Waymond D. Copeland

Waymond Delano (Bo) Copeland was born in Philadelphia on April 17, 1945, one week after the death of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. His affectionate nickname {Bo} came from the fact that he had bow legs as a baby. However, through his grandmother’s home remedies this condition was corrected. Bo’s parents, Oliver Copeland and Mary Holland, were childhood sweethearts and classmates in the Nansemond County Training School graduating class of 1944. Oliver had been drafted into the U. S. Army and Mary had been accepted as a cadet in the Army Nurses Corp. Their two families agreed that it would be in the long term best interests of both Waymond and his young parents that he would be raised in the home of his paternal grandparents, Lee and Erma Copeland where he was always considered, and so considered himself, to be the baby brother of Jack, Big Buddy, Little Buddy, James and Bill. Waymond received his formal education at the Nansemond County Training School, located just across the road from his family farm, from which he graduated in 1963. He was a starting player on the basketball team during his senior year.  Waymond (Bo) was the last survivor of a group of neighborhood childhood buddies known as the Lee Road Boys: Raymond (Baldy) Copeland, Theodore (Gravy) Russell, the Banks brothers Joseph and Benjamin (Hicky) and John (Pap) Boone. These lifelong friendships were a source of great joy for Waymond.  Now they are all together again. After graduating from high school, Waymond joined the Great Migration north to live with his brother Bill in Brooklyn.  Waymond loved New York City and its challenges.  He prospered, developed great relationships, bought a home but always dreamed of returning to his roots in Virginia. Upon the recommendation of Anthony (Tony) Russell, an older brother of one the Lee Road boys, Waymond secured employment at the Kirsch Beverage Company, which was later taken over by Pepsi Cola. Waymond was a good reliable steadfast employee and worked himself up to the position of Head Chemist in the Quality Control Department. After retiring from Pepsi Cola, Waymond sold his co-operative apartment home in Bayside, NY and relocated back to Holland. As a young boy, Waymond attended the Corinth Chapel Congregation Church along with his family. However, after his grandmother passed away when he was nine years old, he was allowed to join the neighborhood Laurel Hill Congregational Church where all of his Lee Road buddies were members. Waymond often looked back with nostalgia and amusement on these years when it was just him and his grandfather roughing it alone. Upon his return to Virginia, he reconnected to the now Laurel Hill United Church of Christ and became a faithful member, once again. He expanded an old clapboard house, which had been given to him by his mother, into a comfortable home in which his daughter and her family now live. In 2007 Waymond met and fell in love with Sharon Murray, a retired school teacher who lives in Hazel Crest, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. This meeting was a life-altering God sent gift for both of them.  Waymond relocated to Illinois and he and Sharon were married on Christmas Eve 2010.  Waymond and Sharon were a near perfect match. Being persons of great faith, they became faithful members of the Woodlands Community Church in Homewood, Illinois.  They supported each other when facing serious health challenges. Waymond and Sharon enjoyed life to the fullest. They dined out frequently in fine restaurants. They traveled together throughout the United States and cruised to Alaska, the Caribbean, and the Mediterranean.  It is only fitting that Waymond passed away while they were on a “bucket list” trip to visit the Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta. Waymond’s only child, his daughter, Drusillia, brought boundless joy to him. She was the apple of his eye.  His pride in her and his love, support, and commitment to her welfare was unwavering. There was nothing she or her children, Brittany, Bethany, Benjamin and his beloved great-granddaughter Destiny needed or reasonably desired that he did not make every effort to provide.  The positive example that Waymond set before them will forever be guideposts for their own lives. Waymond was a good, loyal and supportive friend to many. He loved and was devoted to his “brothers” and was a favored uncle to his many nieces and nephews and their children.  He enjoyed a very special relationship with his brother Bill, to whom he often expressed gratitude for helping him to face up to and defeat many life challenges and personal demons.  They shared confidences and were each other’s sounding board. They especially enjoyed traveling together on visits to Las Vegas and California to visit their oldest brother, Jack. Bill’s visits with him and Sharon in Chicago were cathartic for both of them. Waymond would probably agree that the high point of all his travels was the trip that he, Bill and his great beloved buddy, the late Charlie (Money) Coleman, took to Haiti back in the 1970s. Waymond is predeceased by his idolized grandparents, Lee and Erma Copeland and two brothers Oliver and Ulysses Copeland. He leaves to mourn his devoted wife, Sharon, his daughter, Drusillia Smith, his mother Mary Edmonds, a stepdaughter, Ardis Wilson, one stepson Sheldon Miller, four brothers:  Alfred, James, Lemuel (Hedy), Timothy Edmonds (Karen), his sister Erma Lee Smith, one sister-in-law Edith Copeland, two brothers- in- law John McCullum Jr.  and Frank Anderson III, three grandchildren, one great-grandchild and two step-grandchildren. He is survived by one uncle, three aunts and a host of cousins and friends. Waymond is also deeply mourned by his very special godson, Kenneth (Little Ken) Combo, Jr. A viewing will be held 5:00-8:00 p.m. Friday, May 24, 2019, in the Melvin J. Blowe Chapel of Crocker Funeral Home, Inc. A celebration of life will be held 1:00 p.m. Saturday, May 25, 2019, at Laurel Hill U.C.C. Professional services with dignity have been entrusted to Crocker Funeral Home, Inc. To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Waymond D. Copeland, please visit our flower store.