Larry Maddry, popular Pilot columnist for more than 30 years, dies at 90
Robert Lawrence “Larry” Maddry, best remembered for his witty dispatches and thoughtful reflections as a columnist for The Virginian-Pilot for over 30 years, died last Friday, a week before his 91st birthday.
“Larry Maddry was quite likely the most well-known writer in the history of The Virginian-Pilot,” Dave Addis, Maddry’s editor of many years, said in an email. “For decades, he wrote a thoughtful and humorous column that attracted legions of readers, in an era when The Pilot was at its highest circulation.”
Maddry started at The Pilot in 1966, and his columns ran until his retirement in 2000. He touched on national issues, topics in local politics and took readers into nooks and corners of everyday life in Hampton Roads.
“Dad was never afraid to push boundaries a bit,” son Lawrence McNeill Maddry said. “He would write a lot of funny pieces and then throw a curveball and write about more sensitive topics.”
In one column, Maddry weighed the controversy of the Confederate flag’s removal from the South Carolina statehouse, deftly transitioning from a serious contemplation to lighthearted suggestions of other symbols for the South to rally behind: a possum, a biscuit, a kudzu — a vine “so fast-growing it can outrun a Volkswagen Beatle” — or a wreath of all three.
After a champion player lost a chess game to an IBM computer — a landmark moment in machine learning — he mused how artificial intelligence would shape the future. He hoped the computers people would soon interact with on a daily basis, like automated ticket takers on a train, “will — one prays — lighten up a little, sidling up to passengers from time to time and cracking a joke.”
His comments on local topics, such as legal issues plaguing the Virginia Beach School Board, or the name change of area hospitals, had impact in the community. His son credited his writing campaign with the current name of the hospital, Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, retaining its original moniker along with its designation as part of the Sentara system.
In a lighter column, he described reading the paper to his cocker spaniel Mabel, who, he wrote, preferred tabloids over the Pilot and The New York Times.
One of his most memorable series of columns in 1981 focused on another animal: Fred the Cat, a Virginia Beach feline who was entered into a national meow contest in California. Maddry wanted to attend the contest in California, but editors didn’t want to cover the travel expense, his long-time friend and fellow columnist Mary Reid Barrow recollected.
Maddry launched a campaign to convince the editors. He hung a banner from a window at the Brambleton office, inflated a massive cat balloon on the roof, and even dressed as a cat to gather signatures for a petition at a local shopping mall. Children held signs that read, “Send moron to meow-off.”
The cat costume, immortalized in WAVY archive footage, included fur trim and fishnet tights. He topped the look off with a cigar. Editors caved and held a news conference, announcing they would send Maddry to California. Maddry wore a tuxedo with a graphic cat tee to the gathering.
The trip to California on a Greyhound bus led to a series of cross-country dispatches, concluding with coverage of the cat contest.
Barrow said Maddry frequently petitioned George Bryant III, director of news operations at the time, for funding to cover this or that story.
“I know Larry must have driven him crazy. He always came up with schemes that needed to be funded,” Barrow said. “But in the end, they enjoyed playing golf together in retirement.”
Also in retirement, Maddry taught reading with the Tidewater Literacy Council and mentored children at Seatack Elementary School.
Maddry, described as a Southern gentleman by fellow Pilot reporter Fred Kirsch, was born in Lumberton, North Carolina, on April 5, 1933. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and served for three years in the Army. Early newspaper posts included the Coastland Times, Raleigh Times and the Chapel Hill Newspaper.
He is survived by his son Lawrence McNeill Maddry, daughter-in-law Karen, grandson Brett Adams Maddry, brother Norwood Buckner Maddry, sister-in-law Kathy, niece Maria and grandnephew Zane.
A memorial service will be held Monday at Galilee Church, 3928 Pacific Avenue, Virginia Beach.
Cianna Morales, 757-957-1304, cianna.morales@virginiamedia.com
