Father: Willie Lester VIA

Mother: Martha Arah WADE

Husband: Edsell Hamilton HAWKINS
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Sunday, March 19, 1961

Six Victims of Stokes Fire, Mother and Five Children Are to Be Buried Today

Two Men In Family Survive

Sandy Ridge - The charred remains of a mother and her five children - burned to death in their home - will be buried here today in a single coffin. The funeral for Mrs. Pauline Hawkins, 36, and her children, Gailon, 14, Larry, 9, Teresa, 6, Timothy, 4, and Danny, 2, will be at 3 p.m. at Oak Ridge Baptist Church. Under sedation last night were the two men who escaped the 3 a.m. fire - the father, Edsel Hawkins, 35, and the grandfather, Howard H. Hawkins, 73. Tragedy seldom comes to this quiet, mountainous section of Stokes County, and the people took it hard. "This is the worst thing that ever happened in Stokes County," store owner S. R. Ward said.

Neighbors came to the smouldering ruins of the six-room Hawkins home, stood for hours in the rain and talked endlessly of how it happened. They talked about the brown-haired Hawkins children, the way they loved to play basketball at the make-shift goal behind their house, their seemingly boundless energy. "They were just children, ordinary wonderful children," said their uncle, Odell Hawkins of Mayodan. "Their mother was a small woman with a sweet disposition - no mother could have been more devoted." The two-story frame house, built 94 years ago in Reconstruction days, was leveled. Only three chimneys of ancient brown brick remained.

The Hawkins were without help against the fire. Their nearest neighbors are almost a mile away. The house was at the end of a dirt road south of N.C. 770 (the Stoneville-Sandy Ridge Road). Family friends walked about the ruins and pointed to the children's playthings left untouched by the furious blaze. A swing. Two ropes hanging from a tree. The basketball goal. A few pieces of furniture and metal kitchen equipment could be recognized in the ruins. The grandfather's car, a 1952 Pontiac, parked beside the house, was scorched beyond repair. Several out-buildings and a tobacco barn were unharmed. Edsel Hawkins and his elderly father were taken to Odell Hawkins home, about 12 miles away at Mayodan. They were unable to talk to newsmen, but Odell Hawkins pieced together this story from what they told him. The father returned home at 12:45 a.m. Saturday from the late shift at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.'s redrying plant at Brook Cove. He walked quietly through the house, up a narrow stairway to his room, and went to bed. Hawkins, his wife, and all the children slept upstairs. The grandfather's room was downstairs next to the dining room. The elderly Hawkins awoke about 3 a.m. when he heard a crackling sound and smelled smoke. He called Edsel and told him the house was on fire.

Edsel rushed downstairs, opened the door to the dining room, and flames leaped out at him. He saw the blaze was uncontrollable. Dashing up the stairs, he met his wife on the way down. He told her to get the children in the nearest room. He would get the others. Seconds later, Edsel reached the top of the stairs but was forced back by flames and smoke. He saw his wife pause, look down the stairs, and go into the children's room. "That was the last time I saw her," he told his brother. Edsel made his way toward the front door but was overcome by smoke. A few minutes later he regained consciousness in the yard outside, where his father apparently had pulled him.

The older Hawkins, without shoes and clad in nightclothes, climbed to the top of a tobacco barn to rip off shingles which had been ignited by sparks. "Dad wanted to save what he could," his son said later. "I don't know how a 73 year-old man ever managed to run around and do those things in freezing rain." Edsel Hawkins, also wearing only nightclothes, ran more than a mile up a muddy, unpaved road to the house of a neighbor. The nearest fire department - almost 15 miles away at Walnut Cove - sent a truck. But there was nothing to be done when it arrived. It was 9 a.m., about six hours later, when the severely burned bodies were removed. Witnesses at the scene said the old timbers of the house were powder dry and burned rapidly. It had not been determined last night whether the blaze started in defective wiring or in the dining room fireplace. Late Saturday afternoon, in the little service stations and general stores nearby, there was only shocked silence. These usually talkative country people didn't want to discuss it. And after the crowds of curious and helpful people had left the scene of the fire, a small dog - perhaps a forgotten pet - probed about in the ruins.

The old house had been Howard Hawkins' home for most of his 73 years. It was built by his father-in-law, the late Joe Ham Martin, a few years after the Civil War. The funeral today will be conducted by the Rev. D. O. Wright and the Rev. Harry Grogan. Burial will be in the church cemetery. Mrs. Hawkins, a native of Floyd County, Va., was the daughter of Will and Arah Wade Via. She was living in Mayodan when she met and married Hawkins. Surviving , besides the husband and Mrs. Hawkins' parents, are the grandmother, Mrs. Addie Wade of Floyd, Va.; three sisters, Mrs. Walter Brim, and Mrs. William T. Williams, both of Mayodan, and Mrs. Lloyd Tuck of Durham; two brothers, W. J. Via and Lester F. Via of Madison. The bodies will remain at Ray Funeral Home until the funeral.
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North Carolina Death Certificates, 1909-1975

Name: Pauline Via Hawkins
Gender: Female
Race: White
Age: 34
Birth Date: 20 Mar 1926
Birth Place: Floyd Co., Virginia
Death Date: 18 Mar 1961
Death Location: Sandy Ridge, Stokes Co., NC
Spouse's Name: Edsell H. Hawkins
Father's Name: Will Via
Mother's Name: Arah Wade
Residence: Sandy Ridge, Stokes Co., NC
Informant: Mrs. Odell Hawkins - Mayodan, NC
Cause of Death: Suffocation - "Burned to death - Home fire"

Burial: 19 March 1961 - Oak Ridge Baptist Church Cemetery - Sandy Ridge, NC

Funeral Director: Ray Funeral Home - Madison, NC