Lynn Graves cautioned his mother, Rachel, that the crowd showing up for husband Jimmy’s funeral might overwhelm the Hebron Lutheran Church this past Thursday. Rachel, Jimmy’s wife for the past 62 years, wasn’t so sure, until they pulled off the road and gazed at a parking lot that spilled over into the grassy meadows that surrounded the property.
Hundreds showed up to pay respect for a man who defined friendship and hospitality.
Jimmy Graves was a local legend. Everybody in Madison County and surrounding Central Virginia, especially Charlottesville, knew Jimmy and his Graves Mountain Lodge. Anyone involved in Virginia basketball over the past few generations had experienced the Cavaliers basketball camps and sampled Jimmy’s extraordinary food at Graves Mountain Lodge…