Day Douglas Turner IV

Douglas Turner Day IV of Waynesboro, Virginia, died peacefully on Saturday, January 26, 2019, surrounded by his family. He was born in Pensacola, Florida, on September 24, 1955. He was predeceased by his father, Douglas Turner Day III; a sister, Mary Forsyth Day; and grandparents, Anna H. and Thomas Noble and Bess and Douglas Day II. He is survived by his mother, Mary Hill Caperton; his son, Robert Thomas Day; his daughter, Emily Noble Day, and their mother, Sally B. Day; his brother, Ian C. Day and wife, Lucinda E. Day; his sister, Emily Day Whitworth and husband, Claiborne G. Whitworth; his half-brother, Patrick Day; and his sister-in-law, Amoret B. Powers and husband, Michael Powers. Also surviving him are his stepsisters, Kathryn (Douglas) Wright and Mason Caperton Hood; stepmother, Sheila McMillen; aunt and uncle, Eleanor and Thomas Noble; cousins, Kenneth (Helen) Noble and Sally (Bill) Abbott; nieces, Lily Fox-Bruguiere (Antony), Hayden and Janie Day Whitworth, Cara Barbee, and Megan Dawson (Bill); nephews, Turner and fiancée, Catherine, Jack Whitworth, Ben Barbee, and Andrew Ewell (Anna); great nieces, Maylea and Piper Dawson and Naomi and Claudia Fox; and two good friends, Mary Manning Stewart and Deana Desjardins. Douglas received his B.A. from the University of Virginia, his M.A. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. His fields of study were Folklore and Folklife. During his career, he did extensive fieldwork including field recordings in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, and the Eastern Shore of Virginia. One of his proudest achievements was bringing the National Folk Festival to Chattanooga, Tennessee while he was Director of the Folklore Program at Allied Arts of Greater Chattanooga. He was the former Executive Director of the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, the Southern Council for Folk Culture, and former Folklorist at the John C. Campbell Folk School. A man of many talents, interests, and passions, he championed environmental causes, the arts, supported all musicians, and he never met a stranger. He could and did strike up a conversation with anyone. He was an excellent photographer and writer. He was a natural with babies and young children, they loved him and he loved playing with them and playing guitar for them. He loved animals, especially cats and dogs, and he always fed the birds in his yard. His family and friends benefitted from his terrific sense of humor and mischievous sense of fun. He had a wonderful laugh, which will be profoundly missed. Douglas was an accomplished musician known for his mastery of Blues music and in particular, the Piedmont Blues style. We've not heard the last from him. Over the past year, he spent time at a studio in Charlottesville, where with a number of different guitars, he recorded more than 30 songs that were favorites in his repertoire. The recordings included country blues and rags, risqué hollers, and noble praise songs. He titled these recordings The Great Egress. Unfortunately, due to his illness he was unable to complete the project before he died. If you would like to make a memorial donation, please support the completion of The Great Egress here: https://www.gofundme.com/douglasday There will be a private family gathering in the spring at Douglas's sister and brother-in-law's farm in Lexington, Virginia, a place he loved and where he wanted a tree planted as a memorial.