HILTONS, Va. – Rita Forrester woke up in the middle of the night and found her living room engulfed in flames.
She did not know what time it was nor did she know what caused the fire, only that she and her husband, Bob, had had some problems with the gas logs in their fireplace.
Forrester, the director of the Carter Family Fold, lost nearly everything: clothes, furniture, her cat … and her husband.
Bob Forrester, 61, did not make it out alive, and Forrester did not have the strength, she said, to watch his body carried out by rescue officials.
Three volunteer fire departments stationed in and around Scott County, Va., responded to the fatal house fire early Sunday at the Forrester home, just off A.P.
Carter Highway, said Dale Saunders, of the Hiltons, Va., Volunteer Fire Department.
The body was sent to Roanoke for an autopsy, Saunders said. “No foul play is suspected at this time. But the home was a total loss.”
Now, Forrester said, “There’s one brick wall left standing.”
Built in 1997, the Forresters’ home stood next door to the home of the late Janette Carter, Rita Forrester’s mother and the founder of the Carter Fold. Both houses are within sight of the Carter Fold, a music venue where Saturday night shows have been staged since 1976.
Still, no show had been held at the Carter Fold on Saturday night, due to a call for wintry weather.
The Forresters had met while Rita was a college student in the 1970s at East Tennessee State University. The pair married on June 4, 1978, and had their first baby, Justin, in 1981, and second son, Tyler, a few years later.
Rita Forrester, for years, has overseen daily operations at the Carter Fold, especially since the Carter Fold was named in 2004 an integral part of The Crooked Road: Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail. Shows at the venue honor The Carter Family, a pioneering musical act known for songs like “Wildwood Flower” and “Keep On the Sunny Side.”
The Carter Family was discovered at Bristol, Tenn., in 1927.
Often, Rita stood on stage to introduce Saturday night guests at “The Fold.”
But husband Bob stayed in the background.
“Bob, he was a great fellow. Bob was so good to Janette,” said longtime Carter Fold volunteer Faye Collins of Kingsport, Tenn. “He wasn’t as talkative a person as some people. He helped. He volunteered. He’d come down and fix the heaters on Saturday.”
A retired millwright and turbine technician, Bob Forrester cooked cornbread muffins at the Carter Fold kitchen, Forrester said.
“He did a lot of work – a lot of the mowing and grounds-keeping and a lot of the chili,” Rita Forrester said. “He helped me with the cooking – just anything that he needed he could. And, of course, he helped take care of mom and my dad. He spent most every night with my mom from the time she got sick.”
For Rita Forrester, the loss of her husband and home arrives less than three years after the death of her father, James Jett, in 2007.
Her uncle, Joe Carter, who performed on stage at the Carter Fold, died in 2005. Her oldest brother, Donald Jett, died a few months later. Janette Carter, her mother, died in 2006.
On Sunday night, Forrester spoke with exhaustion, saying about 100 people and three ministers had stopped by on Sunday where she is staying at her mother’s former home.
For now, she plans to stay at that house.
The family will hold a private memorial at a later date, she added.
“I’m relying on my Christian faith,” Forrester said. “My family and friends are lifting me up. And I just need their prayers right now.”
George Jackson of 11 Connects contributed to this story.
jtennis@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0704
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement