum Creek passed away Sunday, December 7, 2025, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Bruce was a beloved and dedicated husband, devout and loving father, loyal and caring son, a protective brother and uncle, a dependable friend and mentor, and an all around fantastic guy. A successful businessman with humility and honesty, he always had a shoulder to cry on, a good “dad” joke, money to slip in your pocket or the very shirt off his back. He was a child of God, embodying faith, hope and charity. As a soldier and officer, he was exemplary. His word was as good as gold.

Bruce was born in Bulgar, WV, the first of five children to Mary “Brownie” Egnor Hager and Arlen Hager, but he had the dubious distinction of being born at home, which is now family lore. As an Army brat, he and his siblings traveled and lived France and Germany. These experiences bonded the family as a tribe, and Bruce became the protector of his siblings. It was there, in Hanau, Germany in January 1960, that he met another military kid, someone who would become a lifelong friend and soul brother, Mr. Bill Coiner. Imagine their surprise and delight in meeting each other again in the hollows of Lincoln County as teenagers.

It was also in Lincoln County that Bruce met the love of his life, a Miss Sandra Harless at the time. Bruce and Sandy spent the next 59 years of their lives together. They married on Bruce’s weekend furlough before being deployed to Vietnam. They spent their first year in different countries, and the next 58 years together. She has remained his constant and he has remained her rock.

Bruce was a 1965 graduate of Duval High School, class president, and forged many friendships that still endure. Shortly after graduation he joined the United States Army, serving active duty from January 1967 to January 1968 in the Vietnam War as a Combat Engineer for 1331 Unit Combat Engineering Battalion, also acting as construction engineer. He was also embedded in the 25th Infantry Division during his tour. His bravery and leadership earned him Unit Commander for the 1331. His commendations include the Bronze Star. Bruce was able to get out days before the Tet Offensive began.

Once relieved of active duty, Bruce and Sandy settled in Ohio, where she was a hairstylist and he worked several jobs while going to school. He was a student at Kent State, during the 1970 shooting on campus.

Bruce and Sandy began their family with a daughter in 1969, moving to Alum Creek in 1973 and having a second daughter in 1975.

He re-enlisted in the late eighties as a drill sergeant, mentoring many incoming soldiers and relishing in PT scores of his own that often beat or rivaled newly minted soldiers half his age. Yet he was a humble guy.

Bruce made his living as a surveyor, both residential and commercial, serving in projects all over this great state. He worked for others and owned his own businesses. He served as Lincoln County Surveyor for many years and made award winning topographical maps. He was proud of his country, of his service to his country, and of his home state in particular. Bruce believed in his community and in giving back, especially to our veterans, who so often go without recognition and resources they deserve. He was a charter member of both the Alum Creek VFW #4768 and the Alum Creek Lions Club. Many times you could find him outside, in various projects of those clubs or Adopt-A-Highway, Lock Four Conservancy, or fund raising.

He was preceded in death by his father and mother; his brother, Donald Hager; and sister, Patsy Hager.

Bruce is survived by his wife of 59 years, Sandra Harless Hager; daughters, Tracy Hager McKinney and Stacy Hager Kepple and her husband Billy; grandsons, Connor and Kieran McKinney, Tyler and Max Kepple, sister, Peggy Hager Clymo and her son, Christopher Clay; sister Priscilla R. Hager; and Patsy’s children Rachel Adkins, Eugene “Moose” Van Gundy and Mary Pauley. Along with many more family members, friends and community members.

Service will be 2:00pm, Tuesday, December 16, 2025, at Curry Funeral Home, Alum Creek with Ron Scott officiating. Military rites to follow at conclusion of the service. Friends and family will gather 2 hours prior to the service. A private burial at Donel C. Kinnard Memorial State Veterans Cemetery will occur at a later date.

Jacob Ryan Wagner, 28, of Fraziers Bottom passed away Saturday, December 6, 2025, at Cabell Huntington Hospital.

Jacob was preceded in death by his grandparents and his mother, Zona Marie Wade Wagner.

He is survived by his father, Thomas Wagner; aunts and uncles, Greg & Rita Pauley, Ronnie & Judy Pauley, Pamela Jo Wagner, Barbara Ann Wagner, Gene & Patty Pierson, Kathy Tucker, Billy Wade and extended family.

In accordance with his wishes, he will be cremated, and a memorial service will be held at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the National Down Syndrome Society, www.ndss.org.

Sharon Jane Elkins, 72, of Sod went home to be with the lord on Friday, December 5, 2025, at home.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Edward and Irene Stowers Holley; sister, Sue Holley and half-sister, Patricia Smith.

Sharon was a graduate of Duval High School. She loved her flowers, gardening, and spending time with her family.

She is survived by her Fiancé, Gary Elkins; her two sons, Chris Elkins and Jason (Tonia) Elkins. Four grandchildren, Reece Elkins (Ariel), Keylea Elkins (Gavin Lude) and Zayla Elkins and Kayla Elkins. She is also survived by her brother, Gary Holley (Donna) and a host of friends.

Sharon will be cremated and a celebration of life will be planned at a further date.

Ollie Mae Bostic, 89, of Griffithsville went home to be with the Lord on Thursday, December 4, 2025, at home.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Herbert Bostic; her parents, Woodrow Hershel Sowards and Edith Marie Linville-Sowards; brothers, Robert Sowards, Jr. Sowards, Frankie Sowards, and Herman Montcastle; sisters , Wanda Bostic and Linda Cobb-Smith.

She was a Christian.

She is survived by sons, Herbert Jr. (Kim) Bostic, Terry (Denise) Bostic, Tim Bostic, Frank (Karla) Bostic and Shane Parrish; daughters, Pamela (Michael) Cooper and Lisa Bostic; eleven grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren; sister, Anna Gue; brothers, O’Jay Sowards and Warren Montcastle.

Funeral services will be 1:00pm, Tuesday, December 9, 2025, at Curry Funeral Home, Alum Creek, WV. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service. Burial will follow at Lively Cemetery, Sod, WV.

Ed Rabel, TV Correspondent, Dead at Age 86.

Ed Rabel, a fixture in American living rooms for more than a quarter century as a correspondent on CBS and NBC, died today at the age of 86.

Mr. Rabel died Tuesday, December 2, 2025, in Little Washington, VA.

To generations of television viewers, Mr. Rabel was a sober presence whose reporting for CBS and NBC across four decades ranged from the struggle for civil rights in the American south to the Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf Wars to guerilla wars in Central America.

His most prominent interviews over the years included those with Martin Luther King, Jr., the Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro, U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter and Harry Truman and with the assassin, James Earl Ray.

He won 5 Emmy awards, according to CBS, including one for the iconic, hour-long documentary titled “Guatemala” that recounted the slaughter of hundreds-of­ thousands of Guatemalan citizens by U.S.-sponsored death squads. The documentary also earned him the George Polk Award.

In the 20 years with CBS and 13 years with NBC, Mr. Rabel had more than 1,000 segments broadcast on “The CBS Evening News,” CBS Sunday Morning,” CBS Reports,” and NBC’s “Nightly News” and “Today.” Many of those reports emanated from Israel where he was stationed for almost three years at the CBS bureau in Tel Aviv.

Edward Lawrence Rabel, Jr. was born November 8, 1939, in Charleston. His father, Edward Lawarence Rabel, Sr., was a department store manager and his mother, Gertrude Metz Rabel, a homemaker. He lived with his parents while working, full time, for local radio stations and studying to obtain his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and History at Morris Harvey College.

It was in West Virginia, where he was born and reared, that Mr. Rabel gained his reputation as a campaigner for poor people who could be counted in the thousands in his home state.

In 1963, as a reporter for Channel 8 in Charleston, WV (a CBS Affiliate), he covered President John Kennedy’s visit to the mountain state on its 100th birthday.

Mr. Rabel never forgot the president’s comment on that rainy day in Charleston, when he stirred the crowd of thousands, declaring, “The sun does not always shine in WV, but the people always do.”

Mr. Kennedy’s anti-poverty programs in the state were stressed by Mr. Rabel in his reports on WCHS-TV – reports that attracted the attention of CBS News executives.

Mr. Rabel had become the director of television news and anchorman at Channel 8 (WCHS-TV) in 1960.

At the time, his dream was to become a network foreign correspondent like his hero, Edward R. Murrow. On the strength of his job as a local news reporter, he was hired as a reporter at CBS in New York in 1966.

In 1967, after just 7 months of work at its headquarters in New York, CBS assigned him to its Bureau in Atlanta at the height of the civil rights movement.

In 1968, while covering Martin Luther King’s campaign for sanitation workers in Memphis, Mr. Rabel interviewed the civil rights leader just hours before he was assassinated.

Two years later, Mr. Rabel was reassigned to the network’s Saigon bureau where he spent a year, in-country, covering the so-called Vietnamization of the war -the effort to transfer military responsibilities to the Army of South Vietnam. Mr. Rabel traveled extensively in Southeast Asia to report on America’s fight against communism in Cambodia, Thailand and Laos.

While in Cambodia in 1970 with South Vietnamese troops, his unit barley escaped a North Vietnamese armored assault that killed and wounded hundreds of nearby troopers. In 1973, he volunteered to return to the region to cover the Easter offensive that presaged the fall of Saigon in 1975.

His reporting on the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Guatemalan peasants in the 1980s was broadcast in an hour-long documentary on “CBS Reports” and won for him an Emmy and a George Polk Award.

He covered Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign in 1975-76 and then, returned to his duties as a war correspondent to cover communist insurgencies in Central America. During the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, he and his camera crew were pinned down for hours in a crossfire between the Sandinistas and a National Guard unit in Masaya, Nicaragua.

Mr. Rabel reported “live” from Panama during the U.S. military invasion to capture the dictator, Manuel Noriega.

Soon after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, Mr. Rabel went to Baghdad to cover the Iraqi dictator’s failed effort to oppose coalition forces assembled against him in the first Gulf War. He moved from Baghdad to Iran to Israel and to Jordan where he reported on the advancing forces that finally ousted Saddam from Kuwait.

Some years later, Mr. Rabel returned to Baghdad after Saddam was toppled by the U.S.in the second Gulf War. He helped to set up an independent television network for the Department of Defense in Iraq and trained Iraqis to become reporters and producers.

Mr. Rabel’s life off camera was often as rich and compelling as his life in the studio. Having begun his broadcast career as a disc jockey in St. Albans, West Virginia, Mr. Rabel was a passionate advocate for public service and higher education.

As a disk jockey in WV before he began his network career, he earned one of the many nicknames that followed him throughout his career. He was known as Ed Rabel on The Turntable.

He worked for his Alma Mater, The University of Charleston (formerly Morris Harvey College) and taught journalism at University School in Hunting Valley, Ohio. His most recent university position was as adjunct professor of journalism at The Edward R. Murrow College of Communications in Pullman, Washington.

In 2013, ‘14 and ‘15 he led dozens of students from the college to Cuba for two weeks of study each year. Mr. Rabel was believed to have traveled to Cuba more than any other North American journalist. Starting his sojourns to the island in 1975, he went there on assignment more than 150 times and achieved numerous scoops over the competition.

In 2018, Mr. Rabel realized his life-long desire to become a Peace Corps Volunteer. He was assigned to the Eastern Caribbean island nation of St. Lucia where he taught English literacy to 3rd graders at the Soufriere Primary School.

In 2019, following his successful Peace Corps run, Rabel returned to West Virginia where he taught Spanish at the Riverside High School in Kanawha County. In addition, he was a substitute teacher in West Virginia and Virginia. He was drawn to teach in Virginia for the extraordinary bucolic landscape in Rappahannock County. It was in the county seat of Washington, Virginia that he kept an apartment located in walking distance of America’s most favorite country inn, The Inn at Little Washington. Mr. Rabel was often a guest at the inn where he, a self-acclaimed foodie, indulged himself in the haute cuisine of the restaurant.

Mr. Rabel is the author of two books, a memoir titled Ed Rabel Reports: Lies, Wars and Other Misadventures, and a historical novel about mining and miners in Appalachia that is titled Black Gold Black Death: In Coal Country, America’s President is Marked for Assassination.

Mr. Rabel, who had no children, is survived by his sister, Sharon Rabel Lewis and two nephews. Two marriages, to Mary Lu Stone and Theresa McCormick, ended in divorce.

Memorial Service will be 2:00pm Sunday, December 14, 2025, at Curry Funeral Home, Alum Creek. Friends and family will gather 1 hour prior to the service.

Timothy Alan Linville, 49 of Alum Creek, went home to be with the Lord unexpectedly on November 30, 2025, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Tim was preceded in death by his father Buddy Linville and his brother, Ronnie.

He is survived by his wife, Danette Honaker Linville; his two sons, Timothy Alan Linville, II (Emma), and Noland David Linville. He is also survived by his mother, Barbara Midkiff Linville and his granddaughter, Gracelyn Linville.

Funeral service will be held at 2:00 PM on Sunday December 7, 2025 at Curry Funeral Home, Alum Creek. Burial will be in Orchard Hills Memory Gardens, Yawkey.

Visitation will be held on Saturday December 6, 2025, from 6 to 8 PM at Curry Funeral Home, Alum Creek.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to alz.org in support of The Longest Day.

Linda Lou Cobb Smith, 75, of Tornado passed away Tuesday, December 2, 2025, at Hubbard Hospice House, Charleston.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Edith Linville and Woodrow Jake Sowards; husband, Wilburn “Fats” Cobb; daughter, Monica Gail Spears; brothers, Robert Sowards, Woodrow Sowards, Jr., Frankie Sowards, Herman Montcastle, and Hershel Sowards; sister, Wanda Bostic.

Linda is survived by her husband, Donald Smith of Alum Creek; son, Billie Joe Spears (Cindy) of Tornado; daughter, Sheila Cox of Tornado; grandchildren, James Cox, Robyn Vaughn (Dustin), Hannah Spears, and William Spears; brothers, OJ Sowards (Anita Hively) and Warren Montecastle, both of Yawkey; sisters, Ann Gue of Branchland, Ollie Bostic of Griffithsville and Mena Stanley of VA.

Graveside service will be 1:00pm, Saturday, December 6, 2025, at Cobb Cemetery, Island Creek with Pastor Andy Gillenwater officiating.

Deanna Lynn Stephens, of Foster, WV died peacefully after a short illness at Hubbard Hospice House in Charleston, WV on December 2, 2025.

Deanna was born on June 3, 1959, in Madison, WV. She was a warm and caring person and will be greatly missed by all that knew and loved her.

Those left to cherish her memory are her husband of forty-two years, Ricky Stephens of Foster, WV; her son and daughter-in-law, Justin and Brittany Stephens of Culloden, WV; her sisters, Kay Buckner (Johnny), Donna Gillenwater (Roger), both of Foster, WV and Pamela Eversole (Terry) of Myrtle Beach, SC; her brothers, Ronnie Bradley (Virginia) of Denver, NC, Robert Bradley (Gayle) of Dahlgren, Illinois, and Gary Daniels (Debbie) of Murrells Inlet, SC; her special friend, Deb Page; and a host of extended family members and friends.

Deanna was preceded in death by her parents, Donnie and Mazie (Bradley) Daniels; her beloved daughter, Tricia Stephens; and brother, David Daniels.

As per Deanna’s wishes, her body will be cremated and there will be no funeral service.

The family would like to thank the staff at Hubbard Hospice House for their care of Deanna while she was there. It was a blessing to see our loved one at peace and resting comfortably when she left this world.

Rhonda Sue Pauley, 72, of St. Albans went to be with the Lord on Thursday, November 27, 2025, at home.

Rhonda was a homemaker and a member of Grace Baptist Temple, St. Albans.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Tony “Butch” Pauley; son, Chad Pauley; and parents, Claude and Hazel Jerrell.

Rhonda is survived by her daughter, Jamie Turner (Steve Blake); granddaughters, Michelle Pauley and Alexis Stover (Zac); great granddaughters, Kingsleigh and Amora; many aunts and uncles.

Rhonda will be cremated and there are no services scheduled.

The family would like to extend a special thanks to Hospice for their care and compassion.

Earnest Maxwell McCoy, 93, of Garretts Bend, West Virginia, was called home to be with the Lord on Saturday, November 22, 2025.

Mac was preceded in death by his parents, Earn and Ethel; five siblings; his son, Phillip; his grandson, Craig; and his daughter-in-law, Vickie.

He retired from Union Carbide and was a lifelong farmer; hard work he could hang his hat on. Maxwell was a member of Elizabeth Missionary Baptist Church. He was an avid fan of the St. Louis Cardinals and the West Virginia Mountaineers, and enjoyed watching sports or westerns, taking long trips out West, and collecting antiques. A keeper of local stories, we lost a beloved Garretts Bend historian and a true pillar of the community with his passing.

Above all, Mac’s greatest love was for his devoted wife of 70 years, Mae.

Left to honor his memory and carry on his stories are his loving wife; his son Carl of Garretts Bend; his daughter, Sandi (Wayne) Burkhammer of Middletown, Virginia; his son, Mike (Kim) McCoy of Garretts Bend; and daughter-in-law, Ginger of Garretts Bend. Also blessed to share his memories are his eight grandchildren, seventeen great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild. He is also survived by his sister, Hazel Dent, and a host of loving nieces and nephews. His extended community family and friends will miss him dearly.

Funeral services will be 1:00pm, Wednesday, November 26, 2025, at Curry Funeral Home, Alum Creek, WV with Richard Ruby and Mark Ruby officiating. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service. Burial will follow at Hayzlett Cemetery, Garretts Bend.