We thank Rhonda Wilson of Bedford County, VA for this information on Hardy, VA banjo player Richard Greer, who died on November 17, 2025 at 81 years of age. Richard played and recorded with a number of popular groups in the region, and taught a great many people how to play.
Rhonda was a student of Richard’s, and visited with him frequently during his final days. She shared most the details below, and we thank her immensely.
Richard Greer grew up in Roanoke, VA in the southeastern part of town. He served in the US Marine Corps, earning recognition for good conduct, sharpshooting, and marksmanship, among other things. After the Marines, he had a 35-year career as a letter carrier for USPS. He married Carla on February 28, 1970, and they spent 52 wonderful years together.
Richard was a master banjo player, frequenting bluegrass festivals and filling his home with music.
When he was around 11 or 12, his dad talked to a relative who played banjo, and he showed Richard some chords on the banjo.
That was precipitated by Richard’s grandma, who had gone to a pawn shop downtown in Roanoke to purchase him a banjo. She was the first customer of the day, and the banjo she found was more expensive than she could afford. She told the owner, she couldn’t buy the banjo, but he said, “Wait, I will sell it to you anyway at a reduced price, because it’s bad luck not to sell to the first customer of the day!”
Don Reno was his banjo idol. Richard was not a hard-driving banjo player, but more smooth like Don Reno.
Richard was a founding member of the Roanoke Fiddle & Banjo Club, an organization that promoted bluegrass in the area for decades. He was active from the first meeting, and later wrote a detailed history of the club. He served as its President in the 1990s. After the club got started, Richard formed a band with Lawrence Dodson, Harold Cook, Danny Bryant, TC McDonald called the Dreadful Snakes.
After the Snakes, he formed a band with Dale Allen, David Thacker, and Robbie Harris called New Roanoke. Richard played with many musicians in the Roanoke Valley, and in the ’90s-2000s played with Against the Grain with Mark Holt, Danny Reynolds and David Goode. They released several CDs and played on the festival circuit.
After Against the Grain dissolved, Richard played with The Guard among many other bands including The Brookledge Pickers. Both bands had common members Daryl and David Jones, Bobby Moore, Vincent May, Allen Messenger, and Steven Nolan.
He also played with Roger Handy and Southern Depot. Roger was the original guitarist with Lost and Found.
Richard taught his son, Todd, to play guitar and banjo, Mark to play guitar, and enjoyed jamming with his grandson, Jack Ingraham, that became quite a mandolin prodigy.
In the early 1970s he started teaching students to play banjo at a group class at Virginia Western Community College, then moved music lessons to his house in Hardy, VA where he taught guitar and banjo until 2019.
He was especially proud of his prewar top tension Gibson banjo, and played it for many years.
A funeral service was held at Blue Ridge Baptist Church in Vinton, Virginia, on November 20, 2025. Interment followed at Mountain View Cemetery.
R.I.P., Richard Greer.
