USA: 82-year-old storyteller had enormous capacity for remembering detail

. RICHMOND, Virginia / Richmond Times-Dispatch / Obituaries/ August 23, 2009 Warsaw resident Charles Willard Hoskins Warner, who loved history, had enormous capacity for remembering detail. By Ellen Robertson "He had the incredible ability to sit down and tell people their genealogical lines from memory, and he was good with dates," said his wife, Anne Dudley George Hagerty Warner, whom he married in 1981. The 82-year-old griot, whose family history research appeared in Virginia newspapers, historical magazines and bulletins -- some of which he edited -- and led to the dedication of historical markers and portraits of historical figures, will be laid to rest today, Sunday. A graveside service will begin at 3 p.m. at St. Paul's Episcopal Church at Miller's Tavern. Mr. Warner, who died of complications of Parkinson's disease last Sunday in a Warsaw nursing home, was best known for spearheading the designation of 14 buildings as the Tappahannock Historic District in Tappahannock. The buildings, which collectively cover more than 300 years of history in interpreting the history of the town, were placed on the Virginia Landmarks Register in 1972 and the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. Born in Richmond, he grew up in Tappahannock, acquiring a fascination with history from his father, a former Tappahannock mayor, and his educator-mother, who compiled a fair amount of her own family history. An extrovert who could talk to almost everybody about everything, "he grew up with history. There are old historic homes -- there is so much history around here. He just lived it, fell into it," his wife said. "It was a kind of calling he wanted to do." He wrote two books: "Road to Revolutions: Virginia's Rebels from Bacon to Jefferson (1676-1776)" and "Hoskins of Virginia and Related Families: Hundley, Ware, Roy, Barnett, Waring, Bird, Buckner, Dunbar, Trible, Booker, Aylett." The Virginia Magazine of History said the former "contains what may be the most balanced view" of the pre-Revolutionary debate. The Genealogical Quarterly of London, England, referred to the Hoskins account as "a major contribution to American genealogy." Mr. Warner, a political-science major who earned a bachelor's degree at the College of William and Mary and a master's degree at George Washington University, started out teaching school at Callao "but didn't like it," his wife said. He later served as an historian with the National Park Service at Jamestown, Yorktown, the Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Sites in New York state and the Sitka National Monument in Alaska before returning to Virginia to care for ailing parents and manage family timber, farming and waterfront businesses. He eventually inherited Accakeek Farm in Richmond County. Mr. Warner, who once turned heads with one of the first motorcycles thought to be owned in Essex County, had served as chairman of the congregation at Rappahannock Christian Church near Dunnsville, where he also worked with youth and served as superintendent of Sunday school. In addition to his wife, survivors include a stepson, Reno Sheffer Harp IV of Columbia, Md.; a stepdaughter, Anne Harcourt Harp Vaeth of Richmond; and two stepgrandchildren. [rc] Richmond Times-Dispatch © 2009