One Hundred Miles for Billy

May 11, 2010

When firefighter and Vinton town official Billy Obenchain, died of cancer, his sister stepped out in his name.

By Matt Chittum
The Roanoke Times

The grave was so new, grass had yet to grow over top of it.

Billy Obenchain, beloved Roanoke firefighter and Vinton's vice mayor, just died in December at age 57 after a nine-year battle with a rare cancer called cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.

Yet there was his sister, Alice Obenchain-Leeson, stopping by Monday on a 100-mile walk to raise awareness of the disease that killed her brother, along with at least $10,000 to aid research at Duke University.

The grave, right by Mountain View Road in Vinton's Mountain View Cemetery, was one of the first stops, just 7.33 miles into Obenchain-Leeson's weeklong trek, according to her GPS unit.

Obenchain-Leeson, 45, staked a T-shirt to the grave like the one she was wearing, yellow with a picture of a large rubber fireman's boot next to a green ribbon and the words, "Steps 4 Billy," the name Obenchain-Leeson has given to her effort. The shirt was covered with notes from loved ones:

"Billy, you are not forgotten."

"Love and miss you."

"Love, Mama."

"You're a member of the pack," Obenchain-Leeson told her Billy, who was also a father figure to her after their own father died young, as well as to the firefighters who worked under him at Roanoke's Fire Station No. 2. He served as battalion chief before he retired in 2006 after 33 years of service. He wouldn't necessarily like the T-shirt, Obenchain-Leeson speculated. He didn't care for all the "hoopla and hurrah," so he'd probably say, "It's not my size and it's not my color."

After a chat with her other brother, Randy Obenchain, who stopped by for support, Obenchain-Leeson and two friends were back on the road, with more than 92 miles left to travel by the end of this week.

"I still don't have any idea what I'm doing. I'm just doing it," said the Averett University business professor.

Obenchain, in fact, knew what his sister was going to do before he died.

It was August, and Billy Obenchain's medicine was losing its effectiveness. As long as he'd been ill, he'd gone through peaks and valleys, and he was clearly entering another valley. Obenchain-Leeson always had a hard time when he was in decline, so she sought something to grab onto that would give her a sense of purpose.

"I wanted to do something proactive to honor him, to honor his endurance," she said. She's a veteran long-distance walker, having walked a few different half-marathons -- at 13.1 miles -- for recreation. Initially, she thought she might walk from city to city to cover the 100 miles.

She told Obenchain about the idea over breakfast at IHOP one morning.

"You're going to do what?" he said. "Why don't you rethink that?"

Which Obenchain-Leeson had learned to interpret as, "Do it my way."

He suggested walking to all of Roanoke's fire stations, and then adding in places important to him in Vinton: the Vinton fire station, where he got his start as a volunteer firefighter; the town hall, where he served 15 years as a councilman and vice mayor; even the Famous Anthony's where Obenchain-Leeson met him every Sunday morning after church for breakfast.

Obenchain-Leeson got far enough along in the effort for her brother to see the "Steps 4 Billy" logo about a week before he died. His death hardly stalled her, and she pressed on to develop a Web site and a fundraising effort to support research into the uncommon cancer that killed Obenchain.

When she tells people what killed him, they usually say, "Huh?"

Just 1,500 new cases of CTCL are identified each year, compared with 150,000 cases of colon and rectal cancer, nearly 200,000 cases of breast cancer and almost 220,000 cases of lung cancer.

Its most dangerous aspect may be that it first appears as something like eczema or psoriasis, Obenchain-Leeson said. So by the time people realize what it is, it's too late to stop it. Obenchain's cancer was in stage 4, the final stage of the disease, when it was diagnosed.
Yet he continued to work as a battalion chief and serve on council for years.

When he retired from firefighting, colleagues compared it to a close relative moving away. He had been an inspiration by example, leading firefighters to call in sick less frequently because if he could endure chemotherapy and show up for work, what could keep them home?

Obenchain-Leeson's path will lead her to Fire Station No. 2 later in the week, and on a day when her brother's old shift is on duty. "Those guys were angels to Billy," she said.

But that's miles away. Obenchain-Leeson will walk 15 to 20 miles a day this week, flanked by Carole Ann Creque, 51, a professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg. She was also joined Monday by Debbie Driscoll, 57, a vice president for strategic planning at Lynchburg College. "The sisters I never had," Obenchain-Leeson called them.

By noon Monday, the trio were still marching along without a hint of weariness. Fatigue would have to wait.

And when her energy or spirits begin to flag, Obenchain-Leeson said, she'll think of her brother, his amazing endurance, and what she learned from it.

"He taught me ... whatever hits you, you just put one foot in front of another and you keep on going."

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