LeRoy Banks Attaway Jr.

LeRoy Banks Attaway, Jr Roy Attaway died suddenly on May 9th of a stroke. The son of LeRoy Attaway Sr and Claire Walker Attaway of Beaufort SC, he was born in 1937 in Walterboro SC. After undergraduate studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Roy worked as a reporter and editor for The Beaufort Gazette in Beaufort SC and the News & Courier in Charleston SC. Moving to New York City, he was Editor-in-Chief of Boating and Yachting magazines and Executive Editor of Motorboating and Sailing, and a producer, writer and director for ABC Television's The American Sportsman. Roy met Robyn Gill in 1978 and they married in Chicago in 1982. A much-admired writer, he contributed articles to many national journals and was the author of a memoir of his childhood in the South Carolina Low Country titled A Home in the Tall Marsh Grass, published by Lyons Press. He was also an award-winning photographer, whose work was shown in galleries in New York and elsewhere, and often accompanied his writings. In 2001, Roy and his wife moved to Kansas City where he continued to write articles and a monthly website of travel essays and photographs. Bon vivant and gourmet, Roy was a master amateur chef who delighted in regaling family and friends with his culinary skills. An avid fisherman, boater, explorer of out-of-the-way places and relentless Tar Heel fan, Roy had the soul of the true sportsman and the perception of the real artist. Roy is survived by his wife Robyn, his children by his first marriage Dorothy Claire (Stormy) Attaway of Greenville NH, Catherine (Cathy) Attaway of Atlanta and L. Banks Attaway III of Denver, his former wife Jane Conklin, as well as by a multitude of friends and family in New York and around the country. Services will be held at the Episcopal Parish Church of St Helena in Beaufort, on Monday, May 17 at 2:00 PM. Memorial gifts may be made to the Sports Communication Program, UNC School of Journalism, Campus Box 3365, Chapel Hill NC 27599.