Announcement of the death of Leake Carraway of Norfolk comes with such a suddenness that it gives an added poignancy of grief. Charlotte friends of Mr. Carraway had not been apprised of the condition of his health and the fact that he had been planted in the direction of the end by reason of an attack of influenza two months ago. The unexpectedness of such tidings, therefore, amounts to a shock to his host of acquaintances and intimate friends here and elsewhere throughout the State. Mr. Carraway was outstanding for two things. One was his energy. The other was his affability.
His energy kept him constantly at something. It was difficult for him to find sufficient channels through which he might release himself. He wanted to have multiplied duties piled upon him to keep him busy. Idleness, either of body or mind, was thoroughly distasteful to him. He had a wonderful capacity for work and a wonderful joy in working. It was for this reason that he could always be commandeered for any public undertaking that came along, that he was always ready to carry his load in any movement and help others carry theirs also and that he was found here and there, always busily and happily engaged. He could come about as near fulfilling the ideal of finding his supreme happiness and contentment in pure, out-and-out labor as any man we ever knew. The other characteristic was equally noticeable, his affability. It was by reason of this pre-eminent trait that he gained the distinction of knowing more men in the Carolinas and Virginia by their first names than any other citizen. Mr. Carraway belonged to several organizations that gave him such an opportunity, but his amiableness and sympathetic inclinations opened for him an avenue into the acquaintance of any man he might meet, and such an acquaintance as was endurable.
The passing of this man will bring a sense of personal loss to a multitude of friends here and in Gastonia where he was also well and favorably known. He made his career court for the maximum, and his friendships permanent. Measured by the standard of years, his life was short, but measured by breadth and achievement, a very different computation of it may be made.
Lead editorial from The Charlotte News, Saturday evening, February 11, 1922
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