Col. (retired) A.B. Gravatt III of Urbanna and Lansdowne, in background, has been named grand marshal of the 2025 Urbanna Oyster Festival. (Photo by Larry Chowning)
The Urbanna Oyster Festival Foundation has named Col. (retired) Arthur Broaddus (A.B.) Gravatt III of Urbanna grand marshal of the 2025 Urbanna Oyster Festival.
Gravatt grew up in Kilmarnock and was attending Old Dominion University (ODU) when he met his wife to be — the late Diane Sampson. They were students at ODU and had started dating. In 1965, A.B. brought Diane home to meet his parents. His mother suggested that for an outing they take the whiskey run on the Miss Ann from Tides Inn to Urbanna.
“We walked up into town and went to Marshall’s Drug Store and I introduced her to (Doc) Tom Marshall and then we walked around town,” he said. “When we got to Lansdowne she said she wanted to go inside.”
“I had heard many times from old timers, there is not a house in Virginia that at least one door isn’t open and we found one,” he said. “She walked inside, looked around and when we got outside she looked at me and said, “If I marry you will you get me this house?”
When the Gravatts first saw colonial Lansdowne it had been boarded up since 1934 and had been vandalized several times over the years. “It wasn’t very pretty to me, but Diane loved it,” said A.B.
Diane and A.B. married in 1967 on a Sunday and he was drafted to go to Vietnam on Monday, he said. Actually his father had been told A.B. was going to be drafted, so A.B. joined the Army on Oct. 5, 1967 on a delayed enlistment plan and eventually went to Officers Candidate School (OCS), got a commission and after completing OCS went from Ft. Bragg in North Carolina to Vietnam.
After getting married, the Gravatts spent 31 years in active duty in the United States Army moving from place to place. “Every time we would move, Diane would ask, ‘When are you going to buy me Lansdowne so we can retire to Urbanna?’”
Over the years, Diane watched the progression of owners and when the time came in 1998 A.B.’s father and Bob Montague talked to the current owners about selling to A.B. and Diane. On July 5, 1998 they purchased Lansdowne and A.B. kept his 1965 promise to Diane.
The Gravatts restored the 1740s Lansdowne back to its elegance and Diane gifted her time and talents to become mayor of the town. She died unexpectedly on May 6, 2021.
“This is an honor for me to be named grand marshal, but this is really about Diane,” he said. “She is the grand marshal. The first time she saw Urbanna she loved the town.”
“One of her wishes was that Lansdowne could be seen by the public,” he said. “When she was alive we opened the house to house tours and since she died I have allowed the grounds to be used by nonprofits for fundraisers. I know it has been open to the public 100 times and that’s what Diane wanted.”
Chairman of UOFF Joe Heyman said “A.B. and Diane have done so much to make Lansdowne accessible to the public and they did an amazing renovation to carry Lansdowne for future generations to enjoy. The foundation is so proud to name A.B. the grand marshal for 2025.”