News

Gene Staton, who built new, preserved old, dies at age 80

By Bill Moss, Published: February 26, 2015

Christopher Eugene "Gene" Staton Jr., a builder and banker whose chief passion after family was the preservation of local history, died Tuesday, Feb. 17, surrounded by his family at Brookland, one of the county's most historic homes. He was 80.
Born in Hendersonville in 1934 to Christopher Eugene Staton Sr. and Helen McGraw Staton, he graduated from Hendersonville High School and the University of Georgia, where he received a bachelor's degree in business administration and was a member of the Chi Phi fraternity. He then earned his bachelors of arts in history from the University of North Carolina at Asheville and was inducted into the Phi Alpha Theta honors society. He married Deborah Elinor Holmes at St. John in the Wilderness on October 13,1967.
After college, Staton worked with his father in their construction business, C.E. Staton General Contractor, putting up homes and commercial buildings.
"They did a lot in upper Laurel Park, back when that was the heyday," Debbie Staton said. "We didn't have Kenmure and Champion Hills at that time. They did a lot of private homes. They did a lot of work at Berkeley, they worked at G.E., they built the Duke Power station on Spartanburg Highway. They also worked in Winston-Salem. They were general contractors. Him and his dad worked together."
Staton later was a banker at First Federal Bank and retired from its successor, First Citizens Bank. His passion always was studying and preserving local history — an avocation that went to his roots. Among the caretakers for Brookland, once a huge estate and thriving farm, was John F. McGraw, his grandfather. Staton's grandmother, Jannie Lee Gurley, was raised on the estate. Descendants of the home's early owners had visited the Statons over the years. One brought an original front door key to the home. The Statons would visit the graves of the past owners of the house in Charleston and beyond, including the elaborate monument to Edmund Molyneux in London.
"He was raised in this immediate area and his maternal grandparents were caretakers on this particular estate," Debbie Staton said. "The old houses in Flat Rock were his thing and he was determined to have one and even though we were in Hendersonville this was the house that was meant for us because of his family's ties to it. His maternal grandmother grew up here as the caretaker's daughter."
Throughout his life he volunteered in the community, serving on the boards of the Henderson County Public Library, Pardee Memorial Hospital, Historic Flat Rock Inc. and the Dispute Settlement Center. For several years he served on the vestry of St. John in the Wilderness and was Senior Warden. He also volunteered with the Back Pack program at the church.
After he was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, Staton volunteered for a drug trial under way at the Medical University of South Carolina.
"We could have gone to Emory or Duke," Debbie Staton said. "We chose Charleston because of the tie with the history and hey, there's some great seafood down there."
Even on trips for treatment, the couple took time to tour historic plantations like Boone Hall. When Gene became too weak for walking tours, "we'd drive around and look at the houses and the churches," his wife said. "Can you imagine doing that in Atlanta?"
If people remember her husband, it would be "just his loyalty to Henderson County," she said. "It was very important to him to make sure this house and the outbuildings and this tract of land was preserved in the city of Hendersonville, and it was to me, too. That was the nice part of our marriage. We were in sync with this stuff. It wasn't you go your way and I'll go mine. The family came first, and then history. He got that from his father. The family stays together."
In addition to his wife, Staton is survived by his son, Chip Staton, and his wife, Cynthia, of Hendersonville; daughters Katherine Holloway and her husband, John, of Englewood, N.J., and Susan Maday and her husband, Michael, of Somerville, Mass. He is also survived by five grandsons — Johnny, Moses and Langston Holloway and Porter and Ellis Maday.
A funeral service was held on Saturday, Feb. 21, at St. John in the Wilderness followed by burial in the historic cemetery.