The Shadow
Powell Murray (Pookie) Leitch, Jr was named the recipient of The Alleghany Highlands Arts Council 2023 Arts Legacy Award. The presentation of the posthumous honor recognizing lifetime achievement in perpetuating the performing arts was made Friday evening at the Arts Council’s Annual Madrigal Dinner.
Leitch was a Covington native who spent his life making music and bolstering the performing arts in the Alleghany Highlands. After graduation from Covington High School, he prepared himself to join the family business at Loving Funeral Home by attaining licensure from Gupton Jones School of Mortuary Science. He married his high school sweetheart, the late Virginia (Ginger) Ballengee and built a happy home, raising two children, Powell M Leitch, III (Nick) and Elizabeth Marshall Leitch Dreszer (Beth).
“Pookie”, as he was known throughout the area, later worked as a production scheduler for the West Virginia Pulp & Paper Company until his untimely death in May 1987 at the age of 51 years old. However, Mr. Leitch filled those years with music and community service.
He served his country as a Master Sergeant in the U. S. Army Reserves. He served his family as a loving father who led by example, exposing his children to many cultures and art forms. He served his church as a member and elder of McAllister Memorial Presbyterian Church, where he was a steady, reliable, and inspiring leader in its Senior Choir. From his position as Elder, Mr. Leitch was a catalyst and driving force behind the church’s purchase and installation of the Holtkamp Pipe Organ that his daughter Beth now plays each Sunday as McAllister’s music director and organist.
Possessing an extraordinary tenor voice, Pookie was very active as a soloist, having sung publicly at countless weddings, funerals, and civic events over his lifetime. His son Nick carries that heritage forward as a guest soloist and organist across the Roanoke Valley.
He is lovingly remembered as the jolly endman with the golden voice in the Covington Woman’s Club New Minstrel Show and for his never-ending contributions to the Covington High School Band Boosters. Deeply committed to young people through education, he was serving as chairman of the Covington City School Board at the time of his death. Other organizations include Jackson River Vocational School board, Jeter-Watson PTA, Covington Recreation Board, and our local chapter of the American Heart Association.
His devotion to the Alleghany Highlands Arts Council helped mold that organization into what it is today. He and his wife Ginger (also an Arts Legacy Award recipient in 2010) played integral roles within its board of directors for five decades.
Pookie always took time to mentor others. His words of encouragement are still written on the hearts of individuals who, through his guidance, developed into many of the community leaders we know today.
To quote the late Horton Beirne from an editorial published in the COVINGTON VIRGINIAN shortly after Mr. Leitch’s death, “Pookie Leitch was a unique individual… for whom no one had an unkind word … He was a giver. He gave to his church, he gave to his family, and he gave to his community. What he gave was not so much political or civic as other community leaders give, but what he gave was love. He loved and appreciated music and his fellow man, and he gave back this love to the community through countless performances…”
His children, Nick and Beth, were on hand to accept the award on their father’s behalf. Nick spoke for both himself and his sister, saying, “I think that what Dad really stood for was doing the hard WORK that was arts-related – whether it was making the music, hauling the musicians, setting up the scenery, taking down the scenery, selling the band fruit, or picking up newsprint for the band paper drives. Whatever the work was that needed to be done, Dad was there to do it. So, I believe very firmly that the legacy our father has left is …. the community’s sense of duty and responsibility, as exemplified by the Alleghany Highlands Arts Council to go out and do the work that needs to be done, so thank you very much and may our father’s legacy continue in the work that you do”.
Past recipients of this award include Sara Lu P. Snyder, Frances Parker Rupert, Ginger Leitch, Horton Beirne & The Covington Virginian, R. Dean Andrews, The Alleghany Foundation, Sandra Dodd Minter, Nell K. Fleshman, Susan Parker Potter, Westvaco Corporation (WestRock), Allan Tucker, Jean M. Shepard, Dr. Calvin McClinton, Jeffery Stern, Luca & Arlene DiCecco and Arts Council founding members, Lily Albert, Mr. & Mrs. Harold Bell, Mr & Mrs. Hubert E. Cox, Mr. & Mrs. Nelson Coxe, Mary Frances Mays-Davis, Robert McCaleb, Mr. & Mrs. Harold Miller, Mr. & Mrs. R.L. Persinger, and Mr. & Mrs. Charles Stumpp.
Nominations are accepted year-round by contacting the Arts Council office.
