by John C. Tucker
Previous - Chapter II: Brad and Wanda
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Wanda Fay Thompson was born on November 5, 1961, the second youngest
of 16 children, 8 girls and 8 boys. Wanda's father is a retired
coal miner. The Thompsons raised their sixteen children in a frame
house on Home Creek, a small tributary of Levisa Fork about twelve
miles northwest of Grundy, almost to Kentucky.
The family has always been close. All of the sons are in some
kind of coal mining job, and two of them, Pal and Danny Ray, have
built their own houses on the hill just above the house where
they were raised and their mother and father still live. Most
of the other children live close by. All of the girls are pretty,
and Wanda, with her deep red hair and ready smile was no exception.
Although she enjoyed the outdoor games her brothers and sisters
played together whenever chores and good weather permitted, Wanda's
favorite pastime was making clothes and crafts. In high school
she was an average student, quiet and obedient. With strangers,
she was almost painfully shy. No one can recall her ever doing
anything mean or hurtful. Her sister Peggy, struggling for words
to describe Wanda, finally says "I guess you'd have to say
she was just about perfect."
 |
| Wanda Fay Thompson at age 15. (Photo Courtesy
John Tucker) |
Brad McCoy is Max "Hezzie" McCoy's youngest son. Hezzie
works for United Coal and drives a white stretch limousine which
he rents out and chauffeurs himself for weddings and other occasions.
He is a proud member of the McCoy clan. Brad is slight of build
and as soft spoken and gentle as his legendary forbears were crude
and ill-tempered.
Brad McCoy and Wanda Fay Thompson were high school sweethearts
at Grundy Senior High School. Brad was the class of 1978, Wanda,
two years behind him. They met through Wanda's older sister Lydia,
who worked with Brad at the Piggly Wiggly. Brad had a crush on
Lydia, but she passed him off to her younger sister.
The pass was complete. In July, a few weeks after Brad graduated,
Brad McCoy and Wanda Fay Thompson were married at the Grundy Baptist
Church. Wanda's family attended a church on Home Creek, but Brad
had become close to Rev. Jack Mutter, the minister at Grundy Baptist
whose son, a close friend of Brad's, had been killed in a car
accident not long before. It was typical of Brad that he would
think it might give Mutter some comfort to celebrate the wedding
of his son's friend, and Wanda and her parents agreed to his request
that the ceremony be held at Grundy Baptist. Bill Pierce, a friend,
stood up for Brad. Wanda was attended by her younger sister Patricia.
Both sets of parents thought the marriage was a perfect match,
and for as long as it lasted it seemed they were right.
On June 16th, three days after Brad graduated from High School
he went to work at United Coal. Perhaps because of his temperament
and slight build, or perhaps because he seemed a little smarter
than the average Grundy High School graduate, Brad was employed
above ground, as a parts clerk in one of the company repair shops.
 |
| Wanda and Brad at Brad's high school prom.
(Photo Courtesy John Tucker) |
If you turn left at the Grundy stop light and follow Route 460
toward Kentucky, in about two miles you come to United Coal Shop
No. 1, where Brad McCoy was assigned. If you turn right at the
light and follow the road toward West Virginia, the narrow valley
formed by Slate Creek widens a bit about three quarters of a mile
east of town. There a bridge spans the creek and leads into a
small subdivision called Longbottom. The first two rows back from
the creek are well kept brick and frame ranch homes whose middle
class owners are likely to be teachers, shop owners or coal company
supervisors. Farther back a few older frame houses are more typical
of the area's working class population. In 1980 Hezzie and Betty
McCoy lived in one of those houses, and after they were married,
Brad and Wanda were able to rent another one, less than two blocks
from Brad's mother and father.
When they were married, Wanda thought she might return to high
school in the fall, but she soon found she enjoyed the life of
a housewife. Brad's salary was enough to sustain their simple
needs, and Wanda decided to drop out of school. Working, keeping
house, visiting friends and family, Brad and Wanda settled into
the rented house in Longbottom and remained there until the night
Wanda Fay McCoy was murdered.
Continue : Read Chapter III
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