Loose Leaf Notes

-The following first appeared in the Floyd Times on June 3, 2026.

The Epperly sisters are on a mission. Since 1991, the six sisters have been spending a weekend in May together and using their talents as quilters to raise money for cancer research.

Clara-Tibby Martin tells the story: “We are all quilt makers, taught and influenced by our mother, Mary McNeil Epperly, and our grandmother who were both born in Floyd County. Every August we spend a week together for a family reunion at Camp Tukaway, and we make a quilt together.  The following May, family members donate $25 for a chance of winning the quilt.  We generally raise from $1500 to $2000 and donate it to the American Cancer Society in memory of our mother.  Our mom died of cancer in 1996.”

Ranging in age from 75 – 88, the six sisters are Loretta Bedia from Roanoke, Reba Weeks from Saltville, Marie Eanes from Radford, Clara-Tibby Martin from Woolwine, Anna Handy from Radford and Doris Linkous from Chester, VA. There are two brothers in the Epperly mix, Randall Epperly from Christiansburg and Mike Epperly from Willis, along with twenty-two children between them and a multitude of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The eight Epperly siblings grew up in Montgomery County—on Rt 11—halfway between Christiansburg and Radford and, along with their cousins, they still own the McNeil family farm in the Locust Grove part of the Floyd County, where their grandmother and mother were raised. Martin noted that their dad was Elvin Willard Epperly (aka Doc Epperly) and that his Eberle/Epperly ancestors were among the fourteen German families who founded Floyd’s Zion Lutheran Church in 1813.  “Our Floyd roots run deep,” she said.

Originally, the six sisters would meet for four days in May at each other’s homes. Since 2012, they’ve been meeting at the Hotel Floyd, which is where they were on May 28 when they gathered on the hotel porch to catch up and reminisce.

“We made our own clothes, but I don’t think any of us quilted until we got out of the house. Momma didn’t have time to quilt with eight kids,” Martin said.

“She made one quilt each winter, and when her kids were grown, she made quilts for all the grandchildren,” remembered Bedia, who is a member of Roanoke’s Star Quilters Guild and the Roanoke Modern Quilt Guild.

Weeks, a member of the Wolf Hills Quilters Guild in Abingdon, stated that she first started quilting during a snowstorm, sometime in the ‘80s. “We were out of power for six days,” she said.

“I started quilting when I got my diamond engagement ring,” said Eanes, who was 18 at the time. “I used mama’s old treadle sewing machine.”  “Most of my quilts are hand quilted,” added Anna Handy, who is a member of the River City Quilters guild in Radford.

Martin is a solitary quilter, finding it hard to concentrate and create in a group.  At Camp Tukaway when the quilts are being made, she organizes games for the children and helps with cooking, she said.  “One year they made 9 quilts!” Martin said.

Although the sisters are relatively healthy, two have fought breast cancer. Currently retired, two of the sisters were nurses, three were in banking, and one was a public-school teacher. Martin taught English at Floyd County High School for 28 years, and she is an active historical volunteer at the Old Church Gallery, where the sisters have exhibited their quilts.

“We are all each other’s best friends,” Martin said. When they’re in town together, they hit all the popular hot spots, The Farmers Market, Floyd Country Store, Schoolhouse Fabrics and all the rest. “We go in mass into every store,” Martin said, and the fun-loving group has become recognizable to many. “I know almost everyone,” Martin said. “I taught most of them.”

The sisters have made more than 1,000 quilts between them, and they’re still sewing.  “In 2024, we did a month-long 5-generation quilt show at the Floyd Center for the Arts. That show included quilts from our grandmother, our mother, all six of us sisters, our daughters, and our granddaughters,” Martin recalled.

This year’s quilt was a chandelier design, but some of the sisters thought it looked more like a “rain chain.”  The winning name for the quilt was drawn on Saturday by Kondinos Sopikiotis at Dino’s Restaurant in Willis, where the family met for dinner. In a fitting twist, that the winner was Angie Eanes Nunn, Mary Eanes daughter, because the funds from the first quilt the sisters made for cancer research were donated to Nunn’s Relay-for-Life team at Blacksburg’s Kipps Elementary School where she was teaching.

Martin reported that “47 family members sent in $25 donations on the quilt.  Some bought more than one chance, for a total of 82 chances and a total donation of $2,050 to American Cancer Society.” – Colleen Redman

First photo: The six Epperly sisters are (left to right) Loretta Bedia from Roanoke, Reba Weeks from Saltville, Marie Eanes from Radford, Clara-Tibby Martin from Woolwine, Anna Handy from Radford and Doris Linkous from Chester VA.