A Look Back: Lawrence Albion and Peggie Stox

Lawrence Albion Stox, known as Al to friends, was born in 1920 and raised on a large family farm spanning across what is now Firetower Road. At the time, the old dirt road was named for a neighbor, Captain White, who owned a portion of the land.

After some time in the Navy and graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill, Al moved to Raleigh/Durham. There, he met his future wife Peggie — she was a telephone company service representative and he needed a phone. It was 1949.

“He claims that I walked in front of his car and he told his boss, ‘That's the girl I'm going to marry,'” Peggie said. For years, she never believed her husband's story, until his boss confirmed.

They were married Oct. 15, 1949.

Then Al was transferred to Atlanta, Ga., and that's where they worked for 27 years, until retirement.

The Stoxes then moved to Pitt County and settled on half of the family farm — the larger half went to Lawrence's two elder sisters. But when Greenville's city limits expanded to include their property, they lost their farm status and their taxes were doubled. To keep up financially, they developed the Sheffield community, at the intersection of Albion Drive and Firetower Road.

When Al's health started to diminish, he and Peggy moved to Cypress Glen. After a stroke in March, Peggie says, Al can no longer walk and stays in the nursing center while she lives in the cottage.

“Each day I take him out for lunch because that's the only meal I can have throughout the day (with him),” Peggie said.

Although Al can no longer travel to visit his family's old land, Peggie still drops by every once in a while to visit her niece, Blanche Anti, who lives in the area. She says she knows Al must miss the place.

“Once in a while," she said, "he'll mention it."