“Perpetually kind and gracious” is how Wiley Hardy Wheat’s son describes her. “She would show up when anybody died. Like clockwork, almost. She’d just be there” and would often bring food, James C. Wheat III said of his mother. “Her kindness had a major impact on my children as well as me.“ Mrs. Wheat, 86, died Sunday after a brief hospitalization. Her funeral will be held Wednesday at noon at St. James’s Episcopal Church, 1205 W. Franklin St. Burial will be at 3 p.m. in Hollywood Cemetery.

Wiley Hardy Wheat, a Richmond philanthropist, died Sunday after a brief illness. She was 86. Mrs. Wheat was the widow of James C. Wheat Jr., chairman of the board of Wheat, First Securities Inc. Her husband died in 1992. A native of Farmville, Mrs. Wheat had served on the board of the Longwood College Foundation and on the board of trustees of Hampden-Sydney College. She also was past president of the Virginia branch of the National Society of Colonial Dames of America and was appointed by two Virginia governors to the Citizens’ Advisory Council in Furnishing and Interpreting the Executive Mansion.

Carroll E. “Mike” Harris had been on active duty in Europe in World War II for nearly three years. He survived the D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. But a little more than a month later, a wound from an artillery shell put him in hospitals for almost three years. Nineteen surgeries could not save his right arm. On his release from the hospital, Mr. Harris was honorably discharged as a staff sergeant who had earned the Silver Star, the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, the Distinguished Unit Badge and several other decorations.

“We are not rubber stamps,“ Louise Christian Toney said as chairwoman of the board of commissioners of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority. She was referring to the authority’s relationship with the City Council. In 1989, disagreements on downtown project planning, funding and oversight led to the firing of one authority official and resignation of another, as well as public demonstrations.

The day L. Stanley Hardaway was sworn in as secretary of the State Board of Elections, he had to put his tractor away early from harvesting peanuts on his Sussex County farm. He had already asked for a few days’ delay before starting the state board job so he could get the crop in and finish his responsibilities as Sussex County general registrar.

During more than 30 years of teaching elementary school, Claudelle Cooke “Cookie” Cameron, who taught second and third grades, noted that “Sharing Time” just kept getting more interesting. While she was at Blackwell Elementary School in Richmond from 1971 to 1990, “one student brought in a diamond-encrusted watch he found lying around the house,“ said her daughter, Karen Milon of Highland Springs. Mrs. Cameron took that home for safekeeping until she could return it to the parent.

Max Reese was a member of the American Society of Appraisers. Max Reese first came to Richmond from Philadelphia when he was 19 to try to sell merchandise from his family’s furniture business. It was the early 1930s, and the Great Depression would continue for years. College would remain out of reach. With a little help from his father—including $50 in a bank account—Mr. Reese soon returned from Philadelphia with a truckload of antiques and began building a business.

Christopher Neil “Bud” Wamsley Sr. took a wrecked car and with the help of his father and brother built himself a hot rod shortly after graduating from Petersburg High School. He started racing cars in 1949, driving some of the Richmond area’s first roadsters. But roadsters didn’t catch on locally, and he jumped on the stock-car bandwagon.

Lewis Everette Wright was a young Army first lieutenant in World War II when German tank fire ripped the tank he commanded in a snow-blanketed Ardennes mountain forest in Belgium on Dec. 29, 1944, and the tank began to burn. During what came to be known as the Battle of the Bulge, shrapnel already had torn into his shoulder and fractured his right leg.

NEW YORK—Joe Hirsch, the longtime columnist for the Daily Racing Form known as the dean of American turf writers, died today. He was 80. Mr. Hirsch had Parkinson’s disease and was recovering from a broken hip suffered in a fall last spring. He died at St. Luke’s Hospital, said Steven Crist, chairman and publisher of the Daily Racing Form.

This week we lost a colleague and a counselor. The citizenry lost a champion, too. Alexander “Sandy” Wellford represented The Times-Dispatch in legal issues. He advised us on libel law, and supported our campaigns to open governmental meetings and files.

William F. Buckley created the modern conservative intellectual movement. His efforts inspired the political crusade that resulted in the 1964 nomination of Barry Goldwater and the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan. Conservatism dominated the national agenda for several decades. Paul Weyrich fought in the trenches. He was one of the strategists of conservatism’s escape from the electoral wilderness.

For generations the Dulles family epitomized the Protestant establishment. The line reached its apogee with John Foster Dulles—Wall Street lawyer, secretary of state, devout Presbyterian.

The Rev. Dr. Will Rogers Wallace served 47 years as a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) minister. His mother wasn’t expecting to have two babies. She had decided that if her 12th child was a boy, she’d name him Will Rogers Wallace after American humorist Will Rogers.

ROTAN, Texas—Sammy Baugh, who set numerous passing records with the Washington Redskins in an era when NFL teams were running most every down, died tonight, his son said. Mr. Baugh, who was 94 and had numerous health issues, died at Fisher County Hospital, David Baugh said. He was the last surviving member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s inaugural class.