Norfolk City Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Lawton, George Dunbar August 6, 1959
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Robert Woolfitt http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00034.html#0008401 June 28, 2026, 3:10 pm

Virginian-Pilot August 7, 1959
NORFOLK COUNTY — George Dunbar Lawton, 83, blacksmith, wheelwright, machinist 
and "fixer" at the same shop in Churchland the last 57 years, died Thursday at 
12:30 a.m. at his residence in Churchland after two months' illness.
Capt. George continued to hold a high respect of the people he served in his 
declining years. From as far as 50 miles away, customers brought their 
"troubles" to him. They ranged from children's bicycles and toys to heavy farm 
tractors—an endless flow of broken things.
"I started out fixin'," he related in a 1954 newspaper interview, "And I guess I 
will end up fixin'." And he did so almost to the end.
His shop is a large building he erected himself. The myriad of metals, pipes, 
machinery parts, etc., overwhelmed it.
Born in Willis, Montgomery County, Tex., he had lived in Churchland since 1902. 
He was the widower of Mrs. Eva Brown Lawton and a son of George John and Mrs. 
Annie Astor Lawton.
Capt. George settled down to smithying after an adventurous sea career — in both 
sailing ships and steam vessels. He learned his smithy trade aboard ship. 
Subsequently, he took on a fertilizing and seed distributing business as part of 
his operation.
He never was too busy to stop and fix a wagon, bicycle or baby carriage. "They 
are important jobs for important people," he once remarked, adding that children 
have been his best customers for years. That service always was given for the 
price of only a smile.
He was a member of the Green Acres Presbyterian Church, a member of Tidal Wave 
Lodge 273, A.F. and A.M., Portsmouth, of which he was past master and a 50-year 
member. He also was a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Chapter 993, having 
seen service in the Spanish-American War.
Surviving are one son, George Melvin Lawton of Churchland; one sister, Mrs. M. 
E. Capps of Norfolk and nieces and nephews.
The body was taken to the Cox Funeral Home, where funeral services will be 
conducted Saturday at 2 p.m. by the Rev. Samuel D. McCammon Jr., pastor of Green 
Acres Presbyterian Church. Burial will be in Elmwood Cemetery, Norfolk.

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