Candlelight vigil held for late educator

Law enforcement officials believe Danville school principal Samuel Massie, who was found dead Thursday, drowned in a pond in Rockingham County, N.C.

UPDATE: A candlelight service honoring the life of Sammie Massie will be held 8 p.m. Sunday at the Westmoreland Playground.

Samuel Massie will be remembered for the number of lives he touched in the Danville Public Schools and in the community.

This should have been one of the happiest weekends in Dorothea E. Holland’s life. Holland was supposed to receive her doctorate from Virginia State University this weekend after years of study. It wasn’t to be; the popular math teacher at John M. Langston Focus School entered Danville Regional Medical Center in late April and died three days later. She was 42.