ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 10, 1997 TAG: 9703100059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: NEWS OBIT
SOURCE: EMILY DUNNE
William M. Hutchinson painted Grand's mural in the late 1940s.
The man credited with painting one of Roanoke's downtown landmarks, a mural above the first-floor elevator doors at Grand's Furniture Outlet on Campbell Avenue, has died in Westport, Conn.
William M. Hutchinson was 80.
According to relatives, he painted the mural in the late 1940s before moving to Connecticut to illustrate children's books, trade books and textbooks. He illustrated more than 100 books, relatives say, including an edition of the popular children's book "Black Beauty."
The downtown mural shows two trains. According to a plaque, the train in the foreground is the first passenger train of the City Point Railroad, Norfolk and Western Railway's original line. Alongside the tracks, Petersburg residents watch as the wood-burning train leaves for its first run to City Point, now Hopewell, on Sept. 7, 1838. The train in the background is a Norfolk and Western streamliner.
A memorial service will be Saturday at 11 a.m. in the Lapsley Chapel of the First Presbyterian Church of Roanoke. Interment will follow in East Hill Cemetery, Salem.
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