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Andy Higham House

GPS Coordinates: 38.7820742, -77.1418745
Closest Address: 6208 Higham Drive, Alexandria, VA 22310

Andy Higham House

Here follows an excerpt from the "Franconia Legacies" newsletter written by Sue Patterson in 2005 and published by the Franconia Museum:

Herbert Anderson "Andy" Higham was born December 27, 1942 in the "old" Alexandria Hospital on Duke Street to Dorothy Anderson and William Herbert Higham. His Dad moved to Franconia in the Spring of 1918 in a horse and wagon over dirt roads during a late Spring snow storm from Washington DC. His mother, raised in Linden VA, completed her education in Harrisonburg at Madison College and was hired by Fairfax County to teach at the new Franconia Elementary School. She needed a place to board and Kathy Higham accepted her to stay with their family. His Mother and Dad married in 1936 and built their home on a portion of the old farm located on Franconia Road (RFD 6, Box 248), now 6001 Franconia Road where Andy was raised and spent his childhood. He attended Franconia Elementary, Mount Vernon High School and Lee High School and graduated from Shepherd University in 1965. Andy married his High School sweetheart, Jane Devine, and has three children, Suzanne, Julie and Jennifer. Julie lives in the Roanoke area but Suzanne and Jennifer live locally. Andy and Jane make their home on part of the old farm next to his brother Bill just behind his old home place. Andy has lived and worked in Franconia his entire life. His employer is Higham Co., Inc. and he is a partner in the Jefferson Funeral Chapel and the Kingstowne Golf Center also located in Franconia.


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Here follows an excerpt from the Fall 2012 edition of the "Franconia Legacies" newsletter published by the Franconia Museum:

IN MEMORIAM:
Herbert Anderson (Andy) Higham
March 30, 2012

In his own quiet way, Andy Higham epitomized the core of Franconia. He valued his family, his church and his community with a dedication that sometimes is lost in today’s hustle and bustle of just trying to keep things together. Andy was always together, whether it be as a husband, father, businessman or supporter of his community. The Highams already were an institution in Franconia by the time Andy was born, the second son of William and Dorothy Anderson Higham. He and his older brother Bill, Jr., continued in their dad’s footsteps in the construction and painting business. Both would be high school football stars, Bill at Annandale and Andy at Lee when it first opened. Andy would meet his future wife Jane Devine, at Lee. After he graduated from what is now Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, W. Va., they settled in Franconia and raised three daughters, Suzanne, Julie and Jennifer. Andy served as president of the Franconia Rotary and was a vestryman at historic Olivet Episcopal Church. He was instrumental in organizing and coaching youth sports in Franconia. He joined the Franconia Museum Board of Directors in 2004 and later coaxed Jane into taking over as the Museum’s treasurer in 2007. For a number of years, Andy was the volunteer chef for the Museum’s annual History Day, cooking hamburgers and hot dogs. Then he was part of the fund-raising food service that helped offset the cost of the program. Some years back, Board member Carol Hakenson christened his culinary effort as “Andyburgers,” and the name immediately became a tribute to his effort, rain or shine, to make the day a success. Andy became ill and succumbed after a long battle with frontotemporal degeneration, a form of dementia. His services were conducted at the Jefferson Funeral Chapel in Franconia, one of his numerous commercial real estate projects. Andy’s footprints in Franconia are huge, and no member of the Museum’s Board of Directors will ever eat a hamburger again without thinking of him!

Andy Higham & the Early Days of Robert E. Lee High School Football:

I first met Andy Higham in the fall of 1970, at the time I was helping Fred Landon coach the Franconia Youth Association (FYA) 115lb Tigers. Fred and I attended an FYA Coaches meeting at the home of Bill Higham’s (Andy’s Brother). I was introduced to the coaches and hung around after the meeting to talk football. I remember listening to Andy talk about his team and feeling that he was a coach that really cared about his players. Andy quit coaching football after that year, and I did not see him again until over 30 years later when he became a member of the Franconia Museum Board. Andy was a key player in getting the museum off the ground, playing an important role in establishing and organizing the museum’s space in the Lee District Governmental Center.

During my research of the local newspapers for several displays and museum publications I kept finding information about Andy’s accomplishments as a football player at the newly opened Lee High School from 1958 to 1960. Andy attended Mount Vernon as a freshman and played football for the Majors, mainly as a defensive player. During 1957 Mount Vernon played Annandale which featured Bill Higham as one of its running backs. Andy had to tackle Bill several times in the game won by Annandale 21-0. Andy said that Bill was “one of the hardest men to stop that I’ve ever seen.” Mount Vernon also featured Arnold and Butch Cash in their backfield. The Cash brothers were “Beulah Road Boys,” according to Jane Higham, but evidently decided not to transfer to Lee. Andy transferred when Lee opened in the fall of 1958, and played varsity football for the Lancers over the next three seasons. The Alexandria Gazette for September 6, 1958, gives a rundown on the first Lee Football team which played a modified varsity schedule. This included the Hammond Junior Varsity and several smaller high schools. The team used a “cramped custodian’s office” as their locker room, and practiced in a pasture across Franconia Road, (sounds like it was the current location of Springfield Mall). They did not have a home field until the next season, and Andy was listed as one of two 155lb quarter-backs.

The Lancers opened with Groveton and lost by a respectable 31-12 score, The Gazette states that in the fourth quarter “Quarterback Andy Higham raced 20 yards on a split-T option play to complete a 53 yard drive.” So Andy scored the first ever Lancer touchdown (TD). This was one of the more respectable games from the 1958 Season. Lee would lose by a 72-0 score to George Mason, 49-0 against Fairfax, and only win one game against the Hammond JV team. Jane (Devine) Higham was a cheerleader for Lee during this season and she said she spent the whole George Mason game yelling “block that point” followed by another Mason kickoff after they scored touchdown after touchdown. The Lee coach left right after the season ended.

The Lancers first official varsity season was in 1959. Jack Baumgartner was the new head coach, and the team now had a home field, even if it did not have any grass. The Gazette lists Andy as competing for the Quarterback position but by the opening game he was the starting Fullback. Andy was now a 180lb player and established himself as a power runner for the team. The Gazette ran an article featuring both Higham brothers who played at rival schools during Andy’s Freshman year. This was due to overcrowding in Fairfax County schools. Franconia students went to Annandale High School in 1954 (Bill’s Freshman year), but by 1957 students from the Franconia area were sent to Mount Vernon High School. Coach Baumgartner cited Andy as having “practiced running all summer to build speed, and now he’s one of our faster backs.” Andy also ran track in the spring of 1959 to improve his speed.

Osborn was the first opponent and Lee won their first victory ever over a varsity team by a 13-7 score. The Gazette described Andy as the younger brother of Annandale standout Bill Higham, and said he was the “leading light for the Fairfax County club in its 1959 season opener.” Lee recovered a fumble at the 30 yard line early in the first half, and Andy carried the ball five straight times and went over the goal line from one yard out for the first TD of the season. In the third quarter Andy capped a nine play 40 yard drive with the winning TD on a one yard run.

Lee lost its second game to Groveton by a score of 25-6. Andy scored the only Lee TD on a 19 yard pass from Bob D’Ambrosio. This was the first Lee home game and the field was very dusty despite being wet down by the Franconia Volunteer Fire Department prior to the game. In the third game Lee beat Handley of Winchester 6-0 on a punt return TD by Freshman Jimmy Barrett. The fire department wet the field down again to keep down the dust. In the fourth game of the season Lee won again over Herndon by a 13-7 score. Andy scored an extra point on a pass from Harry Leland and caught a 50 yard pass to set up the second touchdown. Lee also won their fifth game of the season over Stuart, to run their record to 4-1. Andy did not make the papers in the game which was mainly a defensive struggle.

McLean stopped Lee’s winning streak at three games, beating the Lancers 18-7 in their sixth game of the season. Andy scored the TD for Lee tying the score at six. Andy later carried the ball down to the four yard line and Lee appeared ready to score and take a 13-12 lead, but McLean intercepted a lateral and returned it 93 yards to put the game out of reach. Lee played Falls Church to a 13-13 tie in their seventh game. Andy had a big game scoring the first Lancer touchdown on a 12 yard pass. The Springfield Independent wrote that just before halftime Andy “crunched into the end zone, accompanied by four grasping Jaguar players.”

In the eighth game Lee was crushed by Hammond 26-0, Andy was described by the Independent as having 46 yards on 11 carries against the tough Admirals. Lee also lost the ninth game of the season to the Fairfax Rebels. Andy scored a touchdown to tie the score at one point during the first half, but Fairfax scored a late TD to win 12-7. During this period of Northern Virginia High School football Hammond and Fairfax were perennial contenders along with Ed Henry’s Annandale team. In the final game of the season Lee beat Mt. Vernon and secured a winning season. Andy had a 21 yard run on a Lee drive that stalled early in the game. Andy also carried the ball on Lee’s only scoring drive of the game.

The Independent called Lee’s first varsity season a “minor miracle” for taking a losing team and making it into a winner. Coach Baumgartner cited Andy Higham for leading the team in scoring, and Andy received the Springfield Civitan award as the “Best Back of the Year.” In the Gazette’s list of leading scorers for the season he finished eleventh. He was also named to the Gazette’s Honorable Mention ALL-Northern District team as a running back, and to the Washington Post’s Northern Virginia Group 1 Second Team.

Andy’s Senior season in 1960 was pretty dismal, the team started the season poorly and finished with a losing record. Andy played several outstanding games but most of the season was a struggle. He did score a touchdown in a loss to Stuart and two more in a victory over Falls Church. Andy also had two touchdowns against Fairfax in a hard fought loss to the eventual Fairfax County and Northern District champion. The second touchdown was a 51 yarder. Andy did get some recognition at the end of the season by being named to the Gazette’s Second Team ALL-Northern District as a running back, comparable to being named to the All Regional Team today. Andy also received honorable mention as a member of the Gazette’s All Fairfax County Team. In addition, he also received another “Best Back” trophy from Lee High School.

I was able to get most of the information for this story from old newspapers and a series of scrapbooks that Andy’s Mom kept for him. They included all his press clippings and just about every game program from his four seasons of football. Quite a historical collection by themselves and Andy truly loved history, particularly if it involved Franconia or the Civil War. Andy never bragged about his high school football career, although it is pretty evident that he was an outstanding player. I think his approach to everything he did was always to create success through hard work, and he set an example for everyone to follow. Jane said that Coach Baumgartner attended one of the viewings at the Jefferson Funeral Chapel, so Andy’s old coach also cared about his players. We will all miss him and his AndyBurgers on future History Days. We were all very sorry to lose Andy, but are very thankful that his wife Jane has continued on as the museum treasurer.

ABOUT ME

Award-winning local historian and tour guide in Franconia and the greater Alexandria area of Virginia.

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ADDRESS

Nathaniel Lee

c/o Franconia Museum

6121 Franconia Road

Alexandria, VA 22310

franconiahistory@gmail.com

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